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Marketers, here's how to make good use of Twitter's rich consumer data.

Ever since he had heard her speak at a private equity conference, Babatunde Omotoba had wanted to work for Venita Fields, co-founder and senior managing director of private equity firm Smith Whiley & Company. He wrote and asked her for an informational interview, and was excited to receive her invitation to meet with her at the firm's regional office in Evanston, Illinois. After the interview, however, Omotoba came to the grim realization that despite all his preparations-researching private equity firms, studying the types of deals they make, and evaluating the analytical tools used to perform due diligence on companies and make investment decisions-he did not have a full grasp on the actual day-to-day work private equity professionals perform. He spent time reviewing materials from the career management office about private equity, and he meets two Kellogg alumni for informational interviews. He also reviews the investment process. The case ends with Omotoba having a broader perspective on the human aspect of private equity, beyond the analytical and financial aspects, as he anticipates meeting Fields again, hopefully to get the job offer.

Studies from around the globe consistently link entrepreneurship with rapid job creation, GDP growth, and long-term productivity increases. That's why the new holy grail for governments in both emerging and developed countries is to create an environment that nurtures and sustains entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, many governments take a misguided approach to building entrepreneurship ecosystems. They pursue some unattainable ideal and look to economies that are completely unlike theirs for best practices. However, today the most effective practices often come from remote corners of the earth, where resources-as well as legal frameworks, transparent governance, and democratic values-may be scarce. Drawing from lessons learned in such countries as Rwanda, Chile, Iceland, Israel, and Colombia, this article defines nine principles for building a successful entrepreneurship ecosystem: (1) Stop emulating Silicon Valley. (2) Shape the ecosystem around local conditions. (3) Engage the private sector early. (4) Favor the high potentials. (5) Get a big win on the board. (6) Tackle cultural change head-on. (7) Stress the roots. (8) Don't overengineer clusters; help them grow organically. (9) Reform legal, regulatory, and bureaucratic frameworks. Each of these is critical to entrepreneurship-yet insufficient to sustain it. They key is to integrate them all into one holistic system.

CEOs tend to believe that company structure is closely tied to performance, so it makes sense that nearly half of all CEOs reorganize their companies during their first two years on the job. But Marcia W. Blenko, Michael C. Mankins, and Paul Rogers of Bain & Company report that of 57 reorganizations they studied between 2000 and 2006, less than one-third saw significant performance improvement. This failure, they believe, is rooted in a misunderstanding about the link between structure and outcome. In truth, a company's structure only results in improved performance if it allows the firm to make key decisions better and faster than the competition. Making sure this is the case requires a shift in the way we manage organizational change. We must start with an audit of assets, capabilities, risks, and weaknesses and move toward a decision audit, in which the goal is to understand which set of decisions are key to the success of the company's strategy and at what organizational level they should be made. If there is alignment between structure and decisions, then the organization will work better and performance will improve. To reorganize around decisions, leaders should follow six steps: Identify their firm's key decisions, figure out where in the company those decisions should happen, organize the macrostructure based on sources of value, determine how much authority decision makers need, align the rest of the organizational system with that related to decision making, and help managers acquire the skills they need to make decisions quickly and well.

Companies are experiencing a crisis in employee engagement. One of the problems is all the pressure companies are putting on employees to produce. Workers are trying to get more done in less time-and are burning out. But while time is finite, energy is not; people can increase their reserves of personal energy. The key is to establish rituals-such as shutting down your e-mail for a couple of hours a day so you can focus on priorities, or taking a daily 3 p.m. walk to get a breather-that renew your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy. These behavioral changes are sustainable, though, only if leaders at the most senior levels of an organization are willing to set a context for them, both by creating their own rituals and by setting a tone where people feel safe taking time out of the day on a regular basis. This is just what the leaders of Sony Pictures Entertainment did. Working with Tony Schwartz of the Energy Project, they implemented energy management training that has reached nearly half the company so far. To date, the reaction to the program has been overwhelmingly positive. Eighty-eight percent of participants say it has made them more focused and productive. More than 90% say it has helped them bring more energy to work every day. Eighty-four percent say they feel better able to manage their jobs' demands and are more engaged at work. Sony's leaders believe that these changes have helped boost the company's performance. Despite the recession, Sony Pictures had its most profitable year ever in 2008 and one of its highest revenue years in 2009.

