16/02/2022
Employer branding is gradually becoming more important in C-suite conversations, but it’s still a relatively new concept. Several years ago business leaders might have pointed to pinball machines in the office game room or catered lunches as examples of employer branding. In 2022 most are aware that such perks hardly constitute a comprehensive employee retention […]
13/02/2022
Career coaches provide a range of services, from helping you figure out what you want to do to exploring opportunities for professional growth to supporting you through the ups and downs of looking for a new job. Engaging with a career coach requires an investment of time and money, so it’s important to do your […]
11/02/2022
As we reach the two-year mark of the pandemic, now is the right time for many leaders to rethink how and where their employees work and collaborate. Should businesses call employees back into the office or leave them working remotely? Is it time to try out a new way of working all together? Lost in […]
20/01/2022
The Companies that Defined 2021 Attention is an increasingly valuable form of currency in the Information Age. In 2021, a handful of companies stood out from the pack, dominating the conversation and influencing society in both positive and negative ways. After vigorous internal debate, here is Visual Capitalist’s list of companies that defined 2021: We […]
19/01/2022
Quackery and pseudoscience can be very dangerous. Not only in medicine but also in human resources. Alarmed by the nonsensical ideas of Transactional Analysis, Patrick Vermeren set out on a mission to reveal the truth about the many HR theories, models and questionnaires. The academic literature revealed that most HR practices (in recruitment, assessment, development, […]
18/01/2022
Fred Keller, the founder of Cascade Engineering, wanted to show that a for-profit business could also help address society’s social ills. So he accepted an employee’s suggestion that they hire unemployed locals. They rented a van, went to a low-income area of Grand Rapids, Michigan and — with the eight men they identified — started […]
14/01/2022
When you head into any new year, it’s natural to think about where your career stands and where it’s going. Companies traditionally notify employees of compensation changes and bonuses for last year’s performance in these first few months. They also announce promotions and reorganizations in line with succession planning and company strategy. As a result, […]
14/01/2022
Leaders are facing two relentless sources of pressure right now. The first is the intense demand to perform— to deliver excellent short-term results despite radical shifts in what customers need and want, where and how people choose to work, and whether supply chains work at all. The second is the urgent need to transform — to […]
13/01/2022
In an organization with smart quality, quality control and assurance are embedded in the business processes and enabled by digital technologies (see sidebar, “‘Smart quality’ at a glance”). For instance, performance management of quality metrics across the organization may be digitally enabled so that virtually every employee has quality elements specific to their role incorporated […]
12/01/2022
While current headlines about product shortages and empty shelves have highlighted the importance of the supply chain, that process began in early 2020. Companies that had labored to create a lean global supply chain needed to scramble to adjust to the effects of the pandemic. Beyond that, sustainability has also become a top priority on […]
12/01/2022
While the world is still deep in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, business leaders are busy repairing their operations, looking forward to a post-pandemic world. They frequently find themselves torn between two opposite poles: the urge to act and the need for prudence in the face of uncertainty. Even as business picks up in […]
24/12/2021
The evidence is clear: Burnout is on the rise. A common suggestion for preventing burnout is to take regular breaks away from work. But what should those breaks look like if we want to maximize rejuvenation and protect our well-being? It may be surprising to learn, but passive “rest and relaxation” isn’t as effective for recovering […]
22/12/2021
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions — and offers 3 powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite.
21/12/2021
Over the last couple of years, more and more companies have been trying to fundamentally reshape the way in which they interact with their customers — a trend that has been accelerated by the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Perhaps the biggest change firms have made is that, rather than having a few episodic interactions, they are […]
20/12/2021
To innovate at scale and outperform competitors in the digital age, companies need to be tech forward. That means embedding tech into their business strategy and operating model. For most organizations, that requires a digital-ready IT function—one that is fast, adaptable, focused on the end user, and able to deliver business value. As any CIO […]
17/12/2021
While companies of all sizes are struggling to keep and find people during the Great Resignation, it’s hitting the middle market especially hard — and middle-market companies often find themselves with an inadequate toolkit to address the problem. The same old approaches aren’t working in the crisis and will not build the capabilities companies will […]
16/12/2021
As the US economy recovers postpandemic, demand for labor has outstripped supply. Companies are facing the “Great Attrition,” coupled with increased competition for labor. The transportation and logistics sector has been particularly hard hit, with the impact of worker-retention challenges and rising labor costs being felt across the entire value chain. The labor mismatch has […]
15/12/2021
A 2,000-person IT division of an investment bank, had a problem: Employees were leaving at alarming rates. The line we heard over and over again from the people we interviewed: “It’s easier to talk to a headhunter about my career than my own manager.” So the division went on a feedback campaign. They spent more […]
14/12/2021
The emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has dimmed hopes that the pandemic will soon fade away and once again has employers pondering how they can fulfill their difficult obligations to keep their workforce safe and to meet their business needs. The good news is that as the virus has evolved, employers have honed […]
02/12/2021
There is a widening mismatch between the job environment employees want — and now expect — and the one their organizations have. That’s the finding of conversations we’ve had with top executives of dozens of companies over the last several months, multiple global surveys we’ve conducted to learn what employees want, and our examination of […]
01/12/2021
Why do so many great ideas just fail to take off? For all the importance of business building—it’s a top three priority for 52 percent of companies, up from 30 percent two years ago—companies struggle mightily to get a good idea over the hump so that it becomes a big-time success. Only 22 percent of […]
30/11/2021
The latest research is clear: the state of our attention determines the state of our lives. So how do we harness our attention to focus deeper, get distracted less, and even become more creative? Chris Bailey, author of the recent book Hyperfocus, talks about how our ability to focus is the key to productivity, creativity, […]
29/11/2021
While hybrid is often presented as a new model, the fundamentals of what transforms a group of people into an exceptional team haven’t changed as much as we might think. When I was the senior vice president of people operations at Google, we had many employees, especially in engineering and sales, who worked from home a […]
26/11/2021
Even before Covid, the balance of Black Friday consumption was slowly tipping toward e-commerce. But 2020 was the year of extreme tilt, with nearly twice as many consumers opting to stay home and buy online instead of going out to stores (100 million versus 58.7 million). The good news is that as a digital event, […]
26/11/2021
Having authority doesn’t automatically make us a “leader.” Regardless of rank, we all have the choice to be the leader we wish we had by looking out for the people around us….
25/11/2021
Supply-chain disruptions are on everyone’s mind these days. But there’s one that few people are thinking about. It involves talent, not goods — and it poses a serious long-term threat to our economy. In the wake of the pandemic, employers are struggling, with increasing exasperation, to find the workers they need. Commentators ascribe the problem […]
24/11/2021
We have borrowed a page from the corporate world—namely, the balance sheet—to take stock of the underlying health and resilience of the global economy as it begins to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. This view from the balance sheet complements more typical approaches based on GDP, capital investment levels, and other measures of economic flows […]
23/11/2021
What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it’s someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety — especially in an uneven economy — means taking on big responsibility….
12/11/2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered the latest battle in the war for talent. Hospitals, desperate for nurses, have offered $40,000 sign-on bonuses. Wall Street firms are increasing base pay for entry-level analysts to six figures. Even fast-food operators are promising retention bonuses between $500 and $1,500 to attract new talent. While these approaches may be […]
11/11/2021
As people slowly return to some form of hybrid workplace, bonds that tie them to one another must be rebuilt. Over the past 18 months, most organizations have experienced some degree of fracturing as social connections and cultural cohesion have been strained. The challenges of remote work, dramatic uncertainty, the clumsy process of figuring out […]
11/11/2021
Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of goods and services that an economy produces in a given year, but in a global context, it is typically shown using country-level data. As a result, we don’t often get to see the nuances of the global economy, such as how much specific regions and metro areas […]
09/11/2021
To help prevent the worst effects of climate change, a growing number of companies are pledging to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. In fact, the percentage of companies declaring a net-zero target nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020. With urgency building, how can companies and investors approach net-zero emissions? The above infographic from MSCI highlights […]
08/11/2021
In mid-2020, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company was looking at the spike in the business’s digital sales and the remarkable speed of its growth. He was pleasantly surprised by how well the digital side of the business had performed, and he complimented his digital leaders. Secure that the digital business was doing well, […]
05/11/2021
Imagine an elegant office somewhere in the Upper East Side of New York City. One after the other, top business executives discreetly slip into the comfortable waiting room a few minutes before the door opens. They fear crossing paths with someone they might know. When that happens, both people awkwardly look the other way. This […]
04/11/2021
At TEDxUtopia, the question was asked: What would leadership in Utopia look like? To start with, imagine the best leader you have ever worked with. How did he or she get to become this type of leader? Leadership lecturer and former corporate executive Lars Sudmann argues that it’s likely that they learned to overcome the […]
02/11/2021
As we contemplate a slowdown or end to the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us are talking about getting “back to normal.” But others, wisely, are instead using this moment to recalibrate, reset, and reinvent. The global crisis — and its personal ramifications — have presented us all a unique opportunity to find new identities, roles, […]
01/11/2021
After a year like no other, consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers face a hard question: how to power above-average growth in the next normal. E-commerce penetration is still 35 percent above pre-COVID-19 levels, and more than one-third of consumers are continuing to switch brands or retailers. 1 1. Tamara Charm, Becca Coggins, Kelsey Robinson, and […]
28/10/2021
How do leaders satisfy all parties in trying to remake the mission? In our view, they have a unique opportunity to listen to their employees and engage them on what matters—now and into the future. Since the pandemic began, McKinsey has surveyed almost 1,000 individuals to assess their views on work and how it has […]
28/10/2021
One trend about CFOs that we’ve confirmed after years of research: the finance leader’s role is ever evolving. That has never been more true than it is today, during an era of dramatic change—with, for instance, the COVID-19 pandemic, increased attention being paid to social and environmental issues, and the accelerated adoption of technology to address […]
23/10/2021
“I WILL BE back in the office [in two weeks] and have limited Wi-Fi connection in the meantime.” It is safe to assume that readers of this column are familiar with something like this message (which, like all the others cited below, comes from real life). As with all aspects of office culture, the autoreply […]
22/10/2021
The pandemic has also increased pressure on organizations to respond to three long-term talent trends that have been building for at least a decade: on-demand skills are scarce, made worse by digitization and automation; responding rapidly to changing and uncertain conditions is essential; and flexibility reigns supreme. Reskilling is an important part of the response to […]
21/10/2021
From consumers to policy makers, many economic actors are backing sustainability—and creating a powerful portfolio opportunity for investors. The use of environmental, social, and governance factors (altogether known as ESG) is increasingly informing investment decisions. But although ESG investing has grown in prominence in a few short years, there’s a disconnect: To properly capitalize on […]
20/10/2021
Digital’s ascendancy is visible not only in the dominance of hyperscale tech companies but in the success of non-digital-native companies such as John Deere, Goldman Sachs, BHP, Disney, and Bosch, among others. These companies have invested heavily in new digitally enabled strategies and business models. Not only did they enter the pandemic with bigger technology […]
19/10/2021
How can investors track stock markets around the world? Using the MSCI All Countries World Index Investable Market Index (MSCI ACWI IMI), investors can benchmark their portfolios to a comprehensive group of developed and emerging markets. With over $4.2 trillion in assets benchmarked to the ACWI—about 4% of all managed assets globally—the index is widely […]
15/10/2021
With the economic recovery gaining steam amid an uncertain pandemic path, companies are scrambling to deal with increasing commodity prices, supply constraints, and higher wages caused by labor shortages. In the first half of 2021, the producer price index (PPI) rose 10% in the G7 countries. The PPI measures the prices of goods immediately postproduction […]
14/10/2021
FOR THOSE worried about the health of European democracy, the departures were all the more welcome for being so unexpected. After a decade in which populist governments have undermined the rule of law and moulded the state to their advantage across central and eastern Europe, two leaders accused of manipulating the political system lost power […]
13/10/2021
The ability to accept reality is one of the most useful, and most misunderstood, skills for a leader. It’s a concept that has been around for centuries in philosophy and more recently in psychology, and properly applied can help drive change. As Carl Jung wrote, “We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does […]
12/10/2021
The World’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2021 In 2020, the global economy experienced one of the worst declines since the Great Depression. Yet, while the ripple effects of COVID-19 have thrown many businesses into disarray, some companies have not only managed to stay afloat amidst the chaos—they’ve thrived. Using data from Kantar BrandZ, […]
11/10/2021
Prior to the pandemic, the working world already felt to most of us like it was undergoing rapid, unrelenting change — changes in customer preferences, client and employee expectations, and competitive advantages. Covid-19 managed to upend the few things that felt relatively predictable, like where we spent our working hours, how we collaborated with colleagues, […]
11/10/2021
Rising political polarization can have serious ramifications for businesses. Companies that speak out on controversial issues can face decreased customer loyalty from those with opposing beliefs, increased internal conflict between employees, or reduced sales from boycotts. Furthermore, taking a public stance can often exacerbate social tensions. For example, after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, […]
08/10/2021
In early 2020, Airbnb was headed for a banner year — bookings were up, expansion plans were in place, and an IPO was set for the spring. Then Covid hit, and more than $1B of bookings disappeared, expansion plans were postponed, and one-quarter of the workforce was cut. However, by the end of the year, […]
07/10/2021
Bringing the World Into Focus: A Guide to MSCI Indexes Economic development around the world has led investors to consider broadening their investment exposures. But with nearly 30,000 equity securities available globally, the universe is far too large for an investor to filter by themselves. In this sponsored infographic from MSCI, we explain their index […]
06/10/2021
A 2018 global survey by Accenture Strategy of 30,000 consumers in 35 countries indicated that nearly two-thirds of them (62%) find brands with high ethical values attractive. That’s potentially a problem for companies in the luxury sector, because people often see luxury goods as a wasteful self-indulgence and potentially damaging to the environment, especially if […]
05/10/2021
The employment landscape is constantly shifting. While agricultural jobs played a big role in the 19th century, a large portion of U.S. jobs today are in administration, sales, or transportation. So how can job seekers identify the fastest growing jobs of the future? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects there will be 11.9 […]
04/10/2021
To achieve — and sustain — success, many companies place extraordinary demands on their teams. World-renowned investment banks, law firms, and consulting firms are notorious for subjecting employees to grueling workdays. Software developers use the word “crunch” to describe the long, stressful hours of work that are often required in the final weeks before a […]
01/10/2021
In September 2016, Wells Fargo announced that it would pay $185 million to settle a lawsuit filed by federal regulators and the city and county of Los Angeles, admitting that employees had opened as many as 1.5 million accounts without customer authorization over a five-year period. These unethical practices resulted in an immediate drop the […]
29/09/2021
As China’s consumer base grows larger and more enticing to international brands, many global companies have begun investing heavily in localizing their products to meet the needs of the Chinese market. KFCs in China sell soy milk, fried dough sticks, and congee; Volkswagen launched a whole series of new models designed specifically for China; Starbucks […]
28/09/2021
The pandemic resulted in global wealth taking a significant dip in the first part of 2020. By the end of March, global household wealth had already declined by around 4.4%. Interestingly, after much monetary and fiscal stimulus from governments around the world, global household wealth was more than able to recover, finishing up the year […]
27/09/2021
It’s easy to acknowledge the game-changing role digital technologies are playing in the modern economy. The challenge, to which most companies have yet to rise, is figuring out how to fully capture the different kinds of value that these technologies offer. Developing a strategy for digital transformation that fully leverages this value is also not […]
24/09/2021
How do CEOs and their executive teams develop strategy? The accepted process is like coupling two sides of an equation. On one side sits the organization’s external environment, with all its changes and trends. On the other side sits the organization with all of its internal capabilities. Strategy is about how you align the two. This […]
23/09/2021
At TEDxUtopia, the question was asked: What would leadership in Utopia look like? To start with, imagine the best leader you have ever worked with. How did he or she get to become this type of leader? Leadership lecturer and former corporate executive Lars Sudmann argues that it’s likely that they learned to overcome the […]
