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Supplement for product W21390.

The case describes the digitalization of L&T Construction, the largest business of L&T, from conception to implementation. The CEO and MD of L&T believed that the organization-wide implementation of digital at L&T Construction would have a significant impact on the business. As a project organization with a limited number of high-value customers and relatively few customer touch points, the primary goal of digitalization in its case would be to improve operational effectiveness. It created a separate digital department and identified digital officers and champions across projects and sites for effective implementation. The transformation was championed from the top and the digital team initiated a variety of initiatives to facilitate digital at L&T. Within two years, they had developed and deployed a large number of solutions across hundreds of project sites, completely transforming the way work was performed. Buoyed by the success of the digitalization effort at L&T Construction, it was decided to extend it to other group companies.

It provides an overview of the digitalization of other BUs of the L&T group. The digital teams in the various BUs were organized in a decentralized manner; they reported to the CEOs of their respective businesses. At the same time, strong processes and mechanisms were set up to foster coordination, knowledge sharing, and mentoring from the central digital hub. Over the next few months, the non- construction businesses were able to move quickly and successfully implement several digital initiatives. These included solutions that were designed to facilitate the safety of people in work locations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Having reached this juncture, L&T turned its focus to two key agenda items: Diffusing and strengthening the digital mindset and culture in the organization, and Systematic tracking of benefit realization across BUs. CEO was also keen to look at different options to enhance digital effectiveness.

How can companies avoid the agility acceleration trap and align their level of agility with environmental complexity to include reflection and slowness? An answer to this question is pertinent to understanding the real value of agility, which is often equated with speed. This article introduces a framework for analyzing agility through three kinds of change - resilient, versatile, and transformational - with respect to the level of environmental turbulence. The value of this framework is demonstrated by company examples where "agility as slowness" in some areas and "agility as speed" in other dimensions provide a basis for competitive advantages.

In 2020, the EtonHouse International Education Group (EtonHouse) celebrated its 25th anniversary. Under the leadership of Ng Gim Choo, founder and managing director, EtonHouse has become a renowned education provider noted for its well-designed inquiry-based curriculum. Since its initial expansion in Singapore, the institution has spread across the world. Throughout its history, EtonHouse has faced many crises. However, employing paradoxical leadership, Ng has managed to accommodate conflicting demands and guide EtonHouse away from adversity. In early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) posed an unprecedented challenge to EtonHouse. In addition to developing business strategies in response to COVID-19, Ng has been considering whether the time is ripe for handing over the reins to Ng Yi Xian, her son and EtonHouse successor. This multifaceted case study focuses on paradoxical leadership, women entrepreneurship, crisis management, and family business succession. It presents the entrepreneurial journey of a female protagonist, Ng, who established EtonHouse out of a passion for education and illustrates how she successfully addressed paradoxical challenges and navigated the company through crises. The dilemmas addressed in this case study concern whether Ng should delegate authority to her son to manage the COVID-19 crisis, and which EtonHouse should take to cope with COVID-19.

This case delineates how Fotile Group (hereinafter "Fotile") continuously upgraded its vision, mission and broader cultural system in its pursuit of becoming a "great company" and "delivering happiness to millions of families." Since its establishment in 1996, Fotile has attached great importance to corporate culture and invested substantial efforts to develop and transform its culture. Having gone through four main stages of exploration and development, Fotile devised a unique cultural system combining traditional Chinese culture with Western management theories. Since then, Fotile's unique culture has guided internal management. An employee management system promoted benevolence by providing love and care while assisting staff in finding material and spiritual fulfillment. In addition, Fotile's broadly-held consensus that "Culture is business" instructed the product development team to prioritize customers' happiness over profits and convey the firm's values via innovative and user-friendly products.

In 2019, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and the other 179 CEO members of the Business Roundtable argued that the purpose of a corporation must reflect not only the fiduciary interests of owners but also the varied interests of all stakeholders: employees, customers, partners, and broader society. This idea challenges a decades-old norm of shareholder primacy, so it is reasonable for organizational leaders to wonder whether doing so is truly in their firms' best interests, and if so, how to implement this approach to leadership. To answer these questions, we draw on over 200 peer-reviewed articles covering leadership research to demonstrate how servant leadership, a stakeholder-focused approach to management, outperforms other leadership approaches across both shareholder and stakeholder criteria. We leverage case studies of organizational leaders from SAS, Zappos, Starbucks, and Jason's Deli, financially successful organizations that exemplify how managers provide value and sustainability to stakeholders and shareholders through servant leadership. We also include practical steps managers can take to begin putting this form of leadership into practice.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing organizational decision-making processes. With the abilities to self-learn and to improve decision quality, AI is now taking over many decision responsibilities that were formerly assigned to humans alone. However, the effectiveness of AI for ill-structured and uncertain decision environments is still in question. In such decision contexts that have no precedent on which to base a solution, humans have historically relied on their intuition to make decisions. Yet intuition, too, has been found to have weaknesses that restrict decision quality. Therefore, this article introduces a decision-making model that effectively integrates the strengths of both intuition and AI while minimizing the vulnerabilities of each method. The model specifies when and how both modes should be combined for effective organizational decision-making. In addition, the article presents important future research considerations relating to AI for both practitioners and academics.

