MIT Sloan 2019-2020 Year in Review by MITSloanAlumni

2019 / 2020

Dear Alumni and Friends, MIT Sloan is constantly preparing for the future. Doing so enables our resilient community to discover innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, including the incredibly difficult challenges of the past year. As such, we are proud to present the 2019–2020 A Year Made to Matter report, the annual review of what our faculty, students, and alumni have accomplished—and what’s next on the horizon. The success of our mission—to develop principled, innovative leaders and advance management practice—rests on flexibility. Being flexible allows the school to react swiftly to critical issues, such as when the coronavirus pandemic forced the Institute to cancel in-person classes and go fully virtual midway through spring 2020. The community rapidly assessed the situation as more data became available, enabling us to equip faculty and classrooms for “hyflex” learning, create and maintain a safe on-campus experience for the fall, and contribute to numerous projects with the COVID-19 Rapid Innovation Dashboard and the COVID-19 Policy Alliance. Complexity is our call to action, and our ability to fulfill it would not be possible without the continued support of alumni and friends like you. From the Immediate Needs and Emerging Opportunities Fund—which empowers the school to forge ahead in a time of ongoing crises—to the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force—a group of students, faculty, staff, and alumni whose recommendations inspired new initiatives dedicated to conscious inclusion—your participation in the MIT Sloan community is pivotal. The past year presented everyone with significant challenges, but as you read this report, I hope that you will join me in proudly recognizing the resilience and accomplishments of our community. Very best,

K AT H RY N H AW K E S Associate Dean Office of External Relations and Global Programs

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

SM ARTE R TO GETH E R

“A year like this can reveal the true character of a community. Here at MIT Sloan, these qualities are resilience, inventiveness, and compassion—all of which are essential to the school’s mission to develop principled, innovative leaders who will change the world. Our community routinely employed all three against the difficulties of the past year—and will continue to do so for the challenges ahead."

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Providing Leadership with Compassion, Curiosity, and Dedication Deputy Dean Michael Cusumano (Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor of Management; Professor, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management) is well positioned to help lead MIT Sloan into the future. Since joining the MIT faculty in 1986, Cusumano has contributed his renowned scholarly and leadership skills to initiatives as varied as the Master of Science in Management Studies (MSMS) program and the MIT Sloan Management Review. As Deputy Dean, he will provide oversight for the school’s faculty matters, diversity and inclusion efforts, and research centers and initiatives. A specialist in strategy, product development, and entrepreneurship, Cusumano recently coauthored the 2019 book The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power with Annabelle Gawer, PhD ’00, and David B. Yoffie. Cusumano and Gawer also received the 2019 Abbie Griffin High Impact Award for their 2014 article in the Journal of Product Innovation Management. Named for Management of Technology program alumna Abbie Griffin, PhD ’89, the award recognizes the most influential article published by the periodical in the last five years.

Navigating New, Creative Ways of Teaching and Learning in a Crisis As the pandemic continued to spread, MIT Sloan quickly transitioned to a fully virtual format midway through the spring 2020 semester, while faculty, staff, and students began simultaneously developing a hybrid model that combines in-person with online sessions. Ezra Zuckerman Sivan (Alvin J. Siteman (1948) Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy; Professor, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management and Work and Organization Studies) led these efforts with gusto—and will continue to do so as Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning through spring 2021. In this new role, Zuckerman Sivan will oversee policy, strategy, and training related to technology-enhanced learning; coordinate these activities across the numerous areas at MIT Sloan that support this work; and continue chairing the digital education and academic governance task forces he helped to launch. He recently moderated the Ideas Made to Matter Summer Series—a succession of presentations and fireside chats featuring select MIT Sloan faculty members—and will regularly teach multiple sessions of the Developing and Managing a Successful Technology Strategy course for MIT Sloan Executive Education.

Improving Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Well-Being in Our Community Per the recommendations laid out in February 2020's Report of the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force: Recommendations to Dean Schmittlein, Ray Reagans (Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Management; Professor, Work and Organization Studies) has been named Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); and Fiona Murray (William Porter (1967) Professor of Entrepreneurship; Co-Director, MIT Innovation Initiative; Faculty Director, Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship) has been named Associate Dean for Innovation and Inclusion. Since July, Reagans and Murray have collaborated with administrators, faculty, staff, and students across MIT Sloan, the Institute, and peer business schools to investigate and implement new policies and programs. Major initiatives include making implicit bias a central theme of the MBA core curriculum, restructuring the DEI committee to be more inclusive, and creating the new staff role of Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Read more about MIT Sloan’s DEI efforts on pages 12-13.

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

SM ARTE R TO GETH E R

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

The Community Grows The MIT Sloan community welcomed four new faculty members to the fold this past year. From academia and professional consulting to medieval political history and game theory with chimpanzees, their backgrounds and specializations range far and wide.

Chloe Xie (Assistant Professor, Accounting) recently earned a doctorate in business administration from Stanford Graduate School of Business after working as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting for several years. At Deloitte, she advised financial institutions on matters relating to valuation, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate strategy. Xie’s research now focuses on incentives shaped by market imperfections— be they limits to arbitrage or criminal behavior—and how they inform disclosure decisions and investor decision-making. With a doctorate in computation and neural systems from the California Institute of Technology, Rahul Bhui (Assistant Professor, Marketing) came to MIT Sloan after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. His research combines cognitive science, computational neuroscience, and behavioral economics to reveal the deep unifying principles behind rationality and irrationality. Bhui’s work has been published by peer-reviewed journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Psychological Review and featured in major outlets such as Scientific American.

