By pooling their know-how and resources across internal boundaries, organizations can solve problems more creatively, increase their productivity, and reap higher profits. But collaboration is not easy, given how time-pressed managers are, how reluctant they are to cede control over projects and relationships, and how tough it is for them to stop working in silos when they've been doing it for ages. About 10 years ago, leaders at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute realized that the growing complexity of the problems its experts were charged with solving meant their fiefdoms couldn't last forever. In developing a case study about Dana-Farber, Gardner saw firsthand how difficult it was for the organization to move away from a star-based system to one that got researchers working together across specialties and facilities. She demonstrates that its story has clear parallels with business and outlines how executives can pull the levers of change in a wide range of companies.
Why are consumers increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of help they get from customer service departments? The authors' surveys and interviews with contact center personnel worldwide suggest that companies don't hire the right people as frontline reps, nor do they equip them to handle the increasingly complex challenges that come with the job. Every rep can be classified as one of seven types, say the authors. Supportive "Empathizers" constitute the largest group, and managers prefer them. But take-charge "Controllers," who make up only 15% of all reps, actually do best at solving customers' problems. To expand their numbers, companies need a fresh approach to hiring--one that involves crafting job postings and screening applicants differently. Companies should also revamp their training practices, using new curricula and on-the-job coaching to help all types of reps learn to act more like Controllers. Another key step is building a culture that values and rewards Controller behavior. That might mean evaluating reps on their ability to use good judgment rather than follow a script, and soliciting their ideas to improve the organization.
Contracts, transactions, and records of them provide critical structure in our economic system, but they haven't kept up with the world's digital transformation. They're like rush-hour gridlock trapping a Formula 1 race car. Blockchain promises to solve this problem. The technology behind bitcoin, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that records transactions safely, permanently, and very efficiently. For instance, while the transfer of a share of stock can now take up to a week, with blockchain it could happen in seconds. Blockchain could slash the cost of transactions and eliminate intermediaries like lawyers and bankers, and that could transform the economy. But, like the adoption of more internet technologies, blockchain's adoption will require broad coordination and will take years. In this article the authors describe the path that blockchain is likely to follow and explain how firms should think about investments in it.
With a young, urbanizing population, abundant natural resources, and a growing middle class, Africa seems to have all the ingredients necessary for huge growth. Nevertheless, a number of multinationals have recently left the continent, discouraged by widespread corruption, a lack of infrastructure and ready talent, and an underdeveloped consumer market. Some innovators, however, have succeeded by building franchises to serve poorer consumer segments; tapping the vast opportunity represented by nonconsumption; internalizing risk to build strong, self-sufficient, low-cost enterprises; and integrating operations to avoid corruption. The difference, the authors believe, lies in the choice between "push" and "pull" investment. MNCs seek growth by "pushing" current products onto emerging middle-class consumers. They retain some large portion of their existing cost structure and operating style, and thus set prices that limit market penetration. The winning strategy diverges from this approach in almost every respect. When innovators develop products that people want to "pull" into their lives, they create markets that serve as a foundation for sustainable growth and prosperity.
Large companies spend millions, or billions, of dollars directly on energy each year--and millions more indirectly, on supply chain, outsourcing, and logistics costs. Yet outside the most energy-intensive industries, the majority of firms approach energy as merely a cost to be managed. This is a strategic mistake that overlooks enormous opportunities to reduce risk, improve resilience, and create new value. Today energy is climbing up the corporate agenda due to sweeping environmental, social, and business trends, including climate change and global carbon regulation, increasing pressures on natural resources, rising expectations about corporate environmental performance, innovations in energy technologies and business models, and plummeting renewable energy prices. To respond to these shifts, companies must develop a robust energy strategy. This article offers a framework comprising five steps: Create a C-level mandate, integrate energy goals into the vision and operations, track progress companywide, tap new technologies, and engage stakeholders. These steps are not revolutionary--but systematically applying them to a company's energy use is.
