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Despite all the hoopla around Big Data these days, the fact is, there is nothing dramatically new about having data at our fingertips. What is new, the authors argue, is that modern technology has increased the types of data that can be collected and made it cheaper, easier and faster to collect, store and analyze that data. They define three key realms of data: Descriptive, Predictive and Prescriptive, and show that progressing to the Prescriptive realm is the best way to enable a 'scientific' approach to business. They show that data and analytics are only valuable if they are used to generate insights, learning and evidence that inform business decisions-and that managers have a critical role to play: ensuring that their organization's analytics are motivated by the key decisions and challenges facing managers.

A key challenge facing entrepreneurial ventures-and any company with a game-changing new offering-is to reduce audience uncertainty about the quality of the new product or service. The authors argue that certain types of communications are more effective than others in achieving this goal. Having studied eight companies and their Twitter communication strategies, they define three characteristics of a successful social media communication: a focus on quality, a relational orientation to the user, and distinctiveness cues. They then present four distinct communication streams that an organization can embrace, from 'Sparse' to 'Multi-Dimensional', concluding that the latter is most likely to receive high levels of audience responses that affirm quality.

With cyberattacks soaring, corporations must step up efforts to protect their IT networks. Most firms could learn from the U.S. military, which has been tightening its cyberdefenses for the past six years. In the past year alone, it adroitly repelled more than 30 million intrusions. A focus on reducing human error is core to the military's heightened security. As is true in the private sector, mistakes by administrators and users open the door to the vast majority of successful attacks. To address this, the Defense Department has been borrowing from the "high reliability" practices of the U.S. Navy's nuclear program, which hasn't had a single accident in its six decades of existence. In this article the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a special assistant to the Joint Chiefs' chairman, and a management professor describe the military's approach and how business leaders can apply it in their firms. It involves six cultural principles: integrity, which leads people to adhere fully to protocol and own up immediately to mistakes; depth of knowledge, which is ensured by rigorous and continual training and testing; procedural compliance, which is enforced by extensive inspections; forceful backup, to prevent problems that could be introduced by workers acting alone; a questioning attitude, which induces people to investigate anomalies quickly; and formality, which prevents miscommunication. By taking charge, making everyone accountable, and instituting tough standards for IT training and operation, CEOs can embed these principles in their organizations and close critical gaps in security.

A nascent women's apparel online store on Tmall, China's largest business-to-consumer retail platform operated by Alibaba Group, was just beginning to establish itself on the online market utilizing the tools and services provided by Tmall to develop and operate its business. Within four months after the business was launched, Tmall unexpectedly released a new policy which significantly increased the annual service fee and cash deposit for individual stores. This new policy, which was to come into effect in less than three months following the announcement, could render the business of small- and medium-sized e-commerce stores, such as the new women's apparel start-up, on Tmall unprofitable. The management team of the fledgling clothing business had to reconsider whether to renew their contract with Tmall or transfer their store to one of the alternative online platforms, such as Alibaba Group's Taobao Marketplace, Tencent Group's Shop.QQ or Amazon.com's Amazon.cn.

According to recent studies by Gartner Group, best practices for a successful adoption of collaboration technologies are still unknown. This case describes the difficult adoption of such a technology within an organization, and the approach used to analyze and diagnose the weaknesses of the process so as to correct the situation. In the case, a step back is taken so as to better understand the organizational, social, cultural and technological context of a collaboration technology and to make a more informed decision about the management practices to be implemented to support its adoption.

By 2015 Google's Android operating system had been deployed on over one billion units worldwide. The firm had been happy with the high market segment share achieved on mobile phones, but new challenges were arising: advances by traditional competitors such as Apple and Facebook, potential fragmentation of the Android OS, new market dynamics in China and India, and the complexity of managing a large organization which sometimes had diverging goals in different product groups. This case explores how Google confronted the strategic opportunities facing the company around Android, including maintaining strong performance while being nimble enough to expand into new markets.

The Medium Corporation seeks to change how people author, consume and engage with content on the Internet. Founded by Ev Williams, co-founder of Blogger and Twitter, the company developed a digital publishing platform and set of social network tools that allow people to spend substantive time with weighty issues facing society, business and politics. Fighting the trend of quick engagement with short-form content on the Internet, Medium wrestles with how to deliver an experience that advances important topics with ease, flexibility and meaning, while working to build a large and successful company. The challenges of building a successful digital media company, balancing tool development with content curation, and organizing a firm in the 21st century are at the core topics facing the firm's leadership team.

