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The authors argue that in our highly-connected environment, it's all-too-easy to forget how important 'inner work life' is to an organization's progress: when one goes downhill, so does the other. They define inner work life as consisting of each employee's emotions, perceptions and motivations -- and show that leaders can't help but influence their subordinates' inner work lives on a daily basis. The only question, they say, is what direction that influence will take. They describe three key 'influencers' of inner work life and show how managers can use them to foster productivity and well-being. The article is an adapted excerpt from the authors' book, The Progress Principle: Creativity, Productivity, and the Psychology of Everyday Work Life (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011).

The emergence of 'Web 2.0' tools such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter has significantly lessened the amount of control that organizations have over their messaging. Web 2.0 presents marketers with a dilemma: on the one hand, being talked about, shared and parodied on the Internet brings attention to a brand; on the other, it may not be the kind of attention the brand wants. The author provides three recommendations for organizations: lose the illusion of control; constantly monitor Web 2.0; and actively engage with your customers. He shows that in the end, while it might seem like a brand new playing field has emerged, in many ways, Web 2.0 returns us to two of the very foundations of Marketing: understand your customers deeply and develop active, engaged relationships with them.

Enabled by new digital technologies, openness has become a mega-trend for innovation and the topic du jour for organizations of all kinds. However, little has been said about what this 'new openness' means for the realm of design. In this article, the author reframes open from a design perspective, arguing that we must learn how to design for the loss of control that is inherent in being an increasingly-open organization. Indeed, he argues that a deliberately-designed loss of control may grant companies the most critical competitive advantage available today: access. He describes ten tools of openness and predicts that embracing them and designing for the loss of control will quickly rise to the top of the list of management challenges.

As the ways in which consumers make purchasing decisions continue to multiply, retailers are at a crossroads. One of the key reasons for operating a bricks-and-mortar store-building a strong, distinctive brand experience-no longer seems as relevant. Thanks to the rapid rise of social media and corporate transparency, consumers wield tremendous influence in shaping retail brands and are growing increasingly skeptical of overly-slick store designs, clerks and marketing messages. The once-dependable competitive edges enjoyed by bricks-and-mortar retailers are eroding, which means they can no longer afford to assume any inherent advantages over their online competitors. The authors describe three key paradigm shifts that smart retailers are embracing to solidify customer loyalty and provide shoppers with that increasingly-important window into an organization's soul.

The author argues that as a society, we have become fixated on setting and solving single-answer problems. There is nothing inherently wrong with single-answer problems, she says; without being able to frame and answer them, we would never get anything done. The difficulty lies in our preoccupation with the small fragment of the world that they represent. Regardless of a problem's complexity, our fixation with finding an answer causes us to narrow our attention, and in doing so, we often overlook what matters most. She describes two more complex types of problems -- enigmatic problems and open-ended problems -- and shows how adopting three particular mindsets can enable one to develop a more open mind and become a 'possibilian'.

Prosperous and growth-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - generally defined as firms with fewer than 500 employees -- are vital to an economy's health. In our increasingly borderless digital society, the most promising growth opportunities for SMEs tend to lie in foreign markets. But doing business in foreign markets can be both difficult and costly, and as a result, most choose to operate domestically. But the authors argue that the opportunities far outweigh the risks. They encourage SMEs to take the plunge, describing the three challenges that digital markets present and how to build a reputation online beyond a firm's borders.

