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This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Facing headwinds from a shifting media industry, executives at Spanish language broadcasting company Entravision recognized the need to innovate their business model. To get there they created Luminar, a big data insights division that utilizes about 2000 external data points to deliver customized, transaction-based insights to marketers, about Entravision's Latino audience. The fastest growing U.S. demographic, Latinos have amassed buying power worth more than a trillion dollars annually.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Oil & Gas is GE's fastest growing business, with revenues of $15 billion. It competes in high-growth markets and creates products like the recently launched first subsea compressor that utilize GE's broad technical capabilities. Measurement & Control, a division of Oil & Gas, covers a swath of industries and applications, according to its website, including sensing, asset condition monitoring, controls and instrumentation. But Oil & Gas, along with the rest of GE, is also betting heavy on analytics. The company announced this summer the first-of-its-kind cloud platform for collecting, storing and analyzing large scale machine data, to handle the massive data from the coming Industrial Internet. GE is also applying that analytic rigor to innovate internally - and drive commercial change. Philip Kim, (former) marketing operations leader for Measurement & Control , discusses how GE uses data to continuously improve performance - whether that's to grow sales, decrease costs or improve performance-- and in the process, democratizes analytics.

It was February 2009, and Nick Hughes, head of Global Payment Solutions at Vodafone, contemplated his notes as he waited to enter the company's Executive Meeting at its headquarters in Newbury, amid the Berkshire countryside outside London. M-PESA (M for mobile, Pesa meaning 'money' in Swahili), Vodafone's mobile money payments service- had grown exponentially the previous two years; far beyond he or anyone else had imagined. What had begun as a corporate social responsibility project was now a much heralded story of financial innovation, offering financial services to millions of 'unbanked' customers. Safaricom, Vodafone's Kenyan affiliate, planned to increase the range of services developing beyond payments into other financial products, while the M-Pesa service had been rolled out to Tanzania and Afghanistan, where it was gaining momentum. Vodafone had multiple options as to what to do next with M-PESA. They could further tap the three country markets in which they were currently offering the service, for example by creating new services or expanding their customer base within these markets. Or they could develop new markets, by launching the core M-PESA service in other countries. The success in Kenya suggested that further roll-outs were attractive but where? Vodafone's existing business footprint was expanding but was not extensive and focused mainly on Europe rather than in developing countries. Regulation was a stumbling block in some markets; India being one example where regulators had ruled that only licensed banks could issue 'electronic money'. Some Vodafone executives were suggesting that the services could be introduced in Europe, Vodafone's home region, where it had a direct customer base of over 100 million existing customers. This, though, would fundamentally change the nature of the service from one targeting the unbanked. Alternatively, as a non-core business stream, Vodafone could spin off the service.

For generations, the model for receiving health care services in the developed world has been straightforward. It starts with showing your insurance card at the reception desk and ends with a 10-minute examination/discussion with a doctor. In developing countries, this model is structurally untenable: according to the World Health Organization, there is a global shortage of four million health care providers, and in 57 countries, this amounts to a crisis. The authors present several new models for delivering health care services in developing countries that use ICT (information and communication technologies)-i.e., cell phones, tablets and computers. It is only a matter of time, they say, before these models spread to more resource-rich settings.

In recent years we have witnessed an endless stream of value-destroying behaviour by individuals and organizations in the financial world. The persistence of these scandals, say the authors, indicates that the prevailing paradigm of financial economics requires transformation. They argue that the core issue at hand is a lack of recognition that integrity is a factor of production that is as important to success in all aspects of life as knowledge, technology and human and physical capital. They define integrity for individuals, organizations and objects, and going forward, call for leaders to identify out-of-integrity behaviour as it happens.

Imagination is what enables people to invent new business models, create differentiated products and services, and reframe a growing number of problems as opportunities. And yet we understand very little about how imagination works. The author shows that it has much in common with dreaming. He describes the key elements of the dream state and shows that the the number-one hazard for innovators is getting stuck in the 'tar pits' of prior knowledge. Once we learn the 'trick' of dreaming-of disassociating our thoughts from the linear and the logical-we can become wellsprings of originality.

Global trade has taken off over the past decade, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are reaping rewards in developing markets. The authors describe four political and four socio-economic challenges presented by these markets, and describe five strategies for surmounting these challenges, using examples of successful Canadian and British SMEs that are leading the way in fast-growth markets.

