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AbbVie made headlines in March 2015 when it announced its $21 billion acquisition of Pharmacyclics. AbbVie, a research-based pharmaceutical company was founded in 2013 when Abbott split into AbbVie and Abbott Laboratories. Pharmacyclics is a biotechnology company that had received FDA approval in late 2013 for its flagship asset Imbrivica (ibrutinib), a biologic treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia and two other even rarer blood malignancies. Entering it's second year on the market, Imbrivica was considered a breakthrough, with revenue expectations of $1 billion in 2015. At the time of the acquisition, AbbVie received more than 60% of its sales from the biologic drug Humira, a biologic agent used to treat several autoimmune diseases and malignancies. However, Humira would soon lose patent protection and face competition from the new class of follow-on biologics, or biosimilars.

There is no question that coaching has accelerated leadership development at companies big and small, including some of the most successful members of the Fortune 500 club. But what exactly is coaching, and why is its importance growing significantly in the corporate world? Despite all the ambiguity that surrounds coaching, there are three fundamental principles associated with the process of helping people identify the blind spots that derail them from progress and effectiveness as well as the sweet spots that accelerate their journey through the realization of potential. These are: 1. Coaching leads the coachee to revisit his/her assumptions — the core engine of belief systems. 2. Coaching triggers the coachee to review his/her image in the light of feedback from his/her surroundings. 3. Coaching enables the coachee to update his/her portrait. Executive coaches help coachees stress-test ideas, viewpoints, and perspectives before they are vocalized. They do so by addressing executive isolation, providing strategic sound-boarding, and creating a safe and motivating feedback loop for change. Accomplished coaches systematically lead their coachees to see their resistance to change, examine the root causes of this resistance, and understand how resistance limits personal growth and transformation.

In late 2015, developments in the Canadian television industry led the incumbent players to reconsider their traditional distribution strategies. The conflux of changes to technology, regulatory reforms, and consumption patterns was complicated by the entry of new players, forcing established firms to consider revising their business models. The regulated oligopolistic industry structure that once protected the players and ensured superior performance was under attack from many directions. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which regulated the incumbent players, was pushing for reforms, yet the ramifications of such changes remained unclear. The incumbents responded to the advent of subscription video on demand services that were enabled by widespread high-speed Internet access, the entry of new non-traditional competitors, and changing regulations. How would the industry evolve? What was the role of the regulator? How would customers respond to the new delivery options? How would the incumbent firms, the regulator, technology providers, and content developers and providers reconcile their ambiguous relationships?

State Bank of India is India's oldest and largest bank with the government of India as its majority shareholder. Arundhati Bhattacharya, a 35-year old veteran of the bank, is appointed as its chairman in October 2013. Her appointment coincides with Moody's downgrading the bank's debt due to rising non-performing assets. She embarks on a mission to improve the bank's risk taking and management abilities, ensure uniform customer experience, and encourage greater collaboration among various verticals. Her efforts help the bank reduce it non-performing assets and improve its profitability. However, Bhattacharya knows that these gains will be fleeting without the development of a trained workforce who can address 21st century industry problems with speed and creativity. This requires transforming SBI into a performance-oriented bank supported by a new career development and remuneration system. Bhattacharya wonders if attempting to change the culture of a 206-year old mammoth organization is feasible or a mere pipe dream.

The case, set in 2012 and 2013, follows two students enrolled in a business accelerator program who experience the uncertainty of creating an idea from an interesting sandbox, or broad problem space, (in this case, the construction industry) and then developing it into an innovative idea for a new business. The two students elicit a broad range of feedback from individuals in the construction industry and use that feedback to develop their venture idea. The case is process-focused in that there is not one right answer in terms of how the students should proceed with developing their idea. Instead, the case provides an opportunity to practise making decisions based on external feedback.

In 2012, an entrepreneur and his business partner have created ServiceBox, a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) work order management system for use in plumbing and heating businesses. The product was developed in response to a request from a friend, who owns a plumbing business. The entrepreneur is now ready to sell this product, relying on a subscription-based SaaS business model for revenue. He has scheduled a meeting with a heating contractor and is ready to sell. This case presents an exercise in sales negotiation, in which the entrepreneur (whose perspective is provided in Case A) works to sell a subscription to the heating contractor (whose perspective in provided in Case B). Students have an opportunity to practise sales promotion and selling for an entrepreneurial venture. Use with 9B16M016.

Supplement case to be used with 9B16M015.

