EDITORS’ NOTE
viii
We Undervalue Competent Management?” In their study of 12,
organizations the authors found vast diff erences in how companies
execute 18 core management practices, including such basic ones as
setting targets, running operations, and grooming talent. Those dif-
ferences matter: Companies with strong managerial processes do sig-
nifi cantly better on high- level metrics such as profi tability, growth,
and productivity. The authors identify the main challenges hindering
the adoption of essential management practices, suggest solutions,
and make the case that senior leaders should focus on operational
excellence as a crucial complement to strategy.
To overcome organizational bias, leaders are relying on people
analytics to make data- driven decisions and to hire and promote
fairly. But some leaders who take this approach say they can’t
counteract or reverse bias with data: They can’t “apply analytics to
the challenges of underrepresented groups at work” because “the
relevant data sets don’t include enough people to produce reliable
insights— the sample size, the n , is too small.” In “‘Numbers Take
Us Only So Far,’” Facebook’s global director of diversity, Maxine
Williams, explains why data must be paired with qualitative research
to give leaders the insights they need to increase diversity at all lev-
els of their organizations. By drawing on industry or sector data,
learning what other companies are doing, and deeply examining the
experiences of their own employees, companies can advance their
goals of improving diversity and inclusion.
CEOs have always lobbied publicly for political or social issues that
are good for their business. But this year we saw a signifi cant phenom-
enon emerge: “The New CEO Activists.” Taking stands on issues that
are not directly related to their business model and their success can
hurt sales (or help them) when consumers respond with their wallets.
So why take the risk? Duke’s Aaron K. Chatterji and Harvard Business
School’s Michael W. Toff el off er a guide leaders can use in assessing
whether to speak out and how, choosing which issues to weigh in on,
and balancing the likelihood of having a positive eff ect with the possi-
bility of a backlash.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have generated
lots of hype, but what do they mean for you and your business?
In “Artifi cial Intelligence for the Real World,” Thomas H. Davenport