Our mental models, or mindsets, determine the way we see the world, make decisions and behave. In the realm of Marketing, the author argues that many peoples' mental models are severely outdated. He explains why the old Marketing paradigm is outdated, and describes six aspects of the new landscape that modern marketers must embrace in order to thrive in what he calls "a new marketing paradigm."

In his work at IDEO, the author has been closely studying a gigantic emerging market: the Chinese middle class consumer. In this article he describes three key aspects of this consumer's identity. Calling this consumer segment "a moving target", he says the important thing is to maintain a consistently human-centered approach aimed at uncovering latent needs. Businesses that continually develop their empathy and understanding of this group, he says, can meet the evolving needs of one of the largest new markets in history.

Widespread critiques of capitalism-as articulated by social movements such as Occupy Wall Street-have been widely legitimated, say the authors, and the resulting ideological shift has propelled migration towards 'connected consumption'. Emphasizing the re-use of goods rather than buying new, these practices facilitate local, face-to-face connections, and they are redesigning models of service delivery. The authors describe four types of connected consumption, then focus on one ('time banks'), explaining the broader context that is propelling this movement's popularity.

Business leaders from Jack Welch to John Seely Brown are amongst a growing number of leaders advocating the power of storytelling. The author describes the key tenets of storytelling and shows why it is so naturally appealing to the human mind. For instance, because we are highly averse to uncertainty, we tend to embrace simplistic 'cause and effect' relations without questioning them. The problem is, when the story isn't true, such characteristics of stories becomes 'traps'. She provides four ways to escape story- formula infrastructure so that we don't fall into a 'no-exit storytelling trap'.

Three veterans of the C-suite discuss the current business landscape and some of their key challenges past, present and future. Mark Barrenechea, CEO of OpenText, explains why "Big Data is a bit over-hyped"; Former MasterCard CMO (now Sotheby's CMO) Alfredo Gangotena describes his greatest challenge ever: marketing EuroDisney to Parisians; and Mountain Equipment Co-Op CEO Mark Labistour explains his affinity for Design Thinking, and the importance of working towards a "desired future state" for your customer.

In the realm of feedback, the receiver - not the giver - is the key player in the exchange. The authors describe three triggers that lead us to dismiss feedback, and how to counteract them to improve your relationships and take charge of your life-long learning. In the end, they say, receiving feedback well is a skill, and an important one for each of us to learn.

In a wide-ranging interview, the Managing Director for McKinsey and Company Worldwide, Dominic Barton, discusses his firm's work on the global problem of water scarcity, what type of talent his firm seeks out and why workplace flexibility is so important today.

Manoel Coelho, Director of Global Business Development at GlobalMed in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, was looking ahead to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and the opportunities the Games would offer for raising international awareness of the role and value of telemedicine. He worked closely with Dr. Antonio Carlos Marttos of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, who was the chief spokesman for the telemedicine initiative. Coelho's challenge was to assist Marttos in pitching the general idea of telemedicine to key decision makers, while also keeping his company in the line of sight as the preferred vendor. As Marttos envisioned it, mobile, suitcase-sized telemedicine units would be positioned at key venue sites throughout Rio to serve the needs of athletes and spectators. Telemedicine would allow for on-site diagnosis and connections to physicians at Rio hospitals, as well as to physicians in the home countries of athletes or spectators. GlobalMed embarked on the Rio Olympics project as a key initiative in its strategic mission to expand globally. The company, founded in 2002, had moved carefully and deliberately to establish its credibility in smaller projects at the Pan American Games in 2011 and at the London Olympics in 2012. Exposure via the Olympic Games would not only benefit GlobalMed, but the entire telemedicine industry. If the project moved forward, Coelho would need a comprehensive but adaptable project plan, including a thorough assessment of potential risks and challenges.

Mullenweg founded Automattic, the company behind WordPress, in 2005, and began hiring in the traditional way: using resume screening, reference checks, and interviews. He focused on the experience candidates had and paid special attention to what other start-ups they'd worked for. He and his colleagues invested a lot of energy in the process and believed that they were being as rigorous as they could. But when some hires didn't work out, they began to examine their approach in light of Automattic's unconventional philosophy: Work where you want and when you want; you'll be measured by outputs, not by time spent at a desk in an office. They realized that being well-spoken or charming in an interview often had little bearing on how a candidate would perform the job in question. So they introduced tryouts. After an initial screening, promising candidates are required to work with the company for three to eight weeks (with pay), performing real tasks that are closely related to the jobs they're applying for, and working alongside the people who will be their colleagues if they're hired. They can size up the company as it evaluates and provides feedback to them, benefiting all concerned.

