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This article introduces ten high quality resources that can aid in this process of incorporating sustainability into a business school's curriculum. The focus in the article is on resources that cut across business disciplines and exist outside of the discipline-specific places faculty members often look. These resources provide access to sustainability-focused content and cases as well as sustainability-focused course modules and syllabi that have been used at other universities.

By 2017, higher education is expected to be a $2 trillion industry worldwide. Within this huge economic engine, the boards of trustees that provide governance to universities and colleges face a complex challenge in that they must serve a variety of stakeholders. Without effective governance, an academic institution's performance is likely to suffer. Penn State University is plagued by an ineffective board of trustees. As a complement to past work that has documented this board's unwise and costly decisions, we examine how five design issues--board size, board composition, fiduciary responsibility, term limits, and transparency--helped create a culture in which poor choices were more likely to occur. We discuss why the board's recent self-imposed reforms are inadequate. We then offer more substantive reforms that could fix the Penn State board's flaws. In particular, we recommend that academic boards should be (1) small enough to allow full participation of all members, (2) composed such that no one stakeholder group can dominate decision making, (3) designed to eliminate actual and perceived conflicts of interest, (4) governed by term limits, and (5) appropriately transparent in their strategic decision making and communications. We leverage these principles to propose a reduction of the Penn State board from 30 voting members to 19. More broadly, other academic boards might benefit from undergoing a self-analysis based on the Penn State case.

Many managers seek to use existing information in the branding, marketing, and general operations of their business. When that information belongs to another entity, managers risk legal liability unless they obtain the proper permissions or use the information in a way that does not infringe intellectual property rights. Currently, substantial confusion exists regarding when such permissions are required and how to avoid infringing others' rights. This installment of Business Law & Ethics Corner provides managers with basic information about the proper use of copyrighted and trademarked material, including an overview of the doctrine of fair use as applied in the copyright and trademark contexts.

Politics in organizations are a fact of life, and have been regarded as such for decades by organizational scientists and practitioners alike. Unfortunately, far less is known about the skills or competencies needed in order to be successful--and even survive--in such political environments. Although many believe performance, effectiveness, and career success are determined mostly by intelligence and hard work, political perspectives on organizations contend that other factors such as positioning, social astuteness, and interpersonal savvy also play important roles; that is, individuals need to possess political skill. In this article, we describe the underlying features and operation of political skill in organizations, and argue that it allows people to be effective at work by giving them the capacity to more accurately recognize opportunities in the work environment and effectively capitalize on those opportunities. Using the game of chess as a metaphor, we describe how politically skilled individuals strategically employ their competencies in ways that ensure goal attainment. Further, we provide some practical guidance for employees about how to play the organizational politics 'game' to facilitate success.

The traditional branding paradigm involved heavy upfront investment and tightly managing the image via controlled communications in hopes of creating dominant brands that could be leveraged to cultivate loyalty and a long-term, steady stream of profits. However, social media can drastically alter consumers' behavior and their brand preferences. This rapidly evolving landscape has left managers at a loss, and what they are experiencing is likely the beginning of a tectonic shift in the way brands are managed. In this article, we take a close look at the building blocks of branding and also examine the core of social media. After careful analysis of the two, we discuss the likely impact social media will have on the practice of brand management. We conclude that it will extend beyond the narrow confines of the use of social media as a message platform, to the core of how markets are targeted and products are delivered. We make recommendations regarding how companies can manage various facets of branding in this new marketplace.

The selling environment has undergone tremendous transformation over the past 2 decades. Perhaps the greatest change has centered on changes and advancements in technology. The latest dramatic change has been the rapidly increasing use of social media and other related technologies in the business-to-business realm. The sales world began the use of technology through the use of Web 1.0, which was primarily webpage oriented; now we see the world of social media as the paradigm of how firms should implement technology. Although there has been some recent emphasis on how marketing might implement social media into their strategies and how the individual salesperson might implement social media into his or her daily selling routine, no substantive discussion on how social media is affecting the role of the sales manager has appeared in the literature. This article systematically examines how social media is impacting the sales management function and, in fact, may be dramatically revolutionizing the position. To help the marketing and sales organization better understand the changing sales world, we present eight lessons that every sales manager needs to embrace.

