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Some of China's most successful entrepreneurs and founders of private enterprises naturally came together to share the insights and tactics that helped them and their businesses survive and thrive in China's rapidly changing business environment. Soon, the group's mandate expanded to include improving the environment for private business in China and conducting outreach to help spread the word about the important role entrepreneurs played in a modern market economy. How has the China Entrepreneurs Forum been an innovative business and social organization in modern China? What lies in the future for them?

In 2009, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the organization tasked with building a Mass Transit System for India's capital city Delhi, witnessed the biggest crisis in its history. A bridge under construction collapsed killing six people and injuring 15 more. Despite its history of meeting deadlines and working with allocated costs, the Corporation came under a lot of public censure. There was immense pressure on the Corporation to suspend its engineers and fire the construction contractor. On the other hand, it had to meet the deadline of operationalizing the second phase of the Metro Network by October 2010 in time for the XIXth Commonwealth Games. The case focuses on the challenges that the Managing Director Dr. E. Sreedharan faced as the crisis unfolded. It examines the Corporation's unique structure and management ethic that had so far enabled it to function within timeline and costs.

Noel Biderman was the president of Avid Life Media, a profitable Canadian growth company whose main business was various online social networks for targeted groups seeking sexual partners and romance. Biderman was seeking to raise $60 million via a private placement offering to acquire a privately held online advertising sales company, merge the companies and take the new and improved growth story public on the TSX Venture Exchange or the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Avid Life offering represented a legal and potentially lucrative investment. Nevertheless, only one investment bank (GMP Capital) was willing to help Biderman raise capital - because among the various social networks Avid Life owns is the notorious Ashley Madison online community for married people seeking to commit adultery. GMP's relationship was short-lived; after media coverage of the Avid Life offering started to focus on the bank's willingness to service Biderman's company, GMP withdrew their support from Biderman. Perhaps attributable to the bank's desire to avoid being seen in public with someone known, rightly or wrongly, as the king of infidelity, GMP's withdrawn support left Biderman unable to take a potentially lucrative investment opportunity to market.

In 2010, GMP Capital (GMP) found itself the only investment bank willing to raise capital for Avid Life Media, the parent company of the controversial Ashley Madison online community for married people seeking to commit adultery. Since its inception in 1995, GMP had made a name for itself as a bold deal maker and not afraid to complete "bet-the-firm" transactions. With large profit potential, morality wasn't always an issue when sex-based business plans were being promoted. Yet after facing negative publicity, GMP subsequently withdrew from the deal. How did GMP end up on the wrong side of a line other firms refused to cross?

A senior associate at Richard, Wood and Hulme LLP (RWH) was amazed at the speed with which the audit team for an important client for the firm was rapidly falling apart. Two members had just been fired presumably because they did not pass their chartered accounting qualification examination; team morale had become non-existent; there were difficulties in completing the engagement due to lack of preparation from both the RWH and the client; there was a question about the commitment of particular individuals; and with the audit falling behind schedule, the senior associate perceived an absence of strong leadership from the partners of the firm. The senior associate did not understand why the team had been so unfocused from the start of the engagement as prior years' engagements had been quite successful. He was not sure how to proceed. What would he tell the client? What should he do to keep this audit on track and keep the team together?

In 2007, under the leadership of CEO Stuart Rose, the iconic British retailer Marks and Spencer, with great fanfare, announced its "Plan A" initiative. Based on the five essential pillars of climate change, waste, sustainable materials, fair partnership, and health, the plan sought to transform the company's practices. By 2012, the program's aim was to ensure that M&S was carbon neutral and sent no waste to landfill. It also aimed to help its customers and employees achieve a healthier lifestyle, and to improve the lives of all involved in the company's supply chain with fair wages, as well as improved working hours and conditions. Called Plan A "because there is no Plan B," the company identified 180 projects to improve the sustainability of its operations and business practices in anticipation of the need for a very different business model in the future. Key aspects of Plan A included more sustainable sourcing and influencing the business practices of the company's supply chain; communication to employees, customers and investors; and employee engagement. The case concludes with the tradeoffs involved in the decision of whether or not to install refrigerator doors in the grocery section of its stores. While the energy savings and reduced carbon emissions are relatively clear and easy to measure, the impact on customers and revenues is harder to assess.

Claude Grunitzky, a media entrepreneur, develops, maintains, and leverages an extensive personal and professional network across three continents. The case considers the steps he has taken to build and cultivate a network that creates value for himself and others.

