Are You Really Innovating Around Your Customers’ Needs?
16/10/2020
Benne Ochs/Getty Images How would you reimagine a gas station for the future? Even with the increasing penetration of electric vehicles, gasoline cars are likely to remain the dominant automobile for years or even decades. I have asked this question of hundreds of senior executives. They typically suggest things like including a coffee shop, making […]
How CPG companies can adapt their digital marketing in the next normal
15/10/2020
At many US consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) companies business has been turned on its head. Even for companies in categories that experienced rapid growth, the past several months have been dizzying. A historic drop in US consumer confidence was accompanied by pantry loading for essential items such as household supplies (up 76 percent in March) and packaged […]
4 Tips for Effective Virtual Collaboration
14/10/2020
PM Images/Getty Images Team collaboration done right is a powerful force to align a group of individuals to accomplish a common goal in the most effective way possible. But even the best collaborations, filled with smart, capable, and experienced team members, can be a struggle. Done wrong, collaborative projects can feel like a waste of […]
The Post-Pandemic Rules of Talent Management
14/10/2020
Stewart Cohen/Getty Images Over the past decades, rapid digital transformation has enabled organizations to completely reimagine the way they work and manage talent. From reliable video conferencing platforms, to digital collaboration software, to ubiquitous cloud-based connectivity, and a data-centric approach to strategic decision-making powered by the synergy between artificial and human intelligence, an imaginary worker […]
Leaders Need to Harness Aristotle’s 3 Types of Knowledge
14/10/2020
Illustration by Asia Pietrzyk If you’re working to improve your leadership capability, what exactly should you be trying to develop? The experience of the 2020 pandemic offers a powerful lesson: A critical skill a leader must bring to the table is the ability to figure out what kind of thinking is required to address a […]
How CEOs and boards drive long-term value creation
13/10/2020
Corporate long-term behaviors: How CEOs and boards drive sustained value creation Ample evidence shows that when executives consistently make decisions and investments with long-term objectives in mind, their companies generate more shareholder value, create more jobs, and contribute more to economic growth than do peer companies that focus on the short term. Addressing the interests […]
How Businesses Can Recruit and Develop More Young People of Color
12/10/2020
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images For the college graduates of 2020, Covid-19 has disrupted dreams and shifted plans. But what about the millions of college students who dropped out this year before earning a diploma? Or others who graduated saddled with debt only to be underemployed in their first job? These students, many of whom are people […]
What to Do When You Become Your Friend’s Boss
10/10/2020
Andy Sacks/Getty Images How many hours will you spend with your coworkers over the course of your lifetime? If your job is a typical 9 to 5, that means you’ll spend around eight hours a day, five days a week, for roughly 40 years, with the various people you work with. That equates to almost […]
An Innovative Way to Prevent Adversarial Supplier Relationships
09/10/2020
Nick Dolding/Getty Images The economic impact of the pandemic and the uncertainty about what lies ahead are having a major impact on relations between companies and their suppliers. For procurement professionals at large multinational companies, the temptation is to use their company’s clout to pressure suppliers to reduce prices. And when the supplier has the […]
What Are Your KPIs Really Measuring?
09/10/2020
Jeffrey Coolidge/Getty Images No CEO doubts the importance of measuring their company’s performance properly. Yet the executive teams I’ve assisted over more than 25 years generally struggle to engage with the challenge. As one CEO put it to me, “when we get to corporate KPIs their eyes glaze over.” Or, as another said “they [the […]
Is Your Executive Compensation Plan Undermining Your Mission?
09/10/2020
Cactus Creative Studio/Stocksy New technologies have been disrupting business for decades, especially since the internet became widespread in the late 1990s. But a new wave of innovation, centered on artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the internet of things, is now intensifying the pace and magnitude of disruption. AI-powered advances by themselves, according to a […]
How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point–and transformed business forever
09/10/2020
In just a few months’ time, the COVID-19 crisis has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. According to a new McKinsey Global Survey of executives, 1 1. The online survey was in the field from July 7 to July 31, 2020, and garnered responses from […]
CEOs, Don’t Let Fear and Paranoia Sink Your Leadership
08/10/2020
Illustration by Richard A Chance For decades, we’ve told CEOs to be humble. It’s fine to be confident, even fiercely determined, we say, but arrogance will bring you down. The ideal leader respects and listens to colleagues, communicates honestly, adjusts opinions when confronted with new evidence, and makes decisions that strengthen the organization rather than […]
What Will the Retail Experience of the Future Look Like?
