The Best of This Week
The week’s must-reads for managing in the digital age, curated by the MIT SMR editors.
Topics
Weekly Recap
Winning the Race to Capitalize On AI
A growing number of leaders see AI as not just a business opportunity but also as a strategic risk. How do you ensure that your competitors don’t figure out how to successfully use it before you do? This year’s Artificial Intelligence Global Executive Study and Research Report from MIT SMR and BCG shows early AI winners are focused on organization-wide alignment, investment, and integration.
Identifying Gender Bias Sooner Rather Than Later
The good news is that there are more women in top-level positions at U.S. businesses than at any other point in history. But a study has found that many women face the biggest obstacle to reaching the top of the corporate ladder early in their careers, with fewer women than men getting the opportunity to take their first step into management.
The Challenges of Corporate Transparency
With access to vast amounts of data and the ability to share it with the world, company stakeholders have unprecedented power to spread the word when your business slips up. Given that damaging information about your business and its reputation can travel more quickly and widely than ever before, you’d better carefully assess potentially risky decisions and practices.
A Step Toward Unity
As public discourse is increasingly overshadowed by an us-versus-them mentality in conversations about ideology, class, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, many businesses are experiencing a pattern of increasing fragmentation, polarization, and demonization. Adam Kahane says there’s a way forward, if you’re willing to see beyond the challenges.
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The Leadership Evolution of Today’s CIO
As “digital” becomes the competitive priority in every industry, CIOs must lead their companies’ digital transformation — something that requires much more than technology leadership. While you continue to ensure that the technical side of operations run smoothly, you must also adopt new practices and missions to evolve into a transformative digital leader.
Using AI to Blur the Lines of What’s Real (News)
As new, AI-powered text generators emerge that can create real-sounding but fictitious news articles, many of the researchers who developed them are worried that these tools could be used to spread misinformation or promote political agendas as they become more advanced.
Adapting Antitrust for a Digital Landscape
Yale economist Fiona M. Scott Morton discusses how antitrust principles that were created in a pre-digital era can be applied to the new technological landscape, how market disruptors drive innovation, and how effective antitrust regulation and enforcement can protect consumers from the potential risks posed by increasing markups.
Quote of the Week
“We often talk about the ‘glass ceiling’ that prevents women from reaching senior leadership positions. In reality, the biggest obstacle that women face is much earlier in the pipeline, at the first step up to manager. Fixing this ‘broken rung’ is the key to achieving parity.”
— Jess Huang, Alexis Krivkovich, Irina Starikova, Lareina Yee, and Delia Zanoschi, “Women in the Workplace 2019”