This article examines the explosive growth of competency-based, or behavioral, selection programs within organizations. Recognizing this trend, many job applicants have learned to position themselves for selection by leveraging competency-based selection program concepts and psychological factors that influence résumé screening processes and interview decision outcomes. Specifically, there is a growing trend for job applicants to submit behaviorally-focused résumés-that is, résumés which emphasize behaviors required for success in positions-to gain interviews for job opportunities. These behaviorally-focused résumés may position applicants as the 'right' candidates for job opportunities, even if they are not truly the 'right' candidates for the jobs they seek. As such, it benefits employers to familiarize their hiring professionals with behaviorally-based résumés and competency program theories. Understanding these concepts and the psychology of behaviorally-focused résumés helps hiring professionals evaluate behaviorally-focused résumés more accurately, and minimizes résumé prescreening and selection mistakes.

The pharmaceutical industry faces the threat of patent expirations, diminishing new drug breakthroughs, adverse regulatory laws, increasing competition, and a harsh economic climate. Merck & Company felt these mounting pressures and had become increasingly reliant on blockbuster drugs. With its new drug pipeline running dry, Merck accepted that the biotech industry is too complicated for it to navigate alone. As it stood, it was producing only 1% of the biomedical research in the world. Thousands of new ideas were emerging around the world, both inside and outside of the company. An open innovation strategy would allow the company to source new ideas externally and at a faster rate. This came with many risks including the reduced competitive advantage of protected intellectual property. While Merck had been moving toward an open innovation strategy, its history of internal research and development had created a culture resilient to working externally. Should Merck pursue an open innovation strategy? If so, how?

Roche had just finished purchasing the last public shares of Genentech in an effort to secure their expertise in biotechnology. However, the recent failure of the colon cancer drug, Avastin, had raised questions about the partnership. Roche's main motives in the acquisition were to gain rights to Avastin and use it for a myriad of other applications. Positive clinical trials would have lead to significantly increased sales and growth into other cancer applications. Instead, the negative results caused Roche shares to drop by 10 percent. The incident raised questions at Roche about the efficiency of drug development at Genentech. Phase III trial failures represented a significant loss of time and money. And, in this case, the FDA revoked Avastin's approval for treatment of breast cancer causing further harm to revenue opportunities for Roche. Now that Roche was in charge, expectations were raised for producing successful Phase III trials that would bring more products to market. But, what was the appropriate resource allocation for early drug discovery and Phase II and III trials? On one side, Genentech wanted to focus on early drug development as a means to keep the future product pipeline well stocked; on the other side, Roche was focused on getting drugs through Phase II and III trials and into the market to generate revenue.

Dr. Barrett Rollins, Chief Scientific Officer of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, attempts to engender cross-scientist collaboration by applying project management principles to medical research. The resulting innovation, Integrative Research Centers, are novel in this field and present a substantial challenge to the Institute's culture, which had previously allowed faculty scientists complete autonomy over their research. Center leaders are required to develop a business plan, adhere to agreed-upon performance metrics, and undergo regular progress reviews conducted by a peer-led oversight committee. In the "A" case, the Center for Nanotechnology in Cancer, a new but crucial center in the program, had failed to meet almost all of its objectives in the first year, and a heated dispute between two faculty members in the center had complicated matters significantly. The "B" case outlines the decisions Rollins took in terms of leadership and other strategic matters, and shows how the Center is performing a year after its initial disappointing progress.

In late 2009 Toyota became the subject of media and U.S. government scrutiny after multiple deaths and injuries were attributed to accidents resulting from the unintended and uncontrolled acceleration of its cars. Despite Toyota's voluntary recall of 4.2 million vehicles for floor mats that could jam the accelerator pedal and a later recall to increase the space between the gas pedal and the floor, the company insisted there was no underlying defect and defended itself against media reports and regulatory statements that said otherwise. As the crisis escalated, Toyota was further criticized for its unwillingness to share information from its data recorders about possible problems with electronic throttle controls and sticky accelerator pedals, as well as about braking problems with the Prius. By the time Toyota Motor Company president Akio Toyoda apologized in his testimony to the U.S. Congress, Toyota's stock price had declined, in just over a month, by 20 percent-a $35 billion loss of market value.