Digital technology is increasingly important in achieving business goals, and its pervasive effects have resulted in the radical restructuring of entire industries. Consequently, managers' extensive interest in handling digital innovation is not surprising. Recent research has illustrated how digital technologies give rise to a vast potential for product and service innovation that is difficult to control and predict. Therefore, firms need dynamic tools to support themselves in managing the new types of digital innovation processes that emerge. The nature of these processes forces firms to challenge prior assumptions about their product and service portfolio, their digital environment, and ways of organizing innovation work. In this article, we present a managerial framework that supports firms in this undertaking. The framework, geared at supporting ongoing improvements in digital innovation management, covers five key areas: user experience, value proposition, digital evolution scanning, skills, and improvisation. We also present a diagnostic tool that can be utilized as firms begin the process of implementing the framework. Finally, we conclude with our thoughts on the managerial implications of the framework when going forward in a rapidly changing digital innovation landscape.

The CEO of Coeur Mining, the largest U.S.-based primary silver producer and a significant gold producer, saw a need for immediate change during week one on the job. Instead of wasting time changing culture, Mitch Krebs built a new one by moving the company to Chicago, a non-traditional mining city, and replacing most of the corporate office. The firm he had inherited was informal and decentralized, as well as overly focused on next-month and next-quarter results to the extent that it risked losing sight of relations with the communities in which it operated and communication strategies. Krebs set a goal for Coeur to become the best precious metals mining company in the world, not the biggest. In this interview, he praises going big with organizational change as worth the effort, and recognizes the value of good relationships as the best lesson he learned in business school. For any team to excel, he states, a firm has to have the right kind of constructive conflicts that focus on the problem involved, not the people. Finally, he cautions against building anything in the mining industry until you know exactly where the money is going to come from.

Although 46 similar products were on the market when Intuit launched Quicken, in 1983, it immediately became the market leader in personal finance software and has held that position for three decades. That's because Quicken was so well designed that using it is intuitive. But by the time Smith became CEO, in 2008, the company had become overly focused on adding incremental features that delivered ease of use but not delight. What was missing was an emotional connection with customers. He and his team set out to integrate design thinking into every part of Intuit. They changed the layout of the office, reduced the number of cubes, and added more collaboration spaces and places for impromptu work. They increased the number of designers by nearly 600% and now hold quarterly design conferences. They bring in people who have created exceptionally designed products, such as the Nest thermostat and the Kayak travel website, to share insights with Intuit employees. The company acquired one start-up, called Mint, and collaborates with another, called ZenPayroll, to improve customer experience. Although most people don't think of financial software as a category driven by emotion or design, Smith writes, Intuit's D4D ("design for delight") program has paid off. For example, its SnapTax app, inspired by consumers' migration to smartphones, led one user to write, "I want this app to have my babies."

Despite the widely accepted ideal of "shared value," research led by Harvard Business School's Kasturi Rangan suggests that this is not the norm-and that's OK. Most companies practice a multifaceted version of CSR that spans theaters ranging from pure philanthropy to environmental sustainability to the explicitly strategic. To maximize their impact, companies must ensure that initiatives in the various theaters form a unified platform. Four steps can help them do so: Pruning and aligning programs within theaters. Companies must examine their existing programs in each theater, reducing or eliminating those that do not address an important social or environmental problem in keeping with the firm's business purpose and values. Developing metrics to gauge performance. Just as the goals of programs vary from theater to theater, so do the definitions of success. Coordinating programs across theaters. This does not mean that all initiatives necessarily address the same problem; it means that they are mutually reinforcing and form a cogent whole. Developing an interdisciplinary CSR strategy. The range of purposes underlying initiatives in different theaters and the variation in how those initiatives are managed pose major barriers for many firms. Strategy development can be top-down or bottom-up, but ongoing communication is key. These practices have helped companies including PNC Bank, IKEA, and Ambuja Cements bring discipline and coherence to their CSR portfolios.

