Leadership Skills
Staying in the Know
How can executives best distinguish usable information from distracting noise?
Decision-Making
Latest
Data & Data Culture
General Mills Builds Up Big Data to Answer Big Questions
Companies adding analytics professionals must navigate cultural tradition and turf tensions.
Leadership Skills
How to Manage Too Many Good Choices
It’s easier to make good decisions if you remove yourself from information overload and consider choices more abstractly.
Executing Strategy
When Consensus Hurts the Company
Research offers insights into when trying to reach consensus is the right course, and when it isn’t.
Managing Your Career
Beware the Winning Streak
How well do people factor past performance into their expectations for the future? Not very, according to studies.
Leadership Skills
Does Deciding to Seek Advice Signal Weakness?
A willingness to ask for advice on difficult problems can increase your perceived competence.
Data & Data Culture
What Is Analytics Amplifying in Your Organization?
Analytics acts as an amplifier for business processes — but companies should keep four principles in mind to avoid increasing “noise.”
Leadership Skills
For Many Decisions, Just Go With the Flow
For many decisions, letting your mind wander to a choice that you feel drawn to — rather than weighing all the options — is ample.
Customers
How to Tee Up Choices: The Upside of Default Rules
How much choice do people really want? Default rules, which establish decision-making starting points, can help.
Platforms & Ecosystems
Simplifying the Enterprise Social Media Landscape
Social media platforms abound. Is there a simple way to decide which one(s) a company should focus on?
Leadership Skills
Balancing Exploration and Exploitation
New research offers insights into factors that can affect the decision-making process.
Leadership Skills
From the Editor: In Praise of Humility
The Winter 2015 issue of MIT SMR highlights decision making — and acknowledging that you don’t have all the answers.
Leadership Skills
Why You Decide the Way You Do
Six scholarly articles offer intriguing insights into factors that can affect the decision-making process.
Developing Strategy
The Power of Asking Pivotal Questions
Asking the right questions can help you broaden your perspective — and make smarter decisions.
Analytics & Business Intelligence
Using Simulated Experience to Make Sense of Big Data
Simulations can help shrink the gap between what analysts try to explain and what decision makers understand.
Organizational Structure
Why Managers Still Matter
Managerial authority is essential when decisions are time-sensitive, knowledge is concentrated and decisions need to be coordinated.
Analytics & Business Intelligence
Elevating Data, Analytics to the C-Suite
The implications of a chief analytics officer for strategy and for long-term planning.
Developing Strategy
From the Editor: Decision Making in the Digital Age
We live in an age of data abundance, but that doesn’t make decision-making less challenging.
Collaboration
Social Business: Flat or Hierarchical? A Surprising Answer
“Loosely coupled” organizations are models for managing a social media-driven business environment.
Social Media
Chief Marketing Officers See True Value in Social Media
A survey of 100 CMOs says that more than 89% are influenced by social data when making decisions.