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 […]
Research: How Speech Patterns Lead to Hiring Bias
04/04/2020
Gustavo Rezende Dos Santos/EyeEm/Getty Images Research indicates that organizations are not meritocratic. Senior executives of large firms weight ambiguous factors like “culture fit” as equally important as critical job skills when making promotion decisions. Criteria beyond the scope of knowledge, abilities, and performance are used in hiring decisions across firms, industries, and management teams. And, […]
Don’t Make This Common M&A Mistake
03/04/2020
Huber & Starke/Getty Images According to most studies, between 70 and 90 percent of acquisitions fail. Most explanations for this depressing number emphasize problems with integrating the two parties involved. That’s perfectly true, but my experience suggests that integration problems are particularly severe in cases you wouldn’t necessarily expect — when the acquisition is a related […]
Virtual Meetings Don’t Have to Be a Bore
02/04/2020
HBR Staff/Tim Robberts/Getty Images Those of us who present, facilitate, and teach for a living understand the importance of developing a personal connection with an audience. It’s critical to be and feel natural; to make people laugh, feel at ease, and fully engage — and perhaps even lose themselves — in the content you’re delivering. […]
Rethink Your Relationship with Your Vendors
01/04/2020
We’ve come a long way from the days of horrific working conditions of the industrial age. Yet many companies are still as tough on their vendors as managers were on their employees a century ago. In the gig economy the line between a freelance employee and a traditional vendor has become blurred. Smart companies are […]
Leadership in a crisis: Responding to coronavirus
01/04/2020
The coronavirus pandemic has placed extraordinary demands on leaders in business and beyond. The humanitarian toll taken by COVID-19 creates fear among employees and other stakeholders. The massive scale of the outbreak and its sheer unpredictability make it challenging for executives to respond. Indeed, the outbreak has the hallmarks of a “landscape scale” crisis: an […]
How to Get People to Actually Participate in Virtual Meetings
31/03/2020
These days it’s hard to get people to pay attention in any meeting, but when people aren’t in the same room, it can be especially difficult. And it’s particularly annoying when you make a nine-minute argument, pause for an expected reaction, and get: “I’m not sure I followed you” which might as well mean: “I […]
Why Leaders Need Meditation Now More Than Ever
29/03/2020
A global pandemic is in full effect. Risks of infection are on the rise, stock markets are tumbling, the economy is on the verge of a global recession, and every business is facing uncertainty. Chances are high that you’re feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and afraid. That’s normal. The survival part of our brain (mainly the amygdala) […]
A Guide for Working (From Home) Parents
28/03/2020
Here are three steps to bring your old plan into your new normal: 1. Maintain routines. The first step is to keep the structure of the day the same as it has typically been. Beyond the benefits of familiarity, maintaining a regular schedule will give you firm guideposts for building your work and childcare schedules. For […]
How Chinese Companies Have Responded to Coronavirus
27/03/2020
Thirawatana Phaisalratana/EyeEm/Getty Images As the Covid-19 crisis spreads to new epicenters in Europe and the U.S., companies are scrambling to mobilize responses. There are no easy answers, due to the unpredictability of disease dynamics, a lack of relevant prior experience, and the absence of plug-and-play instructions from government or international authorities. Clearly each local situation […]
The Key to Inclusive Leadership
27/03/2020
Richard Drury/Getty Images What makes people feel included in organizations? Feel that they are treated fairly and respectfully, are valued and belong? Many things of course, including an organization’s mission, policies, and practices, as well as co-worker behaviors. But mostly it comes down to leaders. We find that what leaders say and do makes up […]
Economic conditions amid the coronavirus outbreak..
27/03/2020
In McKinsey’s newest survey on economic conditions, conducted during the first week of March, the coronavirus outbreak overshadowed all other threats to the global economy. 1 1. The online survey was in the field from March 2 to March 6, 2020, and garnered responses from 1,152 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company […]
Build Your Resilience in the Face of a Crisis
26/03/2020
Chad Baker/Getty Images As the spread and far-reaching impacts of Covid-19 dominate the world news, we have all been witnessing and experiencing the parallel spread of worry, anxiety, and instability. Indeed, in a crisis, our mental state often seems only to exacerbate an already extremely challenging situation, becoming a major obstacle in itself. Why is […]
How Bad Times Bring Out the Best in People
25/03/2020
Ryan McVay/Getty Images It’s easy to look around and see how the Covid-19 crisis has brought out the worst in some people — from hoarding thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to crowding bars and restaurants despite public-health guidelines. But such irresponsible behavior, I believe, is more the exception than the rule. Time and again, individuals and […]
Enterprise agility: Measuring the business impact…
25/03/2020
Enterprise agility was desirable and is now becoming essential. Agility across a whole enterprise combines speed and stability; helps role clarity, innovation, and operational discipline 1 1. Michael Bazigos, Aaron De Smet, and Chris Gagnon, “Why agility pays,” McKinsey Quarterly, December 2015. ; and can produce positive outcomes for organizational health and performance. Although the […]
Don’t Hide Bad News in Times of Crisis
25/03/2020
Epoxydude/Getty Images If sunshine is the best disinfectant, the opposite is also true: Dark, hidden corners are great places to grow something truly horrible. Few problems improve with age, and public health crises are no exception. Transparency is “job one” for leaders in a crisis. Be clear what you know, what you don’t know, and […]
Every Leader Needs to Navigate These 7 Tensions
24/03/2020
Richard Drury/Getty Images In recent years, articles have claimed that old-style command-and-control leadership is “out” and a new way of leading is “in.” Instead of telling people what to do, leaders should ask them open-ended questions. Instead of sticking exactly to plans, they should adjust goals as new information emerges. Instead of working from the […]
Grocery retail during the coronavirus crisis: What food retailers should do…
24/03/2020
The epidemiological numbers of COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus, are becoming outdated by the hour. While events are rapidly evolving, a few things are becoming clear: Two scenarios are most likely: a delayed recovery or a prolonged contraction. Regardless of which scenario plays out, food retailers will need to think ahead and be prepared to […]
A Guide to Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers
23/03/2020
Ada Yakota/Getty Images In response to the uncertainties presented by Covid-19, many companies and universities have asked their employees to work remotely. While close to a quarter of the U.S. workforce already works from home at least part of the time, the new policies leave many employees — and their managers — working out of […]
Communicating Through the Coronavirus Crisis
23/03/2020
Nicholas Rigg/Getty Images In fast-moving and uncertain situations, many leaders face questions they may not even have answers to. You need to communicate early and often with your key constituencies throughout a crisis. Even if you’re still trying to understand the extent of the problem, be honest and open to maintain credibility. Approach the situation […]
Capturing cross-selling synergies in M&A
23/03/2020
When companies look for synergy potential in deals, they tend to focus on costs. After all, cost synergies are more straightforward to estimate than revenue synergies and often pay off quickly after Day 1. Revenue, or growth, synergies are more complex and take longer to capture. But, with deal multiples at record highs, capturing revenue […]
How to Make Your Family Business More Professional
28/02/2020
Yulia Reznikov/Getty Images Many family businesses take on the distinctive identity, focus, and idiosyncrasies of the family leaders who run them. These norms can be motivating and can create a sense of common purpose. But they can also make non-family employees feel like they’re missing out on the skills training and career development typically found […]
A new leadership agenda for private equity
27/02/2020
While impressive, this growth could pale in comparison to what the next 10 years might bring. Not only is there massive headroom – PE currently represents less than 5% of total global assets under management (AuM) and less than 2% of total investable capital – several factors could give the industry a sky-high bounce. The […]
The drive toward sustainable packaging
25/02/2020
Sustainability—particularly regulatory and public concerns around single-use packaging waste—is combining with other powerful trends 1 1. Cost pressure, e-commerce and digitization in general, and shifting consumer preferences—for details see David Feber, Daniel Nordigården, and Shekhar Varanasi, “Winning with new models in packaging,” May 2019. to drive major changes in consumer packaging. Regulators are moving on […]
What are the most talent-competitive countries in the world?
24/02/2020
Over the past few years, an increasing number of countries have adopted AI strategies. To ensure that AI is a force for good, these strategies must be value-based and principle-led. From a labour market point of view, efforts should be geared to integrating rather than replacing the human factor. Adaptive talent – those skills that […]
Are You Ready to Serve on a Board?
23/02/2020
HBR Staff/Bulgac/Getty Images Corporate boards are under increasing pressure to diversify their ranks – adding more women and minorities, as well as executives with different cultural and functional backgrounds – to better represent the people their organizations employ and serve. At the same time, the bar for “board readiness” has never been higher: directors are […]
To Be a Great Leader, You Need the Right Mindset
22/02/2020
Rick Gayle Studio/Getty Images Organizations worldwide spend roughly $356 billion on leadership development efforts. Yet, the BrandonHall Group, a human capital research and analyst firm that surveyed 329 organizations in 2013, found that 75% of the organizations rated their leadership development programs as not very effective. Why aren’t companies getting more bang for their leadership development […]
How can we manage distractions in the workplace?
20/02/2020
Are they two sides of the same coin? The affliction and the cure? Eyal doesn’t see it that way. “Hooked was about how to build good habits,” he says. “I didn’t write it for Google or Facebook or the gaming companies. They’ve known these techniques for a very long time. What I wanted to do […]
The CIO challenge: Modern business needs a new kind of tech leader | McKinsey
20/02/2020
“There’s no worse time than now to be an average CIO.” These words, uttered by an executive at a recent conference, neatly capture the intense pressure on CIOs. For years, executives have stressed the need for CIOs to move beyond simply managing IT to leveraging technology to create value for the business. This priority is […]
Getting practical about the future of work
18/02/2020
What story will people tell about your organization over the next ten years? Will they celebrate an enthusiastic innovator that thrived by adapting workforce skills and ways of working to the demands of the new economy? Or will they blame poor financial or operational results, unhappy employees, and community disruption on a short-sighted or delayed […]
What are the best negotiation tactics?