Authenticity has become the gold standard for leadership. But as INSEAD professor Herminia Ibarra argues, a simplistic understanding of what authenticity means can limit leaders' growth and impact. All too often, we tend to latch on to authenticity as an excuse for sticking with what's comfortable. But few jobs allow us to do that for long. In this article, Ibarra explains how leaders can develop an "adaptively authentic" style by experimenting with many different leadership approaches. It's OK to change tactics from one day to the next, she says. That's not being fake; it's how we figure out what's right for the challenges and circumstances we face. Three strategies can help you break free from a self-concept that's too rigid: Learn from diverse role models. Growth necessarily involves some form of imitation, but don't copy just one person's leadership style. Borrow selectively from various people to create your own collage. Work on getting better. Set learning goals-not just performance targets-to focus on the value of experimentation. Stretch the limits of who you are by doing new things that make you uncomfortable but help you discover by direct experience whom you want to become. Don't stick to "your story." Jettison outdated self-concepts and draw on personal narratives that fit your circumstances as you're taking on new challenges.

Seeking and giving advice are central to effective leadership and decision making, and they require emotional intelligence, self-awareness, restraint, diplomacy, and patience on both sides. But managers tend to view these competencies as "gifts" that one either has or lacks. The authors argue instead that they're practical skills you can learn and apply to great effect. They draw on a large body of research to identify the most common obstacles to effectively seeking and giving advice--such as thinking one already has the answers, defining the problem poorly, and overstepping boundaries--and offer practical guidelines for getting past them. The authors define the five stages of advising: (1) finding the right fit; (2) developing a shared understanding; (3) crafting alternatives; (4) converging on a decision; and (5) putting advice into action. Each stage includes suggestions for seekers and for advisers. Example: At stage 4, when it's time to narrow down the options, a seeker might review discarded or briefly considered ideas, and his adviser might play devil's advocate--to check for confirmation bias. Overall, the authors' guidelines amount to a fundamental shift in approach: a creative, collaborative way of understanding problems and crafting promising paths forward--which often requires an ongoing conversation.

For organizations to prosper, managers in the middle ranks must feel empowered to identify and promote the need for change. People at this level gather valuable intelligence from direct contact with customers, suppliers, and colleagues; they can often see when the market is ripe for a certain offering, for instance, or spot signs that a partnership won't work. But for many reasons, ranging from a fear of negative consequences to compliance with a top-down culture, they may not voice their ideas and concerns--and even when they do, they often struggle to persuade the people at the top. The authors studied "issue selling" in a range of organizations, roles, and industries, identifying seven tactics associated with success. Managers should (1) tailor their pitch to the goals, values, and knowledge of decision makers; (2) frame the issue to show how it supports a strategic goal; (3) manage emotions (their own and their audience's); (4) get the timing right by, say, attending to a boss's preoccupations or watching larger trends; (5) involve others, both in and out of their networks; (6) adhere to organizational norms, such as how leaders prefer to receive information; and (7) suggest solutions, or at least propose ways to find one. Issue selling is an ongoing process that requires groundwork and patience. Midlevel managers who do it effectively get decision makers' attention and make a real difference in their organizations.

Big data is proving difficult to translate into useful knowledge, the authors write. That's in part because a company's knowledge assets involve so much more: core competencies, areas of expertise, intellectual property, and deep pools of talent. Large-scale, sustainable growth is generally made possible when people take insights from one knowledge domain and apply them in another--when deep technical expertise in one business unit is applied in a different business unit, for example, or when a best-in-class marketing group pulls a product development unit into the 21st century by sharing market insights gleaned from customer data. The authors describe how to map your organization's strategic knowledge and identify where it can help you create value and growth. When knowledge assets are placed in a grid along two dimensions--"unstructured" (tacit) versus "structured" (explicit) and "undiffused" (proprietary) versus "diffused" (shared)--it becomes easier to manage them for future competitive advantage.

