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The global financial crisis of 2008 represents one of the best possible examples of the dangers posed by narrow mental models, say the authors. Before the crisis, people either failed to make sense of what was happening or chose to ignore it because of the profit opportunities. Some of the most basic assumptions implicit in the prevailing worldview before the collapse - such as ever-rising home prices and stock markets - were patently false, but this mindset was so powerful that by and large, objections were not raised. While such narrow mental models can obscure potential threats, the right mental models can open up new opportunities, they say. The authors provide eight strategies for developing a portfolio of mental models and overcoming inhibitors to change. In the end they prove that mental models are not just an abstract concept: millions of dollars will be won or lost based on the mindset of the person making the decision.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The world in which marketing operates has fundamentally changed. Has marketing research and practice kept up? The answer, says the author, is no. At the heart of the current trouble is a severance of academic rigor from managerial relevance. Through its maturation as a discipline over the past half century, marketing science in academia has emerged as a rigorous field. Conjoint analysis, econometric modeling, techniques derived from mathematical psychology, and many other tools and approaches have revolutionized its practice. But many of the most rigorous tools were developed years ago, in response to old problems. And managers and organizations increasingly find those tools irrelevant to the new challenges they face. So business practitioners adopt approaches that appear to address their real and current marketing problems but that lack the rigor of the academically established methods. Now, argues the author, we need to rethink and transform the field of marketing so it balances rigor and relevance. He details seven strategies that would help achieve that aim: Bridge the disciplinary silos. Shift from traditional management to network orchestration. Change the focus from customer relationship management (CRM) to customer managed relationships (CMR). Shift from company-branded products to customer-branded solutions. Use analytics and metrics as the glue. Adopt the adaptive experimentation philosophy for all your activities and strive for empirical generalizations. And, challenge (and change) your mental models. And how to pursue those strategies? In a collaboration between both practitioners and academic researchers, says the author. (Editor's Note: This article is excerpted from a paper the author presented when he accepted MIT's 2007 Buck Weaver Award, which recognizes individuals who have made important contributions to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science.)

The time has come to develop new mental models that reflect the complex inter-linkages between modern consumers and business. The lines between consumer and industrial marketing are blurring in five important ways, including the blurring of B2B and B2C marketing and the blurring of value chains. The author describes each, along with the implications they contain for bridging disciplinary silos and rethinking our approach to the roles of market research, customer experiences, metrics and dashboards.

To create an environment to embody a culture of flexibility, egalitarianism, teamwork, and entrepreneurship, SEI Investments built a distinctive headquarters. The offices are open and desks are on wheels, making it easy for teams to interact and quickly reorganize. The walls are lined with an extensive collection of contemporary art to invite creativity and debate. Building an environment that embodies its culture has helped SEI achieve rapid financial growth and facilitated business model innovation. Examines some of the lessons from this bold experiment in how physical structure can follow strategy.

Immigrants in developed countries who send money to and buy goods for relatives in the developing world are creating a vast new international market.

Creative enterprises bring together contributions from of a wide variety of individuals, making the effective management of creativity a key focus for such organizations. Managers face two serious challenges in increasing the creativity of their organizations, says the author: first, the cost of investing in creativity is immediate, while the benefits often won't be apparent for a long time; and second, the demands of day-to-day operations often push creativity aside. It is up to managers to recognize the strategic importance of creativity and keep it front and center. The author provides six strategies for building creative organizations along with tips for both hiring and managing creative people. Along the way he shows that the challenge before us is much broader than encouraging innovation: it lies in cultivating a creative approach and curiosity in life and work, challenging and testing our current mental models, and engaging in active experimentation with new mindsets and approaches.

Seven steps assist managers in evaluating an existing portfolio model or in designing an idiosyncratic approach: establishing the level and unit of analysis; identifying the relevant dimensions; determining the relative importance of the dimensions; constructing a matrix; locating the products or businesses on the relevant portfolio dimensions; projecting the likely position of each product or business on the dimensions; and selecting the desired position for each existing and new product and deciding how to allocate resources among these products.

A research technique, called conjoint measurement, evaluates consumers' judgments to determine the nature of a product and the available market. This technique is especially useful when choosing between multiattribute products. Studies of various complex product choices illustrate how conjoint measurement indicates customer preference and the number of prospective orders. Conjoint measurement also shows consumers' evaluations of new product formulations; effective packaging, brand name, and promotional copy combinations; pricing and brand alternatives; verbalized descriptions of new products and services; and alternative service designs.