Most people expend a lot of energy at work attempting to hide their inadequacies from colleagues. The authors believe that this is the single biggest cause of wasted resources in nearly every company today. When they went in search of firms where people see their mistakes not as vulnerabilities but as prime opportunities for growth, they found only a handful. Two stood out: Bridgewater Associates, an East Coast investment firm, and the Decurion Corporation, a West Coast real estate manager, cinema operator, and senior living center owner. Both are committed to developing every one of their people by weaving personal growth into daily work--and both are highly successful businesses. The authors spent hundreds of hours observing their practices and interviewing employees at all levels. What they saw was people working together, in meetings, in one-on-one sessions, and in the course of their everyday work to get at the root causes of problems and devise more-productive ways of doing things. Many companies conduct root cause analysis but stop short of crossing into an employee's interior world, where so many problems begin--in, for example, a tendency to avoid confrontation, to act before thinking things through, to be overly aggressive if one's ideas are criticized, and other counterproductive thinking and behavior. At Decurion and Bridgewater, everyone from the CEOs on down to the teenaged ushers work on identifying and overcoming these patterns as part of doing their jobs well.

As the planet warms, storms and floods are becoming wilder--killing thousands, disrupting supply chains and power grids, and causing billions of dollars in damage. Meanwhile, supplies of all kinds of resources are dwindling, and demand is rising. These two megachallenges--extreme weather and resource scarcity--could have an unprecedented impact on corporate profits and global prosperity, warns Winston. To manage these threats, companies must do what he calls "the big pivot." The big pivot represents a radical change in strategy, operations, and mind-set. Instead of focusing first on short-term earnings and treating environmental challenges as niche issues, firms must prioritize tackling the world's big problems and use the tools of capitalism to do so profitably. That means taking new approaches to vision, valuation, and collaboration: Companies must set long-term goals based on science and pursue innovations that seem heretical (dyes that don't need water, say, or services that replace products). They'll need new ROI tools that factor in unpriced costs and benefits. And they'll have to work with other organizations, including competitors, to reduce resource dependency (for instance, sharing methods for reducing energy use). By making these moves, firms will increase their resilience to volatile resource prices, electrical outages, and shifts in customer needs. They will improve business performance while advancing the common good.

As the CFO of UPS--and a founding member of its sustainability steering committee--Kuehn wrestled with the question of where and how to most effectively direct the company's resources. The approach he developed is rooted in two beliefs: Companies have a responsibility to contribute to society and the environment, and every investment a company makes should return value to the business. These beliefs don't have to be at odds, he writes, although they often mean that sustainability programs must be subjected to alternative financial evaluation models. In fact, the programs with the most impact not only align with companies' strategies but move in tandem with those companies' activities. UPS's breakthrough came when it recognized that efficiency would be greatest in any initiative where momentum existed and where the company was positioned to make a pivotal or tipping-point difference. To guide its sustainability choices and investments, UPS has implemented a clear process of (1) assessing its strengths; (2) choosing its spots; (3) finding momentum; (4) building productive partnerships; and (5) convening other sources of strength. This approach avoids missteps such as executive pet projects and directing the volunteerism of employees to tasks at which they are not actually good. Kuehn draws lessons from UPS's own experience and from that of others, including Campbell Soup, Pfizer, and Marks and Spencer.

Addressing global sustainability challenges--including climate change, resource depletion, and ecosystem loss--is beyond the individual capabilities of even the largest companies. To tackle these threats, and unleash new value, companies and other stakeholders must collaborate in new ways that treat fragile and complex ecosystems as a whole. In this article, the authors draw on cases including the Latin American Water Funds Partnership, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (led by Nike, Patagonia, and Walmart), and Action to Accelerate Recycling (a partnership between Alcoa, consumer packaged goods companies, and local governments, among others) to describe four new collaboration models that create shared value and address environmental protection across the value stream. Optimal collaborations focus on improving either business processes or outcomes. They start with a small group of key organizations, bring in project management expertise, link self-interest to shared interest, encourage productive competition, create quick wins, and, above all, build and maintain trust.