14/09/2020
RICARDO ARDUENGO/Getty Images The world’s retailers face a host of challenges. Even before the pandemic, many brick-and-mortar retailers were struggling. Now, as we emerge from the liminal space of nationwide lockdowns into new psychological and social territory, shoppers will be anxious about whether visiting stores will increase their exposure to the virus. Adding to the […]
Consumer companies in the “next normal”
11/09/2020
Roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumer organizations are wondering how they can survive and thrive in a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Even after the pandemic subsides, we face an unpredictable future that demands more flexibility than ever before. But while the COVID-19 crisis is unique to modern history, a look at prior global disruptions […]
How to win with digital marketplaces
10/09/2020
Digital marketplaces have been the buzz of the consumer industry for the past several years, yet many brands and retailers still struggle to understand if and how to partner successfully with them. As a result of marked shifts in consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, digitization has accelerated even further: 40 percent of consumers are […]
How companies can create value from digital ecosystems
08/09/2020
While ecosystem-building has been a red-hot topic in the business world in recent years, the COVID-19 crisis has amplified the importance of digital interactions and will likely further accelerate the adoption of digital-ecosystem business models. Our global consumer sentiment surveys indicate that the spike in online sales will continue to some extent even after the […]
How incumbents scale up their new businesses
04/09/2020
So you’ve launched a new business, gotten the funding, built a product, and created a brand. But after some initial success, it’s not scaling. What do you do? If this situation is familiar to you, you’re not alone. In fact, only one in five incumbents succeed in scaling their business after their initial success. That’s […]
How to Create Your Own Career Luck
03/09/2020
Noam Galai/Getty Images Job seekers, entrepreneurs, and executives aiming to advance their careers face unprecedented uncertainty. To succeed, they must be ready for the unexpected and turn it into positive outcomes by seeing and connecting the dots. In short, they need to nurture serendipity: the unexpected good luck resulting from unplanned moments, in which proactive decisions […]
Back to school: Lessons for effective remote and hybrid learning
02/09/2020
In much of the Northern Hemisphere, it’s back-to-school season. But this year’s preparations are fraught with added anxiety as educators, public-health officials, and parents try to balance the need to reduce the spread of the coronavirus with the desire to get students into more productive learning environments. The first priority of every school system must […]
Lessons from Chinese Companies’ Response to Covid-19
28/08/2020
The past months have provided an opportunity to study a once-in-a-lifetime moment — how companies function during an unprecedented global pandemic while also navigating an accelerated shift to digital operations. China was weeks ahead of the rest of the world in dealing with the pandemic and its fallout, so their experience is of interest. We […]
3 Behavioral Trends That Will Reshape Our Post-Covid World
27/08/2020
Colin Hawkins/Getty Images Typically, consumers’ supermarket shopping habits are stable and slow to change. When people do dramatically change their behavior around buying food and beverages, it’s usually driven by a major life event such as having a baby, moving to a new town, or changing jobs. The Covid-19 crisis is, of course, changing everyone’s life […]
Reskilling workers for industry 4.0
26/08/2020
Technological progress is enabling machines to complete many of the tasks that once required human beings. That new automation revolution will have a major effect on employment in the coming years. Nearly every job will change, many quite profoundly, and the overwhelming majority of today’s employees will need to develop new skills. Preparing for the […]
What to Do When Your Employee is Harassed Online
25/08/2020
Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images U.S. law requires employers to create a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. But as offices go virtual, what happens when staff confront a torrent of hate and abuse online? Given that over 44% of Americans say they’ve experienced online harassment, chances are, if you’re an employer, you have people on staff […]
Igniting individual purpose
24/08/2020
In these stressful, surreal times, it’s understandable for CEOs to fixate on urgent corporate priorities at the expense of more intangible, personal considerations. How important is getting your people to think about their “purpose in life” right now when you’re worried about their well-being—not to mention corporate survival? It’s more important than you think. During […]
Anxious About What’s Next? Here’s How to Cope.