People are highly social animals. Most of us belong to many social groups, each with its own identity. These identities guide our actions, but they shift from moment to moment. That has important implications for marketers: Someone who, say, encounters a brand of cologne will have one response to it when he sees himself as a dutiful son and another when he sees himself as an available single man. For five years the authors have been studying how social identity affects customer behavior in a wide range of industries. They have seen that companies can trigger more-favorable reactions in customers by subtly influencing which identities they tap into. This is something firms should take into account when doing market research or designing experiences. The first step is to focus on the customer's social self and surface the range of his possible identities. If a customer's identity encourages targeted behaviors, marketers can help reinforce it. If an offering clashes with the customer's chosen identity, however, a company can reframe product messages. Marketers can also work to add a desired behavior to those that customers associate with an identity, prime different identities in customers, and even create new identities that deepen relationships with existing customers and attract new ones.

Though it's been over a decade since the first wave of post-Enron governance reforms, boards are still failing to provide strong oversight and strategic support for management's efforts to create long-term value. Consider these damning results from a recent McKinsey survey: A mere 34% of directors believe that the boards they serve on fully comprehend their companies' strategies, and just 16% think that their boards have a strong understanding of the dynamics of their firms' industries. Another survey asked directors and C-suite executives where the greatest pressure to deliver short-term results came from. The most frequent response? Boards. In this article the global managing director of McKinsey and the CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board propose measures to strengthen boards and encourage their members to focus more on long-term opportunities and strategy. Companies can start by recruiting independent thinkers and people with the right expertise as directors, fostering high-quality strategic conversations, and instituting key nonfinancial metrics. Engaging deeply with major long-term shareholders, especially about growth strategies, would also alleviate a lot of the pressure to maximize short-term results. And board compensation needs to be rethought: Directors should be paid more (but serve on fewer boards), and the mix of rewards should be retooled to emphasize long-term performance.

All too often, when we think we're projecting a certain image to others, they perceive us very differently. This happens in part because people tend to make judgments unconsciously and automatically, influenced by various biases. But research from social psychologists can help us understand the flaws in human perception and make sure we're judged fairly. According to the author, someone meeting you for the first time--or reassessing you later--is likely to be viewing you through various lenses: the "trust lens," to decide if you are friend or foe, the "power lens," to assess your usefulness, and the "ego lens," to confirm a sense of superiority. Halvorson suggests specific ways you can use this information to put your best foot forward. To be trusted, project warmth and competence. To appeal to someone more powerful, demonstrate your instrumentality in reaching his or her goals. And to be seen positively through another person's ego lens, be modest and inclusive. If you need to overcome a bad impression, you can complement these strategies with others that will make people want to revise their opinions of you. By thinking strategically about how we all form our impressions, you'll find it much easier to come across as you intend and be seen in a favorable light.

The Australian-born industrial designer likes to have direct access to clients' CEOs and needs to shut himself away for his creative work. His extensive travels have taught him that "design is a borderless occupation."

Just a few years after its 2005 opening, Georgia Aquarium faced a challenge common to all experience-based businesses: After an initial rush of traffic, attendance declines as the novelty wears off. So the facility brought in V. Kumar, a Georgia State University expert on marketing research and customer engagement, who used data analysis and marketing models to identify and acquire the most-valuable future customers. Kumar's team found the top zip codes of visitors and high-spending season-pass holders and then targeted media spending at residents in zip codes with similar demographics. The big payoff in increased attendance and revenue shows that marketing science can be a potent tool for other experienced-based businesses too. This reprint contains two additional Idea Watch articles. "The Downside of Discounts" provides a visual analysis of the frequency and extent of B2B discounts and the speed with which they erode the average price for all customers. "How Government Assistance Drives Start-Ups" describes several studies showing that public subsidies and insurance prompt more people to start companies.

A new study suggests that rats integrate information more effectively than humans do.