Facing a crisis or an opportunity, leaders often fall back on the leadership style that has worked for them in the past. But to be effective, they need to rise above their default reactions and generate more options for how to respond in real time. In this article two leadership coaches offer an approach, called the "four stances," to help leaders improve their interpersonal communication: Lean In. Take an active stance on resolving an issue. Actions in this stance include deciding, directing, guiding, challenging, and confronting. Lean Back. Take an analytical stance to observe, collect, and understand data. Actions include analyzing, asking questions, and possibly delaying decisions. Lean With. Take a collaborative stance, focusing on caring and connecting. Actions include empathizing, encouraging, and coaching. Don't Lean. Be still and create space for a new solution to bubble up from the subconscious. This stance also serves to calm emotions if they have been triggered. Actions include contemplating, visualizing, and breathing. Leaders should identify which stance is their default, make a plan for using alternative ones in various situations, and be ready to pivot if an approach is not working.
AI initiatives at many organizations are too small and too tentative. They never get to the only step that can add economic value-being deployed on a large scale. Testing the waters may deliver valuable insights, but it probably won't be enough to achieve true transformation. A pilot program or experiment can take you only so far. The authors have identified 30 companies that have gone all in on AI-and achieved success-as well as 10 actions those companies took to become successful AI adopters: (1) Know what you want to accomplish. (2) Work with an ecosystem of partners. (3) Master analytics. (4) Create a modular, flexible IT architecture. (5) Integrate AI into existing workflows. (6) Build solutions across the organization. (7) Create an AI governance and leadership structure. (8) Develop and staff centers of excellence. (9) Invest continually. (10) Always seek new sources of data. In other words, you need to be aggressive enough with AI that the technology eventually transforms every aspect of your business.
A study of some 16,000 major projects-from large buildings to bridges, dams, power stations, rockets, railroads, information technology systems, and even the Olympic Games-reveals a massive project-management problem. Only 8.5% of those projects were delivered on time and on budget, while a mere 0.5% were completed on time and on budget and produced the expected benefits. In other words, 99.5% of large projects failed to deliver as promised. Master architect Frank Gehry consistently defies those odds, producing projects of staggering beauty while meeting time and budget targets. This article reveals four lessons, gleaned from interviews with Gehry and his colleagues, for successfully managing big projects.
In the decades to come, creativity will be key to doing most jobs well. In this article the authors offer a new typology that breaks creative thinking into four types: integration, or showing that two things that appear different are the same; splitting, or seeing how things that look the same are more usefully divided into parts; figure-ground reversal, or realizing that what is crucial is not in the foreground but in the background; and distal thinking, which involves imagining things that are very different from the here and now. Most of us tend to think in just one of those four ways. But we can hone our ability to be creative in other dimensions. Managers need to understand both their own strengths and how to balance the types of thinking across their teams to successfully execute creative projects. And organizations can use this typology to optimize innovation across the workforce.
More than 3,000 office workers at an oil and gas company in Oklahoma City have been telecommuting since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of them love the arrangement, and the freedom to work remotely is also a big draw for new hires. But there are downsides: Employees who have to be on-site in the oil fields and on drilling rigs are resentful; collaboration and knowledge transfer are more challenging; costly office space is going unused; and local businesses are suffering because of the emptiness of the downtown core. The company's CEO must decide: Should we mandate a return to the office for everyone? This fictional case study features expert commentary by Logitech's Bracken Darrell and Spotify's Katarina Berg.
In times of tumult, we need comfort, healing, and inspiration. A good way to find them is by appreciating the vast and wondrous things that transcend us, say several new books.
Ron Howard achieved early fame as a child actor on The Andy Griffith Show. Then came a long stint as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. But from an early age he wanted to direct, and now he has a number of award-winning movies to his credit. He talks about the role of his parents, the arc of his career, and how he gets the most out of his actors.
More than 3,000 office workers at an oil and gas company in Oklahoma City have been telecommuting since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of them love the arrangement, and the freedom to work remotely is also a big draw for new hires. But there are downsides: Employees who have to be on-site in the oil fields and on drilling rigs are resentful; collaboration and knowledge transfer are more challenging; costly office space is going unused; and local businesses are suffering because of the emptiness of the downtown core. The company's CEO must decide: Should we mandate a return to the office for everyone? This fictional case study features expert commentary by Logitech's Bracken Darrell and Spotify's Katarina Berg.
More than 3,000 office workers at an oil and gas company in Oklahoma City have been telecommuting since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of them love the arrangement, and the freedom to work remotely is also a big draw for new hires. But there are downsides: Employees who have to be on-site in the oil fields and on drilling rigs are resentful; collaboration and knowledge transfer are more challenging; costly office space is going unused; and local businesses are suffering because of the emptiness of the downtown core. The company's CEO must decide: Should we mandate a return to the office for everyone? This fictional case study features expert commentary by Logitech's Bracken Darrell and Spotify's Katarina Berg.
When an established consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) company introduces a new product, it faces a potentially make-or-break decision: how to brand it. Tying it to an existing brand (as was the case for Cherry Coke and Avon Hand Lotion) is tempting. Customers are more likely to try a new product with a familiar association, and companies have to expend fewer marketing resources to launch it. But the strategy has risks, too: Weak or failed brand extensions can harm the parent company. When the maker of Coors beer introduced a nonalcoholic beverage, Coors Rocky Mountain Spring Water, customers were confused, with some wondering about the alcohol content of the beverage. Sales of both water and beer suffered, and the new product was ultimately discontinued. A new study can help companies make the right branding decision-and shows that those who do will be rewarded with higher returns.