After completing the doctoral program at the Toulouse School of Economics, Charles Angelucci (Assistant Professor, Applied Economics) served as an assistant professor of economics at Columbia Business School before coming to MIT Sloan. He specializes in organizational economics and political economy. His most recent research focuses on voter knowledge of political news, disruption in news media markets, and governance issues in medieval England. Taha Choukhmane (Assistant Professor, Finance) served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research after earning a doctorate in economics from Yale University. With research interests in household finance, behavioral economics, and public economics, his current work examines the behavior of participants in retirement savings plans. Choukhmane is also studying the ways in which financial support from parents influences entrepreneurial risk-taking and social mobility.

“If the global pandemic has reinforced anything for me, it is how fortunate I am to be part of a team that I cherish and doing a job that I love. I joined MIT Sloan during a time like no other and not a day goes by where I’m not brimming with gratitude towards my colleagues, as well as happiness and pride for being part of this institution.”

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

SM ARTE R TO GETH E R

Innovating When Needed Most As MIT Sloan faculty continue to advance revolutionary ideas in management science, entrepreneurial innovation, and business analytics, they are also adapting previous projects—and creating entirely new ones—to tackle the global coronavirus pandemic.

D I M I T R I S B E R T S I M A S T R AC K S T H E S PR E A D O F C OV I D -19

DAV I D R A N D E X PLO R E S M E T H O DS FO R R E D U C I N G C OV I D -19

Though the spread of the pandemic across the United States appeared to wane after the first few months of numerous city and statewide lockdowns, Dimitris Bertsimas, SM ’87, PhD ’88, (Associate Dean for Business Analytics; Boeing Leaders for Global Operations Professor of Management; Professor, Operations Research) knew it was far from over. In collaboration with MIT Sloan Alumni Board member Barry Stein, MD, EMBA ’17, the Vice President and Chief Clinical Innovation Officer at Hartford HealthCare, Bertsimas and his team of doctoral and business analytics students created several modeling and calculation tools to track and predict COVID-19 transmissions in Connecticut and elsewhere. From the epidemiological case prediction tool DELPHI, which tracked the pandemic’s progression across the globe, to infection and mortality risk calculators, these indispensable tools allowed hospital staff to prioritize ICU facilities and better prepare for surges as the number of patients swelled. They also empowered Bertsimas and the MIT Sloan team to accurately forecast subsequent waves of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.

M I S I N FO R M AT I O N

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Many MIT Sloan faculty were quickly able to adjust their research to focus on matters relating to COVID-19 as the pandemic spread farther and faster—like David Rand (Erwin H. Schell Professor; Associate Professor, Marketing), who applied his work on “fake news” and social media to the rapid influx of misinformation about the coronavirus. In a working paper Rand and his colleagues publicized in March and later published in Psychological Science, they adapted interventions initially developed for politically themed fake news for similarly misleading content about COVID-19. As before, these “nudges” helped study participants to become more discerning about the information they were willingly sharing with their online networks, and Rand believes that their implementation by major platforms like Facebook and Twitter can save lives.

“As people who study management and management during crises, we want to help. Not just study the problems, but get in and try to make a difference. The [COVID-19 Policy Alliance] has provided us with an infrastructure to do that.”

G E O RG I A PE R A K I S PR E D I C T S PRO BA B I L I T I E S O F I N FE C T I O N

T H E C OV I D -19 P O L I C Y A L L I A N C E I M PROV E S A N D E M P OW E R S

W I T H M E T H O DS FROM T H E R E TA I L S PAC E

N U R S I N G H OM E C A R E

Not long after working on methods for prediction and optimization for retailers, Georgia Perakis (William F. Pounds Professor of Management; Professor, Operations Management and Operations Research and Statistics; EMBA Faculty Director; Co-Director, Operations Research Center) and her team at the Operations Research Center set their analytical sights on the spread of COVID-19. By combining machine learning with epidemiology, Perakis and her students developed a rigorous algorithm for data analysis and modeling. With it, they combed through public testing data between the spring and fall of 2020 in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and made long-term predictions about new infections through the end of February 2021. As Perakis and her students continuously refined the model, they were able to predict the actual number of positive tests (within 2.2 %) and deaths (within 3 .5 %) at least two weeks in advance. Such quantitative foresight may prove indispensable for policymakers combating the pandemic.

To allocate scant resources with the help of analytics, Kate Kellogg, PhD ’05 (David J. McGrath jr (1959) Professor of Management and Innovation; Professor, Work and Organization Studies), Simon Johnson, PhD ’89 (Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship; Professor, Global Economics and Management), Retsef Levi (J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of Operations Management; Co-Director of Leaders for Global Operations Program), and others co-founded the COVID-19 Policy Alliance. Many actionable strategies resulted, including a simple personal protective equipment calculator built with LGO students Noa Ghersin, SB ’14, SM ’20, MBA ’20, Ling Wang, SM ’20, MBA ’20, and Nigel Goh, SM ’20, MBA ’20, to help nursing homes obtain supplies for patients and personnel. The alliance also partnered with jobs site Monster.com and the Massachusetts Senior Care Association to fill essential roles at understaffed nursing homes and hospitals. “As people who study management and management during crises, we want to help,” Kellogg said in June. “The alliance has provided us with an infrastructure to do that.”

