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In 2015, nine black Americans were killed in a racially motivated shooting spree. The incident fuelled ongoing racial tensions in the United States and launched a conflict over the presence of Confederate memorials in public spaces. When the push to remove Confederate memorials began, the task for Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, was to deal with the city's notable Confederate monuments and the conflict they engendered in a city divided along racial lines demographically, economically, and historically. On May 19, 2017, Landrieu addressed the public. Students have the opportunity to evaluate the speech, consider why Landrieu chose this occasion to address the public, and determine what the speech reveals about his leadership character.

In 2015, nine black Americans were killed in a racially motivated shooting spree. The incident fuelled ongoing racial tensions in the United States and launched a conflict over the presence of Confederate memorials in public spaces. When the push to remove Confederate memorials began, the task for Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, was to deal with the city's notable Confederate monuments and the conflict they engendered in a city divided along racial lines demographically, economically, and historically. On May 19, 2017, Landrieu addressed the public. Students have the opportunity to evaluate the speech, consider why Landrieu chose this occasion to address the public, and determine what the speech reveals about his leadership character.

Leader character is foundational to good leadership. We define character as an amalgam of virtues, values, and personality traits that influence how leaders behave in various contexts. Our research identified 11 dimensions of leader character and 60-plus character elements that are illustrative of those dimensions. We integrate two frameworks: John Kotter's eight-step model of leading change and our framework of leader character dimensions and associated elements. Specifically, the objective of this article is to illustrate which dimensions of leader character come into play at various points in the organizational change process and how their presence or absence affects the outcomes of the change process. Beyond that, we draw inferences about how organizations might develop character among all leaders but especially those younger, less experienced leaders who will become tomorrow's leaders of change projects.

Calgary’s city manager sought to build stronger relationships with the community to attract development and retain investment in the city. He knew that implementing the Proximity Initiative guidelines, a collaborative effort between the Railway Association of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, while intended to limit potential safety risks in the case of a derailment or volume release, would simultaneously limit urban development opportunities, particularly within the downtown. The guidelines did not consider the balance of public safety with economic diversification so specific to Calgary's context. The manager had to consider an appropriate solution for his city.

Calgary's city manager sought to build stronger relationships with the community to attract development and retain investment in the city. He knew that implementing the Proximity Initiative guidelines, a collaborative effort between the Railway Association of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, while intended to limit potential safety risks in the case of a derailment or volume release, would simultaneously limit urban development opportunities, particularly within the downtown. The guidelines did not consider the balance of public safety with economic diversification so specific to Calgary's context. The manager had to consider an appropriate solution for his city.

In the summer of 2015, one of Nestlé SA (Nestlé)’s top-selling products in the Indian market, its two-minute Maggi noodles, was embroiled in a food and safety issue when lead was discovered during a test. Media pundits called for the arrest of Nestlé officials. Others took to the street to set ablaze the famous yellow-coloured Maggi packets. Nestlé treated the matter largely as a regulatory issue, managing the crisis with scientific data at hand. The narrative was quickly set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority and its various provincial partners, which led to statewide bans and expanded tests of Maggi noodles across India and beyond. Nestlé executives wondered how a simple test had landed the organization and its prized brand in hot water. How can Nestlé take control and win back consumer confidence?

In the summer of 2015, one of Nestlé SA (Nestlé)'s top-selling products in the Indian market, its two-minute Maggi noodles, was embroiled in a food and safety issue when lead was discovered during a test. Media pundits called for the arrest of Nestlé officials. Others took to the street to set ablaze the famous yellow-coloured Maggi packets. Nestlé treated the matter largely as a regulatory issue, managing the crisis with scientific data at hand. The narrative was quickly set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority and its various provincial partners, which led to statewide bans and expanded tests of Maggi noodles across India and beyond. Nestlé executives wondered how a simple test had landed the organization and its prized brand in hot water. How can Nestlé take control and win back consumer confidence?

In June 2016, the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) appointed Rahul Bhardwaj—an accomplished executive and director with a long, successful track record in the business, community, and non-profit sectors—to lead the national association for board directors. The self-proclaimed “governance geek” sat down with Ivey Business School Professor Gerard Seijts to discuss what boards must do to help firms navigate turbulent waters. With improvements in boards following the Enron, Volkswagen, and Wells Fargo scandals, Bhardwaj sees more of a board focus on corporate culture than ever before: “The need to be more careful about what you reward has been brought to the forefront of governance thinking.” He says the biggest public misconception about a board’s governance role is that it is a cushy job. Given the increased complexity of the director role, the speed with which a crisis can develop, and the challenges created by technological and political disruption, the level of engagement required for directors has increased dramatically. It used to be fairly common for a director to serve on four or five boards, but today that seems hard to justify. Finally, Bhardwaj sees Canadian companies as the most trusted in the world, because trust in firms from other nations has fallen.

