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Today's organizations rely on networks of dynamic systems of "agile" teams to get work done. Teams are distributed, transient, and loosely bounded in service of responsiveness and innovation. The key to this new way of doing work is managing the networked ecosystem in which teams are embedded. But in the context of leading multiple teams with fuzzy boundaries and shifting membership, the average overwhelmed manager quickly defaults to what is nearest in urgency: managing internal team dynamics and responding to internal customer demands. Drawn from field interviews with 100 top-performing team leaders, this article presents a framework-for-action to leaders who want to engage the networked ecosystem with intention and precision, including specific tactics for identifying and influencing high-leverage stakeholders.

Online retailers may assume that customers value speed above all else when it comes to the delivery of goods ordered, but research shows that customers value other things when it comes to attended home delivery. This article explains why it's important to analyze customer data to determine actual preferences before making costly decisions to optimize delivery networks.

Joint ventures in which one partner holds a minority stake can be tricky: Minority partners often aren't able to force resolution of their concerns and end up taking a back seat to the dominant stakeholder. The authors describe 10 ways minority partners can more effectively negotiate and structure their rights to amplify their voices and increase their governance and influence.

In this installment of the MIT Sloan Management Review's Leading With Impact series, Mike Fisher discusses his role as chief technology officer at online marketplace Etsy with coach and consultant Chris Clearfield. Fisher shares his perspective on leadership as a craft, the need to speak the language of business, and the value of fostering a learning culture and "having the courage to reimagine old ways of doing things."

Digital technology can improve the in-store customer experience and it can give retailers more data on shoppers' preferences and habits. Some early adopters of the "frictionless store" seek to integrate online operations with physical stores, while others are focused on making shopping quick and easy for consumers while gathering plenty of data on their buying habits. This article provides an overview of the current landscape and guidance for retail executives considering their in-store tech strategy.

Conventional ways of making strategy are inadequate to survive amid uncertainty and complexity. Rather, strategy must be grounded in company purpose based on deeply held values what the authors call "soul" and informed by "brain": cognition augmented by advanced analytics and other technologies. Implementing strategy becomes a way of life when leaders follow six key practices drawn from the examples of soulful business leaders in Japan and elsewhere.

Digital twins are well established in industrial and manufacturing applications, but many more use cases are now opening up thanks to developments in enabling technologies like internet-connected sensors, 5G communications networks, augmented and virtual reality, and AI and machine learning. The authors identify three key areas where there is strong potential for harnessing digital twins and offer four recommendations for increasing the likelihood of their success.

Having the wrong culture undermines the best-laid strategy and organizational development plans, but many leaders haven't necessarily accepted the need to be proactive in building the types of culture required for their transformation strategies to succeed. The authors describe seven elements of adaptive culture that they consistently see in businesses that have transformed successfully and share a set of eight culture transformation principles that maximize the likelihood of success.

In traditional shareholder capitalism, the only stakeholders that have mattered are investors, as the providers of financial capital, and customers, as the source of revenue. But great strategy recognizes the significance of other valuable stakeholders. The authors highlight the successes that a range of companies have achieved by addressing the needs of employees, business partners, and local communities as well.

Eliminating global carbon emissions by 2050 depends on tackling the one-third of emissions from heavy transport and the heat-intensive manufacture of materials, which are hard to abate. This article argues that not only is abatement feasible it can be profitable. In the current decade, new technologies, materials, design methods, financial techniques, and business models, along with smart policies and aggressive investments, could revitalize, relocate, or displace some of the world's most powerful industries.

New research exposes the conflicts working parents may face when weighing concerns about their careers and where they live and work, highlighting the significance of company real estate decisions for talent recruitment and retention. The authors discuss two dominant factors that influence parents' geographic preferences and recommend five responses from business leaders that will resonate with working parents.

Why does progress in the data space continue to be so slow? Based on a review of organizations' successes and failures, discussions with experts in data and analytics, and study groups that dived deeply into the topic, the author identifies the underlying factors impeding organizations' data science efforts and points to nine key areas they must address in order to advance their data initiatives.

Unlike traditional company assets that will deteriorate or be depleted over time, data can be reused and recombined freely without degradation. Increasing the liquidity the ease of data asset reuse and recombination of strategic data is the first step to data monetization. The authors describe how the efforts of a financial services firm and three other organizations to facilitate the recurring reuse and recombination of strategic data assets are paying off.

E-commerce and the pandemic have disrupted brick-and-mortar retail, but new research shows an opportunity for culturally rich brands to leverage in-person shopping to build loyalty. When it comes to items like high-end watches, wine, and designer clothes, customers still want shops where they can immerse themselves in a brand's culture and learn more from knowledgeable employees. The authors discuss winners and losers in traditional retail and how stores might transform to meet customer needs.

Typical approaches to culture change relying on leaders to define the culture and cascade it throughout the organization, or fully outsourcing the responsibility of shaping and building culture to an HR group rarely produce real results. Instead, when individuals' behavior and actions become habits, it can truly change a culture. The authors explore three of the most widespread dangers to culture change and provide proven strategies for addressing them.

How can companies avoid the agility acceleration trap and align their level of agility with environmental complexity to include reflection and slowness? An answer to this question is pertinent to understanding the real value of agility, which is often equated with speed. This article introduces a framework for analyzing agility through three kinds of change - resilient, versatile, and transformational - with respect to the level of environmental turbulence. The value of this framework is demonstrated by company examples where "agility as slowness" in some areas and "agility as speed" in other dimensions provide a basis for competitive advantages.

In this interview, the second in MIT Sloan Management Review's Leading With Impact series, Urvashi Tyagi discusses her role as CTO at ADP with coach and consultant Chris Clearfield. She also describes ADP's systems-first approach to its payroll and HR solutions business and shares what she has learned about creating a healthy corporate culture and evaluating employee performance.

You might assume that independent contractors hired to tackle core management tasks would be hobbled by their lack of history and relationships in the client organization, but research shows that they often succeed because of their outsider status. These findings expand our notion of what it means to be an effective manager, and they have practical value for organizations seeking flexibility.

BlackNorth founder Wes Hall’s rags-to-riches journey is the quintessential story of liberal market capitalism rewarding resilience and hard work. But Hall’s success story has a dark side, since he climbed a corporate ladder that wasn’t designed to help him reach the top. Hall has warned companies to expect an open season of investor activism on companies that fail to take equity, diversity, and inclusion issues seriously. In this Q&A with Ivey Business Journal editor Thomas Watson, the self-proclaimed King of Bay Street explains why he thinks generational change is in the cards while offering advice to companies on how to make it happen. BlackNorth is talking to partners about reforming everything from healthcare and education to homeownership. Corporations have a responsibility to reflect society, he says, so change is a must. When it comes to issues like diversity and inclusion, he says too many organizations aim to address things internally and fail to bring in outsiders with a different perspective. Leadership is key to making progress and a board member who says, “We don’t think social issues are our responsibility” is demonstrating a lack of leadership. Hall advises professionals that if they feel that they will not get treated fairly based on who they are and not the contents of their character and abilities, they should seek other opportunities. In the long run, this will bring them closer to a genuine opportunity where they are empowered to succeed.

Mergers and acquisitions have picked up in the aftermath of the pandemic. As companies seek partners that can boost their competitive capabilities, it's important that they ensure compatibility between the two organizational cultures. New research suggests that looking at political leanings among the companies' employees can provide clues to whether the merger is likely to flourish or fail.