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

8 // MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

A Look Inside K2: MIT’s New Front Door While the traffic on Memorial Drive significantly decreased during the course of the 2019–2020 academic year, development on Broadway and Main in Kendall Square pressed forward. Perhaps the most pragmatically gratifying addition to Kendall Square is the new Brothers Marketplace, located at 1 Broadway, which opened in November of 2019. Occupying about 19,000 square feet of a larger MIT office building, the market allows locals to find their milk and eggs without having to make the trek to Central Square or beyond. The grocer also sources many of its products from Massachusetts-based vendors and has generated about 200 new jobs.

iHQ is filled with warm colors and movable furniture, breaking away from the classic, rigid, and grayscale architecture of MIT. While the front door has changed, the Institute’s core is all the more realized with a space that matches the inventiveness of its community.

On the main campus, the Graduate Tower (E37) opened its doors on November 1, 2020, with 454 apartments: including two-bedroom and one-bedroom units that are prioritized for MIT graduate students and their families and efficiencies for single graduate students. Sitting adjacent, the new Admissions Office and Welcome Center (E38) is projected to open its doors in the fall of 2021, and will reinvent the visitor experience for the approximately 50,000 visitors MIT will welcome each year. Just above Admissions and the Welcome Center—in the top five floors of E38—sits the recently completed InnovationHQ (iHQ). After two years of design work, intentionality only begins to describe the final product. When we say intentionality, think Disney World®, where the space creates a certain experience and encourages particular behaviors. iHQ was designed to create organic opportunities for collaboration and idea generation, and it does so by keeping the users of the space and the nature of their work in mind. Inclusive and adaptable,

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

ADM ISS I ONS

Navigating the Future

C O U R S E 15 PA R T I C I PAT I O N

C L A SS S I ZE

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C I T I ZE N

D E M O G R A PH I CS

A DM I T R AT E

AV E R AG E GM AT

AV E R AG E E X PE R I E N C E

O F 2 0 2 0 M I T G R A D UAT I N G C L A SS W H O T O O K AT L E A S T O N E C O U R S E 15 C L A SS

U N D E RG R A D UAT E R E S E A RC H O P P O R T U N I T I E S P RO G R A M (U RO P) P ROJ E C T S O F F E R E D BY 61 M I T S L OA N P RO F E SS O R S F I R S T Y E A R S T U D E N T S E N RO L L E D I N 15.0 0 0 E X P L O R AT I O N S I N M A N AG E M E N T

C L A SS S I ZE

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C I T I ZE N

D E M O G R A PH I CS

C L A SS S I ZE

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C I T I ZE N

D E M O G R A PH I CS

A DM I T R AT E

AV E R AG E G R E

AV E R AG E E X PE R I E N C E

A DM I T R AT E

AV E R AG E G R E

AV E R AG E E X PE R I E N C E

C L A SS S I ZE

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C I T I ZE N

D E M O G R A PH I CS

C L A SS S I ZE

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C I T I ZE N

D E M O G R A PH I CS

A DM I T R AT E

AV E R AG E E A

AV E R AG E E X PE R I E N C E

A DM I T R AT E

AV E R AG E E X PE R I E N C E

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

“In true MIT fashion, as soon as the pandemic hit in the early spring, the MIT Sloan community jumped right in to help the school and really make a difference in the lives of our students. The alumni have been especially helpful, reaching out and offering to help us in any way they can.”

C L A SS S I ZE

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C I T I ZE N

D E M O G R A PH I CS

A DM I T R AT E

AV E R AG E GM AT

AV E R AG E E X PE R I E N C E

C L A SS S I ZE

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C I T I ZE N

D E M O G R A PH I CS

A DM I T R AT E

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

STRON GE R TO GETH E R

Finding Strength in Diversity MIT Sloan is not simply about ideas. We embody the Institute motto, “mens et manus” (“mind and hand”), by doing the work to turn our ideas into impact. To that end, the school is committed to making immediate and sustained improvements to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Here are some of the actions we have taken this year to build a more inclusive Sloanie community: › Based on the recommendations of the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force—which included input from faculty, staff, students, and alumni—the dean appointed Ray Reagans (Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Management; Professor, Work and Organization Studies) to Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and Fiona Murray (William Porter (1967) Professor of Entrepreneurship; Co-Director, MIT Innovation Initiative; Faculty Director, Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship) to Associate Dean for Innovation and Inclusion. › The school launched the MIT Sloan Endowment for Enduring Diversity and Inclusion, a new resource for funding fellowships, as well as curricula and programming that promote diversity and inclusion. MIT Sloan has committed to matching donor funds in support of this campaign in order to help us attract and support highly qualified students from historically underrepresented groups in graduate education. › After consulting with the Black Business Students Association, the Hispanic Business Club, and the Africa Business Club, MIT Sloan is working to create a more inclusive admissions process that relies on behavior-based interviewing techniques and comprehensive data collection. This will help to limit the potential for bias from a single individual in the interview process and ameliorate the additional concerns of students from historically underrepresented populations.

