Otto Dettmer/Ikon Images For many leadership teams and boards, discussions about a business’s corporate purpose are mired in conflict. All too often, the participants position purpose and profit as opposing priorities — and, in doing so, sideline purpose as an indispensable driver of strategic alignment and sustainable performance. A corporation with no avowed purpose other…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Brand builders face a hostile advertising context. Confronted with media clutter and overwhelming information overload, audiences have adopted a skeptical mindset and often view advertising as confusing and irrelevant. At best, it’s noise to be tolerated or avoided; at worst, it’s a series of annoying interruptions from profit-driven and…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Even the most advanced analytics models can fall flat if they don’t use the language of the organization’s decision makers. And when the related decision-making process stalls, it’s often because the data insights lack a clear narrative, business context, or connection to what executives care about. Those are lessons…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images I worry that we don’t have the skills in-house that we need to seize future opportunities. Should I focus on recruiting or on developing our current employees? The heart of your question is, how do you ensure that your talent resources are aligned with the future you are trying…
When Cracker Barrel unveiled its new logo as part of a larger rebranding initiative this summer, the company hoped it would symbolize a new era for the company. The sleek, simplified branding was linked to the restaurant’s newly modernized interiors and menu, an attempt to revitalize the struggling roadside chain for a younger generation. But…
Facing pressure from investors and the government to reduce their carbon emissions, many firms have committed to net-zero emissions targets. In order to meet these lofty goals, one might assume that companies are making costly long-term investments in transformative technologies. But when Kellogg’s Aaron Yoon and his colleagues examined data on thousands of emission-reduction initiatives…
When you think of gaming the system, it usually implies cheating with malicious intent. But when critical resources are scarce, even well-meaning people can be found bending the rules. In the delicate and uncertain world of organ transplantation, for example, transplant surgeons occasionally resort to gaming the system in an effort to save their patient’s…
Each year, nearly 5 million children around the world die before the age of 5, including more than 2 million newborns. Many of these deaths are preventable through high-quality hospital-based care. But even routine devices such as syringe pumps and phototherapy lights that are crucial to achieve this level of care—and standard in most U.S.…
At the supermarket, drugstore, and mall, eco-friendly options abound for everything from laundry detergents to toothpaste. Past research has suggested that people tend to believe these greener, more-sustainable alternatives aren’t as effective as traditional products—for instance, that dishwashing soap with “natural” ingredients will leave their plates less sparkly than “regular” soap. This phenomenon is often…
From lobbyists to nonprofit organizations, advocates for all kinds of causes often use statistics to illustrate how widespread a problem is. A fundraising campaign for Alzheimer’s might mention that nearly seven million people are living with the disease, for example. Similarly, a social-justice campaign might assert that the lifetime risk of incarceration for Black men…