20/08/2020
Liyao Xie/Getty Images This is a time of the year often marked by personal and professional transitions, a time of graduations, weddings, first-days-at-the-new-job, and strategic planning for the next fiscal year. These transitions often bring a mix of anticipation and excitement — a sense of not knowing exactly what lies ahead but an eagerness to […]
From surviving to thriving: Business after coronavirus
04/08/2020
The 1966 World Cup marked a low point for Brazilian soccer. Although the winner of the previous two tournaments, the team was eliminated in the first round, and its star player, Pelé, failed to perform. Fouled frequently and flagrantly, he threatened never to return to the World Cup. Many wondered if Brazil’s glory days were […]
Innovation in a crisis: Why it is more critical than ever…
30/07/2020
John F. Kennedy once observed that the word “crisis” in Chinese is composed of two characters—one representing danger, the other opportunity. He may not have been entirely correct on the linguistics, but the sentiment is true enough: a crisis presents a choice. This is particularly true today. The COVID-19 pandemic has upended nearly every aspect […]
Why Visionary Leadership Fails
29/07/2020
Gary Waters/Getty Images Visionary leadership is widely seen as key to strategic change. That’s because visionary leadership does not just set the strategic direction — it tells a story about why the change is worth pursuing and inspires people to embrace the change. Not surprisingly, then, science and practice have a very positive view of […]
Companies Need to Rethink What Cybersecurity Leadership Is
27/07/2020
Jorg Greuel/Getty Images For businesses today, cyber risk is everywhere. Yet for all the investments they’ve made to secure their systems and protect customers, companies are still struggling to make cybersecurity a vibrant, proactive part of strategy, operations, and culture. The root cause is twofold: (1) Cybersecurity is treated as a back-office job and (2) […]
What Meditation Can Do for Your Leadership
24/07/2020
HBR Staff/jermzlee/Getty Images One of the things that stands in the way of many leaders’ success — and therefore the success of their companies — is their ego. Leadership expert Jim Collins found in his seminal study on what makes companies sustainably great that in two thirds of the comparison cases, it was “the presence […]
CEO’s guide to COVID-19: Restarting after the crisis
23/07/2020
As governments in Europe announce plans to end the lockdown, a new phase in the COVID-19 pandemic is upon us. It is a time for hope but also for caution. The end of the lockdown will not spell a return to the old “normal”, nor will it be universal. The opening will take different shapes, […]
COVID-19 and reskilling the workforce
21/07/2020
Imagine a crisis that forces your company’s employees to change the way they work almost overnight. Despite initial fears that the pressure would be too great, you discover that this new way of working could be a blueprint for the long term. That’s what leaders of many companies around the globe are finding as they […]
Stepping into a Leadership Role? Be Ready to Tell Your Story.
20/07/2020
Stepping into a role as a leader — whether as a seasoned executive or a neophyte supervisor — is both challenging and exciting. How you handle this transition can have a huge impact on your career. You need to hit the ground running not only with your bosses and key stakeholders but also with your […]
Does working from home cut or increase energy use?
05/07/2020
The study’s authors reviewed existing research into the impact of home-working.They found of the 39 studies analyzed, 26 suggested that home-working cuts energy use through reduced travel to work and office energy consumption. Only eight studies suggest the impact was neutral or negative. But once a wider range of impacts are included, such as non-work […]
These countries top the sustainability rankings
04/07/2020
Climate change poses an urgent threat demanding decisive action. Communities around the world are already experiencing increased climate impacts, from droughts to floods to rising seas. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report continues to rank these environmental threats at the top of the list. To limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C and […]
The telltale signs of successful Digital M&A
03/07/2020
The old saw that the best deals are the ones you don’t make doesn’t apply when it comes to digital acquisitions—you’ve got to make them, research has consistently shown. You also need to do them well, and that can be challenging, because buying in the digital, analytics, and technology space—what we call “digital deals”—is different […]
Encourage Your Team to Take Time Off
02/07/2020
David Zaitz/Getty Images “I’m going nowhere fast.” This was the concern one of my clients recently. Her complaint wasn’t about working in quarantine per se, but about her frantic pace and static productivity. With the initial adrenaline rush of the crisis passed, vast numbers of my clients are reporting that they and their teams feel […]
Product simplicity for CPG companies
01/07/2020
Even before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, complexity in consumer goods was increasing at an accelerated rate. The evidence can be seen all around: in grocery stores alone, new product launches have risen dramatically, from around 20,000 in 1996 to 39,000 two decades later. The evolving retail landscape has created new and different ways […]
How business leaders can plan for the next normal
30/06/2020
Dealing with the coronavirus crisis and its aftermath could be the imperative of our times. Indeed, we have argued that it augurs the “imminent restructuring of the global economic order.” As Ian Davis, one of our previous managing partners, wrote in 2009 in the midst of the global financial crisis: “For some organizations, near-term survival is […]
Confronting Racism at Work: A Reading List
29/06/2020
Lyubov Ivanova/Getty Images Companies must confront racism at a systemic level — addressing everything from the structural and social mechanics of their own organizations to the role they play in the economy at large. We know that diversity programs have historically failed, but there are proven ways to improve hiring programs, interrupt bias at the […]
How global food safety protects the planet and begins on the farm
27/06/2020
This annual toll touches every part of the world, though the worst impacts are felt in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where there is less access to refrigeration and other modern food-preservation technologies. While major improvements have been achieved in some regions since the 1980s, the problem is still vast and urgent. Dangers […]
What Will Happen to Your Business in Hong Kong?