› Associate Deans Reagans and Murray, as well as faculty members from across MIT Sloan, are conducting research on numerous aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion. These projects include the work of Danielle Li, PhD ’12, (Class of 1922 Career Development Professor; Associate Professor, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management) and PhD candidate Lindsey Raymond, SM ’19, in developing a new approach to reduce potential bias in traditional résuméscreening algorithms; and Erin Kelly (Sloan Distinguished Professor of Work and Organization Studies; Professor, Work and Organization Studies; Co-Director, Institute for Work and Employment Research) and Emilio Castilla’s (NTU Professor of Management; Professor, Work and Organization Studies) investigation of how certain work policies and cultures can increase minority representation. › MIT Sloan made implicit bias the theme for MBA core classes this year and introduced new material addressing the need for individual awareness of bias and conscious inclusion. Faculty are also revising current course offerings and creating new ones to reflect the school’s dedication to building and maintaining a more inclusive community. In 15.S03 Leading the Way: Individual and Organizational Perspectives on Advancing Equity and Inclusion, an elective co-created and co-taught by Kelly and Kara Blackburn (Senior Lecturer, Managerial Communication), students consider how employees with diverse identities experience recruitment, evaluation, and rewards, and how organizations might pursue equity and inclusion along with other organizational goals.

“We invite you to join us in this work. Know that each one of you is welcome here, and is a valued member of our community. We look forward to working with you today and every day to end systemic racism and make MIT Sloan—and the world—a better place.”

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

“This is an opportunity to dive deep into different ways of thinking about innovation and inclusion—and injecting hard problems related to systemic and institutional racism and sexism into this ecosyste to find solutions

› To address new student and faculty member pipelines, MIT Sloan partnered with the MIT School of Engineering to create an early admissions program that targets undergraduates from historically underrepresented groups; created predoctoral research assistant positions to provide undergraduates with experience in and exposure to academic research at a top-tier institution; and collaborated with peer business schools to launch Pathways to Research and Doctoral Careers (PREDOC), a consortium that aims to foster a diverse and inclusive population in the quantitative social sciences. › Following their service to the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force, Sam Epee-Bounya, MBA ’03, and Celi Khanyile-Lynch, MBA ’20, launched the Sloan Affinity Group Alumni Advisory Council with fellow Sloanies Andrew Mairena, MBA ’19, Zimako Ibe, MBA ’01, Philip Javier Zakahi, MBA ’15, Asia Stuerznickel, MBA ’20, Dela Gbordzoe, MBA ’19, Kerry Bowie, SB ’94, MBA ’06, and Yscaira Jimenez, MBA ’14. To connect alumni across multiple generations and serve the needs of the underrepresented minority community, the council has supported the efforts of Associate Deans Reagans and Murray, hosted virtual events for students, and begun building an alumni network. › Malia Lazu (Lecturer, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management) joined MIT Sloan in the fall to teach behavioral and policy sciences and oversee the Inclusive Innovation Economy = Ideas + Actions community conversation series. “This is an opportunity to dive deep into different ways of thinking about innovation and inclusion— and injecting hard problems related to systemic and institutional racism and sexism into this ecosystem to find solutions,” said Lazu. › The Diversity & Inclusion Task Force advised creating a new position for Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The dean subsequently announced MIT Sloan’s intention to hire a director in a message to the Sloanie community in August.

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

STU DE NT E XPE RI E N C E

Responding on the Fly The Laboratory for Sustainable Business (S-Lab) challenges participants to explore how businesses can improve economic development, social equity, and environmental regeneration at all levels of society. Like the other 20 courses in MIT Sloan’s Action Learning portfolio, S-Lab accomplishes this by providing students with the chance to apply their classroom learning to real-world management issues while collaborating with industry partners. Such a difficult task necessitates a great deal of thoughtful reflection and implementation, which is why Jason Jay, PhD ’10, (Senior Lecturer, Sustainability; Director, Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan) always begins his first mentorship meeting with S-Lab students by asking them to share their hopes and fears for their projects. “It offers everyone the chance to air their anxieties,” he says. Unsurprisingly, the spring 2020 S-Lab teams’ biggest concerns stemmed from the pandemic. Such was the case for the two MBA and two Integrated Design and Management students who worked with first-time Action Learning participant gategroup, an in-flight catering, equipment solutions, and retail onboard provider headquartered in Switzerland, which was immediately impacted by flight cancellations, strict sanitation regimens, and border closings. “I feared that the disruptions in their own lives would overwhelm students’ abilities to participate,” says Jay. “I also hoped that this would be an opportunity for the students to feel compassion for everyone’s situations and be resilient in the face of such a challenge.” This is precisely what happened to the gategroup team, as they had to completely transform their

“We were just trying to figure out how we could create something that we could be really proud of, something tangible and useful,” she says. “Thankfully, gategroup was with us from the get-go. Although they were pretty severely impacted by COVID-19, they rolled with it and with us.” The company was excited about the work that the team accomplished and plans on testing out the students' recommendations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. As for Wong, the S-Lab veteran remains hopeful for what the remainder of her time at MIT Sloan holds. “I feel really excited, honestly,” she says. “I’m still finding new ways to apply these concepts and themes to the new things I’m working on now.”

S PR I N G 2 02 0 AT A G L A N C E

337

101

“I'm excited about Action Learning because it gives me the opportunity to have an immediate impact on something important, which is amazing.”

Joyce Wong 14

original project—reducing the airline service provider’s plastic waste—into something more compatible with the industry’s new focus on hygiene, which would require even more plastics. According to Joyce Wong, MBA ’21, they overcame their fears and provided gategroup’s deSter brand contact in Dubai with recommendations for implementing a broader recycling infrastructure— all while successfully navigating multiple time zones and other significant life changes.

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER // 15

C ARE E R DE VE LOPM E NT

Collaboration Drives Opportunities C A R E E R S U PP O R T FO R E V E RY S TAG E—E A R LY C A R E E R TO E X E C U T I V E

Rapid changes in the spring 2020 job market rattled student plans for employment, so the MIT Sloan Career Development Office (CDO) collaborated across the MIT Sloan community to source new pathways for students.