The stock market isn't always rational; often it's swayed by superstitions. A case in point is the bump the market gets when Punxsutawney Phil doesn't see his shadow.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the obsolescence and vulnerability of many existing auditing practices. While some progressive practices have been implemented (e.g., remote audits using rudimentary information and communication technologies), a new paradigm is needed not only to account for the risk of repeated lockdowns but also to align practices with the level of digitalization, automation, and use of artificial intelligence in the current business environment. In this article, we argue that the adoption of new technologies requires a fundamental rethinking of how auditing services are delivered. We argue that new technological possibilities have implications for five other auditing elements that enable a shift from the old to the new paradigm of auditing, namely actors, processes, spaces, training and skills development, and services. We explain how nonfinancial audits conducted under the new paradigm are key enablers of a firm's ability to participate and to thrive in a competitive international marketplace.
Blockchain, a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT), can be used for supply chain and is commonly discussed among distribution giants and small players. Blockchain's actual and perceived benefits, in addition to track-and-trace mandates from regulatory bodies, have driven these discussions. However, there is no mention of how existing dispute resolution processes have been overhauled in favor of blockchain smart contracts, which can be used to manage and resolve disputes. This conversation gap is critical as trust will erode if supply chain partners cannot settle disputes adequately. We highlight the importance of supply chain DLT management and suggest tactics for resolving the inevitable disputes that arise with disparate information. These guidelines, including adopting portable and enforceable contractual terms and a standardized dispute resolution process, can have practical applications beyond blockchain.
Signaling how virtuous a brand is has become an ever more common strategy. Brands have recently outcompeted one another to align themselves with various causes. We explore the rise in virtue signaling and review prominent examples of brands that have linked themselves to social movements--some successfully, some unsuccessfully. We draw on evolutionary theory to develop a conceptual framework to think about brand virtue signaling. Armed with this framework, managers can assess whether their brands should adopt virtue signaling as a strategy and assess the short- and long-term implications of such a decision.
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are a record of ownership of primarily digital media, where the NFT is stored on a blockchain. According to the 2021 Gartner Hype Cycle for Key Technologies, NFTs may significantly transform marketing functions. Marketing managers wishing to adopt NFTs therefore need to know something about the marketing implications. This article explains NFTs in broad terms and discusses the marketing implications using a modified AIDA hierarchy. These implications can give marketing managers and executives guidelines on how to persuade consumers to purchase NFTs owing to their unique characteristics, such as scarcity, nonfungibility, proven authenticity, proof of ownership, royalties, and direct distribution infrastructure.
Though more than a decade has passed, there are compelling reasons to revisit the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the most expensive nonnuclear industrial disaster in history. It serves as an exemplar of what organizations should not do. Recent tragedies in Nigeria and Florida also demonstrate how organizations might avoid the risk of being overtaken by readily predictable events. In this article, we look to advance research on risk mitigation and decision-making as we create a more succinct view of how managers create--and might prevent--inaptitude. To this end, we look at how the evolving concept of stupidity is defined in recent research and how it manifested in the critical case of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. We present five proposals for organizations looking to address and avoid potentially unwise decisions that may lead to the next disaster.
The first communication an entrepreneur often has with a potential investor is submitting a one-page executive summary for consideration. Subsequently, the potential investor or investment group chooses which venture ideas to further consider by inviting a pitch deck or an actual business pitch. This investment funnel is competitive and, accordingly, anything we as scholars can share with entrepreneurs seeking advice about how to optimize that initial executive summary to increase chances of getting to the pitch would be immensely valuable. Unfortunately, scant research has focused on this opportunity-introduction stage, and there is precious little we can prescribe for entrepreneurs seeking investment. To address this, we developed four executive summaries that varied only in the type of capital mentioned. We found that executive summaries that mentioned human capital more prominently were viewed as more cognitively legitimate and as deserving of a higher opportunity-recognition valuation. Put succinctly, consistent both with our theorized findings from our Open Science Framework preregistered experiment (N Z 367) and with our qualitative follow-up study, we found that human capital signals have a greater positive influence on potential investors' decisions relative to social capital, intellectual capital, and financial capital. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of this novel insight and include prescriptive recommendations for entrepreneurs.
Greening suppliers, or cultivating environmental responsibility throughout the supply chain, has become an important strategic issue for firms. While various approaches exist, green supplier development--that is, helping and collaborating with your suppliers to reduce their negative environmental impact--is a key method that can produce significant gains for both parties at multiple levels. Yet the benefits have not been sufficiently discussed and may therefore appear nebulous for managers. Focusing particularly on "What's in it for you, the buyer?", this article describes benefits at the intrafirm, interfirm, and market levels. Barriers to the realization of the benefits are also discussed, providing managerial guidance on supplier prioritization for green supplier development.
Family-owned Mittelstand firms have often been characterized as Janus-faced, meaning they can have two contrasting sides when it comes to innovation. On one side, they are technology leaders--especially in niche markets. On the other side, they can be slow adopters, deeply rooted in tradition. Digitalization is one of the biggest innovation challenges to firms of all sizes and ownership types. Research and observations in business practice show that while some family-owned Mittelstand firms master digitalization despite limited resources and traditional industries, others lag dangerously behind. So, how can family-owned Mittelstand firms prepare for a digital future, and which familial idiosyncrasies might help them? Based on current observations and interview data, we propose a framework for how these firms can use their unique resources to tackle challenges related to digitalization. To be successful in a digital world, they must leverage their family historical capital, family collaborative capital, and family venture capital. We highlight why and how these capital types should be linked to fully leverage their potential.