The founders of Dutch professional services firm Schuberg Philis, and the new leadership team entrusted with the day-to-day management, must set the path forward in 2019. The company has grown into a €70 million revenue strong IT provider with top ranks in the industry's yearly customer satisfaction surveys, yet its journey has not been without bumps. In 2010, it had to stop customer acquisition for a few years, as mounting workload and their 100% commitment to satisfy customers put too much pressure on its teams. Despite adjustments to its culture with more focus on employees as well as customers, tensions built up again during the next growth phase, leading to a reorganization with leadership handover in 2017 to become more scalable. Two years later, the founders and their management team now have to decide if their organization is ready for another ambitious growth plan, aiming for a 5-fold growth in staff and revenues by 2025.

Three years into their "Ambition" growth plan, in 2022, the management team of Dutch professional service firm Schuberg Philis is taking stock. The global COVID-19 pandemic and other headwinds required adjustments to their growth targets, but they believe that their organization's strong performance throughout these uncertain times, as well as their now more human-centric culture, make them well positioned to meet whatever challenges may lay ahead.

Do you-as leader, an individual within an organization, or running your own business-know when to say yes and when to say no? How do you make decisions about your own career and life? How do you counsel others who ask you for career and life insights? Owusu-Kesse is not only a new CEO of a nonprofit organization changing the lives of tens of thousands of children and young adults, but he also took this position while the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world, and more specifically in the streets and homes of Harlem, New York. Now the newly selected CEO has a major decision to make, one which could change the trajectory of his own career, the organization he is tasked to lead, and make a meaningful difference in the lives of children and young adults beyond Harlem. A group of philanthropic organizations have asked Owusu-Kesse to take the lead in coordinating the scaling of the Harlem Children's Zone place-based model nationally, beginning in a dozen major U.S. cities. What should the response of the CEO be to this extraordinary request? How should he make the decision? How does he think about the children and families within Harlem who already require his full attention amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning, renewing a sense of urgency to address rampant inequalities? How does he think about inspiring and leading his organization of 1,800 professionals who are already tired and depleted? Should he seriously take on a national effort at this time?

A manager grapples with the question of flexible work schedules. This fictional case study by Thomas J. DeLong features expert commentary by Elizabeth McKinnon and Rachel Thomas.

A manager grapples with the question of flexible work schedules. This fictional case study by Thomas J. DeLong features expert commentary by Elizabeth McKinnon and Rachel Thomas.

A manager grapples with the question of flexible work schedules. This fictional case study by Thomas J. DeLong features expert commentary by Elizabeth McKinnon and Rachel Thomas.

Supplement to (A) case. Katie Hood, CEO of the One Love Foundation (One Love), a group dedicated to the prevention of relationship violence, had grown the organization's base of funding support to $6 million by 2017 and broadened its mandate to include relationships across many demographics. But questions about how best to deploy their funding loomed, as well as divergent views on the pace of growth the organization should target. One Love also needed to develop better metrics by which to measure its success. This case explores Hood's plan of action as she aims to bring One Love to greater scale.

Katie Hood, CEO of the One Love Foundation (One Love), a group dedicated to the prevention of relationship violence, had grown the organization's base of funding support to $6 million by 2017 and broadened its mandate to include relationships across many demographics. But questions about how best to deploy their funding loomed, as well as divergent views on the pace of growth the organization should target. One Love also needed to develop better metrics by which to measure its success. This case explores Hood's plan of action as she aims to bring One Love to greater scale.

This (B) case describes the actions Andre Wyss, President of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., took in early 2012 to transform the company's General Medicines group and build its speciality medications marketing the selling capabilities in the face of falling revenues and an imminent workforce reduction. Rather than downsize the organization quickly to save costs, Wyss and his team took a different approach. They told the organization's employees that there would be a significant workforce reduction but it would not occur for several months. In the meantime, Wyss asked the employees to help build the new capabilities and put processes in place to support the move into specialty medications. It was a bold decision and defied convention.

Over the course of a tumultuous weekend in April 2010, André Wyss was put in charge of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NPC), the U.S. sales and marketing subsidiary of Novartis Pharma AG. He was brought in at a critical point in the organization's evolution with a mandate to grow the specialty medications business; the skills and capabilities needed to market and sell specialty medications were considerably different than those required for marketing and selling primary care medications, which NPC had been quite successful doing. In 2011, the 5-year revenue projections were revised significantly downward and Wyss needed to cut costs while also building the organization's capabilities quickly in early 2012.