26/06/2020
Didier Marti/Getty Images More than 9,000 foreign firms operate in Hong Kong, among them 1,300 from the United States. So when the Chinese legislature recently passed a new security law intended to prevent “secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference” in Hong Kong, many CEOs and top executives began wondering about the business implications. The U.S. State Department added to […]
A VC’s Guide to Investing in Black Founders
24/06/2020
Illustration by Aaron Marin In the midst of a pandemic, I don’t think we ever expected to see one of the most energized social justice movements in the past few decades. Emboldened by the movement, many are engaging in more frank discussions about the role race plays when it comes to funding opportunities for early-stage […]
How supply chain transparency can improve decision-making
23/06/2020
Faced with major disruption events, decision makers need to get their heads around the why and when to act (the reaction) before working out how best to mitigate the impacts (the response). The speed of reaction and the efficacy of response will decide the ultimate outcomes for people and the environment. With COVID-19, this process […]
Coronavirus and the future of international cooperation | World Economic Forum
23/06/2020
In a matter of months, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the world almost beyond recognition. And yet the international cooperation that is so essential to confront a shared threat has been nowhere to be found. This should not be a surprise: our failure to respond effectively to the COVID-19 crisis reflects deeply entrenched – and […]
Time’s Up for Toxic Workplaces
22/06/2020
Daniel Day/Getty Images Millions of people face abusive supervisors and bullies at work. These employees are targets of ridicule, threats, or demeaning comments by their manager on a daily basis, which results in decreased satisfaction, productivity, and commitment to the job as well as the organization at large. While direct interactions with “bad bosses” can […]
Setting up small and medium-size enterprises for restart and recovery
19/06/2020
Governments’ economic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have included an array of measures to help people and businesses weather the storm. Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are in an especially difficult position. Plunging demand has forced them to lay off workers, and many don’t have the financial resources to survive in this climate. In many […]
Don’t Let Opportunism Compromise Your Corporate Mission
18/06/2020
Mike Kemp/Getty Images As we come out of the pandemic, chasing any opportunity will obviously be a temptation for many cash-hungry businesses. But be careful. That way lies ruin. You don’t want to go out of business just as work picks up. Now’s the time to clarify your mission statement for the resurgence that lies […]
Preparing for the next normal via digital manufacturing’s scaling potential
17/06/2020
The coronavirus pandemic is changing manufacturing operations to a degree never before seen. As organizations and leaders seek to ensure the health and safety of their people, they are also reacting to supply-chain shifts that are impacting sourcing and distribution logistics. Supplier resilience is being brought into sharp focus, and labor shortages are bringing many […]
Why Now Is the Time for “Open Innovation”
16/06/2020
Jorg Greuel/Getty Images Amidst the gloom and doom of the early months of the Covid-19 crisis, something surprisingly uplifting started to happen: Companies began to come together to work openly at an unprecedented level, putting the ability to create value before the opportunity to make a buck. The German multinational Siemens, for instance, opened up […]
Digital collaboration for a connected manufacturing workforce
15/06/2020
Many experts predicted that with the coming of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), automation and advanced technologies would rapidly displace factory jobs and workers world-wide. Thus far, this prediction has not panned out. In fact, our research with the World Economic Forum (WEF) reveals that leading factories (“Lighthouses”) have invested significantly in people. And the […]
Looking to Boost Innovation? Partner with a Startup.
