1297 Posts found for Source: strategy+business

A more strategic approach to costs can help you prepare for the next round of expansion.

Content: Article | Authors: Deniz Caglar, Jaya Pandrangi, John Plansky | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Strategy

“Big data” can drive competitive advantage if companies follow a few timeless principles.

Content: Article | Author: David Meer | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Management, Market Research

There are four basic roles you can play in a conversation. (I also call them action stances.) You can move: Start something new, like saying, “We need to spend less time in these meetings.” You can follow someone else’s move, by agreeing with it: “Yes, I’ve been concerned about the same thing.” You can oppose the move, raising objections or trying to stop it: “I … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David Kantor | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Communication

All the governance structures in the world can be boiled down to three types. The open system is consensual and unregulated until it hits a point of action, and then an authority, chosen by the group, decides. A representative democracy is an open system. In the closed system, authority rests with position—the closer you are to the top of the hierarchy, the more authority you … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David Kantor | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Decision Making, Government, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Some acts of speech are in the affect domain; they involve words of feeling, seeking an increase in connection and intimacy. “This decision seems pretty heartless. I wonder how people will feel about it.”

Other speech acts are in the power domain, using words about getting things done, and their purpose is increasing competence and efficacy. “Who’s going to make sure that there’s follow-through here?”

Finally, there … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David Kantor | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Communication

A new study finds that underestimating strategic risk is the number one cause of shareholder value destruction. But it doesn’t have to be.

Content: Article | Authors: Christopher Dann, Christopher Pencavel, Matthew Le Merle | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Risk Management, Strategy

The common belief that we gain “historical perspective” with increasing distance seems to me to utterly misrepresent the actual situation. “What we gain is merely confidence in generalization that we would never dare to make if we had access to the real wealth of contemporary evidence.

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Decision Making, History, Trends / Analysis

The strategy+business annual review of the year’s best business books.

Content: Related Content | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Miscellaneous

Great leadership is the result of great fit — between the person and the moment.

Content: Quotation | Author: Barbara Kellerman | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Leadership

Agency theory, derived from neoclassical economics, together with the gospel of shareholder value, has led to managers being compensated for doing the wrong things. Stock-based compensation, for example, focuses executives on expectations markets rather than real markets, where customer value is created. It is this focus on maximizing what should be an ancillary goal that has led to the marginalizing of customers as “marks” to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: David K. Hurst, Roger L. Martin | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Economics

my guess is that organizational traits may not be the most relevant factor in determining why or how some profitable companies do good things while others don’t (instead, such traits may be a result of doing good, what social scientists call dependent variables). Instead, I am now inclined to believe that having a dedicated, courageous leader is the key factor in determining the extent to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: James O’Toole | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

The leadership industry, which encompasses countless courses, seminars, workshops, programs, experts, instructors, coaches, and consultants, should be playing a larger role in combating bad leadership. But to do that, it would have to be less fixated on developing good leaders, and more focused on how to stop or at least slow bad ones. Such a shift in focus is worth the effort, especially because there … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Barbara Kellerman | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Leadership

Author and scenario planning expert Betty Sue Flowers dissects the attitudes and beliefs that unconsciously influence decision makers.

Editor’s Note: very thought-provoking framework; highly recommended reading

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Art Kleiner | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Organizational Behavior

A major share of a leader’s salary was linked to long-term compensation, based on total shareholder returns versus a peer group of companies, over a rolling three-year period. That kept people sufficiently focused on the future. I think that kind of balance needs to find its way more fully into the corporate sector. Yes, people need to be rewarded in the short term; they have … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Douglas Conant | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Compensation, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

If you’re asking people to do extraordinary things, they have to see you leaning in to help them learn and grow. Otherwise, your message will fall on deaf ears over time.

Content: Quotation | Author: Douglas Conant | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Training & Development

Companies are challenged by the public sector, by activist groups, and by consumers themselves. The best defense is a good offense, so you’d better shape your agenda and move it forward in a visible and committed way.

Content: Quotation | Author: Douglas Conant | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

You can’t manage every interaction well. There are times when you can’t talk to people; you have to discriminate. But if you manage three encounters better today than you did yesterday, every day, you can fundamentally change the trajectory of your leadership profile. And we’ve found that people who take on this discipline, just one interaction at a time, start to improve their ability to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Douglas Conant | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Leadership

Decision makers struggling with uncertainty can choose from a trio of probabilistic models to match the type of risks they face.

Content: Article | Authors: Saras Sarasvathy, Tim Laseter | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

To develop authenticity, marketers must learn to connect with the consumer as a whole person, including those drives and motivations that were formerly considered irrelevant to product consumption. One useful body of work for this is the four-drive motivational theory developed by two organizational science professors at Harvard Business School, Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria. In their book Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Emily Falk, Mary Beth McEuen, Matthew Egol | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Marketing / Sales

I have facilitated sessions with CEOs in which I ask, “How many of you could grab your BlackBerry and in the next five minutes produce a list of your top 25 performers?” All the hands go up. Then I ask, “How many, with the same confidence, could produce a list of your most principled or ethical leaders?” Every hand goes down. They all recognize that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Dov Seidman | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Ethics, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior