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If you have a big job, the thinking goes, you should focus on it obsessively so that you excel and position yourself for the next role. But, in fact, such single-mindedness can stymie your career. Leaders need to find ways to expand their range of knowledge, skills, and connections outside their daily work. This goes beyond attending conferences or even taking classes; it requires meaningful engagement in outside activities, such as work on boards, in teaching or public service, in mentoring start-ups, and in leadership roles for associations and clubs. This article explains how to find time in your hectic schedule, identify the side gigs that will be synergistic with your personal interests and current job, and get your employer's buy-in. Taking on extracurricular activities isn't always easy, but in the end it can open up opportunities for you and become your personal competitive advantage.

Connor, a managing director at an investment bank, finds himself in a bind when a superstar on his team, Alysha, announces that she's leaving to join a competitor. Making matters worse, she may take another employee, Trent, with her. Connor has to decide whether to make Alysha a counteroffer, entice Trent to stay with a promotion, or try to recruit an outside hire. This fictional case study by Boris Groysberg features expert commentary by Mehtab Bhogal and Krista Mathews.

Kondo, the head of a successful consulting business and the author of several best-selling books about tidying, talks about her motto--"Keep only what sparks joy"--and about tidying at work.

Connor, a managing director at an investment bank, finds himself in a bind when a superstar on his team, Alysha, announces that she's leaving to join a competitor. Making matters worse, she may take another employee, Trent, with her. Connor has to decide whether to make Alysha a counteroffer, entice Trent to stay with a promotion, or try to recruit an outside hire. This fictional case study by Boris Groysberg features expert commentary by Mehtab Bhogal and Krista Mathews.

Connor, a managing director at an investment bank, finds himself in a bind when a superstar on his team, Alysha, announces that she's leaving to join a competitor. Making matters worse, she may take another employee, Trent, with her. Connor has to decide whether to make Alysha a counteroffer, entice Trent to stay with a promotion, or try to recruit an outside hire. This fictional case study by Boris Groysberg features expert commentary by Mehtab Bhogal and Krista Mathews.

There are many possible ways to present choice options to a target audience, and the selected presentation can have a significant impact on what people decide. The authors argue that the way choices are presented-known as 'choice architecture'-can lead decision makers to consider both the intentions of the choice architect and how their decision will be construed by others. And there are important implications for its effectiveness. As a result, the implicit interaction between decision-makers and choice architects is a crucial factor to be considered in the crafting of effective behavioural policy and organizational strategies.

Small factors in a context - whether it be in a government service, a financial institution or a retail environment - either facilitate or impede the end user in accomplishing an objective. University of Toronto behavioural economics expert Dilip Soman shows that if these factors are designed to facilitate a good decision, they are called 'nudges'. But in some cases the contextual variables actively impede activities that are in a consumers' best interest. This is called sludge, and it exists in all walks of life. He discusses where sludge is most common, the biases it targets, and what to do about it.

No one would argue that the Internet has changed the way we life, work and play. But given the growing understanding of common human biases, organizations have two choices: exploit those biases or 'nudge' people in the right direction, for their benefit. The authors describe some of the key areas where the Internet is doing damage to our well being, and how to turn things around to shape the evolution of the digital world to build fairer, better markets.

A difficult conversation is anything that is hard for someone to talk about. It can range from asking your boss for a raise to providing negative feedback to a subordinate to complaining to your neighbour about his dog barking. These conversations are particularly tricky because there is often a gap between what people are really thinking and what they say. In a wide ranging interview, two experts on the topic show that every difficult conversation is really about three things (what actually happened, our identity and our feelings). They provide tips for turning difficult conversations into learning conversations that benefit all parties.

The ability to make a compelling presentation is a critical competency for career success. Yet studies show at least 25 percent of us experience significant public speaking anxiety. The authors provide six scientifically proven strategies aimed at improving your mindset and reducing your fear of public speaking. These include 'deconstructing your beliefs' and 'visualizing your optimal performance'. In the end, they show that the objective of desensitization is twofold: To unlearn an association between an anxiety-inducing situation and an anxious response; and to reassociate feelings of safety, relaxation and confidence with the feared stimulus.

The extraordinary success of people like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey is often attributed in part to their high levels of passion for what they do. The author argues that this sentiment is both exactly right-and only half of the story. He describes his research findings, which show that in some cases, showing passion for your work can engage those around you and inspire them to join you in your quest. But in several specific scenarios, showing passion can alienate coworkers and lead them to work against you.

Conventional wisdom says that 'if you see something, say something'. But in reality most people fail to do so. The authors-neuroscience experts from the Neuroleadership Institute-show that the three primary drivers of employee silence are ambiguity, asymmetrical power dynamics and social threat. They argue that by embracing perspective taking and by paying attention to five key elements, leaders can encourage a culture of speaking up.