In this interview, the founder of the Linux operating system, which runs everything from Google to the New York Stock Exchange to Japan's high-speed rail system, describes his evolution from student hacker to the founder of open-source pioneer Linux. He touches on the unique merits of open collaboration, the perils of centralized vs. distributed environments, and why Linux is even more interesting from a social standpoint than from a technical standpoint. In the end, says Torvalds, the most important thing about open source is not any one ideology: it's that everybody can adapt it for their own personal needs and objectives.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Many companies are trying to leverage the power of Twitter to connect with customers and promote their brands and products. The authors studied the marketing communication between 47 companies and their followers for about three months. Their research identifies factors that increase the likelihood of "retweeting"so that a company's tweets will be shared with recipients'networks and identifies which activities should not be pursued.<BR> <BR>Retweeting is desirable both because the original tweet reaches more people and because a retweet is essentially an endorsement from recipients to their followers. That said, since tweeting by companies is basically a marketing function, there are several practices that don't work well. The most important to avoid is blatant hard-sell messages. In addition, neither using hashtags nor embedding links increased retweeting. Finally, announcing contests or other promotional techniques also did not increase retweeting.<BR> <BR>The authors did find nine practices that increase retweetability, including keeping messages short so there is room for retweeters to add their own messages. Opening with an attention-grabbing headline is important, as is simply asking the recipient to pass the message on. Humanizing the brand has the highest likelihood of causing retweeting, increasing the odds by as much as 70%. The authors also suggest providing information that people can use and act on; offering a deal that can save people money; and making the message relevant and topical. And the best practice of all is when organizations combine several of these practices to get the most out of their marketing messages.<BR>

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Multinational corporations are under growing pressure to make sure that their contractors and subcontractors in China meet environmental standards in their operations. Yet traditional approaches to ensuring environmental, health and safety compliance, such as checklist audits, have proved problematic. The authors conducted research over a one-and-a-half-year period with leading multinational buyers (mostly in the apparel and footwear industries) as well as with NGOs and industry groups active in China. Based on their research, the authors report that rather than simply monitoring Chinese suppliers'compliance with local environmental, health and safety (EHS) standards, leading companies are giving suppliers tools and incentives to independently improve environmental performance. They are helping suppliers use energy, water and materials more efficiently and reaching deeper into their supply chains to where the greatest environmental damage occurs. At the same time, they are overcoming their traditional reluctance as competitors to cooperate in monitoring and fixing problems at common suppliers.<BR> <BR>The authors describe innovative approaches that companies such as Nike are taking. More generally, the authors' recommendations include working closely with suppliers and providing incentives for identifying, disclosing and addressing problems; establishing collaborative relationships with NGOs and industry groups; and finding ways both to learn from suppliers'best practices and to facilitate learning among suppliers.<BR>

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The relentless advance of information technology today means that a key task of the business manager now is to cope with one wave of IT innovations after another. At any given time, an executive is likely to feel more or less inundated by a current wave, unsure of what all the commotion is about, unable to avoid the topic in conversation and yet suspicious that the latest "killer app"may be mostly hype. Is there a better way?<BR> <BR>Drawing on years of his own research as well as the research of others, the author argues that the IT adoption cycle is a kind of wave machine that carries an innovation through five stages: (1) breaking the surface, (2) sending out ripples, (3) causing a squawk, (4) building the swell and (5) riding the crest. An important characteristic of IT innovations, the author notes, is that implementation is frequently costly, time-consuming and highly problematic. One consequence is that the number of adoptions of an IT innovation -which are essentially commitments that organizations make to implement the new technology -may outstrip successful implementations, resulting in a worrisome "implementation gap"that calls for explanation and can serve to dampen enthusiasm for the innovation. The author also points out that the rate at which value is achieved by an IT innovation is likely to peak long after the community's attention to the original organizing vision has dissipated.<BR> <BR>Thus, managers need to distinguish carefully between the attention an IT innovation receives and actual adoption, implementation and value gained from its use. Understanding these dynamics more clearly can lead executives to make better decisions about which "waves"to catch and which to let roll by.<BR>

