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In October 2014 the author arrived at work to find one of his company's big-rig trucks aflame in the parking lot, obviously a victim of arson. This was an extreme manifestation of a corrosive problem: Traeger's culture had become poisonous, characterized by lack of trust, negative attitudes, and a stubborn refusal to collaborate. Very early in his tenure, employees would ignore Andrus when he asked for data, or simply refuse to work together on a project. Once, when he was visiting headquarters, the CFO said he couldn't find any time in his schedule to meet with the new CEO. Although the majority owner had no operating role, he talked daily to people at all levels of the company and was aggressive and abusive. People were afraid of him, but they acted as if he were in charge. After the truck fire, Andrus resolved to start from scratch. He bought out the majority owner, moved the headquarters from Oregon to Utah, carefully winnowed the employees, worked to create a physical environment that feels true to the brand, and built a community of fans and influencers on social media. The company's strategy, marketing, and product line were all overhauled. In just five years, sales grew from $70 million to nearly $400 million.

Leaders are well aware of the central role that cross-group collaboration plays in business today. So in planning for collaborative initiatives, they think carefully about logistics and processes, incentives and outcomes. And that makes perfect sense. But in doing so they forget to consider how the groups they're asking to work together might experience the request--especially when they are being told to break down walls, divulge information, sacrifice autonomy, share resources, or even cede responsibilities. All too often, groups feel threatened by such demands: What if the collaboration is a sign that they've become less important to the company? What if they give up important resources and responsibilities and never get them back? This is the "collaboration blind spot." To make sure collaborative initiatives are successful, leaders must first identify threats to group security and take steps to minimize them and discourage defensive behaviors. Only then should they focus on process and outcomes.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Company's acquisition of Volvo cars was widely viewed with skepticism because of the poor track record of cross-border auto industry acquisitons. This case looks at the acquisition and post-acquisition integration from the point of view of Chinese managers at Geely. A companion case, 613-042 Volvo Cars: Acquisition by Geely looks at the acquisition from the point of view of Swedish managers at Volvo.

Zheijiang Geely Holing Company's acquisition of Volvo Cars was widely viewed with skepticism because of the poor track record of cross-border auto industry acquisitions. This case looks at the acquisition and post-acquisition integration from the point of view of Sweedish managers at Volvo. A companion case, 613-041 Zheijiang Geely Holding Group: Acquisition of Volvo Cars looks at the acquisition from the point of view of Chinese managers at Geely.

The case details the challenges faced by Lisa Thomas of LaMont Engineering after the company is acquired by Munday Consultants, Inc. Thomas, who supported the acquisition, was asked to chair a team charged with implementing the changes necessary to make the acquisition a success. This case illustrates the ever-present challenge of finding professionals who can serve in more strategic roles, and provides an opportunity to diagnose, analyze, and suggest an action plan to address Thomas's situation. This case also illustrates the challenges of post-acquisition integration in the acquired firm while retaining the elements that made the firm a desirable target.

Knowledge, creativity, adaptability, and the ability to learn are critical necessities in a world in which the pace of change is accelerating. Many of us will choose to or be required to make a career pivot, in which we must reassess our aptitudes, interests, and priorities. It is in these junctures that significant, positive change is possible. This is where transformational learning can occur. This note offers a framework that encourages the deep learning required for transformational change. Specifically, this note argues for a holistic approach that explicitly focuses on the four aspects of being: body, mind, heart, and soul. Learning typically follows one of four modalities: lecture/discussion, physical/recreational, experiential/relational, and reflective/meditative. This note proposes a two-dimensional transformational learning matrix for generating ideas about the kinds of topics, issues, and activities to be considered in a holistic learning approach.

The chief operating officer at Farro Biomed, an independent laboratory in the health care sector, was a talented negotiator, and could be credited with a great deal of the company's success. But inside the company, he was known to be a bully. One of his favourite targets was a middle manager who was responsible for running the executive offices and the board's secretariat. Her work subsequently declined, leading to problems with the board's secretariat. A board member complained, and the chief executive officer eliminated her position. The manager struck back with a demand for a large severance package, claiming a toxic work environment, bullying, and sexual harassment. The chief executive officer had no choice but to take the matter to the board for direction. The board needed to decide how to proceed.

