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Many people who attended a meeting with Steve Jobs said that being there was like going on a magical mystery tour. The brilliant Apple leader was indeed ingenious, with his ability to entrance, enthrall, and bring others around to his way of thinking. Jobs was also difficult to decipher and many employees and competitors wondered where his amazing ideas came from. This author, a former employee at Apple, says that Jobs’ magic and mystery was informed by what he calls “re-framing” — or mental model innovation — a talent that only a very few leaders have.

New research by the author indicates that Canadian executives perform well on strategic intent, but have difficulty converting intent into results. Through a better understanding of the gaps that exist in the foundational pillars important to achieving a high-performance culture, executives and managers can focus on closing these gaps to support strategic execution, improve employee morale and engagement, and drive marketplace success. This article includes the findings of a survey based on the Corporate Organizational Vitality Index, which provides insights into how Canadian executives perceive their corporate culture.

Introspection and reflection have never been appreciated for their ability to steady a leader. However, practitioners and consultants have come to appreciate the importance of looking within. This article seeks to guide the reader to an understanding of reflection’s power, potential, and value as a key to maximizing their journey and being better prepared to thrive in an ever-complex world. Wisdom from the ancient Greeks is used here to inform the leadership “odysseys” of modern leaders.

Contrary to what seems to be the current practice advocated by the Project Management Institute (PMI), an influential organization that qualifies project managers globally, project management processes must also consider how to engage employees from the beginning so that they come to see any initiative as their own, and not simply as something to be done because they are told. This article stresses the importance of employee adoption of change, the integration of project management and change management, and organizational change management (OCM).

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Euro-Mediterranean Managerial Practices and Issues, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>The case describes an innovative business model offering wine and a French cultural experience to North Americans. Students are given an opportunity to learn about the challenges of reviving a 1,000-year-old chateau, farmhouse, and vineyard while building a viable wine export and travel experience business. The case refers to a 15-minute online video that includes an interview with the entrepreneur, pictures of the Montlaur estate, and excerpts about Guédelon Castle, a medieval construction project.

The case reviews the main facts related to the merger process of three financial institutions — Bancolombia, Conavi, and Corfinsura — in Colombia in 2005 and 2006. The merger decision emerges from directors and senior executives foreseeing a major upcoming market transformation, including adjustment in industry regulation, improvement in international competence, and consolidation of main players, and their response in order to adapt to the new economic conditions. Considering the fact that the success rate of merger processes is not above 30 per cent, the sustained financial results achieved by Bancolombia from the very beginning of the integration process are robust indicators that invite exploration into what was done and how it was done.

In this case series Robert Harvey, a business professor at a small university in Iowa, United States, had arranged for Hopwood Manufacturing Company to come to the campus to interview his students for internship and management-in-training positions, only to learn that the recruiters appeared to be more interested in the ethnicities of the candidates than their qualifications. Harvey must now decide what action to take in response to the recruiters’ discriminatory statements.

Anjali Kumar receives her first job offer after graduation at an organization she admires, with interesting work and good benefits, but the salary is low. Also, she is unsure whether the position offers any advancement opportunities. At the end of the (A) case, Anjali has to decide whether to accept the offer, decline it, or try to negotiate a better offer, even though she has received no other offers at the time.

This case is a supplement to Anjali Kumar — Negotiating a Job Offer (A).

This is a supplement to Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A).

This is a supplement to Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A).

This role-play case involves a series of sessions in which the student (and each member of his or her team) will play the role of Benjamin Cheung, the vice president of HCM Asia Private Limited, a financial services firm based in Hong Kong. Cheung has an open-door policy where any manager can drop by to see him, on their own initiative, to ask for ideas, guidance, or a decision on an issue. He has only six minutes to see each manager in this informal coaching session since he has to leave for another important meeting at head office. Cheung knows the key details of each manager’s background and development needs, but does not know in advance what the manager’s specific concerns are. It will be necessary for Cheung to explore the manager’s concerns through active listening, asking questions, and summarizing. Each of the manager roles is typical of those you might meet in an Asian organization, such as a highly skilled, technically focused leader who defaults to top-down management, an associate who lacks self-confidence and avoids confrontation at all cost, an ambitious associate who wants an international assignment but struggles with his current workload, and a detail-oriented leader who focuses on processes while losing sight of the big picture.

This is role play #1 (Chen Jia Wei) for Coaching for Performance Management: Asia Edition (#9B11C024).

This is role play #2 (Robert Woo) for Coaching for Performance Management: Asia Edition (#9B11C024).

This is role play #3 (Pauline Zhu) for Coaching for Performance Management: Asia Edition (#9B11C024).

This is role play #4 (Steven Leung) for Coaching for Performance Management: Asia Edition (#9B11C024).

This is role play #5 (James Beringer) for Coaching for Performance Management: Asia Edition (#9B11C024).

This is role play #6 (Kelly Tan) for Coaching for Performance Management: Asia Edition (#9B11C024).

In recent years, incidents of piracy have increased dramatically off the coast of the failed state of Somalia. In this case, a group of 14 pirates have hijacked a cargo ship full of machinery, but have yet to make any demands. They hold hostage a multinational crew of 20 (whose captain and two officers are American), the ship, and the cargo. The chief operating officer of an international shipping company must choose among alternative strategies to get the crew, cargo, and ship back safely with as little cost as possible.

Most family businesses do not survive beyond two or three generations. One of the main reasons for this short lifespan is the lack of governance mechanisms in family businesses. With better family governance, business development becomes a richer experience and continuity is ensured across generations. This case is about an Indian family business, GMR Group, which was established a quarter-century ago, and by 2010 had become one of the major diversified infrastructure organizations in the country, with large-scale interests in infrastructure (energy, roads, and airports) and manufacturing (agri-business, mainly sugar). Since its founding, the Group had come a long way, from an independent proprietary enterprise to a family-owned holding corporation with several companies under its control, along with external stakeholders. The growth of the group had been led by the entrepreneurial zeal and organizational capabilities of its founder, G.M. Rao. Having seen many family businesses breaking up for lack of adequate governance mechanisms, Rao led the way for the writing of his family business's constitution with the help of several experts in 2007. The writing process of the constitution and the policies and processes developed were optimal for maximizing GMR's performance and the family's prosperity in current and future generations. This case captures the essential processes and outcomes of writing a family business constitution.