2024

article thumbnail

Jack Welch’s GE Was The Wrong Model To Take From The 90s. Lou Gerstner’s IBM Is The Right One

Digital Tonto

When Jack Welch was named “Manager of the Century” by Fortune magazine in 1999, it was still unclear what his legacy was going to be. Yet all the success belied serious problems rumbling underneath the surface. Welch increased profits largely by “financializing” the firm. Innovation languished. Yet perhaps the greatest indictment of Welch is those he chose to carry on his legacy.

article thumbnail

The great miscalculation–and exit–of multinationals in Africa… again

Christensen Institute

Deja vu. In 2015, many multinational companies exited Africa. Nestle cut staff across 21 countries and Barclays, Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Eveready, and SABMiller retreated from different African markets they once believed had promise. The allure of Africa, particularly the widely referenced Africa rising narrative, was fading. The reasons the multinationals cited were all too familiar: failing or inexistent infrastructure, smaller than expected consumer market, struggling institutions, and corruption

Report 145
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Why Engineers Should Study Philosophy

Harvard Business Review

The ability to develop crisp mental models around the problems you want to solve and understanding the why before you start working on the how is an increasingly critical skill, especially in the age of AI. Coding is one of the things AI does best and its capabilities are quickly improving. However, there’s a catch: Code created by an AI can be syntactically and semantically correct but not functionally correct.

Study 139
article thumbnail

Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2023

Innovation Excellence

After a week of torrid voting and much passionate support, along with a lot of gut-wrenching consideration and jostling during the judging round, I am proud to announce your Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2023: Robyn Bolton Robyn M.

article thumbnail

Manufacturing Sustainability Surge: Your Guide to Data-Driven Energy Optimization & Decarbonization

Speaker: Kevin Kai Wong, President of Emergent Energy Solutions

In today's industrial landscape, the pursuit of sustainable energy optimization and decarbonization has become paramount. Manufacturing corporations across the U.S. are facing the urgent need to align with decarbonization goals while enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the lack of comprehensive energy data poses a significant challenge for manufacturing managers striving to meet their targets.

article thumbnail

Managing Product Portfolios with AI | Sopheon

Sopheon

InnovationOps is the way of the future for any organization intent on efficient, repeatable and scalable innovation. By bringing together culture, ways of working, people and products, companies can operationalize innovation and bring every team member together under an overarching goal.

article thumbnail

Many Employees Fear Being Replaced by AI — Here's How to Integrate It Into Your Business Without Scaring Them.

Entrepreneur - Innovation

There's no need to convince employees of the merits of artificial intelligence — just show them they are about to become more relevant, not less.

More Trending

article thumbnail

Practicing Detachment: A Pathway to Fostering Sustainable Growth

Faisal Hoque

Detachment is not about disconnecting from the world; it's about finding inner peace amidst chaos, and embracing change with grace.

Change 105
article thumbnail

The NFL Draft: Are Teams Getting Better at Selecting Talent?

Michael Roberto

On Thursday, we will have the NFL Draft in which each team selects college players. The draft has become a major television event, and an entire industry of analysts, scouts, and analytics gurus has emerged to flood the airwaves with "expert" commentary. Teams have invested heavily in their scouting departments, and the assessment tools and analytics they use to select players are allegedly far more advanced than they were decades ago.

Tools 53
article thumbnail

There Is No Formula For Success. We Need To Prepare For Luck.

Digital Tonto

The French writer Albert Camus believed our existence was absurd. He compared the human condition to Sisyphus, the mythical Greek king condemned to roll a boulder uphill, only to see it roll back down, for eternity. Incredibly, Camus imagines Sisyphus, returning to his labors at the foot of the mountain, as happy, having found meaning in his task. That is the nature of existential rebellion, to find meaning for yourself in a universe that provides none.

article thumbnail

6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When

Harvard Business Review

Research suggests that the most effective leaders adapt their style to different circumstances — be it a change in setting, a shift in organizational dynamics, or a turn in the business cycle. But what if you feel like you’re not equipped to take on a new and different leadership style — let alone more than one? In this article, the author outlines the six leadership styles Daniel Goleman first introduced in his 2000 HBR article, “Leadership That Gets Results,” and explains when to use each one.

article thumbnail

Peak Performance: Continuous Testing & Evaluation of LLM-Based Applications

Speaker: Aarushi Kansal, AI Leader & Author and Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO at