The Mathematical Corporation

May 1, 2017
In an age when data is king, Sullivan and Zutavern (senior v-p and v-p, respectively, of consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton) attempt to prove that human smarts are still valuable, but their far-reaching arguments add up to little more than banal truisms. The authors posit a new form of leadership that relies on machine intelligence, utilizing robust data science. They researched hundreds of organizations to find out how technology and leadership combined would influence the behavior and success of business, government, and nonprofit organizations. The “hidden digital world” relies on data, they write, and this data can help businesspeople understand how people work. The authors stress the power of intuition and the fact that machines, for all their usefulness, are incapable of creativity. Discussions of ethics and what should be considered private data are thought-provoking, but the book is bogged down by high-minded language that sounds lofty but is low on content. Grandiose claims (including the paradoxical title) are paraded out but add up to an unnecessary argument for combining rich data and strong leadership; it’s hard to imagine who would disagree with the precept.

Starred review from May 1, 2017
Anticipating a job interview with Google? Better be prepared to meet the expectations of both the company's human interviewers and its computers. Sullivan and Zutavern point to Google's increasing reliance on algorithm-driven computers in making hiring decisions to illustrate the way shrewd corporate executives are realigning their organizations to harness the burgeoning power of cyberintelligence. With that power, a medical-records company advises physicians on the relative effectiveness of treatment options, a hotel chain maximizes return bookings, and an auto manufacturer formulates marketing strategies for selling electric cars. In the public sector, that same power enables law-enforcement officials to detect money launderers, census takers to count the population at minimal cost, and generals to outmaneuver their foes. So potent and versatile have these new computer minds become that accountants, patent attorneys, technical writers, and many others may soon find their human skills superfluous. Nonetheless, both corporate executives and government leaders still need inquisitive and creative humans to focus on and interpret the labors of their mathematical electronic genies. More important, only humans can address the moral questions that confront those who use these potent new cybertools to reshape the world. A lucid overview of the management principles rapidly moving that world forwarddespite lingering disputes over ethical issues.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)