14/06/2020
GK Hart/Vikki Hart/Getty Images The ability to identify and work with partners is a powerful source of competitive advantage, particularly when it comes to creating new growth products, solutions, and business models. Finding the right partner can supercharge your company’s innovation. Sopra Steria, an IT consultancy specializing in digital transformation based in Paris, estimated that their […]
How CHROs Have Met the Moment
12/06/2020
Richard Kolker/Getty Images In the past, at big company moments, it was often the CEO and CFO breaking the news to employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders. A distinctive feature of the coronavirus pandemic has been to elevate the role of the CHRO, who is often visibly helping CEOs manage the present and lead their companies […]
No longer on autopilot: Lessons for CFOs from COVID-19
12/06/2020
We’re now months past the first reports of global infections and deaths from the novel coronavirus, and CFOs and finance teams have done the hard work of leading their organizations through the immediate crisis—for instance, helping to ensure the safety and protection of employees, suppliers, and other key stakeholders; collaborating across functions; assessing liquidity and […]
Digital adoption through COVID-19 and beyond
11/06/2020
By now, most C-suite executives have led their companies to digitize at least some part of their business to protect employees and serve customers facing mobility restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. As one CEO of a large tech company recently stated, “We are witnessing what will surely be remembered as a historic […]
What Family Businesses Can Learn from the Military
07/06/2020
Michael Davis/EyeEm/Getty Images The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted family businesses in unexpected ways. Many are dealing with anxious investors, a diminishing number of customers, and the challenges that come with managing newly remote teams. For many family-business leaders, managing this crisis has been overwhelming, as they’re grappling with stressed supply chains, plummeting employee morale, and […]
Your Family Business Needs a Deep Bench
05/06/2020
Adrian Samson/Getty Images Whether business is booming or your organization is in the midst of a tough time, a crucial aspect of risk management is ensuring that your organization has bench strength — that employees have the depth of skill and experience to move easily into jobs of increasing responsibility. Is your staff prepared to […]
How to scale your digital transformation
04/06/2020
When a team of top executives from a North American bank entered a converted warehouse run by a European telecom giant, they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Engineers were live-coding in small teams with designers and businesspeople and reviewing the results right away with customers. They were making adjustments to feedback on the fly. […]
The Key to Successful Succession Planning for Family Businesses
03/06/2020
Jonathan Kitchen/Getty Images We reviewed more than thirty years of research on nonfamily employees in family businesses, and the findings suggest that contrary to conventional wisdom, the solution is not to discard family succession altogether. Our research actually finds that nonfamily employees often prefer family successors to nonfamily outsiders because of the family-like cultures that accompany family succession. Yet, […]
How to restart stalled digital initiatives and transformations
02/06/2020
At organizations pursuing digital transformations, more than seven in ten survey respondents say the progress of these efforts has slowed or stalled at some point. In their latest McKinsey Global Survey on the topic, 1 1. The online survey was in the field from May 16 to May 31, 2019, and garnered responses from 1,256 C-level […]
How Investors Can Navigate Pandemic-Related Risk in Emerging Markets
01/06/2020
HBR Staff/artpartner-images/Getty Images Long after developed markets have Covid-19 relatively under control, the virus will remain a threat in emerging markets, where uneven governance, weak health systems, dense urban slums, and high rates of poverty multiply the challenges of fighting the pandemic. In a few countries there are already early signs of political instability and […]
Supple supplies – Businesses are proving quite resilient to the pandemic
30/05/2020
IF A VENGEFUL deity were to design a weapon to wield against the global supply chains that characterise modern business, it might well hit on a virus which hit production facilities all around the world. In the face of covid-19, though, the sinews of business have, for the most part, held up remarkably well. Air […]
Driving digital change during a crisis: The chief digital officer and COVID-19
29/05/2020
Amid the humanitarian crisis that has upended lives and cast a veil of uncertainty over the future, one thing is clear: we are living in a much more digital world. As governments around the world institute nationwide lockdowns, the demand for digital services and products, from both customers and employees stuck at home, has hit […]
Good Leaders Can Overcome Institutional Inertia in a Crisis
28/05/2020
Justin Pumfrey/Getty Images Although Covid-19 is clearly a catastrophe, it offers what every social scientist craves: a “natural experiment” that allows us to compare different responses to similar shocks. We have already learned much about what does and doesn’t work in tackling the virus itself. We can also glean profound lessons about the role of […]
Direct-To-Consumer Brands Are Finding New Ways To Engage With Customers
27/05/2020
Even before the pandemic arrived, acquisition channels and costs were on the top of mind for a lot of direct-to-consumer brands. Since they can’t rely on exposure through big retail chains and online marketplaces, they have to find their own ways to reach customers while staying cost-effective. A lot has changed in the world over […]