Few people would argue that innovation is vital to every organization's growth and competitiveness. Yet most are still struggling to put it into practice. The author-a co-founder of BEWorks, a leading behavioral economics consulting firm-shows that regardless of industry, people struggle with having a 'paradoxical accountability' - for maintaining systems and ensuring their smooth operation, while simultaneously being expected to disrupt and improve those systems. She shows that Behavioural Science is leading the charge to provide innovators with a long-overdue method to tackle their problems-in a way that is measurable, observable, and testable, making innovation an ongoing reality for your organization.

In an increasingly complex world, the scarcest collective resource of the modern leadership team may just be the most important one: attention. In vigilant organizations, executive attention is leveraged for greater agility and advantage, whereas in vulnerable ones, misdirected attention creates blind spots, myopia and delayed reactions. In an excerpt from their latest book, the authors show that a deeper awareness about our own decision biases due to cognitive, emotional and social factors is critical in managing attention in any organization-and ensuring it is vigilant rather than vulnerable.

Zomato, a leading restaurant discovery and review platform, entered the highly competitive hyperlocal food delivery space in 2014. Though Zomato was a leading platform for search and discovery, it trailed behind the market leader in the delivery landscape. While Zomato's attempt to increase profitability by implementing a subscription model proved popular among customers, it antagonized a significant segment of its restaurant partners. As December 2019 drew to a close, the key decision-makers at Zomato wondered whether entering the growing delivery market and the subsequent transition would be worth the cost of competition. The startup would have to make a strategic decision with respect to its market dominance and competitive moves in the delivery market. Should it focus on the large, hypercompetitive markets in major cities to build high-density delivery networks, or should it focus on pre-empting the competition by nurturing small-town markets? Would acquiring its competitors help in rapid scaling, or should Zomato engage in another round of business model innovation by focusing on cloud kitchens and private labels?

In August 2019, WeWork filed for an initial public offering; investors in its 14 venture capital rounds were anxious for an exit. Softbank had invested US$6 billion in WeWork, including US$2 billion in the Series H round that valued the firm at US$47 billion; consequently, it hoped for a positive reception from Wall Street. While WeWork had 100 per cent recent sales growth, its net income was US$1.9 billion, and it was on pace to spend over US$5 billion in 2019; it needed capital. WeWork's chief executive officer met with SoftBank in Tokyo to discuss a "dramatic reduction in its valuation." Should they proceed with the IPO, even if it required a reduction in its valuation, or should they cancel the IPO and pursue an additional round of private capital?

Student spreadsheet to case W20367

After United Airlines baggage handlers damaged Dave Carroll's guitar, he spent months fruitlessly seeking compensation. Then he created a music video about the experience and posted it on YouTube. Within three days "United Breaks Guitars" had been viewed by 1.5 million people, many of whom chimed in with their own grievances. United's stock plunged, with many observers attributing the drop in part to the PR debacle.This incident and others like it prompted researchers led by KEDGE Business School's Dennis Herhausen to analyze nearly half a million negative comments posted in the public Facebook communities of 89 companies, along with the firms' responses. As a result of that work, they developed recommendations for detecting and preventing potential online firestorms and limiting the damage if one erupts. Among the findings: Posts containing intense emotions were more likely than others to spread. Strong ties between a post's author and the community drove contagion, as did linguistic similarities. Companies should respond to negative posts, and fast; the worst thing a firm can do is ignore an unhappy customer. Apologies and requests to switch to a private channel lowered virality, as long as they were communicated right away. But offering compensation early on had the opposite effect; it sometimes prompted other customers to post complaints in the hope of being rewarded themselves.

The conventional wisdom tells us that we learn from failure, but new research suggests it often has the opposite effect: When things go wrong, people feel threatened and tune out.

Kathy Ayers, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Land and Nature (L&N) Jerky Company, needs to make a recommendation about L&N's 2020 promotional spending. L&N's CEO, Tim Ryan, wants her to calculate different scenarios using historical data to determine which option to recommend. Specifically, Ryan wants Ayers to recommend one of the three options: reduce the promotion budget by 30%, increase spending on consumer promotions by $200,000, or increase spending on trade promotions by $200,000. Ryan's goal is to achieve an operating profit of at least 7% of L&N's sales in 2020. To make a recommendation, Ayers must first evaluate the effectiveness of past consumer and trade promotions and then determine how to allocate promotional spending to achieve Ryan's operating profit goal. The case can be used to discuss positioning and integrated marketing communications. It demonstrates how return-on-marketing-investment (ROMI) varies with changes in gross profit. Students will need to evaluate strategic information as well as calculate quantitative information. The case is recommended for upper-level undergraduate students or first-year MBA students studying marketing management. It can also be used in a course on consumer marketing, promotions management, or integrated marketing communications.