Books in the Digital Future of Management series

Advice on how companies can succeed in the new digital business environment.The most important skills a leader needs to succeed in a digital environment are not technical in nature but managerial—strategic vision, forward-looking perspective, change-oriented mindset. A company's digital transformation does not involve abandoning widget-making for app developing or pursuing "disruption” at the cost of stability. Rather, it is about adopting business processes and practices that position organizations to compete effectively in the digital environment. More important than technology implementation are strategy, talent management, organizational structure, and leadership aligned for the digital world. How to Go Digital offers advice from management experts on how to steer your company into the digital future.The book will put you on the right strategic path, with articles from MIT Sloan Management Review on developing a digital strategy, reframing growth for a digital world, monetizing data, and generating sustainable value from social media. Talent acquisition and retention are addressed, with articles on HR analytics, data translators, and enabling employees to become brand ambassadors outside of the office. Operational makeovers are discussed in terms of sales, services, new technologies, and innovation.ContributorsAllan Alter, Stephen J. Andriole, Bart Baesens, Gloria Barczak, Cynthia M. Beath, Alpheus Bingham, Didier Bonnet, Chris Brady, Joseph Byrum, Marina Candi, Manuel Cebrian, Marie-Cécile Cervellon, Simon Chadwick, Sophie De Winne, Mike Forde, Gerald C. Kane, Rahul Kapoor, David Kiron, Thomas Klueter, Mary C. Lacity, Rikard Lindgren, Pamela Lirio, Tucker J. Marion, Lars Mathiassen, Pete Maulik, Paul Michelman, Narendra Mulani, Pierre Nanterme, Doug Palmer, Alex "Sandy” Pentland, Anh Nguyen Phillips, Frank T. Piller, Iyad Rahwan, Deborah L. Roberts, Jeanne W. Ross, Ina M. Sebastian, Luc Sels, James E. Short, Fredrik Svahn, Steve Todd, Leslie P. Willcocks, H. James Wilson, Barbara H. Wixom

Practical advice from experts on how to create, manage, measure, and improve innovation in and for today's digital markets

How organizations can adapt to a constantly changing business environment by being flexible but focused, embracing change, and moving fast.In the new digital world, the unknowns are never-ending. Our ability to embrace the demands of change has become a prerequisite for success. It's not easy. We don't work the way we did last year. Next year, it will all change again. If an organization doesn't embrace the realities of change, it will be under siege from those that do. Who Wins in a Digital World explains how organizations can adapt to a constantly changing business environment by being flexible but focused, embracing change in all its messiness, and moving fast.In articles that originally appeared in MIT Sloan Management Review, experts from business and academia discuss digital adaptability, explaining how both organizations and individuals need the ability to excel in what their roles will become as technology and their competitive ecosystem evolve. They highlight strategies and mindsets that can foster change, including boldness in the face of digitization, a focus on collaboration, and an artificial intelligence game plan. And they explore the need for speed, with one contributor declaring: "Implement first, ask questions later (or not at all).” Once an organization accepts the fact that technological change is ongoing and inevitable, it becomes more about opportunity and less about challenge. This book shows that change can be stimulating, exhilarating, and something to be welcomed.ContributorsStephen J. Andriole, Jacques Bughin, Thomas H. Davenport, Nathan Furr, Lynn J. Good, David Kiron, Edward E. Lawler III, Vikram Mahidhar, Paul Michelman, Jeanne Ross, Paul J. H. Schoemaker, Andrew Shipilov, Charles Sull, Donald Sull, Philip E. Tetlock, Stefano Turconi, Nicolas van Zeebroeck, Peter Weill, Thomas Williams, Stephanie L. Woerner, Christopher G. Worley, James Yoder

Experts offer strategies for managing people in technocentric times.

A clear-eyed look at how AI can complement (rather than eliminate) human jobs, with real-world examples from companies that range from Netflix to Walmart.Descriptions of AI's possible effects on businesses and their employees cycle between utopian hype and alarmist doomsaying. This book from MIT Sloan Management Review avoids both these extremes, providing instead a clear-eyed look at how AI can complement (rather than eliminate) human jobs, with real-world examples from companies that range from Netflix to Walmart. The contributors show that organizations can create business value with AI by cooperating with it rather than relinquishing control to it. The smartest companies know that they don't need AI that mimics humans because they already have access to resources with human capability—actual humans.The book acknowledges the prominent role of such leading technology companies as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google in applying AI to their businesses, but it goes beyond the FAANG cohort to look at AI applications in many nontechnology companies, including DHL and Fidelity. The chapters address such topics as retraining workers (who may be more ready for change than their companies are); the importance of motivated and knowledgeable leaders; the danger that AI will entrench less-than-ideal legacy processes; ways that AI could promote gender equality and diversity; AI and the global loneliness epidemic; and the benefits of robot-human collaboration. ContributorsCynthia M. Beath, Megan Beck, Joe Biron, Erik Brynjolfsson, Jacques Bughin, Rumman Chowdhury, Paul R. Daugherty, Thomas H. Davenport, Chris DeBrusk, Berkeley J. Dietvorst, Janet Foutty, James R. Freeland, R. Edward Freeman, Julian Friedland, Lynda Gratton, Francis Hintermann, Vivek Katyal, David Kiron, Frieda Klotz, Jonathan Lang, Barry Libert, Paul Michelman, Daniel Rock, Sam Ransbotham, Jeanne W. Ross, Eva Sage-Gavin, Chad Syverson, Monideepa Tarafdar, Gregory Unruh, Madhu Vazirani, H. James Wilson