Rewarding top advertising talent with a supervisory position can seriously backfire, especially in today’s market. It’s understandable to want to reward exceptional workers, but managers often believe that the only way they can do so is by promoting them to supervisory roles. This thinking is not only untrue, it is dangerous. Leadership requires a completely different skill set than most people use in performance positions. Employees who perform exceptionally aren’t necessarily good at training or supervising others. <br><br> Today’s marketing environment makes it treacherous to move ad agency employees around without planning. The rise of tech- and data-driven strategies only adds new levels of complexity and heightens expectations from clients, who want seasoned professionals with a deep understanding of their industry. So when you finally have an employee firing on all cylinders for your agency, it can be a big mistake putting them in new roles. Before you promote top performers, have a candid conversation with them. But first determine possible options for moving forward. Besides a promotion to a supervisory role, reward options could include an arrangement to split time between the employee’s current role and training others, or an agreement to develop new skills for a higher pay cheque. You can also consider options like more vacation time or a seat at the leadership table. Sometimes the best reward for hard work is helping people prosper — right where they are.

Arthur Andersen collapsed in May 2002 and a significant part of Arthur Andersen India merged with Ernst & Young. Bobby Parikh, Mukesh Butani, Rajiv Dimri, Sanjay Mehta and Ajay Mehra, all of whom were senior leaders at Arthur Anderson, had joined Ernst & Young after the merger in various roles; however, they left one by one to establish a firm in their chosen practice areas, which would be differentiated by quality of thinking and enable clients to experience a different way of engagement execution. Thus, BMR Advisors was started to provide high quality professional services; wherein it wanted to differentiate itself and compete solely on quality. BMR started with services in three areas - Tax, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and Risk Advisory - a unique combination which could solve any business problem. Audit services and management consulting were deliberately not offered. BMR focused on maintaining a low leverage ratio, that is, the number of team members per partner, to ensure higher amount of partner time on each assignment. BMR Advisors thus far had achieved success with its low leverage ratio, that is, partner to team members' ratio, which in turn had ensured higher quality of strategic inputs to complex client engagements and higher amount of partner face time with clients. With increased growth in recent times, maintaining a lower leverage ratio was becoming a challenge, since growth entailed more engagements and needed additional team members, which in turn diluted the leverage ratio. New partners had joined from other organization and ensuring a seamless integration of culture was another challenge. Developing the next set of leaders to take over the mantle from the founding partners was one more challenge to be dealt with. Besides these unique challenges, BMR advisors also faced regular challenges such as talent war, technology, undercutting by competition, etc.

Job titles usually don't generate much excitement. But at some companies, receptionists are "directors of first impressions," PR people are "brand evangelists," and theme park workers are "cast members." Research shows that all this isn't just a silly exercise in euphemisms--it can be a powerful tool for improving workers' morale and boosting recruitment. London Business School's Dan Cable studied how creative new titles improved life at a local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and other organizations, and he has outlined steps for companies looking to launch retitling initiatives.

Surprising new findings on how sleep affects our mental processes.

Going forward, growth and prosperity in communities around the world will depend on three enablers of creativity, which the authors call 'the 3Ts of economic development': Technology, Talent and Tolerance. They share findings from their Global Creativity Index, indicating which countries are ahead of the pack-and which are falling behind. They also show that the divide between the Creative Class and the Service Class lies at the root of the growing inequality that we are seeing across advanced and developing nations alike.

Without realizing it, even well-managed companies versed in modern practices can generate an environment that is hostile to innovation. As a result, the authors argue that large companies need to have a distinct Innovation Unit, headed up by a senior executive who reports directly to the CEO. They provide a framework for designing the mission and scope for an in-house Innovation Unit, anchored by seven key tasks for the firm's innovation leader, including 'scanning for best practices' and 'designing shelter for innovations'.

Although Chinese giant Huawei surpassed Ericsson in 2012 to become the global telecom leader in terms of sales revenue and net profit, the company is still relatively unknown in the West. Many Chinese believe the blueprint for Huawei's success was created by its founder and long-time CEO, Ren Zhengfei. The authors describe seven characteristics of Zhengfei's leadership style, including 'adaptive vision', 'humble dedication' and 'winning by cooperating'. Characterized by his employees as someone who 'leads with his heart and moves with his mind', Zhengfei's purpose, inspiration and humility in leading China's most global company will provide inspiration for leaders everywhere.