In November 2018, Sarah Robb O'Hagan is reeling from an unceremonious exit as CEO of Flywheel, a chain of indoor cycling studios. In the past, Robb O'Hagan had led transformational change across companies throughout the sports and fitness industry, including as President at Gatorade and Equinox. As a highly passionate fitness enthusiast, stepping into the CEO role at Flywheel felt like the pinnacle of her career, one that she would be extremely passionate about. But somewhere along the way, something went wrong, though Robb O'Hagan couldn't quite put her finger on it. Her tough experience left her questioning: She was 20 years into her career, had seemingly reached the pinnacle-only to find that this isn't what she wanted. Thinking about the next 20 years of her career was dizzying, and her ideal dream job wasn't revealing herself. What should Robb O'Hagan be looking for? What should the next step in her career and life look like?

VCayr was a not-for-profit social service organization that connected individuals through its social media platforms and community events. In January 2019, an organizational member and an active project manager at VCayr reported to a friend and board director that she was sexually harassed by another board director at VCayr. The friend and director had to decide how to manage the situation. He was aware of the severity of sexual harassment and the significant harm that it could have on all VCayr members and on the overall organization. Another sexual harassment incident was reported to him one year later by another member of VCayr. The board director had a second chance to rethink his strategies and to weigh in other options in light of the emerging information.

As they deal with a business landscape that is evolving constantly, rapidly, and unpredictably, executives all over the world are full of questions about change: "How much?" "How fast?" "How sustainable?" And sometimes just "How?" They can't hope to answer those questions unless they understand their companies' capacity for change--but they've lacked good tools for measuring that. To address this problem, Michels and Murphy, partners at Bain, devised a way of systematically measuring what they call "change power." In this article they explain how they devised their system, describe the nine main factors that they believe determine a company's change power, and present data suggesting that companies that rank high on their Change Power Index tend to perform remarkably well financially and have more-satisfied employees. Most organizations have a change-power profile that corresponds to one of four archetypes. Using company examples, the authors suggest a specific approach to improvement for each one.

More and more manufacturing companies are talking about what's often called the circular economy--in which businesses can create supply chains that recover or recycle the resources used to create their products. Shrinking their environmental footprint, trimming operational waste, and using expensive resources more efficiently are certainly appealing to CEOs. But creating a circular business model is challenging--and taking the wrong approach can be expensive. The authors argue that success depends on many factors, but perhaps the most important is choosing a strategy that aligns with the company's capabilities and resources--and addresses the constraints on its operations. In this article they identify the three basic strategies to achieve circularity and offer a tool to help manufacturers identify which is most likely to be economically sustainable. Their recommendations draw on decades of research and consulting with dozens of manufacturers across the world.

The 911 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001 shook the world and changed the modus operandi of security forces around the world. The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) was no exception; it underwent a paradigm shift, from peacetime preparedness to an in-between: a new term called Operation Other than War (OOTW). This case examines how then-SAF Major (MAJ) Koh Cheng Boon, a newly minted Commanding Officer of the Field Defence Squadron (CO FDS) at Paya Lebar Airbase (PLAB), dealt with this black swan event as a leader and commander, as well as how this surge in operational tempo transformed his life, his perspective as a professional soldier, leader and commander. As he connected the dots between leadership theories and best practices for the aspiring officers attending his lessons on Leadership in Context, he reflected on his command tour as CO FDS, his first and most challenging command tour. How did he cope during this arduous and challenging time? What are the leadership qualities required, and that he had displayed, during crisis situations? How do challenges hone and reflect our leadership competencies? How may we handle black swan events that come our way?

The HR Lab served as an incubator within Bosch that rejuvenated the company with a history of more than a hundred years. Agile transformation solutions debuted in the Power Tools (PT) business unit, driven by the industry's evolutionary needs. Bosch used to sell Power Tools to two separate groups of consumers: Professional tools for users in trade and industry, and DIY, accessories and garden tools to amateur crafters like families or avid gardeners. However, e-commerce brought disruption to the past business model and threatened the unit's competitive advantage. To proactively provide employees with innovative solutions geared towards consumer needs, Rosa Lee, Executive Vice President of Bosch China, came up with the idea of the HR Lab. The idea followed rounds of discussions with Uwe Raschke, Bosch's board member responsible for Consumer Goods (including the Power Tools division and BSH Hausgeräte GmbH), and Elly Siegert, Bosch's Vice President for Human Resources in the Power Tools BU. HR Lab products such as Individual Development Dialogue, Team Staffing, Peer Recognition and Development Navigator were implemented in various Power Tools offices worldwide and received very positive feedback. However, new emerging issues pushed Lee to reflect and rethink how to measure the tools' efficacy and collect valid feedback for the initiative. After years of launching so many new HR Lab products, what should the team do next to achieve agile transformation for the entire company? Should Lee keep running the HR Lab or press pause to consider the future first?

Supplement to case W21294.

Supplement to case W21294.

Supplement to case W21294.

In 1989, Tracy Edwards, at age 26, led the first all-female crew in the prestigious and grueling 59,264-kilometre (32,000 nautical mile) Whitbread Round the World Race. Edwards had developed a deep love for sailing in general and for the Whitbread Round the World Race in particular. However, she soon found that it was impossible, as a woman, to participate as a fully integrated member of a crew. Hence, she sought to organize an all-female team to compete in the race. She located, bought, and restored an old racing yacht, which eventually was christened Maiden. The idea of a team of women racing in the Whitbread Round the World Race was unthinkable to many men in and around the world of yacht racing, so the backlash was predictable and intense, and the hurdles to successfully complete the race seemed insurmountable. This six-part case series chronicles the myriad challenges faced by Edwards and her colleagues before and during the race, including rampant sexism and misogyny. Each of the six cases sets the stage for the next challenge Edwards has to overcome.

Supplement to case W21294.

Supplement to case W21294.