An increasingly popular route to success as a small business owner is "acquisition entrepreneurship"--buying and running an existing operation. If you're considering such a path, the authors offer practical advice for each stage of the process. (1) Think it through. Do you have the right qualities for the job (managerial skills, confidence, persuasiveness, persistence, a thirst for learning, and tolerance for stress)? Are you willing to trade the benefits of working at a large organization for the chance to be in charge? (2) Search diligently and efficiently. Plan to spend six months to two years--full time--following leads and systematically vetting business prospects. Focus on companies that are consistently profitable and have annual revenues of $5 million to $15 million. During this phase, you can self-finance or establish a search fund to recruit potential investors. (3) Strike a deal. When you've settled on a target, do preliminary due diligence to confirm the business's viability and arrive at a fair offer. If the seller accepts, you'll have about 90 days to work with your accountant and attorney on confirmatory due diligence. (4) Transition into leadership. After the sale closes, your priorities should be building relationships (with employees, customers, and suppliers) and setting up processes to ensure steady cash flow.
The young CEO of a Turkish bank wants to experiment with a new way of reaching customers and doing business--but she's meeting with resistance from employees and worries that they have had enough. Expert commentary comes from Mitch Krebs, President and CEO of Coeur Mining, and Pinar Abay, CEO of ING Bank Turkey.
The young CEO of a Turkish bank wants to experiment with a new way of reaching customers and doing business--but she's meeting with resistance from employees and worries that they have had enough. Expert commentary comes from Mitch Krebs, President and CEO of Coeur Mining, and Pinar Abay, CEO of ING Bank Turkey.
The young CEO of a Turkish bank wants to experiment with a new way of reaching customers and doing business--but she's meeting with resistance from employees and worries that they have had enough. Expert commentary comes from Mitch Krebs, President and CEO of Coeur Mining, and Pinar Abay, CEO of ING Bank Turkey.
The case documents the evolution of an eye care hospital promoted by not-for profit organization located in Mandvi, District-Surat, close to the tribal community of Gujarat state, India. In a short span of five years (as of 2016), the trust has evolved as a community hospital. The value proposition of the trust is a portfolio of activities, which includes awareness by education, prevention of eye care diseases through eye screening camps, treatment, and rehabilitation on need basis and addressing direct and indirect healthcare needs of the community. The managerial challenge before the board of trustees is to carefully balance (a) The purpose for which the trust was created, (b) the gap between the ground realities and the need in the relevant tribal community (c) the accomplishments of the eye hospital so far.
The case deals with the unforeseen uncertainties faced by Reva, the first electric car of India, while entering the Indian market. The company was able to take up the challenge of making an energy efficient car. As a new product, Reva achieved operational success, developing an electric, low energy car. Its marketing strategies had limited consumer pull and had to be strengthened to gain consumer acceptance. The ecosystem worldwide is looking for support from governments on the concept and the infrastructure of this product category.
The case relates the growth story of a transformative medical diagnostics company as it moves from idea to maturity at a critical time when leaders must determine what to do about the falling stock price. As the case unfolds, it shows how an idea for transforming cervical cancer testing was converted to a proof-of-concept, followed by years of scientific and technological research to create products. The case portrays gaining FDA approval while short on resources, persuading skeptical insurers to pay for a new diagnostic test, and managing the challenges of subsequent growth, profit, and maturity while facing the emergence of new technologies and competitors. Students are asked to adopt the role of a newly hired vice president of business development to decide how to address the company's situation. They must identify and frame the problem, generate alternatives and evaluate them critically, then prepare recommendations for an upcoming board meeting. Students take into account industry and company data as well as strategic realities. They examine what makes creating, growing, and managing a science- and medicine-based company different from doing so with other technology companies, especially consumer hardware and software with which students tend to be most familiar. Color printing of the case is recommended for clear interpretation of exhibits.