Kasriel grew up around computers and started writing programs when he was 12. In a way, he says, he was like one of today's typical Silicon Valley kids, but for him it was Paris in the 1980s. He recognized in high school that he prefers to be with small numbers of people or to be alone. Getting by in a crowd doesn't come naturally--but as a CEO he now has to mingle at huge networking events or conferences. To manage that, he sets goals: Talk to at least 30 people, get 10 business cards, arrange five follow-up meetings. For 10 years Kasriel has worked to overcome the perception that engineers don't make great leaders. He sought projects and talked his way into jobs that were outside his comfort zone. He read widely to burnish his skills in strategy, leadership, and managing people. (The article includes a list of titles the author deems most influential.) He spent hundreds of hours taking online courses. He got an MBA at INSEAD not because he wanted to make a career change or expand his network but so that he could avoid the mistakes he'd seen other entrepreneurs make. Since assuming his role, in April 2015, he's learned that a lot of the job comes down to helping employees feel excited about their work, empowering them, and giving them the resources they require. When people come to him with difficulties, he must listen first and not see every situation the way an engineer would: as a problem that needs a solution.

Leaders face a multitude of strategic paradoxes--contradictory pressures that are too often viewed as "either/or" choices. There are "innovation paradoxes," in which the pursuit of new offerings and processes conflicts with the mandate to sustain the tried and true. There are "globalization paradoxes," which involve tensions between local imperatives and boundary-crossing integration. And there are "obligation paradoxes," when the goal of maximizing profits for shareholders clashes with the desire to generate benefits for a broader group of stakeholders. The authors argue that organizational success depends on simultaneously addressing such conflicting demands, not choosing between them. Leaders need to become comfortable with multiple truths and inconsistency. They need to assume that resources are ample rather than scarce. And they need to embrace change instead of seeking stability. All of this will help organizations reach a state of dynamic equilibrium, wherein paradoxes don't impede progress--they spur it. And the way to tap the potential of paradox is to both separate and connect opposing forces: Managers must pull apart the organization's goals and value each of them individually, while also finding linkages and synergies across goals.

In September 2011 Hewlett-Packard had just dismissed two CEOs in quick succession before inviting Meg Whitman to step into the role. She was taking the reins of a badly damaged company, and although she has presided over more than 80,000 layoffs, she has restored stability in her four and a half years on the job. In November 2015 HP became two new $50-billion-plus companies, with Whitman the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the chairman of HP Inc. In this edited interview she talks about why she agreed to take the job ("I thought that HP was a global icon and that nothing was fundamentally wrong with the bones of the company"), how the disastrous Autonomy acquisition happened ("It was financial misrepresentation"), the company's core values ("the ability to do incredible innovation; a passion for customer support and service; giving back to the community"), the role of a leader ("You have to communicate that you believe your goal can be achieved. You have to exude confidence. You have to celebrate the victories along the way"), and much more. Whitman says she is the product of her experiences in a variety of companies--Procter & Gamble, Bain, Disney, Hasbro, FTD, Stride Rite, eBay--and of her unsuccessful campaign for the governorship of California, during which she significantly developed her communication skills. She also played a lot of sports as a girl, "so I knew how to be part of a team."

"I hate networking." It's a familiar refrain. But in today's world, networking is a necessity-and fortunately, an aversion to it can be overcome. Drawing on laboratory experiments and on studies at a large law firm, the authors have identified four strategies that can help people become more excited about and effective at building relationships: Focus on learning. Adopt a "promotion mindset" and concentrate on the positives, and you're more likely to perceive networking as an opportunity for discovery rather than a chore. Identify common interests. Consider how your goals align with those of people you meet, and networking will feel more authentic. Think broadly about what you can give. Remember that you have something valuable to offer, whether it's knowledge, gratitude, or recognition. Find a higher purpose. Frame your networking in terms of a larger goal-the collective benefits for your company, say-and the activity will feel more authentic and will lead to connections that bear fruit for everyone.

The best-selling author of "The House of the Spirits" discusses the role of discipline in her writing process, her long-held determination to work, and her belief that every book is an offering--"You just put it on the table and see who will accept it."

Urban Plus Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. was a real estate brokerage company started in 2009 in Gurgaon, India, by a young MBA professional. In February 2010, he was considering the various issues he was faced with in day-to-day business activities. The company provided both resale and new bookings services, with a focus on the residential sector. The resale business was needed for immediate and substantial cash inflows to sustain the company’s growth. The new bookings business was also crucial to capture more market share and achieve aggressive growth. However, confronted with multiple hurdles, the company had slow business growth in its initial year. It appeared that handling both types of businesses was becoming a challenge. A recent incident involving one employee’s unethical behaviour in a resale transaction had forced the company to carefully consider its strategic plan. What strategy would the company need to compete in its sector and achieve its long term goals?