In this interview, negotiations expert and author Doug Stone describes the ways in which difficult conversations threaten our identity. We all view ourselves a certain way, he says: 'I'm a hard worker' or 'I'm a caring boss' -- and the conversations that feel the most difficult for us are the ones that have the potential to threaten that self image. He shows that we make some systematic thinking errors when we are deciding whether to avoid or raise an issue with someone: we tend to focus on the costs of raising the issue and the benefits of avoiding it, but we don't think about the benefits of raising it and the costs of avoiding it. He goes on to describe how to reap these benefits via 'learning conversations', provides tools for dealing with difficult conversations, and advises on the best way to deliver difficult messages.
Fear has shaped human behaviour for a very long time, and it continues to do so today. However, attention to fear in organizational life - how and why it is experienced, and to what effects - has received little attention. The authors argue that the most significant result of fear at work is silence on the part of employees. They describe four types of silence that affect productivity and innovation across industries: Non-Deliberative Defensive Silence, Schema-Driven Defensive Silence, Deliberative Defensive Silence and introduce a new one, Habituated Silence. In addition, they describe the concept of 'voice efficacy', and show how to develop it in oneself and in others in an effort to mitigate the debilitating effects of silence.
Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB) is an umbrella term that refers to intentional behaviour by employees that harms or intends to harm an organization or the people in it, including employees and customers. It can run the gamut from nasty interpersonal behaviour (insulting or yelling at someone) to behaviour directed toward inanimate objects (sabotage and theft) to purposely doing work incorrectly or withdrawing from an organization via absence or lateness. The authors describe the individual and environmental factors that increase the likelihood of 'CWB', which include interpersonal conflict amongst employees; job insecurity; and perceptions of organizational injustice. In the end, the authors show that careful selection processes are not a sufficient solution to the problem of CWB: steps must also be taken to reduce triggers as much as possible by reducing unnecessary stressors, treating employees fairly, and mediating disputes between coworkers.
People are often surprised to hear that most of us overestimate our ethicality at some point. Significant research indicates that we are unaware of the gap between how ethical we think we are and how ethical we truly are. The authors describe the related concepts of bounded awareness and bounded ethicality and discuss the implications of these states for organizations. They then provide three tools for improving our individual ethicality and outline several aspects of organizational life that must be examined more closely to reduce unethical behaviour on a group level, including addressing 'hidden but powerful informal values' and 'ethical sinkholes'.
Microsoft Canada CEO Eric Gales talks to Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, about the need for more companies to take a leap of faith with respect to innovation. The two discuss why Canadian companies lag their peers in innovation; the perils of the status quo for companies in any industry; the role of IT in innovation; how the Canadian capital markets discourage innovation; and the importance of having senior leaders who are willing to 'stick their necks out' for the sake of innovation. Martin ends by explaining why 'Prove it' is the most dangerous phrase in the English language when it comes to innovation.
We've seen plenty of unethical behaviour in the business arena over the past decade. But surprisingly, bad behaviour doesn't always lead to reputational consequences. The authors offer a Model of Reputational Loss which explains why, using Arthur Anderson and PayPal as prime examples. The key levers involved, they argue, are the firm's perceived control of the situation; perceived certainty that the event truly occurred; the level of perceived threat to stakeholders; and perceived deviance from established practices. In addition, they show that stakeholder motivation and media coverage also play key roles in whether or not an organization's reputation is significantly damaged by bad behaviour.
Having spent the past five years working with the boards of some of the world's leading organizations, the authors reached a conclusion: boards need to become much more diverse -- not just demographically, but also in terms of the backgrounds, competencies and interests of their members. However, they warn that putting fresh faces onto boards provides no guarantee that benefits will ensue: diversity can also lead to gridlock. The fact is, people often feel threatened or annoyed by colleagues who are very different from themselves and have difficulty accepting, much less appreciating, those colleagues. In this article they describe the costs and benefits of diversity and provide seven recommendations for effectively diversifying boards - or senior teams -- in any industry.
The price of pharmaceuticals in the Philippines is second only to Japan within Asia and is among the highest in the world, despite the Philippines being a less developed country with nearly half of its population living on US$2 a day. The case illustrates how The Generics Pharmacy, a local pharmaceutical company, challenged the existing industry business model and became the largest pharmaceutical retailer in the country within a period of only three years. Under the strategic leadership of CEO Benjamin Liuson, The Generics Pharmacy succeeded in formulating a superior value proposal by focusing on the supply- and demand-side constructs at the bottom of the pyramid and bringing affordable high-quality medicines within reach of low-income individuals. Superior leadership, management, and strategic initiatives succeeded in integrating and balancing tenets of corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurial foresight, and resource-based strategy to catapult the company into a leadership position.
After three years of rapid growth in a relatively young industry, the affiliate and payment-processing company RevenueWire.com found itself operating in a very different environment. Sales growth in the company’s affiliate network service had leveled off, and orders for Q1 2010 looked just like those for Q1 2009. New competitors, low entry barriers, and a plateau in the affiliate market meant few opportunities for growth across the industry. Despite these conditions, the company’s owners had set aggressive revenue targets for 2010 to 2012. The general manager needed to evaluate options for growth, including new markets and new products, to determine how to meet her targets. Because RevenueWire.com’s competitors were privately held, there was little public data on the state of their finances or the size of various markets. The general manager had learned how to use surrogate data to gauge the market and make strategic decisions, and the students must do the same to develop an effective three-year plan that will hit or exceed the owners’ expectations.<br><br>The case exposes students to decision making in a global industry dominated by privately held companies. It also exposes students to the affiliate marketing industry from the viewpoint of an entrepreneurial company that serves as an intermediary between merchants and affiliates. It describes many of the challenges facing an intermediary in an industry that includes not only legitimate merchants but a vast array of scam artists and phony products.