Many entrepreneurs aspire to build an exceptional company, reap the rewards, and retain the CEO position at the end of the journey. Launching the startup is only the first step. The period of transition during which a startup grows up and becomes a scalable business is arguably the most critical time in the life of an emerging firm. We summarize the challenges of this period in a framework-the eight hurdles of transition-that outlines the essential steps in the evolution from a nascent startup into a disciplined organization capable of sustained and profitable growth. As the company engages the eight hurdles, the entrepreneur who aspires to retain the top position must embark on a parallel journey of personal and professional growth: the transition from founder to CEO. The skills, motivations, and behaviors that make a good entrepreneur are not the same as those required to lead a high growth organization. Using the literature and five scenarios from personal experience, I summarize the most commonly cited reasons for CEO replacement. Some are beyond the founder's control; most are not. We identify five shifts in perspectives and behaviors essential to retaining the CEO position and provide practical guidance for developing the founder's leadership capabilities.
Most people believe that negotiators should avoid making the first offer. Yet, decades of research have documented the first-offer effect, wherein the person who moves first achieves a better outcome than the person who moves second. This gap between lay beliefs and research evidence may stem, in part, from the fact that studies on the first-offer effect are scattered across numerous scientific articles and journals. In hopes of bridging the gap and providing useful guidance to negotiators, this installation of Negotiating Life seeks to synthesize the evidence in one place. Reviewing many of the major articles on the first-offer effect, it concludes that negotiators should generally strive to make the first offer for specific reasons, in specific situations, and in a specific fashion.
Martin Shkreli, founder of Retrophin and former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, has become the poster boy and public face of corporate greed. But is he an entrepreneur? The authors take pro and con stances against each other in this case study.
The impressive growth in web-mediated organizational relationships has created an escalating interest in how to manage virtual teams successfully. As organizations increasingly expect their managers to lead employees in these online groupings, it becomes imperative to identify and train them in the skills to do this effectively. The purpose of this article is to organize and present strategies that organizations have found successful in helping their managers lead virtual teams. While all successful managers must ensure that they have provided the basic organizational support for their employees, especially effective leaders also ensure they build trustworthy relationships. Thus, we emphasize how each strategy contributes to building and sustaining a climate of trust in virtual teams.
Grade inflation is rampant across universities, colleges, academic majors, and certainly in American business schools. Extensive evidence shows that the distribution of college GPAs is skewed sharply toward high grades. Consequently, GPAs often poorly convey students' relative academic achievement, sending a muddled message to prospective employers. This article explores the causes and consequences of grade inflation. It concludes with six recommendations for employers who want to encourage college administrators to control collegiate grade inflation, thereby strengthening the accuracy and value of a GPA in the processes of applicant evaluation and job placement.
The topic of the Millennial Generation in the workplace drives much business conversation, as members of this generation form a growing percentage of the employee base. Both popular media and scholarly literature have painted the population of younger workers in an uncharitable light. The goals of this article are to contextualize the results of a large, empirical study in a more charitable light and to suggest that embracing generational differences provides an opportunity as well as a challenge. This article examines traits of the different generations, in addition to the relationship between organizational commitment and workplace culture. We present findings that show millennials (also known as Generation Y, or Gen Y) as the only generational group that does not conceptually link organizational commitment with workplace culture. This group also thinks of work differently than members of the other generations, yet these differences can be understood through a managerial lens focusing on qualities such as duty, drive, and reward. We argue that by changing performance evaluation metrics to encompass a greater variety of measures, managers can provide a more detailed picture of the employee's work, and thus impact the worker's sense of duty. Additionally, by providing a more transparent workplace, employers can increase the employee's drive and clearly demonstrate the reward that workers will receive. Finally, changes that help newer employees adjust to the workplace can also allow the organization to operate more efficiently, benefiting employees of all generations.
Organizational capital is an intangible asset that is a continuous creator of value through generating above-normal revenue growth, innovation, operational excellence, and stakeholder relationships. The elusive nature of organizational capital stems from competing perspectives on how it can be defined and managed. This article presents a comprehensive model for understanding the critical process, components, and necessary linkages that result in increased enterprise value through the creation of organizational capital. Attention is given to the factors that influence organizational capital (fit among leadership, strategy, and organization design), its influence on human capital, and, ultimately, the impact on operational excellence, stakeholder capital, and the essential levels of innovation that drive capital efficient growth. Guidance is provided for the CEO, CFO, and CHRO wishing to harness the power of organizational capital and increase both current and future value of the firm.