Why Great Managers Are So Rare

Companies fail to choose the candidate with the right talent for the job 82% of the time, Gallup finds.

How to Think Clearly in Turbulent Times: Lessons from Charlie Munger

Munger’s success was built on a system for decision-making—not a classical investment philosophy, but rather a mental discipline underpinning one. We outline four ideas strategists can learn from Munger to think more clearly in turbulent times.

Graham Kenny

The primary focus of a strategic plan is competitiveness. It is designed to respond to change and future opportunities in a way to find advantage. The primary focus of an operational plan is efficiency. Operational plans are designed to roll out strategy via internal department programs developed by, for instance, HR, IT, marketing, and manufacturing.

Graham Kenny

All organizations have competitors — for customers, for staff, for funds, for resources.

Author Talks: Andrew McAfee on how a ‘geek’ mindset can transform your business

Too often, business initiatives get mired in bureaucracy, overconfidence, and lack of ownership. Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Andrew McAfee explores reasons for the dysfunction—and how to fix it.

Annual Planning Sucks — A CPO, CRO, CFO, and COO Share Advice on How to Make it Better

Four top execs reveal their annual planning secrets from Notion, Stripe, Vanta, Linear, Linktree and more. From addressing AI to adjusting org charts, this COO, CFO, CPO & CRO share insights so startups at any stage can build effective, realistic plans.

Frank D’Souza

Thinking about failure means going back to root causes. Most often, my failures stem from one of two places: a blind spot that I had or a comfort zone that I was in. I either didn’t see something, or I assumed something that wasn’t the right assumption. And those eventually lead to some form of failure.

It’s good to be constantly aware of your blind spots … [ Read more ]

Kevin Fishner

After OKRs are set, there’s no ritual for reviewing them, so they quickly get out of date. Then employees start resenting them because the effort to actually create the goals was a waste of time — and OKRs slowly die because no one looks at them anymore. Expectations aren’t enough. It’s the ritual that keeps the priorities top of mind and folks focused on what’s … [ Read more ]

Why Companies Get Agile Right—and Wrong

BCG conducted in-depth research with 127 companies worldwide regarding their experience with agile. Almost all (94%) had embarked on agile initiatives, and two thirds (66%) claimed successful agile transformations. But when we asked which agile practices they applied and what outcomes they achieved, we found that only about half (53%) could be considered truly agile, realizing their transformation targets and creating lasting change in their … [ Read more ]

Martin Harrysson

Product management has experienced at least two significant waves of change in the last couple of decades. The first wave was the shift from on-prem infrastructure to cloud, which allowed product managers to shift from requirement-getters to product visionaries developing minimum viable products.

The second wave was driven by the consumerization of technology, which led PMs to be more anchored in design thinking, make data-driven product … [ Read more ]

To Accelerate Growth, Analyze Your Company Like an Investor

Private equity (PE) firms have a proven approach to identify areas for revenue growth, value creation, and cost reduction: due diligence. But companies rarely use this same approach in the execution of their own growth strategy. This is a missed opportunity. The same due diligence skills and tools can be found in most large companies, but they are usually siloed in the corporate development team … [ Read more ]

In the spotlight: Performance management that puts people first

Performance management systems help people continuously develop—but most companies fall short of best practices. A set of defined design choices can help guide leaders forward.

Nathan Furr

We all want possibility, transformation, change, and innovation, but the only way to get to that is through uncertainty. If we want those things, we need to get better at navigating uncertainty as individual leaders, as teams, and as organizations. Organizations need to ask themselves, “Do we have the ability to face uncertainty? What is our uncertainty ability?” I believe uncertainty ability is like a … [ Read more ]

George Stalk, Jr., Philip Evans, Lawrence E. Shulman

Competing on capabilities provides a way for companies to gain the benefits of both focus and diversification. Put another way, a company that focuses on its strategic capabilities can compete in a remarkable diversity of regions, products, and businesses and do it far more coherently than the typical conglomerate can. Such a company is a “capabilities predator”—able to come out of nowhere and move rapidly … [ Read more ]

Is Your Workplace Biased Against Introverts?

Extroverts are more likely to express their passion outwardly, giving them a leg up when it comes to raises and promotions, according to research by Jon Jachimowicz. Introverts are just as motivated and excited about their work, but show it differently. How can managers challenge their assumptions?

Nate Stewart

What I’ve found is that it’s not necessarily the way you ask for feedback that matters. It’s how you show up when you receive that feedback that increases your chances of getting high-quality insights.

Today’s good to great: Next-generation operational excellence

Is tech accelerating your business operations—or getting in the way? To get lasting value from their tech investments, business leaders need a renewed understanding of operational excellence.

Jeffrey Pfeffer

No one is hired to win a popularity contest—you’re hired to get things done. You’re hired to make things happen, so when you show up to lead a group of people, those people want many things from you. What they don’t necessarily want from you is your authentic self.

What they need from you is inspiration. They need energy, even if you’re not feeling energetic that … [ Read more ]

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

Skilled middle managers foster collaboration, inspire employees, and link important functions at companies. An analysis of more than 35 million job postings by Letian Zhang paints a counterintuitive picture of today’s midlevel manager. Could these roles provide an innovation edge?

Five paths to TSR outperformance

It’s hard for companies to significantly beat long-term market TSR, harder still for the largest corporations, and hardest of all in the face of low growth. But industry endowment needn’t be destiny.