CONNECTING ALUMNI AND STUDENTS

Alumni are an important part of the career ecosystem at MIT Sloan, and a growing part of the CDO team are the MIT Sloan Industry Advisors. After a successful launch last year, the MIT Sloan Industry Advisors program—designed to connect experienced MIT Sloan alumni with students interested in targeted industries—doubled in size this year, with over 40 advisors bringing impressive industry experience and work histories that include leading companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Nike, and Tesla.

s an

Summer internships are a key part of the educational experience for many students. Due to COVID-19, however, many companies paused hiring in April 2020. The CDO responded quickly to source startup and research opportunities for students, identifying over 100 MIT-affiliated startup and over 60 faculty-led research opportunities, working in partnership with MIT Sloan faculty and the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. They also helped to organize funding for many of these opportunities through the collaborative efforts of the Dean’s Office and MIT Sloan alumni. These funds provided financial support to 42 MBA and MFin students, allowing them to pursue meaningful internships and research opportunities with MIT-affiliated startups, faculty, and companies.

B re n n a n

D E S I G N I N G N E W PAT H WAYS

F E AT U R E D E M P L OY E R S O F M B A C L A S S O F 2 0 2 0 › Activision Blizzard

› Goldman Sachs

› Amazon

› Google

› Amgen

› IBM

› The Analysis Group

› JP Morgan Chase & Co.

› Apple

› L.E.K. Consulting

› Bain & Company

› McKinsey & Company

› The Boston Consulting Group

› Nike

› Credit Suisse

› Rappi

› Danaher Corporation

› Wayfair

› Deloitte Consulting

C L A SS O F 2 02 0 E M PLOYM E N T H I G H L I G H T S

The MBA Class of 2020 performed well in the challenging market, with 95.5% receiving offers within three months of graduation. Top industries for 2020 were consulting (31.1%), technology (27.6%), and finance (18.5%). This year, the average base salary increased to $144,140 while the median base salary increased to $150,000. The average signing bonus climbed to $34,000, and more graduates accepted equity as part of their compensation. About 47% of job-seeking graduates accepted positions with employers who hired three or more Sloanies; and nearly 52% of the hiring companies hired Sloanies for the first time in 2020. The MFin Class of 2020 graduates also did well in the market, matching last year’s employment figures, with 99% receiving an offer within six months of graduation. Despite a challenging market, average base salary was $92,920; and the class saw a 17% increase in signing bonuses over the last year. 16

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

M OV I N G FO RWA R D

MIT Sloan has formalized an internship requirement as part of the two-year MBA experience. The new program requirement accommodates traditional internships as well as micro-internships and projects lasting two or more weeks. We hope the broader internship offerings will generate new opportunities for your company and MIT Sloan students. We invite you to support Sloanies by posting your company’s internship opportunities in Career Central. If you would like to discuss options for micro-internships and projects, please reach out to Mark Newhall (Director of Employer Relations & Recruiting) at mnewhall@mit.edu to explore how these options might meet your company’s needs. V I S IT YO U R C D O (C D O. M IT. E D U) FO R C A R E E R C E NTR A L , N E WS, E V E NTS, A N D A LUM N I C A R E E R R ES O U RC ES .

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .

E XECUTIVE E DUC ATI O N

Learning Live Online The year 2020 was not the first that has asked MIT Sloan Executive Education to make rapid adjustments to course delivery. In early 2013, when fallout from Hurricane Sandy was still felt keenly along the Eastern Seaboard, MIT Sloan Executive Education was preparing to welcome program participants to campus for its winter offerings. Many were unable to travel to Cambridge, so the office launched a new technology platform that connected remote participants to the live classroom via a collaborative virtual environment. The hybrid course delivery system, joining online and in-person experiences, was at that time a first in executive education. In the intervening years, MIT Sloan Executive Education has taken other strides toward streamlining systems and finding ways to make work and learning more accessible. In an effort to promote flexible schedules for its employees, the office has been using telepresence robotics units, which allow staff to attend meetings remotely by way of a roaming tablet interface. These roving robots have also been used by program participants who could not otherwise attend courses in person. COVID-19, however, called on MIT Sloan Executive Education to reinvent its business entirely. The office drew on its earlier successes to make plans for the many—and immediate—changes it faced in March as stay-at-home orders took effect, including a pivot to a live online format for nearly all of its open enrollment courses. Between March and July, the office converted 40 course deliveries from in person to live online. That number is on track to jump to almost 200 by the end of the 2020–2021 academic year. The virtual classroom offers MIT Sloan Executive Education participants many choices. The office has accelerated its innovation mindset in deploying brand-new courses, having launched more in recent months than ever before. Faculty and learners alike have more flexibility to teach and attend, respectively, when they have the option to do so online. Though a shift from business as usual, course participants are enjoying the experience and finding it effective.

.................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... NEW PROGRA MS L AUNCHED .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... IN THE LIVE ONLINE FORM................................... AT .................................................................................................... ................................................................ .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... ............................................................................................. ...... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................