CODE2040 was founded by Tristan Walker and Laura Weidman Powers to create pathways to success for blacks and Latinos in the technology and entrepreneurship sector by providing mentoring and coaching for students beginning their careers. Over the course of the case Weidman Powers wrestles with finding funding for the organization, growing and building a team in a mission-driven organization, and also with her limitations as a first-time CEO. In addition, the team discovers how to take advantage of the changing conversation in the technology industry for minorities, and how they are able to use the dynamic market conditions to drive their efforts.

3D printing was a bottom-up process by which materials were laid down in thin successive layers until an object was fully constructed. As an innovation in technique, 3D printing made production conducted at or near the points of purchase or consumption possible. This had a huge impact on traditional manufacturing industry and supply chain management. A variety of key 3D-printing patents expired in 2014, stimulating mass production and adoption of 3D-printing devices. 3D printing was likely to provide a solution to supply chain management challenges by printing low-volume and tailor-made products on-site, a solution that would also reduce materials-supply risks, supply chain network complexity and inventory costs. Imitative innovation, well-established manufacturing infrastructure and relatively low labor and material costs made rapid growth of 3D-printer manufacturing in China possible. In recent years, China rapidly embraced the 3D-printing trend and explored the new, greatly expanded 3D-printing manufacturing and export market space. What role could 3D printing play in changing supply-chain management? What could the short-term and long-term impact of 3D printing on the Chinese manufacturing industry be? Could China leverage the coming 3D-printing trend to reinforce the power of its manufacturing industry?

The Wikimedia Foundation is responsible for supporting Wikipedia and various other projects through administration, technical and financial support. Since its founding, Wikipedia has changed the way people around the world research information by allowing individuals to document and write history in a collaborative and decentralized fashion. The case follows Lila Tretikov as she takes on her new role as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, and how she and the organization have to balance fundraising, technology development and managing an organization through influence and strategy.

There is growing interest in how gamification--defined as the application of game design principles in non-gaming contexts--can be used in business. However, academic research and management practice have paid little attention to the challenges of how best to design, implement, manage, and optimize gamification strategies. To advance understanding of gamification, this article defines what it is and explains how it prompts managers to think about business practice in new and innovative ways. Drawing upon the game design literature, we present a framework of three gamification principles--mechanics, dynamics, and emotions (MDE)--to explain how gamified experiences can be created. We then provide an extended illustration of gamification and conclude with ideas for future research and application opportunities.

The Internet of Things (IoT), also called the Internet of Everything or the Industrial Internet, is a new technology paradigm envisioned as a global network of machines and devices capable of interacting with each other. The IoT is recognized as one of the most important areas of future technology and is gaining vast attention from a wide range of industries. This article presents five IoT technologies that are essential in the deployment of successful IoT-based products and services and discusses three IoT categories for enterprise applications used to enhance customer value. In addition, it examines the net present value method and the real option approach widely used in the justification of technology projects and illustrates how the real option approach can be applied for IoT investment. Finally, this article discusses five technical and managerial challenges.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Successfully incorporating today's digital technologies requires companies to work in new ways. To explore how digital technologies are changing the way companies do business, MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte surveyed more than 4,800 respondents and interviewed 19 business and thought leaders. The central question the authors asked: How are companies using digital technologies -such as social media, data and analytics, mobile devices and cloud computing -to compete and operate differently? Using results from these quantitative and qualitative data, the authors provide insights on the state of digital business and what managers need to know and do to navigate and benefit from these trends. A key concept behind this research is digital business maturity. The authors asked survey respondents to "imagine an ideal organization transformed by digital technologies and capabilities that improve processes, engage talent across the organization, and drive new and value-generating business models"and then to rate their company against that ideal on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the closest to the ideal). Forty-five percent of respondents placed their companies in the middle or "developing"group (ratings 4-6), while 29% put their companies in the higher "maturing"category (ratings 7-10). The remaining 26% placed their companies in the lower "early"group (ratings 1-3). Perhaps the main insight is that the key drivers of digital transformation are not the digital technologies themselves but business factors -in particular, strategy, culture and talent development. Effective digital strategies are less about acquiring and implementing the right technology than about reconfiguring the business to take advantage of the information these technologies enable.

This case chronicled the digital transformation of DBS Bank in seeking regional growth amidst a new digital era in the Asian banking industry. Led by its CEO, DBS invested heavily in technology and undertook radical changes to 'rewire' the entire enterprise for digital innovation. Key thrusts of its digital transformation strategy involved the revamp of its Technology and Operations organization, the development of scalable digital platforms, the leverage on technology to redesign the customer experience, and the internal incubation and external partnering in seeking new digital innovation. However, questions remain whether DBS has done enough to put digital at the heart of banking? What should be the next steps in their digital strategy? Where should the bank direct its technology investment dollars? How can DBS systematically assess the opportunities and threats of digital disruption in the banking industry and devise a set of possible strategic responses? How can DBS stay at the forefront of digital innovation to become the Asian Bank of Choice for the New Asia?