Symphony Limited, an air cooler company decided to buy International Metal Products Company (IMPCO) in 2009. IMPCO, based in Mexico manufactured industrial coolers that complemented Symphony's product line. Additionally, the acquisition provided Symphony access to the US market. IMPCO, however, was a loss making company and was on the verge of bankruptcy. On taking over IMPCO, Symphony dealt with several issues like financial crisis, operational inefficiencies, low employee productivity, IMPCO's poor brand image, lack of product innovation and weak sales and distribution. This case briefly describes the history of Symphony and outlines the various challenges faced by the organization in turning around IMPCO. The case closes with another opportunity that lands on Symphony's lap - acquisition of Munters Keruilai Air Treatment Equipment Co Ltd (MKE), an air cooler manufacturing company in China. Like IMPCO, MKE was also a loss-making air cooler company. But otherwise, the challenges and the context were starkly different in the two cases. Achal Bakeri, founder and CEO of Symphony wondered how the Symphony team should approach the newest challenge.

While anonymous feedback in teams can sometimes be less than constructive, when used the right way, digital chat tools that provide anonymity can help managers gauge employee morale and drive change.

Although the global cost of natural disasters has increased sharply, traditional sources of funding--governments, nonprofits, and NGOs--have not kept pace. Corporations have taken up the slack, prompting researchers to ask: Does it matter whether the companies pitching in have local ties? And are they and their shareholders benefiting? The resulting studies show that countries with a large share of aid from locally active companies get help more quickly than their counterparts and recover more fully, and that the business impact of donations varies according to firm reputation rather than the amount donated. In particular, if the first donor is well regarded, that company and others that make similar donations stand to gain--but if the first donor has a poor reputation, it and others that follow suit will see a dip in local revenue that can't be explained by the impact of the disaster alone.

Lurie took the helm at SurveyMonkey in the aftermath of tragedy: Dave Goldberg, the previous CEO and his longtime friend, had died suddenly at the age of 47. As a member of the company's board, Lurie first aided in the search for a replacement and then, after that person didn't work out, assumed the role himself. His employees were still in the grip of grief, fear, and anxiety. While continuing to provide them with emotional support, Lurie set about defining the company culture. When customers were asked what they valued most about the company's offerings, and employees what excited them about coming to work every day, the word that came up most often was "curiosity." Lurie and his team started encouraging and rewarding curiosity across the organization: celebrating the "question of the week" at town halls; using a peer recognition program to reward people for their candor; hosting the Goldie Speaker Series (named for the deceased CEO) to learn about success in other fields. They believe that when curiosity ebbs, people lapse into routine and complacency, exposing a company to disruption.

Innovative cultures are generally depicted as pretty fun. They're characterized by a tolerance for failure and a willingness to experiment. They're seen as being psychologically safe, highly collaborative, and nonhierarchical. And research suggests that these behaviors translate into better innovative performance. But despite the fact that innovative cultures are desirable, and that most leaders claim to understand what they entail, they are hard to create and sustain. That's because the easy-to-like behaviors that get so much attention are only one side of the coin. They must be counterbalanced by some tougher and frankly less fun behaviors: an intolerance for incompetence, rigorous discipline, brutal candor, a high level of individual accountability, and strong leadership. Unless the tensions created by this paradox are carefully managed, attempts to create an innovative culture will fail.

Impact investing--directing capital to ventures that are expected to yield social and environmental benefits as well as profits--provides investors with a way to "do well by doing good." But whereas the business world has tools for estimating a potential investment's financial yield, it lacks them for estimating social rewards in dollar terms. Now the Rise Fund and the Bridgespan Group have developed what they call the "impact multiple of money" (IMM) to demonstrate the value of putting impact underwriting on the same footing as financial underwriting. In this article they explain their six-step process for calculating it: (1) Assess the relevance and scale of a potential product, service, or project. (2) Identify target social or environmental outcomes. (3) Estimate the economic value of those outcomes to society. (4) Adjust for risks. (5) Estimate terminal value. (6) Calculate the social return on every dollar spent. The IMM, they write, "offers a rigorous methodology to advance the art of allocating capital to achieve social benefit."

This case provides an exceptional opportunity to evaluate attribution and fact, error and blame, active failures and latent conditions as an organization manages a crisis that it has caused. At approximately 1:30 a.m. on July 6, 2013, an unmanned runaway train owned by the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) derailed, burst into flames, and set off explosions that destroyed the center of Lac-Mégantic, a quiet town in Québec, Canada. Forty-seven victims were incinerated as residential, commercial, and historical buildings and the people in them were swiftly reduced to ashes. Unlike many other crisis-based cases that focus on executives and managers, the protagonist is an operator, an MMA train engineer, who is publicly scapegoated by his company's chairman even before the facts are in. Despite facing charges of criminal negligence causing deaths, the engineer, out-of-towner Tom Harding, reaps the support of Lac-Mégantic residents, including many whose families, community, dwellings, and businesses have been decimated by the tragedy.