Appointed president and CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada in 2014, McKay is leading Canada’s biggest bank as the Digital Age and fintech revolution force the industry’s old business models into extinction. As a champion of Canada’s innovation ecosystem, McKay spearheads RBC’s support for and partnerships with universities, start-ups, and accelerators, particularly in technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. McKay sat down with Ivey Business School Professor Gerard Seijts to discuss how his organization is harnessing disruptive forces to reimagine banking. McKay sees two major macro drivers of disruption in our time. First, we’ve entered the platforms era in which people’s lives are interconnected via social media, e-commerce, online entertainment, workplace networks, etc. The second is climate change, which impacts how societies organize and feed themselves. Creating transformational change in response to a crisis, McKay claims, is relatively easy, and yet creating a sense of urgency when business is thriving is difficult. Some of RBC’s most successful products over the past 10 years have come out of employee surveys. RBC’s old way of working was a matrix, with everyone focused on their roles, but it has flattened the organization and created agile teams that are cross-functional and own the entire process, and where everybody has input across a project’s journey. Ultimately, McKay does not see machines and automation as a threat, but cautions that continuous learning must be entrenched in formal education programs.

In 2014, Randy MacEwen was named CEO of Ballard, where he leads the company’s focus on providing innovative clean energy solutions with fuel cell vehicles. In 2017, Ballard became the first fuel cell company to power buses for more than 10 million cumulative kilometres. In this Ivey Business Journal interview, MacEwen talks with Ivey Professor Gerard Seijts about the leadership skills needed to navigate disruptions in today’s changing business environment. With the exception of the United States, MacEwen says, we have global consensus on the need to keep the global temperature increase by the end of the century below 2 degrees Celsius. That will require deep de-carbonization and major transformation in the energy, transportation, and industrial sectors. The need to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and improve air quality is driving the trend to electrify propulsion systems in cars, buses, and trains. There’s also a push to make vehicles lighter and equip them with autonomous driving. These efforts are complicated by the trend of transportation as a service. Yet another disruptor is China. Significantly, these mega-trends are not temporal; they are global and converging. MacEwen explains how Ballard reflected on its cultural values and distilled them to five: “Listen and Deliver” (customer centricity); “Quality”; “Inspire Excellence” (urgency, passion, and showing leadership); “Row Together” (trust); and “Own It” (accountability).

When appointed chief executive in 2014, Mary Barra was tasked with completing the company’s post-bankruptcy recovery while shifting GM’s strategic gears. Shortly after, GM’s restructuring was threatened by a defective ignition switch scandal linked to over 100 deaths. In this Ivey Business Journal interview, topics include the automobile industry’s new trend towards software validation (with an emphasis on constant upgrades and minimum viable products), versus the old approach of mechanical validation (with an emphasis on heavy retesting and seeking initial perfection). Barra has been surprised by autonomous driving, and says that due to emerging technologies, workers of all education levels must be prepared to change careers multiple times. When GM faces a crisis, she assembles a team guided by three principles: doing the right thing for customers, being honest and transparent, and doing everything possible to ensure the issue never recurs. Barra has seen significant positive movement in terms of corporate responsibility versus when she attended business school in the late 1980s, and sees an opportunity for business scholars to study the importance of long-term perspectives over short-term results.

Charles Brindamour is the CEO of Intact Financial Corporation, an insurance firm that makes profits purely from selling insurance—unlike most insurance firms, which rely on investing insurance premiums to make profits. In this Ivey Business Journal interview, he explains how for the last five years, Intact has been focused on three trends: changing customer expectations, software, and data explosion and democratization. Besides technology, the most important change in the industry has been customers’ expectations of their suppliers, which have been amplified by social media. Software has changed how people access information and share expertise and experience. Other changes affecting the industry are resulting from increased data generation and climate change. In Brindamour’s view, disruption and preparing for disruption constitute a continuum. The first step is dealing with the basics of disruption that can occur. The second step in the continuum is to invest in enabling technology and skills. The third step is to invest in innovation. The fourth stage is “research and venture.” Brindamour says that a gap in business school learning is the process of learning not just as an individual or leader, but as an organization. Disruptors, he claims, are not software geniuses; they are the ones who see the gap between what is and what is expected and provide strong design ideas.

In late 2014, the deputy minister of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence joined the public service, six months after Ukraine’s revolution and change of government. He joined the ministry as part of the new government’s attempt to reform a bureaucracy crippled by corruption, inefficiencies, and dysfunction. In six months, he had already made notable changes. However, by March 2015, the changes were not resulting in better outcomes where they were urgently needed—in the eastern regions, supporting a tactically and logistically crippled military that was resisting Russian attempts at incursion. What more could the deputy minister do to initiate and lead change?

In late 2014, the deputy minister of Ukraine's Ministry of Defence joined the public service, six months after Ukraine's revolution and change of government. He joined the ministry as part of the new government's attempt to reform a bureaucracy crippled by corruption, inefficiencies, and dysfunction. In six months, he had already made notable changes. However, by March 2015, the changes were not resulting in better outcomes where they were urgently needed-in the eastern regions, supporting a tactically and logistically crippled military that was resisting Russian attempts at incursion. What more could the deputy minister do to initiate and lead change?

