Organizations' corporate social responsibility efforts are facing closer scrutiny today than ever before. In recent years, a new reputation management strategy has emerged: the confession. The authors describe a study in which companies that confessed their inadequacy in confronting racial inequity were rated as more socially responsible than organizations that did not issue such statements. Thus, a proactive approach can be more effective than a reactive strategy for building stakeholder trust.

Erste Group ("Erste"), one of the largest financial services providers in Central and Eastern Europe, faced a rapidly changing business environment in 2019: fintech startups were unbundling retail banking services as consumers' expectations for service in the digital age were evolving-and increasing. Yet, on the 200th anniversary of its inception as the first Austrian savings bank, Erste had overcome a number of strategic, leadership and spatial challenges. In response to the rise of digital banking, Erste created George, a digital platform; grew an omnichannel offering; and developed a strategy based on being a trusted provider of financial literacy, thereby enabling customers' financial health. The creation and growth of George gave rise to organizational challenges: to support the business strategy, Erste's digital innovation lab, Erste Hub, was located in a separate organization, away from Erste's other Viennese properties. The dispersal of Erste's operations throughout 28 inner-city locations in Vienna created major organizational and logistical challenges for the bank as it grew, making the search for a suitable physical solution an imperative-for decades. The development of a consolidated facility for Erste was kindled by the purchase of an unusually large parcel of land in 2007, and culminated in the staged occupancy of an innovative new campus in 2016. In 2019, Erste celebrated a momentous anniversary and executives and employees reflected on the multi-faceted impacts of the spatial consolidation of the group's local operations, including Erste Hub. Throughout this time period, Erste implemented fundamental changes within the organization. In parallel, leaders looked to the physical configuration of the new campus to impact how teams completed their work and, ultimately, boost the ability of the members of the organization to deliver on the new goals of innovation at Erste.

Organizational leaders are increasingly turning to design approaches as a panacea for uncertainty and disruption. However, frictions between design and typical engineering and management practices make integrating design into organizations difficult. To do this well, it is necessary to foster the coevolution of two types of design capabilities: deep expertise in design practices and wide understanding, application, and scaffolds of design. Underestimating the coevolution leads to three typical "pitfalls" that can limit the effectiveness of investments in design. This article examines each of these tensions in the context of large technology companies and presents practical recommendations on how to avoid them.

Kim Markey began as executive director of revenue cycle at Huntington Hospital (HH) in November 2012. Located in Pasadena, California, HH was a 625-bed non-profit regional medical center that was named among the top-performing hospitals in 2012 by U.S. News & World Report. To further HH's focus on high-quality, patient-centered care, Jim Noble, executive VP-COO/CFO, was looking for a change in direction, particularly in the Business Services Office. Accounts Receivable (AR), a key billing metric, could be lower and Noble hired Markey with the mandate to improve performance. Markey's long-term vision involved re-examining the revenue cycle and the hospital's processes to ensure that HH would become a stronger performer. She needed to get her metrics under control as a first step before transforming the departments she oversaw-Admitting, Business Services, Data Services, Medical Records, and Revenue Integrity-into truly patient-focused business centers. The next step would be removing barriers for patients and evolving the mindset of her departments so that HH would become known as "an organization that is going to work with you to help you understand what's going on." This case begins by detailing the environment that Markey found in the Business Services Office when she began. Because morale was low and an atmosphere of tension permeated, Markey was thoughtful and deliberate about her approach and actions as executive director. Huntington Hospital was also deep into preparations for a major software conversion, and from past experience, Markey knew that the implementation would negatively impact AR days. She needed to get the existing processes cleaned up and AR days as efficient as possible to minimize the increase that she knew was coming. To do so, she brought in two consultants.

The B case begins with the consultants' proposal to Kim Markey, executive director of revenue cycle at Huntington Hospital (HH). The proposal is untraditional in that it is focused on more than revenue enhancement-it includes transforming the culture. This case details the steps that the consultants took to engage staff and change culture. It describes how the consultants used Design Thinking, reactions from staff members, and the impacts on Accounts Receivable (AR) days. The case concludes with the evolution of both the culture as well as the organizational structure.

The case discusses LinkedIn's corporate culture in 2012-2103 and the importance the professional networking company put on maintaining that culture as it dramatically expanded in headcount domestically and internationally. LinkedIn's leadership believed its culture was its competitive advantage. The company fostered creativity, innovation, and a collaborative and open working environment, embraced humor, and was results oriented. LinkedIn sought to hire staff who wanted to make a positive lasting impact in the world and who valued integrity. To build and grow the corporate culture, two programs were designed to inspire creativity and collaboration: 1) Hackdays, in which teams of engineers worked to find solutions to problems they found personally engaging; and 2) Incubator, in which a team could pitch a product to the executive staff and potentially get time to turn the idea into a reality. Maintaining the culture also meant that employees were given a day off every month for personal development. LinkedIn Analytics data was used to measure overall strategy and results as well as employee satisfaction; "All Hands Meetings" twice a month included fun activities and some tiebacks to the company's culture along with reviewing the company's operating priorities and progress; and social impact programs were given a high priority. LinkedIn aimed to hire and promote from within, and when hiring externally looked for evidence of collaboration, humor, and passion. New employees were assigned a personal mentor, and all employees were part of initiatives to help colleagues learn new skills. The company's leadership had to figure out how it could maintain or modify these activities as it quickly grew.

The case is about the San Francisco-based law firm, Paragon Legal, founded by lawyer and entrepreneur Mae O'Malley. Paragon Legal gave high-level attorneys the opportunity to have a flexible schedule and work 10 to 40 hours a week. This was in the context of an industry that typically required very long hours and had inflexible schedules and serious penalties for stepping out of the field for any length of time. Eighty-five percent of Paragon Legal attorneys were women with children, but the firm also attracted women and men without children who wanted to find a work/life balance. Paragon Legal lawyers were contract workers and received competitive compensation. In addition to discussing Paragon Legal, the case details the landscape of the legal industry, including challenges and pressures on all attorneys and the additional challenges for women. By the summer of 2010, Paragon Legal had become successful in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the question posed in the (A) case is whether the company should scale within the region and/or geographically. And if so, what would that look like? Other topics of discussion in the case include: the nature of contract work, entrepreneurship (and female entrepreneurship), and redesigning work for a better work/life balance.