Fortis Inc., a company with interests in various North American electric utilities, is proposing to build the Chalillo dam on the Macal River in Belize, Central America. The dam would contribute to the economic development of the country by meeting the increasing demand from industry and consumers for electricity. The company believes that the dam is the most feasible, reliable and cheapest supply of electricity. Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) oppose the project because of the destruction of wild animal and plant life and the adverse downstream impact, and allege that there are more viable and more cost effective sources. The case reviews the company's presence in Belize, the environmental impact studies and the activities of the ENGOs during 2001. At the beginning of 2002, management is faced with a decision of whether or not to go ahead with the project.
An unrelated acquisition decision by Satyam Corporation created discontent among shareholders and lead to a series of investigations. The investigations revealed a fraud of about INR 50 billion. This led to resignations by several board members and the CEO. The entire episode became a mockery of corporate governance practices, raising questions about the efficacy of well accepted governance norms.<br><br>This case covers the events that led to the failure of Satyam in detail. The roles of not only the promoter but also other parties, such as the managers, board of directors, auditors and bankers, are discussed in detail. The case draws attention to various corporate governance and ethical issues and also provides an opportunity to discuss the measures that should be taken by regulators, auditors and other bodies to prevent such frauds.<br><br>This case can be used in an undergraduate, MBA and executive development program to highlight following issues: 1) Ethics and corporate governance: This case can be used to discuss the effectiveness of current corporate governance regulations and how can they be made more effective. 2) Organizational culture and values: Corporate governance mechanisms, such as ownership structure, board composition and stakeholder influence, determine the organizational culture and values. Smaller firms inherit the corporate values from their founders. In larger companies, managers and board members play a pivotal role in shaping the corporate values. This case can be used to discuss the factors affecting development of corporate values.
Throughout its first two decades, City Year, a non-profit organization, was dedicated to recruiting young adults to give a year of public service. It had passed through several growth phases but by 2010 a new challenge, and opportunity, had arisen when City Year and its partners in a school turnaround collaboration - Diplomas Now - won a prestigious Department of Education Investing in Innovation grant. This accelerated City Year's role in turning around low performing schools, but added pressure on the organization. New systems and practices had been developed, but more needed to be done to ensure that City Year became efficient in deploying its limited resources, in maintaining its funding sources, and employing the right interventions in schools. In November 2011, Jim Balfanz, City Year President, and Michael Brown, CEO and co-founder, wondered what else the changes would mean for City Year.
In 2003, the Norwegian Parliament amended the Public Limited Companies Act in order to achieve greater representation of women on corporate boards. According to the amendment, all state-owned companies and public limited companies were required to have at least 40% women on their boards. This case uses first-hand accounts from Norwegian directors to document the Norwegian business community's reaction to the quota, how Norwegian boards sought women directors, and the transferability of the quota law to other nations.
Bakari Burns, CEO of the Health Care Center for the Homeless (HCCH) in Orlando, Florida, was faced with the daunting task of rebranding the organization. He knew that the organization experienced difficulty with recognition and marketplace distinction, primarily due to the public’s misconceptions about the relationship between HCCH and the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida. An external consulting team offered several recommendations for change, including an amended name and redesigning all marketing materials. This advice and changes in the external environment made it an excellent time to reposition and refocus the organization. Recognizing the need for a new strategy and implementing that strategy were not the same; Burns was not sure how to lead the organization through the change process.
In the spring of 2009, cases of a previously unidentified strain of influenza began appearing in Mexico and the southwestern U.S. Within just a few months, outbreaks of 2009 Novel H1N1 (commonly referred to as Swine Flu) were so widespread that the World Health Organization declared its first influenza pandemic in over forty years. This case focuses on how state health officials in Texas, which experienced some of the first cases of H1N1, organized a response to the disease in the face of considerable uncertainty regarding its contagiousness, lethality, and geographic spread.
Founded in 1994 when the Internet was still a "toy for techies," the case is set in 1998 when Internet IPOs were red-hot. Internet Securities provides hard-to-find financial, business, economic, and political information on emerging markets. Information from over 600 information suppliers in more than 25 emerging markets (e.g., China, Russia, Poland, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Turkey) is provided to over 650 institutional clients, including J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, KPMG, and ING Barings. After ruling out seeking another round of VC financing, the cash-strapped founder of this Internet information service provider must decide whether to IPO or accept an offer to be acquired by Euromoney, a global publishing and information content provider that is eager to launch an Internet information service. The case contains a term sheet that can be reviewed to support analysis and decision making.
The case study provides an overview of the angel investment practices and describes government policies towards angel and venture capital investing in British Columbia, Canada. It focuses in particular on the Equity Capital Program (BCECP henceforth), which provides tax credits to private equity investors that meet several eligibility criteria. The case study is written from the point of view of a policy maker, with a perspective on the entire ecosystem. It provides an overview of the existing structure of the tax credit program, its history, and the lessons learned to date. It discusses the current challenges faced by policy makers wanting to further improve the program.