Bosses often sense that something is missing in an employee's tool kit but can't put a finger on what it is. They say something like "You need certain important intangibles" or "You don't have enough gravitas," but they fail to provide advice or guidance. What they're talking about is leadership style. In every interaction, we send signals to others that fall into two categories: power and attractiveness. Powerful markers are associated with confidence, competence, charisma, and influence but also arrogance, abrasiveness, and intimidation. Attractiveness markers are related to agreeableness, approachability, and likability but also diffidence, lack of confidence, and submissiveness. The more consistent our signals, the more distinctive our style. This practical guide offers concrete advice for developing a dynamic and effective leadership style that draws from both types of markers for maximum impact.
The U.S. Army has long struggled with toxic and inept leaders, and no wonder: It has historically chosen battalion commanders, a linchpin position, on the basis of 90-second file reviews. Last year it undertook an ambitious revamping of that selection process, which now involves four full days of physical, cognitive, and psychological assessments and interviews. The author, a lieutenant colonel who served as an adviser to the task force that designed and implemented the new process, describes it in granular detail, including a variety of rigorous measures for reducing interviewer bias and ensuring diversity and inclusion. Although specifically aimed at improving the validity, reliability, and developmental impact of the army's executive-leader selections, the redesigned process offers important lessons for any organization seeking to bolster its talent assessment and promotion practices.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. It was divided into business units, each with its own P&L responsibilities. Believing that conventional management had stifled innovation, Jobs laid off the general managers of all the business units (in a single day), put the entire company under one P&L, and combined the disparate functional departments of the business units into one functional organization. Although such a structure is common for small entrepreneurial firms, Apple-remarkably-retains it today, even though the company is nearly 40 times as large in terms of revenue and far more complex than it was in 1997. In this article the authors discuss the innovation benefits and leadership challenges of Apple's distinctive and ever-evolving organizational model in the belief that it may be useful for other companies competing in rapidly changing environments.
As companies struggle with chronic skills shortages and changing labor demographics, a new generation of talent platforms, offering on-demand access to highly trained workers, has begun to help. These platforms include marketplaces for premium expertise (such as Toptal and Catalant), for freelance workers (Upwork and 99designs), and for crowdÂsourcing innovation (Kaggle and InnoCentive). Almost all Fortune 500 firms use such platforms. But most do so in an ad hoc, inefficient way, according to a Harvard Business School/BCG study. Companies need to get much more strategic about their engagement with talent platforms and fully embrace their ability to increase labor force flexibility, speed time to market, and facilitate business model innovation. That will require rewiring policies and processes and redefining working norms. Most important, leaders must inspire the cultural shift needed to realize the platforms' transformative potential.
Sweeping technological change has revolutionized marketing, while societal challenges have raised expectations about marketers' social performance. This has altered customer needs, accelerated the entry of new types of competitors, and generated novel opportunities for value creation. It has also transformed how the function must work, requiring that it become more agile, interdependent, and accountable for driving firm growth. The authors provide a framework to help leaders identify the organizational design and capabilities needed to build a competitive, next-generation marketing function. Their framework has been used to guide marketing transformations at companies across industries, including consumer packaged goods, transportation, financial services, and retail.
Leaders may mean well when they tout the economic payoffs of hiring more women and people of color, but there is no research support for the notion that diversifying the workforce automatically improves a company's performance. This article critiques the popular rhetoric about diversity and revisits an argument the authors made 25 years ago: To fully benefit from increased racial and gender diversity, organizations must adopt a learning orientation and be willing to change the corporate culture and power structure. Four actions are key for leaders: building trust and creating a workplace where people feel free to express themselves; actively combating bias and systems of oppression; embracing a variety of styles and voices inside the organization; and using employees' identity-related knowledge and experiences to learn how best to accomplish the firm's core work.
When he was the CEO of SRI International, Curtis Carlson presided over the conception and development of Siri, HDTV, and other groundbreaking innovations. Since then he has shared his approach with more than 500 corporate, university, and government groups. His methodology is based on the principles of active learning, which emphasize concise mental models, the continual iteration of ideas, real-time feedback, teamwork, and frequent comparison of alternatives. Those elements are woven into a process that focuses on customers' needs, a compelling approach, valuable benefits relative to costs, and superiority to the competition.
The Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements have forced people in positions of power--namely, the white men who dominate institutional leadership roles--to realize they must personally step up to make organizations more fair and inclusive. That means playing a truly active role in helping marginalized colleagues advance (instead of just delegating diversity efforts to human resources). How can white men be effective allies to those employees? First, by taking responsibility for their own behaviors, educating themselves about racism and privilege, and getting and accepting feedback from people in underrepresented groups. They can also become confidants to and sponsors of women and people of color and insist on diverse hiring pools and practices. They can vigilantly watch out for bias at work, intervening decisively if they discover it. Last, they can work to build a community of other allies against racism and sexism.
A national brewing and distilling company grapples with its most profitable brand's racist history. This fictional case study by Joseph C. Miller, Michael A. Stanko, and Mariam D. Diallo features expert commentary by Geoff Edwards and Jim Birch.