No one disputes that firms have to make organizational changes when the business environment demands them. But the idea that a firm might want change for its own sake often provokes skepticism. Why inflict all that pain if you don't have to? That is a dangerous attitude. A company periodically needs to shake itself up, regardless of the competitive landscape. Even if the external environment is not changing in ways that demand a response, the internal environment probably is. The human dynamics within an organization are constantly shifting--and require the organization to change along with them. Over time, informal networks mirror the formal structure, which is how silos develop; restructuring gets people to start forming new networks, making the organization as a whole more creative. It also disrupts all the routines in an organization that collectively stifle innovation and adaptability. Finally, restructuring breaks up the outdated power structures that may be quietly misdirecting a company's resource allocation. All these processes--silo formation, the accretion of deadening routines, and the emergence of corporate baronies--take place all the time. But when everything is going well, you tend not to notice them, just as many seemingly fit people don't realize that their arteries may be dangerously clogged. A simple questionnaire can serve as a kind of cholesterol test for your company, enabling you to see if your regimen needs minor or major adjustments.

Some employees are more talented than others, and nearly every company has its method for identifying their high-potential managers. So how can you get on your company's high-potential list? Douglas A. Ready, of the talent-management research center ICEDR; Jay A. Conger, of Claremont McKenna College; and Harvard Business School's Linda A. Hill have studied programs for high-potential leaders for 15 years. They have found that the rising stars who make the grade are remarkably similar in their core characteristics, the most intangible of which they call "X factors": a drive to excel, a catalytic learning capability, an enterprising spirit, and dynamic sensors that detect opportunities and obstacles. The authors' in-depth interviews with high potentials, their managers, and their HR departments reveal how you can develop your four X factors and, if you manage to get on your company's high-potential list, how to avoid falling off. The article also discusses the pros and cons companies face as they decide whether to make their high-potential lists transparent.

The pressure to grow the top line is so intense that most companies pay too much attention to expansion, and not enough to building strong internal capabilities. A few companies start from the other direction: They figure out what they're really good at and then develop those capabilities (three to six at most) until they've created a set of complementary, best-in-class competencies. For them, strategy then becomes a matter of aligning what they do well with the right marketplace opportunities-and the market rewards them with sustainable, superior returns.

Most companies know that they need to be greening their offerings-if not to gain advantage, then simply to keep up. In this article the authors offer a framework for embarking on the green-product development process, introducing three broad strategies that companies can use to align their green goals and capabilities. An "accentuate" strategy involves evaluating products in the company's current portfolio and playing up or extending latent or existing green attributes (as Arm and Hammer did when it repositioned its 150-year-old baking soda as "the #1 environmentally sensible alternative for cleaning and deodorizing"). An "acquire" strategy involves buying someone else's green brand-an approach used effectively by L'Oreal when it acquired The Body Shop, Unilever when it acquired Ben & Jerry's, and Colgate-Palmolive when it acquired Tom's of Maine. Finally, companies with innovation expertise can use an "architect" strategy, building green products from scratch, as Clorox did when it developed its celebrated Green Works line. Unruh and Ettenson offer case studies, outline benefits and hazards, and describe the optimal organizational and competitive circumstances for each strategy.