In January 2016, the executive director of Canada's Stratford Festival, one of North America's largest repertory theatre companies, was considering the festival's long-term outlook and the role the organization played in the community. The 2015 season had been successful, and she would be able to report a small surplus to the board at the upcoming annual general meeting. But the long-term outlook wasn't as secure. Annual attendance had dropped below previous levels of more than 500,000, which was the attendance needed to ensure long-term operational sustainability. The festival had returned to its creative roots during a period when the Canadian dollar had been in decline, but it had not been enough to ensure that the organization would survive its next economic tempest. The festival needed a long-term, innovative strategy to generate sustainable growth and strengthen it sufficiently to weather future economic downturns and exchange rate fluctuations.

In January 2016, the executive director of Canada's Stratford Festival, one of North America's largest repertory theatre companies, was considering the festival's long-term outlook and the role the organization played in the community. The 2015 season had been successful, and she would be able to report a small surplus to the board at the upcoming annual general meeting. But the long-term outlook wasn't as secure. Annual attendance had dropped below previous levels of more than 500,000, which was the attendance needed to ensure long-term operational sustainability. The festival had returned to its creative roots during a period when the Canadian dollar had been in decline, but it had not been enough to ensure that the organization would survive its next economic tempest. The festival needed a long-term, innovative strategy to generate sustainable growth and strengthen it sufficiently to weather future economic downturns and exchange rate fluctuations.

The CEO of a failed bank in Iceland must address what went wrong and how he should go about restoring trust in the bank by customers, debt holders, fellow Icelanders, politicians and regulators. Crippled by the global financial crisis, not only did Iceland's banks default but the country itself was in danger of dissolution. This case examines the myriad reasons for the bank failure and subsequent nationalization, and provides an understanding of the complexity of a large bankruptcy.

America faces a previously unimaginable leadership crisis. And that is why businesspeople fleeing White House advisory councils over Trump’s response to the tragic events in Charlottesville—where a civil rights activist was killed during a violent clash—should be applauded, not attacked. Unfortunately, millions of Trump supporters don’t see a problem with the comfort that racists are taking from his leadership. And because these Trump supporters are also consumers, it is risky business for CEOs to take a stand against the man. Simply put, Trump doesn’t understand or care why there should be no presidential ambiguity when it comes to discrimination. As things stand, the president of the United States does not understand good leadership. His behaviour is dangerously erratic, childish, and divisive thanks to his unhealthy need for applause. Perhaps watching more and more CEOs choose to serve the country and their corporate stakeholders by taking a stand against his administration rather than supporting it will eventually cause Trump to reflect on his flaws as a leader. Either way, when something far more important than profits is on the line, choosing not to be associated with someone who has repeatedly attacked the foundation of American greatness is a sound business decision.

In this Ivey Business Journal interview, the digital information technology pioneer Tom Jenkins talks to Ivey Business School Professor Gerard Seijts about profound public policy challenges being created by the digital revolution and what Canada can do to overcome them. Despite real concerns about Canadian productivity and the ability of its largest corporations to remain competitive, Canada is doing well in the digital race. But it is not thinking enough about the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and has not sufficiently discussed the public policy challenges presented by an “always on” world that will continue to evolve rapidly. Significant change is coming and we need to consider it in terms of major public policy issues: productivity and innovation, infrastructure, information and security, governance and machines, talent, and education. Many professions may be eliminated within a decade because the big data analytics trend reduces the need for humans to perform deductive reasoning. The sharing economy along with autonomous vehicles could dramatically reduce our need for infrastructure investment. To support business development in the future, we must realize that digital enterprises will require “digital roads” and better Internet infrastructure. Sectors like transportation and financial services are being transformed by computer scientists, and future breakthroughs in other areas such as healthcare and education are probably also going to be driven by computer scientists.

A year after a massive data breach at its Ashley Madison adultery service, Avid Life Media relaunched in 2016 under a new name. The move was designed to help the business recover from the hacker attack that had exposed its security and governance issues and dashed the desire of investors to take the company public. It was also a strategic step to regain the trust of customers who had been outed as would-be cheaters. Now known as Ruby, the company has new leadership, and Ashley Madison has dropped the tagline “Life Is Short. Have an Affair.” and replaced it with “Find Your Moment.” While announcing these moves, the CEO assured wedding-vow breakers that the controversial business intended to remain “true to our roots.” <br><br> Ultimately, a business founded to help people deceive their partners will have a fraught reputation regardless of the parent company’s name. That’s why Ashley Madison is a case study that keeps on giving. Long before a hacker group exposed the personal information of millions of Ashley Madison members, we developed an Ivey case study based on Avid Life’s first attempt to go public in 2010. Back then, the business’s controversial nature and aggressive founder were seen as free publicity. Further, the company was considered well-run and profitable. Yet Avid Life failed to attract investment in 2010, which raised issues about the function of businesses, e.g., the shareholder perspective versus the stakeholder perspective. Boardrooms still debate how best to balance the duty to generate returns for shareholders with growing public expectations of corporate social responsibility. To help understand the reputational issues involved, there is perhaps no better case than the jilting of Ashley Madison by investment bankers, who are not typically seen as the moral compass of society.