A national brewing and distilling company grapples with its most profitable brand's racist history. This fictional case study by Joseph C. Miller, Michael A. Stanko, and Mariam D. Diallo features expert commentary by Geoff Edwards and Jim Birch.
A national brewing and distilling company grapples with its most profitable brand's racist history. This fictional case study by Joseph C. Miller, Michael A. Stanko, and Mariam D. Diallo features expert commentary by Geoff Edwards and Jim Birch.
Ernesto Blanco, a leading Venezuelan businessman in the financial sector, was proposing to create a foundation with the aim of promoting the development of the stock market in his country. He wanted this initiative to be aligned with the strategic vision of his business group, as much as possible. However, he did not rule out sponsoring something not directly linked to the line of interest of his organization, if it had an impact on the status quo of the national stock market. Given the wide spectrum of issues that would fit into such an initiative, he decided to focus his efforts by developing a strategic planning exercise run by his old friend Ramón Piñango from the Business Academic Training Center (CAAE). For a day, a group of important opinion-makers from the academic and business worlds helped to think about the challenges of this proposal. These discussions resulted in the design of "four strategic topics" on which the project should focus: ≈ Development of the population's technical and financial capacities ≈ Ability of Venezuelan companies to operate in stock markets ≈ Capacity of the regulatory environment to boost competition ≈ Stimulation of the demand for securities Although Ernesto Blanco was convinced that the strategic planning exercise, run by Piñango, had been a success, he still felt that he had not resolved his greatest concern: where to position his foundation in the thematic area that would have the greatest impact on society, while aligning it with the long-term development interests of his corporate group.
In early 2020, the co-founders of DOUGH T.O, an entrepreneurial venture launched in Toronto, Canada, were evaluating several expansion options. Since its founding in 2017, the brand had expanded its edible cookie dough business from its original pop-up model to one that included online sales and a catering business. The co-founders were considering five options: opening a permanent flagship location, offering franchise rights, distributing product through grocery stores, entering into strategic partnerships, or pursuing a unique, creative option by "thinking outside the box." Regardless of the decision they pursued, the co-founders wanted to pave the way for their company to become a sustainable business.
Yuser Inc. (Yuser) was a young Canadian start-up based in London, Ontario, and focused on developing a gamified media sharing mobile application to help connect businesses with influencers. Yuser's co-founders had released a marketable version of their app at the end of 2019, and in 2020, the company had nearly exhausted its seed funding. Yuser's top priority at this time was to secure outside funding to grow the company fast without breaking it. The available options for funding consisted primarily of three sources: venture capital, equity crowdfunding, and token issuance. As each funding option had its own benefits and drawbacks, Yuser's co-founders had to determine which option or combination of options would work best for their company.
In March 2019, Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft was grounded across the globe following its second crash in five months. Investigations concluded that the sensor in the planes' Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) had failed, leading both aircraft to nosedive downward, crashing and killing all aboard. The public was confused as to how this engineering error occurred, given Boeing's strong history of aerospace achievements. The case traces the main developments in the aircraft manufacturing industry and Boeing's organizational changes over time. How could these changes have affected events leading up to the two 737 MAX crashes?
Southern Implants, a South African dental implants manufacturer, was considering how to diversify its risk. Over the last 30 years, the company had grown from a local manufacturing company and now served customers around the world through distributors and subsidiaries. The founder and managing director was particularly concerned about the final stages of production which involved cleaning, sterilizing, and packing. While Southern Implants had four machine shops across South Africa, the final stages of production involved all items coming back to Southern Implants for these final packaging steps. The managing director wanted to set up another processing cleaning plant abroad, but he wondered what location for this plant would be best. The United States was the largest market for Southern Implants but labour costs were high. Portugal was another option and had an investor-friendly economic environment with no discrimination between domestic and foreign investors. What were the organizational and managerial risks to consider before making this decision?
In early 2020, the co-founders of DOUGH T.O, an entrepreneurial venture launched in Toronto, Canada, were evaluating several expansion options. Since its founding in 2017, the brand had expanded its edible cookie dough business from its original pop-up model to one that included online sales and a catering business. The co-founders were considering five options: opening a permanent flagship location, offering franchise rights, distributing product through grocery stores, entering into strategic partnerships, or pursuing a unique, creative option by “thinking outside the box.” Regardless of the decision they pursued, the co-founders wanted to pave the way for their company to become a sustainable business.
Southern Implants, a South African dental implants manufacturer, was considering how to diversify its risk. Over the last 30 years, the company had grown from a local manufacturing company and now served customers around the world through distributors and subsidiaries. The founder and managing director was particularly concerned about the final stages of production which involved cleaning, sterilizing, and packing. While Southern Implants had four machine shops across South Africa, the final stages of production involved all items coming back to Southern Implants for these final packaging steps. The managing director wanted to set up another processing cleaning plant abroad, but he wondered what location for this plant would be best. The United States was the largest market for Southern Implants but labour costs were high. Portugal was another option and had an investor-friendly economic environment with no discrimination between domestic and foreign investors. What were the organizational and managerial risks to consider before making this decision?