23/09/2021
We all have professional goals we want to accomplish, whether it’s mastering a new technical skill, getting better at delegation, or carving out time in our schedule for networking and relationship building. Yet so often, we find ourselves putting these ambitions on the backburner — again. Sometimes it’s simple busyness, our days eaten up by […]
23/09/2021
Picture it — a colleague asks if you can chair a new committee they’re starting. Without even pausing to think, the first words out of your mouth are, “Sure. I’d love to!” Flash forward, and you’re looking at emails piling up in your inbox and a flurry of appointments on your calendar. It suddenly hits […]
23/09/2021
As we look back, 2020 and much of 2021 were a wake-up call for how much and how quickly change can happen. But they were also a warm-up for what’s ahead — not necessarily another pandemic with multiple variants, of course, but flux of every imaginable stripe. The future will not be more stable or […]
05/08/2021
Ranked: the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2021 This year has been rife with pandemic-induced changes that have shifted corporate priorities—and yet, innovation has remained a top concern among corporations worldwide. Using data from the annual ranking done by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) using a poll of 1,600 global innovation professionals, this graphic ranks […]
04/08/2021
Are you dreading the conversations with your team about returning to the office? Or maybe you’re already back and need to tell one of your direct reports that your agreed-upon approach isn’t working. Fostering a safe and constructive dialogue about re-entry can be challenging. Ironically, some of the mistakes you might make will stem from […]
03/08/2021
Once in a generation (if that), we have the opportunity to reimagine how we work. In the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution moved many in Europe and the United States from fields to factories. In the 1940s, World War II brought women into the workforce (if not the C-suite) at unprecedented rates. In the 1990s, the […]
02/08/2021
By all indications the future of work is hybrid: 52% of U.S. workers would prefer a mix of working from home and the office, saying it has a positive impact on their ability to be creative, solve problems and build relationships. Global research tells us 72% of corporate leaders plan to offer a hybrid model, […]
30/07/2021
This year has been rife with pandemic-induced changes that have shifted corporate priorities—and yet, innovation has remained a top concern among corporations worldwide. Using data from the annual ranking done by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) using a poll of 1,600 global innovation professionals, this graphic ranks the top 50 most innovative companies in 2021. We’ll […]
29/07/2021
Globally, family businesses comprise 75% of all firms and contribute 65% to GDP. However, evidence of whether families improve or impair their companies’ performance remains mixed and is ardently debated. In order to better understand the findings of prior studies, we conducted a meta-analysis (together with the University of Trier’s Joern Block and Dominik Wagner of IUBH […]
28/07/2021
The Tokyo Olympics in 2021 have 17 sports with balls or spheres of some sort. Here are the different sizes and weights of each Olympic sports ball. This content was originally published here.
27/07/2021
There is perhaps no better experience for a hiring manager than seeing the resume of an outstanding internal candidate land on their desk. You can fill the job immediately and, because current employees know the organization and its quirks, they require less handholding in order to get up to speed quickly. You also rarely have […]
08/07/2021
Asia is already the world’s consumption growth engine and is likely to reinforce that position over the next decade. Disregarding Asia’s consumer markets would mean missing half the global consumption story. Asia’s consumer markets are not only a story of scale, but also one of diversity and shifting preferences and behavior caused by powerful demographic, […]
07/07/2021
The killing of George Floyd catalyzed a reckoning around racial injustice that led many corporate leaders to seek to evolve their organizations to meet today’s tremendous societal challenges. Many U.S. organizations have publicly pledged to increase diversity by filling more executive positions with individuals from underrepresented groups. Some boards of directors, like Nike, Starbucks, and […]
06/07/2021
The next normal is the ‘no normal’ The year 2020 was unlike any other, as lives and livelihoods were upended by the pandemic. COVID-19 affected every aspect of our lives, forcing customers and businesses alike to embrace new behaviors, including digital ways of working, shopping, and relaxing. Within a span of a few months, a […]
05/07/2021
As we continue to adjust to Covid-19’s disruptions and see Black Americans killed by police, hate crimes against Asian Americans surge, and people in Georgia fight for equal voting rights, the question of what “belonging” means in American society is reaching into the workplace as it never has before. CEOs, corporate boards, investors, consumers, and […]
02/07/2021
If you think it’s hard teaching elephants to dance, as Lou Gerstner once characterized change programs at large businesses, 1 1. Louis V. Gerstner Jr., Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround, New York, NY: Harper Business, 2002. here’s a choreographer for you: Bart Schlatmann, the CEO of Allianz Direct—a thriving digital business […]