Just weeks after course delivery moved online, the office also reinvented its quarterly webinars, running them weekly instead. Seeking to provide global business leaders with key insights critical to navigating today’s complex challenges, the Innovation@Work webinar series features complimentary live events led by MIT Sloan’s renowned faculty, instructors from across the Institute, leading industry experts, authors, and even a former NFL coach. With topics ranging from managing and leading in times of crisis to cybersecurity, the series has proven to be an excellent source of information and conversation for the school and its affiliates. It has also provided a forum in which to connect at a time when connectedness feels more important than ever—since March, MIT Sloan Executive Education webinars have reached more than 55,000 business professionals across more than 140 countries. Looking ahead, MIT Sloan Executive Education will continue to pivot and find new ways to engage as many learners as possible—including simulations, training across new platforms, and running live courses across time zones. “We are doing our best to equip business professionals throughout the world with the skills and capabilities they need to lead with purpose, principles, resilience, compassion, and vision,” says Peter Hirst (Senior Associate Dean, Executive Education). “We are thrilled that our expanded portfolio of online courses has enabled us to continue our mission during this crisis and beyond.”

“I have been to the MIT campus many times for courses, but since COVID-19 I have been earning y d anced ertificate for ecuti es entirely online. The online courses are excellent! Throughout this virtual journey, I have been able to interact with really amazing people—and bring equally amazing ideas back to the bank.”

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

18 // MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

I N TH E WO RLD, FO R TH E WOR LD

Advancing Management Practice Worldwide For MIT Sloan Global Programs, principled, innovative leadership is about students, certainly, but it is also about broadening collaborations, making the latest research available, and giving people around the world the tools to make a difference in their communities. Through hackathons, conferences, webinars, and partnerships with governments, businesses, and nongovernmental organizations, Global Programs engages beyond the classroom. Even in a world still grappling with a pandemic, the office shares knowledge and combines resources with its partner organizations to improve the world through ideas, management education, and sustainable solutions to global problems. Over the last year, Global Programs has continued to innovate and expand its reach, while also meeting shifting needs brought about by the pandemic. Here are two highlights: › In 2015, MIT Sloan and Bank Negara Malaysia joined forces to create the Asia School of Business (ASB) in Kuala Lumpur. Since then, ASB has been reinventing the MBA experience with an award-winning experiential MBA program that enables working professionals to gain frontier knowledge and readies new leaders to enter Asia’s dynamic business landscape. In 2020, MIT Sloan and ASB agreed to launch a new one-year program in June 2021: the Master of Central Banking (MCB). The new program’s goal is to deliver the highest standards of business education excellence of both institutions to prepare central bankers for a future of fast-changing financial markets in an increasingly digitized world. MIT Sloan and ASB faculty are collaborating on teaching, research, and public seminars in this field to bring ideas that matter at a time when financial uncertainty is high and expertise and new solutions are needed.

› The MIT Sloan Latin America Office (MSLAO) is known for its robust programming offerings, which include conferences, regional events, and lectures from visiting faculty. Beginning in March 2020, the MSLAO moved its activities online and, by September, had hosted 31 virtual events. The talks—featuring Roberto Rigobon, PhD ’97, (Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management; Professor, Applied Economics) on the economic and social implications of the virus on Latin America; Robert Pindyck, SB ’66, SM ’67, PhD ’71, (Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. Professor in Finance and Economics; Professor, Applied Economics) on the welfare costs of catastrophe; and Otto Scharmer (Senior Lecturer, Work and Organization Studies) on how to reimagine and reshape business and society—have reached more than 150,000 viewers in 66 countries on all seven continents. In addition, the MSLAO provides MIT faculty and staff seed funding to conduct research projects in the region.

“ASB brings together accomplished and inspiring students from all over the globe for an innovative and rigorous learning experience. The program combines insights and lessons from renowned scholars and industry leaders within an immersive classroom. Our orientation toward real-world problemsolving makes the ASB stand out as a leader in educational programming.”

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

E PI C E NTE RS OF I NVE NTI ON

Where Innovation Invents the World Innovating for the world as it exists today is not enough. We must innovate for the world as it might be tomorrow, which is why MIT Sloan has made building a better world its business. As such, the school’s epicenters of invention are working tirelessly to achieve these much-needed global impacts with students, faculty, and alumni.

H I G H L I G H T S FROM T H E M A R T I N T RUS T C E N T E R FO R M I T E N T R E PR E N E U R S H I P

According to Dipul Patel, MBA ’14 (Lecturer; former Entrepreneur in Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship), young entrepreneurs struggle to get unbiased feedback. The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship continues to provide such feedback through its rigorous, integrated educational experience. Even during a pandemic, entrepreneurship is a craft that can be taught. In under three weeks, Bill Aulet, SF ’94, (Professor of the Practice, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management; Managing Director, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship) and his team adapted their programming to an entirely virtual format. This included the MIT delta v accelerator summer program and its September Demo Day event— which featured 15 teams made up of 75 student entrepreneurs from cohorts in Cambridge and New York—and the Antifragile Entrepreneurship Speaker Series—which featured lessons for navigating major disruptions from alumni, faculty, and special guests.

