Chip Heath
It turns out that our brains are wired to critique situations. And so if we’ve got a global economic downturn and the salesforce has really been hit hard by this, we’ll tend to focus on the people that are doing the worst and try to coach them and help them out. What we don’t often do is look at the best people and steal their … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Chip Heath | Source: “Stanford University” | Subjects: Best Practices, Marketing / Sales
Cracking the growth code: The ten rules of growth explained
Experts behind the rules of value-creating growth discuss how leaders can apply these insights to their growth strategies.
Content: Article | Authors: Chris Bradley, Rebecca Doherty | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Strategy
Fear factor: Overcoming human barriers to innovation
Worries about failure, criticism, and career impact hold back many people from embracing innovation. Here’s how to create a culture that accounts for the human side of innovation.
Content: Article | Authors: Alex Morris, Erik Roth, Laura Furstenthal | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Growth rules: Which matter most?
Ten rules should guide how companies select pathways to profitable growth, but each rule’s impact on performance varies considerably.
Content: Article | Authors: Chris Bradley, Jill Zucker, Rebecca Doherty, Tido Röder | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Strategy
Performance through people: Transforming human capital into competitive advantage
A dual focus on developing people and managing them well gives a select group of companies a long-term performance edge.
Content: Article | Authors: Anu Madgavkar, Bill Schaninger, Dana Maor, Hamid Samandari, Jonathan Woetzel, Kanmani Chockalingam, Olivia White, Sven Smit | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Human Resources, Training & Development
Chris Gagnon
The success of hallmark cultures is that they read one of these groups of [business] books that hung together with a consistent philosophy, and they really, really stuck with it. A little bit of best practice here, a little bit of best practice there will get you killed.
Content: Quotation | Author: Chris Gagnon | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Culture, Organizational Behavior
Unpacking 5 Myths About Management
In science the key question is “Is it true?” In management the key question is “Does it work?” But context is critical: Just because an idea works in a particular case does not mean it is a universal truth.
If you set a stretch goal, make sure that the organization has some stretch in it, or it will break. To execute a strategy, you need a … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Stephen Bungay | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
Aaron De Smet, Chris Gagnon, Elizabeth Mygatt
While all companies have a strategy for how they create value, few can show precisely how the organization will achieve it. Future-ready companies, by contrast, avoid this dilemma by creating a value agenda—a map that disaggregates a company’s ambitions and targets into tangible organizational elements such as business units, regions, product lines, and even key capabilities. Armed with such a depiction, these companies can articulate … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Chris Gagnon, Elizabeth Mygatt | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
How one approach to M&A is more likely to create value than all others
Two decades of research show that, while large deals still have their place, programmatic M&A strategies continue to create gains in excess total returns to shareholders, at lower levels of risk.
Content: Article | Authors: Jeff Rudnicki, Liz Wol, Patrick McCurdy, Paul Daume, Tobias Lundberg | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Mergers & Acquisitions
Gregory P. Shea
Nobody wants to fail, but when there’s failure, does it get debriefed so that learning occurs in the organization? If there’s success, do you debrief to try to improve, as well? Debriefing shouldn’t be a code word for “We only do it when we fail.” You want to secure the ways that you succeed, as well. If you did succeed, part of the development and … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Gregory P. Shea | Source: “Knowledge@Wharton” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Organizational Behavior
Organizing for the Future: Nine Keys to Becoming a Future-Ready Company
Companies should embrace nine imperatives that collectively explain “who we are” as an organization, “how we operate,” and “how we grow.”
Content: Article | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Chris Gagnon, Elizabeth Mygatt | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
Ariel Silverstone
[An] effective way to detect what [customer data] has leaked, and through which possible partner, is to pre-poison the data, sowing into it information that can provide a reference point in the case of a leak.
Content: Quotation | Author: Ariel Silverstone | Source: “Fast Company” | Subjects: Best Practices, IT / Technology / E-Business
Research: How Virtual Teams Can Better Share Knowledge
One of the stated reasons for trying to get workers back into the office is the chorus of concern around the difficulties of sharing knowledge and experience amongst remote co-workers. New research, however, suggests a method that could improve this process both in the office and remotely: guided meetings between coworkers, which can easily happen in person or remotely. Compared to monetary incentives (without guidance … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Christopher Stanton, Jason Sandvik, Nathan Seegert, Richard Saouma | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Best Practices, Organizational Behavior
How Executives Can Help Sustain Value Creation for the Long Term
Companies create more shareholder value when executives and directors concentrate on long-term results. A new report highlights behaviors that allow them to maintain a long-term orientation.
Content: Article | Authors: Ariel Babcock, Kevin Sneader, Sarah Keohane Williamson, Tim Koller, Victoria Potter | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
Having a Clear Purpose Drives Performance
Does corporate purpose influence firm performance? More than two decades ago, the scholars Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal argued that purpose, not strategy, structure or systems, was the essential precursor to effective management. Since then, the public discourse on purpose has gone up substantially. And while there’s a growing body of research on related topics — from CSR to ESG — when it comes … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Claudine Gartenberg | Source: “IESE Insight” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Organizational Behavior
The Distance
Basecamp spent three years telling the stories of people who run businesses that endured 25 years or more. Have a listen — they’re an inspiration for anyone looking to build a business that goes the distance.
Content: Online Resource | Subjects: Best Practices, Miscellaneous
Why Your Next Transformation Should be ‘All In’
Improve the odds of a successful business transformation by going “all in” to kick-start performance and remake your portfolio.
Content: Article | Authors: Chris Bradley, Marc de Jong, Wesley Walden | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Strategy
9 Habits of World Class Startups
Startups that grow into transformative companies do two things: (1) they nail the basics and (2) they cultivate the right habits (core operating principles).
The first is mandatory. If you don’t get the basics right, in all probability your company won’t succeed. A list of things we consider basics:
- Fundraising (don’t run out of capital)
- Ship (don’t just talk about it, ship it)
- Customer focus (live
Content: Article | Author: James Currier | Source: “NFX” | Subjects: Best Practices, Entrepreneurship, Management
For Outstanding Performance, Change How You Solve Problems
Ask any business leader if he or she is good at solving problems and the likely response is, “Of course!” After all, business leaders spend a lot of their time navigating problems. If they weren’t good at it, those leaders would lose their jobs, wouldn’t they? Not if the organization doesn’t know what robust problem solving looks like. Most organizations don’t and as a result … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Karen Martin | Source: “ChangeThis” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
How to Make the Bold Strategy Moves that Matter
What does it take to make a true performance leap? The authors of Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick explain the key strategic levers their analysis has revealed, and how strongly you have to pull them.
Content: Article | Authors: Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, Sean Brown, Sven Smit | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Strategy