The 20 Most Popular MIT Sloan Management Review Articles of 2017

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the future of work and organizations was a hot topic for visitors to MIT Sloan Management Review’s website in 2017. Although MIT SMR publishes content on a wide range of management topics, 25% of the 20 most-read pieces of new editorial content on the MIT SMR website in 2017 dealt with AI — including the most popular article from the magazine, the most popular report, and the most popular blog post.

But AI wasn’t the only subject on readers’ minds in 2017. Other widely read pieces of new content addressed timely issues like digital transformation and design thinking — as well as perennially important topics such as innovation, strategy execution, problem formulation, and negative emotions in the workplace.

1. The Jobs That Artificial Intelligence Will Create

A study by Accenture predicts that several new categories of jobs will emerge as AI is deployed.

2. Reshaping Business With Artificial Intelligence

This report from MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group aims to present a realistic baseline that allows companies to compare their AI ambitions and efforts to those of other companies.

3. Analytics as a Source of Business Innovation

This 2017 MIT Sloan Management Review report on data and analytics, which was sponsored by SAS, found that the percentage of companies deriving competitive advantage from analytics increased for the first time in four years.

4. The Smart Way to Respond to Negative Emotions at Work

Many executives try to ignore negative emotions in their workplaces — but author Christine M. Pearson suggests that tactic can be counterproductive and costly.

5. Achieving Digital Maturity

In this 2017 report on digital business, MIT SMR and Deloitte found that digitally maturing companies are achieving success by increasing collaboration, scaling innovation, and revamping their approach to talent.

6. The Most Underrated Skill in Management

In this article, Nelson P. Repenning, Don Kieffer, and Todd Astor argue that there are few management skills more powerful than the discipline of clearly articulating the problem you seek to solve before jumping into action.

7. How Big Data Is Empowering AI and Machine Learning at Scale

Big Data is powerful on its own, as is artificial intelligence. What happens when the two are merged?

8. The End of Corporate Culture as We Know It

In this essay, MIT SMR editor in chief Paul Michelman argues that when we look ahead to life in the digital matrix, there is reason to question corporate culture’s role.

9. Why Design Thinking in Business Needs a Rethink

Authors Martin Kupp, Jamie Anderson, and Jörg Reckhenrich make the case that, to reach its full potential, the popular innovation methodology must be more closely aligned with the realities and social dynamics of established businesses.

10. Turning Strategy Into Results

This article explores how leaders can translate the complexity of strategy into guidelines that are simple and flexible enough to execute.

11. Your Company Doesn’t Need a Digital Strategy

George Westerman of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy argues in this column that “when it comes to digital transformation, digital is not the answer. Transformation is.”

12. Corporate Sustainability at a Crossroads

In the final report of an eight-year initiative to study how corporations address sustainability, MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group note that companies can develop workable — and profitable — sustainability strategies to reduce their impact on the global environment by incorporating eight key lessons.

13. What to Expect From Artificial Intelligence

In this article, three professors from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management explore how advances in artificial intelligence are likely to change the workplace — and the work of managers.

14. ‘Digital Transformation’ Is a Misnomer

In this blog post, Gerald C. Kane, a professor of information systems at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and guest editor for MIT Sloan Management Review’s Digital Business Initiative, argues that it’s helpful to think of digital transformation as “continual adaptation to a constantly changing environment.”

15. The Five Steps All Leaders Must Take in the Age of Uncertainty

The authors make the case that, in uncertain and unstable times, corporate executives need to move beyond only managing their own companies and become active influencers within broader systems.

16. Harnessing the Secret Structure of Innovation

Innovation is often viewed as more art than science. But in reality, the authors of this article maintain, companies can improve their odds of sustained success by taking advantage of information about the unfolding innovation process.

17. Five Myths About Digital Transformation

If you want to lead your organization’s technology transition, Villanova University professor Stephen J. Andriole advises that the first step is grasping the realities of digital transformation — rather than getting seduced by the hype.

18. 12 Essential Innovation Insights

For decades, researchers have published their findings about innovation in MIT Sloan Management Review. Here are a dozen of the best insights.

19. How to Monetize Your Data

These days, most companies are awash in data. But, the authors of this article point out, figuring out how to derive a profit from the data deluge can help distinguish your company in the marketplace.

20. How to Thrive — and Survive — in a World of AI Disruption

MIT Sloan professor Erik Brynjolfsson explains that “the challenge we face today is not a world without work but a world with rapidly changing work.”