Excellence in Internal Communication Management is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2017 and written by Rita Linjuan Men, Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Florida, and Shannon A. Bowen, Professor of Public Relations at the University of Southern California. The authors combine theories, research insights, practices, as well as current issues and cases into a comprehensive guide for internal communication managers and organizational leaders on how to communicate effectively with internal stakeholders, build ethical organizational cultures, and engage employees in a rapidly-changing business environment. In Chapter 10, the authors summarize the trends and issues that are transforming the practice of internal communication: digitization, globalization, diversity and inclusion, work-life balance, and a concern for corporate social conscience. They suggest that researchers should study topics such as internal public segmentation, enterprise social media, change communication, work-life integration, and measurement and evaluation issues.

Vittorio Colao, CEO of telecommunication giant Vodafone, must respond to reports of disturbing accounting practices at two of Vodafone's operating companies. In one case, €60 million have been misreported due to a series of failures to check manual accounting processes. The situation has been escalated to Vodafone's audit committee, which expects Colao and his team to act drastically. In the second case, €7 million have been misreported through deferred recognition of costs into the future. The two cases challenge Colao's organizational model of International Values and Local Roots that aims to maintain productive tension between global mandates and local practices. Colao meticulously designed his model based on the key value of trust, his unwavering convictions earning him the moniker of the 'benevolent dictator.' Colao is acutely aware that his response to the accounting discrepancies will be a referendum on his leadership for over 120,000 employees worldwide. If he doesn't make the right decisions, the consequences will reverberate throughout the organization and erode confidence in the value of trust that he relentlessly worked to establish.

Vittorio Colao, CEO of telecommunication giant Vodafone, must respond to reports of disturbing accounting practices at two of Vodafone's operating companies. In one case, €60 million have been misreported due to a series of failures to check manual accounting processes. The situation has been escalated to Vodafone's audit committee, which expects Colao and his team to act drastically. In the second case, €7 million have been misreported through deferred recognition of costs into the future. The two cases challenge Colao's organizational model of International Values and Local Roots that aims to maintain productive tension between global mandates and local practices. Colao meticulously designed his model based on the key value of trust, his unwavering convictions earning him the moniker of the 'benevolent dictator.' Colao is acutely aware that his response to the accounting discrepancies will be a referendum on his leadership for over 120,000 employees worldwide. If he doesn't make the right decisions, the consequences will reverberate throughout the organization and erode confidence in the value of trust that he relentlessly worked to establish.

The dean of a prominent business school has learned that the system that his-and many other-business schools use to help select and notify MBA students has been hacked. The hacker posted instructions for applicants to gain access to schools' decisions ahead of time. During the 10 hours MyMBA's system was compromised, several hundred applicants viewed their admission status at multiple top-tier schools. MyMBA now has offered the names of the applicants who took advantage of the hack, and the dean's phone is ringing off the hook with media queries. How should he handle this breach, and what public statement should he make? The case is designed to surface and explore students' instinctive decision-making tendencies around a complicated problem. Thus it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion in which they are encouraged to reflect on their initial responses. The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, ethics, difficult conversations, decision-making, organizational behavior, moral disengagement, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

When Justin Thomas began as principal of Shining Star Academy, an elementary school in Alabama, the school had been failing for eight years and was in serious risk of state takeover. One of Thomas's innovations was to implement data-driven instruction, but teachers struggled to change their routines. As hard as everyone was working, progress was minimal after a year. Thomas was heartbroken, and he didn't know what else to try. This case is used at Darden in executive programs for leaders in education and second-year MBA courses on leading change. It would also be suitable in courses covering data-driven instruction, school transformation, leadership, and change processes.

Supplement to case UV7726 When Justin Thomas began as principal of Shining Star Academy, an elementary school in Alabama, the school had been failing for eight years and was in serious risk of state takeover. One of Thomas's innovations was to implement data-driven instruction, but teachers struggled to change their routines. As hard as everyone was working, progress was minimal after a year. Thomas was heartbroken, and he didn't know what else to try. The B case follows Thomas in his second year, as he continues to lead the school through its transformation. This case is used at Darden in executive programs for leaders in education and second-year MBA courses on leading change. It would also be suitable in courses covering data-driven instruction, school transformation, leadership, and change processes.