The digital-led recovery from COVID-19: Five questions for CEOs…
27/05/2020
There’s a popular meme going around that neatly captures the tipping point of digital. It’s a short questionnaire asking who is driving your digital transformation. The first two options are “CEO” and “chief digital officer.” Below that, highlighted with a bright red circle, is “COVID-19.” The coronavirus pandemic is a humanitarian crisis that continues to […]
Onboarding a New Leader — Remotely
26/05/2020
Michael Blann/Getty Images Imagine that you have a new supply-chain leader starting next week. You hired her to do supply-chain transformation before the crisis took hold. But now she is joining remotely and inheriting a remote team, and her short-term, urgent priorities are very different from what they appeared to be before the pandemic. As […]
A blueprint for M&A success
11/05/2020
Large mergers and acquisitions (M&A) tend to get the biggest headlines, but executives should be paying attention to all the small deals, too. These smaller transactions, when pursued as part of a deliberate and systematic M&A program, tend to yield strong returns over the long run with comparatively low risk. And, based on our research, […]
How to Talk to Your Team When the Future Is Uncertain
09/05/2020
As the coronavirus pandemic escalates and disruptions to business-as-usual continue, managers are grappling with the unknown. You don’t know when your employees will be able to return to the office or how different things will be when they do. Regardless, you need to be in constant communication with your team. What information — and how […]
How the CPG industry can prepare for the next normal
07/05/2020
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, threatening both lives and livelihoods, consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) manufacturers continue to play an important role: producing essential items we all rely on for our health and well-being. CPG leaders have focused on meeting this demand while guarding the safety of employees and customers. At the same time, forward-thinking […]
How the Coronavirus Crisis Is Redefining Jobs
06/05/2020
Martin Barraud/Getty Images The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced organizations into perhaps the most significant social experiment of the future of work in action, with work from home and social distancing policies radically changing the way we work and interact. But the impact on work is far more profound than just changing where people work; […]
Leading marketing and sales with purpose
05/05/2020
“Without empathy, nothing works.” 1 1. Sean Gregory, “ ‘Without empathy, nothing works.’ Chef José Andrés wants to feed the world through the pandemic,” TIME, March 26, 2020, time.com. That quote, from José Andrés, a celebrity chef who also founded and runs the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, highlights the reasoning behind the organization’s mission: to […]
Give Your Workers the Latitude to Learn on the Job
02/05/2020
We are in the early stages of a global economic shift as companies face intensifying competition, an accelerating pace of change, and exponentially expanding opportunity all at the same time. Despite growing productivity, the average return on assets (ROA) for U.S. companies has fallen to almost one quarter of what it was in 1965, according […]
Managing manufacturing organizations during coronavirus
01/05/2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the globe, manufacturing organizations face significant operational challenges. Some companies have temporarily shuttered factories in response to government restrictions or falling demand, but others are facing significant increases in demand for essential supplies. Frontline manufacturing staff can’t take their work to the relative safety of their homes. Plant leaders […]
Positive leadership during the COVID-19 crisis
30/04/2020
For business leaders, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated unprecedented change. More than ever, the health of businesses is urgently and visibly linked with the health of workforces, the health of our society, and the health of our planet. Previously unimaginable shifts in our daily lives are compelling companies to adapt quickly and identify creative, unconventional […]
How to Recover When Your Career Gets Derailed
29/04/2020
Jakob Helbig/Getty Images Most of us have had minor setbacks at work. But how do you recover from a setback so big that it causes you to lose your job or completely derails your career? An up-to-date LinkedIn profile and your existing professional network will only get you so far. The changes you need to […]
Spain, Italy and France are starting to lift their lockdowns
28/04/2020
Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Health and Healthcare, World Economic Forum, said: “For those European countries where governments have started to ease restrictions, a controlled transition can be achieved with a number of measures. First, there should be clear evidence that COVID-19 has transitioned to a controlled phase. Sufficient health and medical capacity needs to be […]
How to Make Furloughs More Humane
28/04/2020
Richard Drury/Getty Images Furloughs are often a much better alternative to layoffs for both companies and employees. However, until Covid-19, they were infrequently used in the U.S. During the Great Recession only 0.5% of the U.S. workforce participated in furloughs, while one in five workers experienced a layoff. Today, in the most uncertain time any […]
Executives and Boards, Avoid These Missteps in a Crisis
27/04/2020
The scale of Covid-19 pandemic’s impact is fully sinking in. Organizations of all types are feeling the pressure to simultaneously wrestle with surviving the immediate crisis and planning for a radically changed future. How do they share the economic pain among stakeholders? How should they revamp their supply chains in order to make them more […]