Sarah Sullivan, the new Managing Director of Greater Marketing Solutions, faces the difficult challenge of letting seven professionals go within a short span of time. In doing so she faces two greater challenges: figuring out which individuals to let go and getting her leadership team on board with her plan.

Gerry Pasciucco was appointed to lead American International Group's Financial Products (AIGFP) group after the government bailout of AIG in 2008 and charged with the task of shutting down the division while minimizing the government's losses. AIGFP's failed trades had threatened to bring down the entire company, and the government had responded by loaning AIG $182 billion in exchange for 79.9% of the company, because it feared that AIG's failure could trigger the collapse of the entire global financial system. Several months into his tenure, the division paid large retention bonuses to all of its professionals according to a contract negotiated before he joined AIGFP. These bonuses were seen by the public as going to the very people whose mistakes resulted in the need for a bailout in the first place and resulted in an unprecedented storm of public outrage, culminating in a Congressional hearing in which AIG's CEO, Ed Liddy, was repeatedly attacked for making the bonus payments. Liddy responded by asking people who had received the largest payments to return the money to the company. Now Pasciucco has to decide how to lead his team through this crisis while grappling with the larger issues of the justice of the retention payments.

Natalia Georgio is the executive director of a growing dance troupe. She has a mandate from her board to expand the company by going international and pursuing TV and film opportunities. To realize these plans for growth, she recently hired a new marketing director, who wants to launch a customer research initiative. The company's founder, however, believes that innovation comes from employees, not customers. Natalia needs to decide whether to bring her new marketing director's customer research plan to the board or follow the founder's lead and cultivate creativity from within. Thomas J. DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan present this fictionalized case study.

Natalia Georgio is the executive director of a growing dance troupe. She has a mandate from her board to expand the company by going international and pursuing TV and film opportunities. To realize these plans for growth, she recently hired a new marketing director, who wants to launch a customer research initiative. The company's founder, however, believes that innovation comes from employees, not customers. Natalia needs to decide whether to bring her new marketing director's customer research plan to the board or follow the founder's lead and cultivate creativity from within. Thomas J. DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan present this fictionalized case study with expert commentary provided by Mario D'Amico and Jens Martin Skibsted.

Natalia Georgio is the executive director of a growing dance troupe. She has a mandate from her board to expand the company by going international and pursuing TV and film opportunities. To realize these plans for growth, she recently hired a new marketing director, who wants to launch a customer research initiative. The company's founder, however, believes that innovation comes from employees, not customers. Natalia needs to decide whether to bring her new marketing director's customer research plan to the board or follow the founder's lead and cultivate creativity from within. Thomas J. DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan present this fictionalized case study with expert commentary provided by Mario D'Amico and Jens Martin Skibsted.

The Dutch professional service firm Schuberg Philis has within a few years grown into a well-known player in the Dutch IT outsourcing market and regularly wins high customer satisfaction marks. The growing workload and 100% promise to customers have increased the pressure on its non-hierarchical teams of engineers, as well as the hiring speed, which some fear could dilute their corporate culture. The three owner-directors must decide whether it is time to stop customer acquisition for a while to "get their house in order". At that moment, though, one of Shuberg Philis perhaps most important business opportunities so far arises.

Why is it that so many smart, ambitious professionals are less productive and satisfied than they could be? Thomas DeLong, an academic and consultant to executives, and Sara DeLong, a psychiatrist, argue that it's often because they're afraid to demonstrate any sign of weakness. They're reluctant to ask important questions or try new approaches that push them outside their comfort zones. For high achievers, looking stupid or incompetent is anathema. So they stick to the tasks they're good at, even while the rest of the organization may be passing them by. In short, they'd rather do the wrong thing well than do the right thing poorly. They get stuck in this unproductive and unfulfilling pattern and can't break free. Of course, leaders in organizations bear some of the blame for this type of play-it-safe mind-set. They don't always want to hear that a person is struggling, nor do they necessarily reward risk taking, even though they might pay lip service to innovative initiative. The authors outline several steps that individuals can take to shake off fear and paralysis, including looking at past negative experiences from somebody else's point of view and seeking out safe ways to allow themselves to become vulnerable.