MIT Sloan Management Review
Spring 2012 Issue
Volume 53 Issue 3
Few companies decide to adopt new strategies without being forced to by financial trauma. What can we learn from those rare companies that achieve both successful major change and superior long-term financial performance? Free to site members
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By Gerry Johnson, George S. Yip and Manuel Hensmans
Why it’s so hard — yet exciting — to rethink your business
By Martha E. Mangelsdorf
Intelligence
ARE CEOs GETTING THE BEST FROM CORPORATE FUNCTIONS? At too many large companies, corporate functions like HR and IT don’t get enough strategic direction from the CEO. Four basic steps can help. Andrew Campbell, Sven Kunisch and Günter Müller-Stewens
Quick Takes Notes on meeting the evolving needs of customers, the competitive power of business model innovation and the potential for IT project to generate revenue growth — plus other observations and ideas in this issue.
THE IMPACT OF IT INVESTMENTS ON PROFITS Recent research finds that investments companies make in information technology increase profitability more than investments in advertising or R&D do. Sunil Mithas, Ali Tafti, Indranil Bardhan and Jie Mein Goh
LEARNING HOW TO GROW GLOBALLY Faced with the need to educate themselves quickly about a foreign market, companies employ a variety of approaches to learning. New research offers insights into choosing the best approach for your circumstances. Christopher Bingham and Jason Davis
THE CASE FOR STANDARD MEASURES OF PATENT QUALITY The current balkanized approach to measuring patent quality is not serving the users of the world’s patent systems. David J. Kappos and Stuart Graham
Features
It’s widely recognized that a company’s leadership, culture and core competencies can be important to its success. But another, often overlooked, critical source of differentiation is the company’s beliefs. Free to site members
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By Jules Goddard, Julian Birkinshaw and Tony Eccles
Could your company benefit from a new business model? Consider these six questions. Free to site members
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By Raphael Amit and Christoph Zott
Good leaders make their work look easy. But the reality is that most have had to work hard on themselves — by managing or compensating for potentially career-limiting traits. To grow as an executive, you need to recognize and manage your strongest tendencies. Free to site members
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By Ginka Toegel and Jean-Louis Barsoux
In many industries, project-based firms — companies organized around completing customized projects for clients — are common. New research offers insights into the leadership — and politics — that typify these organizations. Free to site members
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By David Gann, Ammon Salter, Mark Dodgson and Nelson Phillips
By tapping into the knowledge and enthusiasm of thousands of longtime users of its products, Lego has been able to enhance its product offerings — without increasing long-term fixed costs. Free to site members
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By Yun Mi Antorini, Albert M. Muñiz, Jr. and Tormod Askildsen
To reach the “next billion” consumers, multinational companies will need to move beyond value chain localization and create new networks of local partners. Free to subscribers
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By Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu
Too many executives confuse what an innovation is with what an innovation would do for them if they had one. The solution? Think of innovation as an if-then argument.
By Randall S. Wright
Web Exclusives
For the third consecutive year, MIT Sloan Management Review and The Boston Consulting Group have conducted a survey of managers and executives from companies around the world, asking how they are developing and implementing sustainable business practices. This research report, “Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point,” discusses our findings and offers lessons to managers who are either trying to develop a sustainability agenda or wondering whether they should.
Knut Haanaes, Martin Reeves, Ingrid von Streng Velken, Michael Audretsch, David Kiron and Nina Kruschwitz
Sustainability & Innovation
Trying to create reporting standards that integrate environmental, social and governance performance along with financial information is “fraught with conflict” and an “almost political adjudication process,” says Harvard Business School’s Robert Eccles. That’s why he loves it.
Robert Eccles (Harvard Business School), interviewed by David Kiron
New Intelligent Enterprise
The state of Massachusetts is a major U.S. center of big data, says Stephen O’Leary, an M&A advisor with Aeris Partners and executive committee member of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. It’s only poised to get hotter.
Stephen O’Leary (Aeris Partners LLC), interviewed by David Kiron
Social Business
In a 2006 MIT Sloan Management Review article, Andrew McAfee coined “Enterprise 2.0” as a shorthand term for what collaboration and sharing tools such as blogging and wikis (and, today, Twitter) would mean for enterprises. In a new interview, McAfee, a principal research scientist at the MIT Center for Digital Business, looks back at what he’s learned about the triggers that generate CEO interest in social networking.
Andrew McAfee (MIT Center for Digital Business), interviewed by David Kiron