As machines evolve from tools to teammates, the author writes, accepting them will be more than a matter of simply adopting some new technology. The first challenge will be recognizing when computers know more than we do. "Algorithm avoidance," for instance, makes people prefer human judgment over that of machines and can lead to worse decisions, from diagnosing patients to predicting political outcomes. The message for managers is that helping humans to trust thinking machines will be essential. One way to encourage that trust is to make robots more humanoid. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon explored this idea with an autonomous robot named Snackbot, which had wheels, arms, a male voice, and an LED mouth that could smile and frown. People in the office made conversation with it and treated it with kindness. But this approach may lead us to put too much faith in the machines' abilities. How we work with thinking machines will vary according to the work we're doing, how it's framed, and how the machines are designed. But under the right conditions, people are surprisingly open to a robotic colleague.

In December 2012, the management of Starbucks Canada, an autonomous subsidiary of the U.S.-based multinational coffeehouse chain, is trying to decide how best to implement mobile payments in its 1,350 locations across Canada. While the company has currently been using a mobile application to accept payments through its proprietary Starbucks Card, rival Tim Hortons has recently introduced a more advanced mobile payment solution. There are many new and emerging technologies to choose from, including Square Wallet, Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons, MintChip and Mobile Wallet/Credit Card Near Field Communication. Will these systems allow for an enhanced store experience? Are customers ready to start paying with their smartphones? And which payment service will be the Canadian lead going forward? The future of Starbucks and mobile payments is exciting, but the choices are almost overwhelming.

Companies can engage with many online social networks and communities to attract customers, disseminate product information, conduct research, and stimulate innovation. However, for these activities to be successful, it is key that consumers at these platforms trust each other and are willing to share their knowledge freely. The study presented in this article assesses what companies can do to encourage members of online communities and marketplaces to share information with others. For this purpose, a netnographic study was conducted of Etsy.com, an online marketplace for handcrafted and vintage products. The study revealed several key findings: companies can stimulate information sharing through activities that build trust and develop a norm of reciprocity; rules and guidelines are helpful to discourage abuse, but do little to stimulate sharing; and companies should give the right example by sharing knowledge themselves. The guidelines that were developed based on these findings can be used by companies that own or manage an online community as well as by those who intend to engage with one.

At the University of Oslo (UiO), CERT manager Margrete Raaum learned of a network attack on Titan, a high-performance computing cluster that supported research conducted by scientists at CERT and other research institutions across Europe. The case describes the incident response, investigation, and clarification of the information security events that took place. As soon as Raaum learned of the attack, she ordered that the system be disconnected from the Internet to contain the damage. Next, she launched an investigation,which over a few days pieced together logs from previous weeks to identify suspicious activity and locate the attack vector. Raaum hopes to soon return Titan to its prior safe condition. In order to do so, she must decide what tasks still need to be completed to validate the systems and determine if it is safe to reconnect it to the Internet. She must also consider further steps to improve her team's ability to prevent, detect, and respond to similar incidents in the future. This case is designed for an undergraduate or graduate information security (infosec) class that includes students with varied technical and business backgrounds. The case supports discussion of technical and managerial infosec issues in interorganizational systems - a topic that is currently underrepresented in major case collections.

CAM for the price of €1. The President of Banco Sabadell Josep Oliu announced at a press conference on the 8 December 2012 that BCAM, a similar size to its acquirer, must be integrated in less than 1 year. Banco Sabadell management expected €331 million in synergies from 2012 to 2014. The case focuses on Miquel Montes, the new CEO in Banco CAM, and his team; Federico Rodriguez, new Chief Operations Officer; and Carles Abarca, new Chief Information Officer. Banco Sabadell had developed a cloud computing architecture never tested before in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Despite Sabadell management's strong and proven experience of M&As, there were risks associated with the benefits. Students need to understand both in order to understand how to plan in such situations

Raimund Vogl is the project leader of a large-scale project that aims to introduce a university based cloud storage service to major German universities. He needs to convince other universities to join the project. The case is based on a real situation and shows real challenges. The university-based scenario helps students to better put themselves in the context of the case. Furthermore, the case serves to teach the basic principles, risks, and benefits of cloud computing. The main challenge faced by the protagonist is to come up with a plan for organizational and user adoption. Accordingly, several technology-related theories can be used. In addition to user adoption theories such as the technology acceptance model, this case demonstrates the need of Sync&Share NRW to be perceived as a trustworthy provider. The case helps to understand the concept of trust, the relationship between trust and cloud computing acceptance, and ways to gain trust in the context of cloud computing.