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
Developing Strategy for New Customer Expectations
As leaders develop strategy for a future that has been reshaped by the pandemic, they need to rethink their fundamental assumptions about what customers want. The truth is, people still want personal service — but it doesn’t have to come from a person. Companies often make five assumptions about what their customers want; consider the questions they raise to help prepare for changing customer expectations in the post-pandemic era.
Better Ways to Green-Light New Projects
Relying on expert panels to judge which innovation projects should get the go-ahead for funding produces mixed results. These newer approaches to reviewing and deciding on new R&D projects are aimed at mitigating bias and often involve engaging a wider variety of perspectives.
Get Updates on Transformative Leadership
Evidence-based resources that can help you lead your team more effectively, delivered to your inbox monthly.
Please enter a valid email address
Thank you for signing up
Addressing Data Challenges to Drive Growth
To drive growth with analytics, marketers need to understand the strategic business challenge first, identify the required data needed, and then design the appropriate analytical solution. The authors’ Marketing Analytics Canvas tool can help guide the process of designing an analytics architecture, providing a road map that helps marketers address customer experience issues where analytics plays a key role.
Can ‘Worker Data Science’ Improve the Gig Economy?
Gig workers are asking to see the algorithms that define, manage, and control the nature of the on-demand work they do — or, in effect, to understand how their labor generates value for the company. The legal fight for strong labor protections is also a fight for worker data rights that reveals the platform economy’s deep power imbalance.
What Else We’re Reading This Week
- David Kiron and François Candelon discuss the latest MIT SMR-BCG AI and business strategy report at Web Summit 2021 (Source: MIT SMR)
- Can virtual reality fix the workplace? (Source: The New Yorker)
- Mercedes-Benz has embraced open innovation as a way to speed up its internal R&D processes (Source: MIT SMR)
- Considering the optimal level of busyness at work (Source: Quartz)
Quote of the Week:
“Novel ideas are inherently risky. Because they are unusual, they lack strong precedent, and it’s tough to cite clear examples of success. So convincing stakeholders to invest in them can be difficult.”
— Jill E. Perry-Smith, professor and senior associate dean for strategic initiatives at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, in “How Collaboration Needs Change From Mind to Marketplace”