17/02/2020
Most business books push a singular narrative around negotiations: Go hard or go home. The advice is tied to the idea that the negotiation table is a place of conflict where one party must best the other. But research conducted by Maurice Schweitzer, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, and Einav Hart, Wharton postdoctoral […]
Is That Stretch Job Right for You?
16/02/2020
Fuse/Getty Images During the course of our careers, there are job opportunities that arise — either internally and externally — that seem appealing but may be a stretch, taking us beyond our current level of knowledge, skills, or experience. Research from Hewlett Packard shows that women tend not to apply for jobs unless they are […]
What’s the best way to make informed decisions?
15/02/2020
Decision-making works like a muscle: as you use it over the course of the day, it gets too exhausted to function effectively. One of the best strategies successful people use to work around their decision fatigue is to eliminate smaller decisions by turning them into routines. Doing so frees up mental resources for more complex […]
Don’t Demonize Employees Who Raise Problems
14/02/2020
tiburonstudios/Getty Images Instead of celebrating her fresh take, the Marketing Director was told she was being difficult, even demanding. Recently hired at a major financial firm to identify growth strategies, she spent her first 60 days on the job studying the situation. She went to meetings, asked lots of questions, and researched the marketplace responses […]
Understanding the “identity mindtrap”: Personal growth for the C-suite
13/02/2020
Millions of years of evolution have shaped our brains, with nature selecting for many adaptive and energy-saving, if imperfect, shortcuts. Some are easy to spot—for example, how we systematically fall for optical illusions and how our loss-aversion reflex biases our choices. Other ancient shortcuts trip us up in subtler, more personal ways. A CEO named […]
The new social contract in the 21st century..
12/02/2020
Life has changed substantially for individuals in advanced economies in the first two decades of the 21st century as a result of trends including disruptions in technology, globalization, the economic crisis of 2008 and its recovery, and shifting market and institutional dynamics. In many ways, changes for individuals have been for the better, including new […]
Supporting employees during mergers and acquisitions…
05/02/2020
Mergers create vast organizational anxiety about the future: in most cases, the operating model and culture will change dramatically for one or both merging companies. These changes go far beyond a new name and senior leadership; they challenge the core of an organization’s identity, purpose, and day-to-day work. Even small tactical changes, like new expense […]
Real Mentorship Starts with Company Culture, Not Formal Programs
04/02/2020
Bernhard Lang/Getty Images We hear it all the time. Ask executives and managers how junior talent is encouraged, developed, and supported, and you’ll hear some variation of this refrain: “We’ve got a mentoring program!” Even vague rumors of a mentoring “program” nested somewhere in HR allow too many leaders to check off the employee engagement […]
How businesses can thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
03/02/2020
The ‘move fast and break things’ ethos that epitomized Silicon Valley business culture for much of the 21st century’s first decade has fundamentally changed the global economy. For evidence of this, look no further than the French start-up, Guppy, which was launched in late 2018 to dredge discarded electric rental scooters out of the River […]
What Makes You “Multicultural”
01/02/2020
Microzoa/Getty Images You’ve heard about multicultural societies and groups, but have you thought about multicultural individuals and what they bring to organizations? Multicultural individuals — such as Chinese-Canadians, Turkish-Germans, or Arab-Americans — commonly think, perceive, behave, and respond to global workplace issues in more complex ways than monocultural individuals. Some multicultural individuals translate these differences into […]
Mindsets and practices of the best CEOs…
31/01/2020
A company has only one peerless role: chief executive officer. It’s the most powerful and sought-after title in business, more exciting, rewarding, and influential than any other. What the CEO controls—the company’s biggest moves—accounts for 45 percent of a company’s performance. 1 1. Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit, Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick: […]
The assumptions that underpin modern economics need reviewing. This is why…
30/01/2020
Rather than offering a specific critique or solution, I want to draw attention to some foundational issues concerning the evaluation of economics. What makes assessing the discipline so challenging is the very nature of the subject, which is a strange mixture of science and commonsense. This is the reason for many policy mistakes by politicians […]
Burnout Is About Your Workplace, Not Your People
29/01/2020
Martin Barraud/Getty Images We tend to think of burnout as an individual problem, solvable by “learning to say no,” more yoga, better breathing techniques, practicing resilience — the self-help list goes on. But evidence is mounting that applying personal, band-aid solutions to an epic and rapidly evolving workplace phenomenon may be harming, not helping, the battle. […]