To achieve growth and profitability in the world's third-largest economy, multinationals need strong leadership-but China is tough on top executives. Pulsating with opportunity, China attracts foreigners, yet HR professionals continue to rank it as one of the most challenging destinations for expatriates. The problem, says the author, is that many executives sent to lead China operations are ill equipped to tackle the country's unique challenges. And it's hard to overcome that handicap, because leading in China calls for skills that go beyond and in some cases conflict with standard business teaching and practice. Foreign executives must be adept at reworking management orthodoxies in real time to do well there. The author's research-which includes interviews with the China business heads of around two dozen companies-confirms that success requires cultural understanding and adaptability, market knowledge, the ability to sense and respond to rapid change, and support from headquarters. Most important, effective leaders have the crucial ability to play roles that Westerners often view as contradictory: For instance, they are strategic yet hands-on; authoritative yet nurturing; and action driven yet circumspect. Above all, they have the intellectual dexterity to develop new frameworks and capabilities to meet China's particular circumstances. This article illustrates how CEOs have modified accepted wisdom to tackle their biggest challenges in China. Though some of the lessons may seem like common sense to experienced China hands, they're anything but to a freshman expat. Leaders must (1) understand the market, but work with the state; (2) adapt to local conditions, but implement global standards; (3) pay for performance, but build a people-centric workplace; (4) drive costs down, but maintain quality; and (5) recognize complexity, but define clear priorities.

India's HCL Technologies has, according to Fortune, the world's most modern management. BusinessWeek says that HCL is one of the top five emerging companies in the world to watch. That's mainly because of a transformation effort that the author, who took over leadership of the $5 billion IT services company in 2005, launched. Nayar learned from talking with customers that what they valued most-above products, services, and technologies-was HCL's employees. So he came up with a radical idea, Employees First, Customers Second, to bring about organizational change. In this article, he explains how he got stakeholders-HCL's founder and chairman, the board of directors, senior executives, managers, and employees-to back his campaign for radical change.

If you're unhappy at work, and changing roles or companies may be unrealistic given the tough economy, what can you do? A growing body of research suggests that a process called job crafting can be a powerful tool for reenergizing and reimagining your life at work. It involves redefining your current job description to better incorporate your motives, strengths, and passions. The exercise prompts you to visualize your job graphically, map its elements, and reorganize them to shape the job to better suit you. In this way, you can put your own personal touches on the way you see and do your job; and you'll gain a greater sense of control at work-all of which is especially critical at a time when you're probably working longer and harder and will be retiring later. Perhaps job crafting's best feature is that it's driven by you, not your supervisor. Research with a range of organizations indicates that employees who engage in job crafting often end up more engaged and satisfied with their work lives, achieve higher levels of performance in their organizations, and report greater personal resilience. And organizations have a lot to gain by enabling job crafting: The exercise lets managers turn the reins over to employees, empowering them to become "job entrepreneurs." And when pay resources are constrained or promotions impossible, job crafting may give companies a different way to motivate and retain their most talented employees.

Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

Joe Girardi had wanted to play for the Chicago Cubs since he was a boy. He achieved that ambition, went on to coach for the Yankees, and is now the New York team's manager. He reflects in this interview on the value of numbers, how to keep players focused, and the challenges that come with being the most successful sports franchise in American history.

Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

Ten Thousand Villages (TTV) is a nonprofit fair trade retail organization with a store located in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the store's opening and first two years of operations (2002-2004), Karen, the chair of the board of directors, and Cheryl, the store manager, struggle to develop a customer-focused plan to ensure sales increases for their unique operation. Marketing issues ranging from store location selection to inventory selection and promotion are presented. In addition to covering an alternative method of doing business - nonprofit enterprise - the case provides a platform for customer relationship management (CRM) implementation in a small, nonprofit environment.

The vice-president of human resources at Sandcore Instruments has to make a recommendation to the company's president regarding a sales representative with a history of poor performance. The vice-president must decide what action to take, including whether the sales representative should be terminated. The vice-president must consider how his decision will affect other employees in the Quebec sales network.

The vice-president of human resources at Sandcore Instruments has to make a recommendation to the company's president regarding a sales representative with a history of poor performance. In this supplement to Sandcore Instruments (A), product #910C11, the vice-president discovers that the sales representative has offered to perform service work for a customer on his own time at a much lower price if cash is paid. The vice-president must update his action plan accordingly.

Supplement to 910C01