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To understand the recent trend toward privatization of infrastructure assets (e.g., airports), this article proposes a valuation methodology based on real options and game theory analysis that enables assessing when investors might overpay for infrastructure assets over standard discounted cash flow methods and when a premium is justified for their operating flexibility or strategic growth option value. While some infrastructure asset acquisitions may involve financial transactions whose value derives primarily from their expected cash flows, many of these infrastructure investments provide a platform and create the strategic context within which the firm can grow.

Megaprojects require investment of $1bn or more to build infrastructure, usually involving a complex system of production consisting of discrete, routine, and high-volume repetitive processes. Many of these processes can be progressively standardized and replicated to improve overall productive performance. This article presents the findings of research on design and production of London's Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 (T5). The findings were used to develop a conceptual framework-which we call the systems integration model-to identify the project and operational processes that contribute to success in delivering megaprojects. The systems integrator is the lead organization in a megaproject, responsible for establishing a governance structure, managing risk, and coordinating processes performed by a large network of external suppliers. Innovations based on the "recombination" and "replication" of processes can be introduced to improve megaproject performance.

In recent years, infrastructure promoters have become interested in translating the Toyota lean management paradigm into new infrastructure development projects. This approach assumes client and project suppliers are willing to work cooperatively. To enable this prerequisite, clients have started to experiment with relational contracts. An empirical study on the use of a relational contract in the £4.2bn extension of Heathrow airport in London confirms, however, the old adage that the devil is in the details. Unarguably, relational contracts enable the project client and suppliers to work together for a common purpose. However, the interwoven ways in which the client implements the contract-writing up the commercial details, as well as adjusting and interpreting these details throughout the project-are critical to encourage the suppliers to work cooperatively and meet the expectations of the client. This study unpacks five factors for making relational contracts work in projects: suppliers are keen to reap reputation benefits from project participation; suppliers have flexibility in their production processes; client and suppliers choose the right people for the jobs; client learns to relationally contract in response to supplier feedback; and client aligns its practices to control and improve performance with the suppliers' skills.

The cumulative effects of individual purchase decisions are responsible for anthropogenic climate change. These very same private investment and consumption decisions are at the center of climate change mitigation efforts. This article shows that new market-based, incentive-compatible mechanisms could encourage win-win (green and profitable) behavior by private investors. Despite their availability and financial viability, people often overlook more efficient technologies in favor of the less efficient but familiar ones. The article provides a framework that shows how local policies can act as catalysts in providing profitable opportunities for private investors to bridge this so-called "efficiency gap."

If at first you don't succeed, give up, is the road less travelled for leaders who continue to spend money on an acquisition they made -even though the acquisition is clearly not working out. But why, as this author asks, don't we actually strive to create an organizational climate that makes admitting and learning from mistakes as valued as persistence and perseverance? Below, he describes four steps that can make it easy for leaders to cut their losses and save face.

With the elimination of many repetitive jobs due to increased automation and off-shoring, workplace motivation has changed significantly and more employees consider their work to be meaningful. Extrinsic rewards, usually financial, played a dominant role in the past, when jobs were more routine. Yet intrinsic or psychological rewards have gained importance, including an employee’s sense of meaningfulness, choice, competence, and progress. Intrinsic rewards benefit employee self-management by increasing concentration and motivation, and predicting retention. Yet older motivational models, which stress financial rewards, continue to influence many managers. After describing his research on motivation and the new importance of intrinsic rewards, the author outlines seven steps for building a high-engagement culture: 1. Begin with a meaningful purpose. 2. Build intrinsic motivation and engagement into management training and executive coaching. 3. Focus conversations on meaningfulness, choice, competence, and progress. 4. Engage “the middle.” 5. Measure intrinsic reward levels. 6. Provide missing building blocks for intrinsic rewards that you need to bolster. 7. Adopt a change and implementation process that is itself engaging.

Leaders are increasingly finding themselves in situations where they need help from subordinates, and in which subordinates are asking for help in areas where leaders are not experts. To manage either situation effectively, a leader will have to develop a degree of humility and specific process skills. Readers will learn how to achieve those difficult goals in this article by the dean of organizational behaviour.