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Leaders and human resources professionals are searching for ways to generate more value from their employees. Recent studies show that companies perform at a higher level when they have integrated talent management programs that are aligned with business strategy and operations. Organizations can get more from their investments in talent management, the authors argue, by focusing on collaboration.<BR> <BR>Job design and performance management are typically based on individual accountability despite the fact that most work today is collaborative. Talent management practices tend to focus on individual competencies and experiences, while overlooking the importance of employee networks. By examining individual performance data together with the results of organizational network analysis, the authors say, senior managers can look at talent along two important dimensions. In addition to looking at individual employee performance for the purpose of succession or work force planning, they can take a network view to assess the same employees in terms of their broader collaborative contributions to the organization.<BR> <BR>The authors show how applying a network lens reveals a significant number of key players (including marginalized talent, hidden talent and underutilized talent) that traditional performance management systems miss. They identify best practices for nurturing networks through talent management initiatives, illustrating them with examples from organizations including IDEO, Nokia, Dow Chemical, Best Buy, Gallo and the U.S. Army.<BR>

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. One of the biggest challenges facing multinational companies is building and sustaining a strong talent pipeline. To learn how leading multinational companies are facing up to the talent test, the team of authors examined both qualitative and quantitative data at leading companies from a wide range of industries. The research drew on 18 in-depth case studies, including IBM, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Siemens, IKEA, Infosys and Samsung.<BR> <BR>The companies the authors studied held two distinct views on how best to evaluate and manage talent. One group assumed that some employees had more "value"or "potential"than others and that, as a result, companies should focus the lion's share of corporate attention and resources on them; the second group had a more inclusive view, believing that too much emphasis on the top players could damage morale and hurt opportunities to achieve broader gains.<BR> <BR>Although organizations must pay attention to recruiting, employee development, performance management, compensation and reward systems, and retention, the authors found that competitive advantage in talent management doesn't just come from identifying key activities (for example, recruiting and training) and then implementing "best practices."Rather, they found that successful companies subscribe to six key principles: 1) alignment with strategy, 2) internal consistency, 3) cultural embeddedness, 4) management involvement, 5) balance of global and local needs, and 6) employer branding through differentiation. Adopting a "set of principles"rather than "best practices"may challenge current thinking, but the authors argue that best practices are only "best"in the context for which they were designed; what works for one company may not work in another. The principles, by contrast, have broad application.<BR>

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

When Mindy Grossman was approached to head the parent company of Home Shopping Network, she had no television experience, no direct-to-consumer experience, and no experience in most of the product categories HSN sold. She'd never even watched a home shopping channel. But after a crash course consisting of channel surfing, she had an "aha" moment: she realized that HSN needed to become more of a lifestyle network that would inspire people through products. That pitch won her the job. Then she visited headquarters--where the staff appeared downtrodden and the organization seemed frozen in time. Grossman saw that she would need to dramatically alter the company culture, understand and reposition the brand, and devise a new product strategy. She began with white paint and new office chairs.

Executives don't realize it, but a hierarchy of managers exacts a hefty tax on any organization: Managers are expensive, increase the risk of bad decisions, disenfranchise employees, and slow progress. In fact, management may be the least efficient activity in any company. Yet it's clear that market mechanisms alone can't provide the degree of coordination and control that many companies require. Is there any way to get the flexibility of a market system and the discipline of a tightly knit hierarchy--without a management superstructure? Morning Star, the global market leader in tomato processing, proves there is. Morning Star, which has seen double-digit growth for the past 20 years, has no managers. That's right--no bosses, no titles, no promotions. Its employees essentially manage themselves. Workers negotiate responsibilities with peers, anyone can issue a purchase order, and each person is responsible for acquiring the tools needed to do his or her work. Compensation decisions are handled by local committees elected by the employees, and pay reflects the contributions that people make--not their status. And if staffers find themselves overloaded or spot a new role that needs filling, they simply go ahead and initiate the hiring process. Morning Star's self-management model has two cornerstones: the personal mission statement, and the Colleague Letter of Understanding, or CLOU. In a personal mission statement, each employee outlines how he or she will help the company achieve its goals. The CLOU, which must be hammered out every year with colleagues, is an operating plan for fulfilling it. A CLOU covers as many as 30 activity areas and spells out relevant performance metrics. The system isn't without its challenges, and it isn't for everyone. But it has produced a dedicated workforce with exceptional initiative and expertise. And its success shows that it's possible for organizations to transcend the seemingly intractable trade-off of freedom versus control.

When the dot-com bubble burst 10 years ago, the ensuing collapse wiped out half of all online retailers. Today, e-commerce is well established and much digital retailing is now highly profitable. As it evolves, digital retailing is quickly morphing into something so different that it requires a new name: omnichannel retailing. The name reflects the fact that retailers will be able to interact with customers through countless channels--websites, physical stores, kiosks, direct mail and catalogs, call centers, social media, mobile devices, gaming consoles, televisions, networked appliances, home services, and more. If traditional retailers hope to survive, they must embrace omnichannel retailing and also transform the one big feature Internet retailers lack--stores--from a liability into an asset. They must turn shopping into an entertaining, exciting, and emotionally engaging experience by skillfully blending the physical with the digital. They must also hire new kinds of talent, move away from outdated measures of success, and become adept at rapid test-and-learn methodologies. A successful omnichannel strategy should not only guarantee a retailer's survival--no small matter in today's environment--but also deliver a revolution in customers' expectations and experiences.

When Johnson joined Apple, in 2000, as the senior vice president for retail, conventional wisdom held that a computer maker couldn't sell computers. Johnson promptly tossed out the retailing rule book and built the Apple Store from scratch. "The Apple Store succeeded not because we tweaked the traditional model," Johnson says. "We reimagined everything." Today, Apple stores are the highest performing stores in the history of retailing. In November, Johnson took the reins as CEO of the venerable J.C. Penney department store. Times are tough for many retailers, but Johnson, characteristically, sees the chance to reinvent the department store as a great opportunity. He also understands the challenges ahead. "A store has got to be much more than a place to acquire merchandise," he says. "It's got to help people enrich their lives." In this edited interview, Johnson discusses his vision of the future of retail and shares insights about innovation, leadership, and why he trusts his gut.

Shoppers once relied on familiar salespeople to help them find exactly what they wanted--and sometimes to suggest additional items they hadn't even thought of. But today's distracted consumers, bombarded with information and options, often struggle to find products or services that meet their needs. Advances in information technology, data gathering, and analytics are making it possible to deliver something like the personal advice of yesterday's sales staffs. Using increasingly granular customer data, businesses are starting to create highly customized offers that steer shoppers to the "right" merchandise--at the right moment, at the right price, and in the right channel. But few companies can do this well. The authors demonstrate how retailers can hone their "next best offer" (NBO) capability by breaking the problem down into four steps: defining objectives, gathering data (about your customers, your products, and the purchase context), analyzing and executing, and learning and evolving. Citing successful strategies in companies such as Tesco, Zappos, Microsoft, and Walmart, they provide a framework for nailing the NBO.

In the past few years, some companies have not just weathered the economic storm: They've emerged stronger than ever. How did such players as Four Seasons, Sephora, and Standard Chartered Bank defy conventional logic? Instead of pursuing a single ambition, such as profits, employees defined a collective ambition. As a result, those organizations deepened their engagement with employees and other stakeholders and became sustainably profitable. Purpose, a company's reason for existence, is the central element of collective ambition. The other elements--vision, targets and milestones, strategic and operational priorities, brand promise, core values, and leader behaviors--must be aligned to serve the company's purpose. Articulating the elements of collective ambition can give everyone in the organization a better sense of the company's purpose and how they can contribute to it. Purpose does not have to be about saving the world; providing excellent entertainment or banking services is just as meaningful a purpose as improving health care in emerging economies--as long as it is an authentic representation of why the company exists. To shape and then achieve a collective ambition, companies must strengthen their organizational glue (the collaborative engagement that creates a unified culture) and grease (the disciplined execution that enterprisewide change initiatives require).