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

BY T H E N U M B E R S

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

E PI C E NTE RS OF I NVE NTI ON

H I G H L I G H T S FROM T H E M I T G O L U B C E N T E R FO R FI N A N C E A N D P O L I C Y (G C FP)

Bennett (Ben) W. Golub, SB ’78, SM ’82, PhD ’84, made his 2016 gift to the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy (GCFP) to “permit the center to leverage the outstanding talent at MIT to help improve the safety and efficiency of the financial system.” Deborah Lucas (Sloan Distinguished Professor of Finance; Director, MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy) and Edward Golding (Senior Lecturer, Economics, Finance, and Accounting; Executive Director, MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy) are working to make Golub’s mission a reality. Most recently, the GCFP partnered with the Career Development Office to secure six summer internships for MBA and Master of Finance students affected by the COVID-19 crisis and appointed former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, PhD ’79, to a distinguished senior fellow position for the 2020–2021 academic year. The MIT alumnus will teach a graduate-level class addressing financial regulation, participate in various online activities and research seminars, and contribute to the center’s research and outreach agenda. As for Bernanke’s doctoral thesis advisor, Stanley Fischer, PhD ’69, the GCFP recently named the former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman the inaugural recipient of the Miriam Pozen Prize, a $200,000 award recognizing outstanding research or practice in financial policy. The prize also awards a new fellowship to an incoming MIT Sloan MBA student in the winner’s honor.

H I G H L I G H T S FROM T H E FO O D S U PPLY C H A I N A N A LY T I CS A N D S E N S I N G (FSA S) I N I T I AT I V E

Led by faculty director Retsef Levi (J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of Operations Management; Co-Director of Leaders for Global Operations Program) and executive director Stacy Springs, the Food Supply Chain Analytics and Sensing (FSAS) Initiative is an up-and-coming venture at MIT Sloan with the goal of impacting global food supply chains. According to the World Health Organization, more than 800 million people go hungry every year, and the United Nations projects a global population of 10 billion by 2050. Food supply chain analysis and management are essential to confronting this challenge. FSAS is leading several national and global efforts to combat food insecurity, food deserts, and other related issues. Levi, Georgia Perakis (William F. Pounds Professor of Management; Professor of Operations Research and Operations Management; EMBA Faculty Director; Co-Director, Operations Research Center), and PhD candidate Elisabeth Paulson are particularly interested in food deserts: areas with limited or no access to affordable, nutritious food. The trio created a math-based model that analyzes household grocery shopping decision-making and offers alternative frameworks to guide government policy. Levi, Perakis, and Paulson are also considering how to increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables to the supply chain by reducing food loss on farms. FSAS is collaborating with the Boston Area Gleaners and Salvation Farms in Vermont to model farmer decision-making and provide accurate market forecasts.

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

IWER INSTITUTE FOR WORK & EMPLOYMENT RESEARCH

H I G H L I G H T S FROM T H E M I T I N S T I T U T E FO R WO R K A N D E M PLOYM E N T R E S E A RC H (I W E R) A N D T H E G O O D C OM PA N I E S, G O O D J O BS (G C GJ) I N I T I AT I V E

With weekly jobless claims at an all-time high amid a global pandemic, six MIT Sloan faculty members from the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) and its Good Companies, Good Jobs (GCGJ) Initiative called upon business and government leaders “to come together and build a better future for U.S. workers and for all of American society.” To that end, the researchers suggested six urgent changes: reforming current labor laws, giving workers board representation, incentivizing companies to invest in employee development, providing paid medical leave, working to eradicate structural racism, and recognizing the potential of low-wage workers. This is no small task, but recent research from IWER and GCGJ indicates it is possible. In their 2020 book Overload: How Good Jobs Went Bad and What We Can Do about It, GCGJ faculty director and IWER co-director Erin Kelly (Sloan Distinguished Professor of Work and Organization Studies; Professor, Work and Organization Studies) and her coauthor Phyllis Moen present evidence for a workplace redesign capable of benefiting information technology employees and their companies’ bottom lines. Similarly, IWER PhD candidate Alex Kowalski’s work on warehouse workers’ schedule instability suggests possible solutions to these issues— beginning from employees’ ideas on what would work for them and still meet operational needs.

H I G H L I G H T S FROM T H E M I T I N I T I AT I V E O N T H E D I G I TA L E C O N OMY (I D E)

This year, the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) welcomed new director Sinan Aral, PhD ’07 (David Austin Professor of Management; Professor of Information Technology and Marketing). His new book, The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health—and How We Must Adapt, draws on two decades of research and business experience to analyze the most powerful social media networks and address critical questions concerning their positive and negative influences on our elections, our health, and our economy—and what can be done about it. The IDE also rose to the challenge posed by the pandemic by activating the COVID-19 Rapid Response Hub and conducting new research to aid in the prevention and spread of the virus. As such, the initiative reorganized its research along six topics: Tech for Good, Misinformation and Fake News, Social Networks and Digital Experimentation, Online Marketplaces and Labor Economics, The Human-Machine Interface, and Data-Driven Societies. IDE researchers like Renée Richardson Gosline (Senior Lecturer, Management Science; Principal Research Scientist, IDE), whose work on algorithmic bias and inequality in artificial intelligence (AI) explores the potential for more human-centered AI systems, have advanced these topics at events like the 2020 MIT Platform Strategy Summit, the MIT AI & The Work of the Future Congress, and the 2020 Conference on Digital Experimentation.

“These biases vary such that Black people and people of color end up on the wrong side of these biases. It’s a massive issue, and I don’t think we can take it seriously enough.”