Rare is the business leader who can articulate and instill a long-term vision and manage the day-to-day operations with the requisite obsession for detail. A leader who combines both styles is what these authors call a strategic leader, someone who, more than any other type of leader is best equipped to increase shareholder value. Leaders and potential leaders will find out what it takes when they read this article.

From Built to Last to Good to Great and now to Why the Mighty Fall (HarperCollins), Jim Collins has established himself as the leading management thinker of our time. The former Stanford University Business School professor turned mega-selling author and avid rock climber is the driven researcher and thinker whom many leading companies look to for advice on how to grow, how to improve their performance and how to go from merely good to great. He spoke to Ivey Business Journal from his research laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

If the participation of labour in management decisions leads to a more responsive, better-run GM and Chrysler, then this economic recession will have yielded a proud legacy, proof that management-labour cooperation really does work. This author believes that the time has come for such cooperation to roll down the assembly line. He also suggests tried and true work practices that will create efficiencies, and in the end, build an enduring trust.

Large-scale IT projects are highly uncertain and vulnerable to the laws of unintended consequences. But the risks can be contained and the opportunities still realized, as long as uncertainty is respected and taken into account. As this author writes, there are practical, proven approaches that allow you to accept uncertainty but maintain good project discipline.

Not all that long ago, the acronym KISS was so popular that many executives displayed it on their desks, either embedded in Lucite or sculpted in bronze. Keep It Simple Stupid was the preferred strategy of the time. That strategy - and the acronym -- is enjoying a limited revival in these difficult times, especially in the research-obsessed, insight-seeking marketing domain. These days, the tome-like marketing plan is out and the pithy pocket version is in. Or, it better be.

The "vision thing" is still with us, but while leaders insist in having a compelling vision, the fact is that many - both the leaders and the visions - leave people standing still, unmoved. A leader who engages stakeholders when developing a vision will, in the end, articulate one that resonates strongly and impels people to act.

Though more women are being invited to become directors, they are still under-represented on boards. This leading governance author and academic discusses why this is so and suggests a series of steps that would-be women directors can take to enhance their chances of being asked to sit on boards.

Managers want to have their instincts validated before they act, such as waiting until all the data have been gathered before they launch a product. But relying on the tried and true doesn't always serve managers well, especially when it comes to organic growth. The question of "Will it fly?" can be answered only by letting it fly - by launching the particular product and listening to the market respond. Growth leaders don't do traditional research. As these authors explain, growth leaders win by placing small bets fast.

The efficacy - and appropriateness - of monetizing the poor may be questionable for some. Reality and research, however, suggest that enabling the poor to make the economic and psychic step up from merely subsisting has transformative benefits. These authors have conducted extensive research on how helping the poor make the move up ought to be done and how the benefits of such a move underpin change that lasts.

"Going into business for yourself, becoming an entrepreneur, is the modern-day equivalent of pioneering on the old frontier," according to entrepreneur and author Paula Nelson. I agree. It takes courage, know-how and perseverance to launch a business and make it succeed. Fortunately for our economy, Canada is home to more than 850,000 women entrepreneurs. Their numbers have increased more than 200 percent over the past 20 years. Today, they annually contribute more than $18 billion to our economy, employ more than 570,000 people, and continue to represent one of the fastest growing sectors. And even in these difficult economic times, they are discovering new markets, charting new territory and building new companies.

A recent Ivey study confirms the commonly held view that General Electric is an excellent breeding ground for future business leaders. This article summarizes the study and its three conclusions: Firms led by CEOs who were trained at GE will outperform firms led by CEOs who were not; GE's reputation for developing CEO talent is, in fact, well deserved and not mere hype; and GE appears to develop more CEO talent than other noted CEO talent-generating firms.

One-time Ford CEO and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was the archetypal numbers man. No human failing such as emotions could influence a decision. Like McNamara, today's CEOs who think they're basing their decisions only on reason are deceiving themselves - and jeopardizing the company's viability. These authors have written a forthcoming book on the subject, and in this article they describe how leaders can understand the powerful pull that emotions have on their decisions.

Can a leader who lacks the innate skills and knowledge to manage his or her emotions and connect with people be effective? Yes, says this author, even if such a leader is the brash and at-times out-of-control opposite of the archetypal emotionally mature leader. In fact, such a leader or potential leader can even be found where an organization would least expect, near the bottom of the organizational chart.