For business leaders, the 'new normal' is -- to borrow a phrase from the U.S. military -- a 'VUCA' environment: it is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The author shows how organizations can leverage the benefits of complexity and interconnectedness to their advantage by presenting examples from Procter & Gamble that he believes "illustrate the future of strategy." Going forward, strategic choices will extend far beyond an organization's own walls, he argues, and increasingly, the frontier of business will be populated by organizations that embrace this notion. The firms with the greatest capacity to win will be those whose relationships and strategic choices extend out to networked stakeholders, business partners, suppliers - and even to competitors, in the right circumstances.

Globalization and instant communication have changed the rules of the game for business. Today's organizations are being held to stringent and fluctuating sets of standards by unrelenting 'webs' of stakeholders who are quick to pass judgment on their behavior. In what is becoming an ultra-transparent world, every step and misstep is subject to scrutiny and every company with a brand or reputation to protect is vulnerable. The author argues that for most businesses, it increasingly makes sense to opt for openness. He describes three key elements of openness that modern organizations should embrace: transparency, opening up the business model and placing intellectual property in an open commons. In doing so, he says, a firm will embrace the three dimensions effective organizations for the 21st century.

In this interview, best-selling author and social media expert Charlene Li talks about the new openness and the implications for leaders everywhere. According to Li, these include embracing four objectives of openness: learn, dialog, support and innovate. She describes each in detail and shows that just as there is a continuum of openness for organizations, there is also a continuum of openness for leaders. She describes four 'openness archetypes' and the particular challenges faced by each, as well as the need for every organization to clearly define its 'sandbox'. In the end, she shows that leaders never really had total control over their customers and employees; what they have to give up now is the need for control.

The authors argue that in our highly-connected environment, it's all-too-easy to forget how important 'inner work life' is to an organization's progress: when one goes downhill, so does the other. They define inner work life as consisting of each employee's emotions, perceptions and motivations -- and show that leaders can't help but influence their subordinates' inner work lives on a daily basis. The only question, they say, is what direction that influence will take. They describe three key 'influencers' of inner work life and show how managers can use them to foster productivity and well-being. The article is an adapted excerpt from the authors' book, The Progress Principle: Creativity, Productivity, and the Psychology of Everyday Work Life (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011).

The emergence of 'Web 2.0' tools such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter has significantly lessened the amount of control that organizations have over their messaging. Web 2.0 presents marketers with a dilemma: on the one hand, being talked about, shared and parodied on the Internet brings attention to a brand; on the other, it may not be the kind of attention the brand wants. The author provides three recommendations for organizations: lose the illusion of control; constantly monitor Web 2.0; and actively engage with your customers. He shows that in the end, while it might seem like a brand new playing field has emerged, in many ways, Web 2.0 returns us to two of the very foundations of Marketing: understand your customers deeply and develop active, engaged relationships with them.

Enabled by new digital technologies, openness has become a mega-trend for innovation and the topic du jour for organizations of all kinds. However, little has been said about what this 'new openness' means for the realm of design. In this article, the author reframes open from a design perspective, arguing that we must learn how to design for the loss of control that is inherent in being an increasingly-open organization. Indeed, he argues that a deliberately-designed loss of control may grant companies the most critical competitive advantage available today: access. He describes ten tools of openness and predicts that embracing them and designing for the loss of control will quickly rise to the top of the list of management challenges.

As the ways in which consumers make purchasing decisions continue to multiply, retailers are at a crossroads. One of the key reasons for operating a bricks-and-mortar store-building a strong, distinctive brand experience-no longer seems as relevant. Thanks to the rapid rise of social media and corporate transparency, consumers wield tremendous influence in shaping retail brands and are growing increasingly skeptical of overly-slick store designs, clerks and marketing messages. The once-dependable competitive edges enjoyed by bricks-and-mortar retailers are eroding, which means they can no longer afford to assume any inherent advantages over their online competitors. The authors describe three key paradigm shifts that smart retailers are embracing to solidify customer loyalty and provide shoppers with that increasingly-important window into an organization's soul.

The author argues that as a society, we have become fixated on setting and solving single-answer problems. There is nothing inherently wrong with single-answer problems, she says; without being able to frame and answer them, we would never get anything done. The difficulty lies in our preoccupation with the small fragment of the world that they represent. Regardless of a problem's complexity, our fixation with finding an answer causes us to narrow our attention, and in doing so, we often overlook what matters most. She describes two more complex types of problems -- enigmatic problems and open-ended problems -- and shows how adopting three particular mindsets can enable one to develop a more open mind and become a 'possibilian'.