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To reach the "next billion" consumers, multinational companies need to create new networks of local partners.

MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group recently conducted their third annual sustainability survey of executives and managers worldwide. The survey results indicate that an increasing number of managers and companies are taking sustainable business practices seriously. According to the survey data, 70% of companies that have placed sustainability on their management agenda have done so in the past six years, and 20% have done so just in the past two years. Two-thirds of respondents said that sustainability was critically important to being competitive in today’s marketplace, up from 55% in the 2010 survey. And despite ongoing economic uncertainty, many companies are increasing their commitments to sustainability initiatives. In fact, 31% of respondents said their companies are profiting from sustainable business practices. Some of the interest can be explained by increasing pressure, internally and externally. Among the external factors are stakeholder groups–including investors–and also regulations, climate change, resource constraints and consumer demand. Internal demands for brand integrity, employee engagement and increased efficiencies play a part as well. But the recent increase in the business focus on sustainability may also be because we are nearing a “tipping point” at which a critical mass of companies is taking sustainability seriously. Survey and interview data identified companies that are profiting from sustainability, which the authors termed “Harvesters.” Harvesters are 50% more likely to have a CEO with a strong commitment to sustainability, and nearly two and a half times as likely to have a chief sustainability officer. They are also more likely to be involved in external collaborations. Starbucks, for example, brought in representatives from its entire supply chain, government officials and an MIT professor in order to develop a detailed assessment of and life-cycle analysis for take-out coffee cups.

This is the third year that MIT Sloan Management Review has teamed up with the Boston Consulting Group on their Sustainability and Innovation Global Executive survey, to which more than 4,700 executives, managers and thought leaders from around the world responded. Results from this year's survey--conducted during June and July of 2011--indicate a growing interest in sustainability on the part of businesses. More respondents this year than last believe that sustainability- related strategies are necessary to be competitive. Respondents said their organizations are committing more money and attention to sustainability--and anticipate a continuing commitment in the coming year. The authors suggest that these findings indicate that sustainability is becoming an element on the agenda of top management. However, in the short run, sustainability is often eclipsed by other pressing business issues: Most survey respondents do not consider sustainability-related topics to be one of the top three business challenges their company faces in the next two years. The charts in this preview article represent the answers to just seven of the survey's 27 questions. The full report will be published this winter.

The Fall 2011 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review delves into innovation, including the intriguing role of individual innovators.

Even good ideas can fail if the pilot lacks credibility, replicability and feasibility.

Companies experienced in analytics use are increasingly gaining competitive advantage.

"We're taking analytics from a planning perspective to a planning, execution and evolution perspective," says David Kreutter, at Pfizer Inc. As a result, analytics has become "much more operational than it's been in the past." The ways that Pfizer Inc., [link: http://www.pfizer.com/home/ ] the global pharmaceutical company, uses analytics is changing, in no small thanks to the pressure on physicians to prescribe generic rather than brandname drugs. David Kreutter, is accountable for Pfizer's U.S. commercial operations and analytics. He says that "in terms of customer analytics and commercial operating analytics, Pfizer U.S. has a strong legacy of management science in operations research support." With a team of 40-50 economists, statisticians, operations research colleagues and scientists, Kreutter says the group historically has focused on promotional tactics: understanding the effectiveness of strategies used in the field, in conversations with physicians and other players who influence whether a Pfizer drug is prescribed or not. Today, that's a little different. Today, Kreutter says his team closely track how sales representatives present material and how presentations are received. It's information, he says, that's critical. Kreutter spoke with David Kiron, executive editor at MIT Sloan Management Review, and Rebecca Shockley, the business analytics and optimization global lead for the IBM Institute for Business Value, about how the company is generating daily data reports, why precision is overvalued and what the coming generic version of the company's popular Lipitor drug has meant in terms of attention to analytics.

How are companies using analytics in their decision making? To what extent are managers able to access the data they need? What are the key challenges, and how have the main business objectives changed? MIT Sloan Management Review and the IBM Institute for Business Value teamed up to ask business executives, managers and analysts to reflect on the role data plays within their organizations, and received more than 4,000 responses, representing every major industry and every region of the world. Complete results of the second annual survey are scheduled for publication in the fall 2011 issue, but this article provides some preliminary findings. A few early results stand out: Only about four in 10 respondents have access to the information they want; almost one-fifth say they have limited or no access to the data they need to be successful. The three biggest challenges people cite in using analytics are the difficulties of "integrating internal data across silos," the time and cost of performing analytics and the lack of skills to interpret and leverage the data. While the top three business objectives organizations cite for using analytics have not changed since last year's survey, their order of importance has changed: Last year, respondents said the most important objective was "innovating to achieve competitive differentiation;" this year, the No. 1 priority is "growing revenue," followed by "reducing costs and increasing efficiencies." Innovating to achieve competitive differentiation fell to No. 3. All told, the 2011 survey contained 27 questions. The charts in this preview article represent the answers to just eight of those, presented as simple raw data, clean and uncut. In the complete report, the new information will be combined and refined and, in many cases, compared to last year's data to give readers a snapshot of what's changed since our initial survey and the opportunity to benchmark their organizations in relation to their peers.

This article assesses root causes of the highly publicized recalls of Toyota vehicles in the U.S.

From time to time a project truly stands out, creating exceptional value and having an impact on the industry.