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

ALUM N I E XPE RI E N C E

Keeping the Sloanie Community Connected The implications of the term “community involvement” changed drastically over the course of the 2019–2020 academic year. It is bittersweet to remember that a little over a year ago in October of 2019, more than 200 MIT Sloan alumnae from 21 states and six countries traveled to New York City for the MIT Sloan Women’s Conference. Together with a number of rock star faculty members and alumni speakers, this group of highpowered, high-achieving individuals discussed the challenges, victories, and opportunities for women in the workplace. By April, the world was much different. Though planning was well underway for the annual MIT Sloan Reunion, the school made the hard choice to change course. While Reunion alumni were not able to embrace one another at their class dinners or pack into Wong Auditorium to participate in Beaver Tank, they were able to reconnect in a whole new way. More than 800 alumni from across the United States and over 30 other countries tuned in online to share life updates and engage in programming by MIT Sloan faculty and their peers. Through the challenges and the changes, one thing remains as true as it was before—the MIT Sloan community continues to bear an impact due to the dedication of our alumni. To illustrate these efforts, here are the stories of two Sloanies who have gone over and above to keep their communities connected: LO C K E D D OW N BU T N OT I N

Familiar with remote participation through her involvement with the MIT Sloan Clubs, Asha Aravindakshan, SF ’17, was swift to not only continue but also enhance club programming when restrictions on gatherings began back in the spring of 2020. Even before graduating, Aravindakshan was selected to be a board member for the MIT Sloan Club of Washington, D.C. Despite relocating to Argentina at the time, Aravindakshan was an active member. In a true testament to Sloanie dedication, teamwork, and ingenuity, she would dial in to every meeting, and her fellow board members would put the phone in a fishbowl, fashioning a makeshift conference phone. Through frequent communication with her classmates, Aravindakshan was keenly aware of the content her peers were looking for and was ready to deliver that content through an array of programming—a practice she has continued since moving to New York City and joining the local alumni club, on which she now serves as Technology Events Leader. She was in the midst of launching a three-part, career-focused series last April when the city went into lockdown. After the change in logistics was solved for, the benefits of virtual events became clear. Planned to be held in a Midtown office space, the original capacity for the event was limited, but the switch to online increased attendance by a factor of five, and the audience ended up including alumni and students from outside the tri-state area. Beyond democratizing participation, Aravindakshan has used the opportunity to feature speakers who, due to space and time constraints, might have been difficult to host in-person otherwise. “The caliber of speakers that we have and the content that’s being presented are global in nature,” Aravindakshan noted, “and other alumni miss that exposure when we are hosting in-person events.” As unprecedented circumstances persist, so does the interest in community building, professional development, and quality programming. Aravindakshan , along with her fellow club members, continues to offer her time and talent to keep the MIT Sloan alumni community connected and informed.

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

R E S P O N D I N G W I T H S U PP O R T

Andrew Mairena

Andrew Mairena, MBA ’19, is motivated to volunteer by the authenticity of his fellow Sloanies and by the importance of giving back. He described the past year as one of introspection, which highlighted the needs of others in his community as well as the opportunities to support them. As a Sloan 5 volunteer, he had been actively planning events through the fall of 2019 and into the early months of 2020. When that all came to a halt, more than social opportunities were lost—many began to feel isolated, jobs were cut, and when community was needed more than ever, gathering was not in the cards. In the midst of this, Mairena recognized that “having a stronger sense of community is important, and the volunteers can facilitate that.” He soon actualized this conviction through his efforts with fellow alumni. As a first-year Reunion volunteer, Mairena worked with other committee members to pivot plans for reconnecting classmates. They encouraged their peers to attend virtual Reunion programming and engaged with others via their class’s online yearbook, through which they were able to check in on one another and hear about life and career updates. As a planning committee member of the MIT Club of Northern California AI Conference, Mairena worked with the team to rebrand the event for “AI for a Better World.” The week-long event brought together virtually over 1,000 attendees to discuss ideas for leveraging AI to tackle the new norm created in 2020. Beyond the need for new social pathways, the year also brought a global reckoning and highlighted the unfortunate disparities that exist for people of color. In response, Mairena worked with fellow MIT Sloan alumni to create the Sloan Affinity Group Alumni Advisory Council, which serves underrepresented members of the MIT Sloan community, through the Fall Career Webinar Series and an Underrepresented Minority Entrepreneurship Fund. While there is no telling how long the “new normal” will last, Mairena and his peers persist in creating positive networks, whatever the next “new” may be. LO O K I N G A H E A D

It is difficult to say if and how engagement might iterate yet again in the year ahead, but as we gear up for the next MIT Sloan Reunion and upcoming Women’s Conference, there is resolve in knowing that, whatever the confines, the MIT Sloan community excels at maximizing under constraint. OV E R T H E C O U R S E O F T H E 2 019 –2 02 0 AC A D E M I C Y E A R , T H E M I T S LOA N O FFI C E O F E X T E R N A L R E L AT I O N S O FFE R E D :

40+

A YEAR MADE TO MATTER

FI NAN C E

A Year by the Books We are pleased to share with you MIT Sloan’s financials for fiscal year 2020. The previous year brought us many extraordinary challenges, but it also created opportunities for the school to refocus on its mission and innovate during a time of much uncertainty. Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends like you, MIT Sloan was able to welcome students to campus this past September, offer twice-weekly COVID-19 testing at an onsite facility, and equip faculty and classrooms for “hyflex” learning. The school was also able to double down on its efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion with the creation of the Endowment for Enduring Diversity and Inclusion, which will allow the school to offer more competitive fellowships to students from diverse backgrounds and to increase representation and inclusivity in the Sloanie community. O P E R AT I N G R E S U LT S ($M)

F Y19

F Y2 0

SOURCES OF REVENUE Net Tuition and Non-Degree Fees

154.3

151.9

Net Investment Income

31.7

34.4

Expendable Gifts

21.6

16.8