170 Posts found for Source: Bain & Company

Companies that systematically and continuously put the right leaders in the right jobs outperform companies that don’t-by a wide margin. In this article, the authors argue that chief executives must recognize and act on the consequences of how they deploy their best managers.

Content: Article | Authors: Alan Bird, Dean Donovan, Marcia Blenko, Paul Rogers, Robin Buchanan | Sources: Bain & Company, European Business Journal | Subjects: Leadership, Management

The usual narrow approach to training hurts an organisation’s chances of reaching its full potential because training is unlikely to mesh well with the business strategy. On average, about 2% of payroll goes to training The right kind of framework will help training directors determine where and when to place the training dollars that are so vulnerable to the accountants’ red pens Performance management serves … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Steven Tallman | Sources: Bain & Company, The Economist | Subjects: Best Practices, Human Resources

Leaders everywhere are grappling with organisational issues, as they align their strategies to reflect a new set of competitive givens. And as they reshuffle, spin off or acquire, the overriding global vs. local dilemma has not only become old, it’s become painful. Because knowledge will ultimately differentiate leaders from followers, it is a company’s ability to leverage its knowledge that will secure its competitive edge, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Philippe De Backer | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Knowledge Management

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A three-part blueprint for building processes for innovation into your organization.

Editor’s Note: for the same basic information in a different format, read “It takes systems, not serendipity: A blueprint for building a disruptive-innovation engine” at:
Content: Article | Authors: Alistair Corbett, Darrell K. Rigby | Sources: Bain & Company, Journal of Business Strategy | Subjects: Innovation, Strategy

Personal aspirations collide with firm realities; conflicts rage among a person’s competing interests. Outstanding professionals-stars-are inherently ambitious and restless, creating a certain amount of unavoidable turmoil for themselves and their colleagues.

Editor’s Note: I read a lot of so-called “work-life balance” articles and frankly, most of them are useless. I found this one different – very insightful and a good read (though a bit long). … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Jay W. Lorsch, Thomas J. Tierney | Sources: Bain & Company, Consulting to Management | Subjects: Career, Personal Development

Building an impressive resume is a lot easier than building a fulfilling life because life is a lot more complicated. It’s not a ladder at all, but rather a continuum with confusing twists and turns. Being smart helps; being wise, thoughtful, and disciplined is an absolute necessity. We’ve seen stars succeed at life, and we’ve seen stars fail life miserably, despite professional success.Those that succeed … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Personal Development, Success / Failure

People succeed when they run toward something rather than away from something.

Content: Quotation | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Success / Failure

Until you’ve explicitly defined your life’s goals and aspirations, you can’t really know what tradeoffs you’re willing to make to reach them.

Content: Quotation | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Ambition, Personal Development

The secret to top private equity firms’ success lies not just in financial structuring, but increasingly in five managerial disciplines. The good news for corporations? These disciplines can, and do, apply to publicly held companies.

Content: Article | Authors: Dan Haas, Paul Rogers, Tom Holland | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Maximizing one of life’s variables (such as net worth) usually comes at the direct expense of others (such as free time). More money is better only if the tradeoffs it requires don’t undermine other dimensions of your desired point of arrival. Even the wealthiest among us agree that at some level, money has diminishing marginal returns. But since money is a common scorecard, it can … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Money, Success / Failure

Tom Tierney was worldwide CEO of international consulting firm Bain & Company from 1992 until he began to focus on the Bridgespan Group, Bain’s non-profit affiliate, in 2000. Under Tierney’s leadership, Bain grew its revenues six-fold, expanding from 12 to 26 offices worldwide. He has now captured what he learned from the experience in the book Aligning the Stars (Harvard Business School Press), written with … [ Read more ]

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Stuart Crainer | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Management | Industry: Consulting

Honest feedback is a valuable-albeit often painful-gift. Seeking it out is not a natural act. We all want to protect ourselves, to solicit only those perspectives that reinforce our positive self-image.To hear what we agree with and discard the rest. We rationalize this behavior in a million different ways, from discrediting the source of a disagreeable perspective (“What do they really know?”) to “accidentally” forgetting … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Personal Development

What distinguishes the men and women who succeed from those who fail is the efficacy of their actions, not the spaciousness of their hopes. If they believe their lives are out of alignment with their capabilities, goals, and needs, they make choices and take actions to correct the situation.

Content: Quotation | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Personal Development, Success / Failure

Every life is shaped to some extent by circumstances: a lucky break or a fortunate decision…Things happen to us that drive our destinies in unforeseen ways. More fundamentally, we are all dealt a hand of cards– ranging from our genes to the family and neighborhood we grew up in-which shapes how we adapt to these circumstances.

Personal alignment is how well we play that hand … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Luck, Success / Failure

Popular wisdom says layoffs are the reflex response for most businesses when the economy weakens. But Bain & Company’s year-long analysis of layoffs at S&P 500 companies proves that wisdom wrong. The results debunk four myths about downsizing. They reveal that: not all companies go into automatic layoff mode at the first hint of downturn; big job losses can actually hurt stock prices because they … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Darrell K. Rigby | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Economics, Human Resources

In years of tracking and analysing the evolution of public and private companies, we’ve observed that a minority of managers are more adept than others at bringing about change. The skills and tools they draw on have surprisingly less to do with style, charisma or instinct. The bottom line is that effective change management is more a science than an art.

Content: Article | Author: Luc Luyten | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Change Management, Management

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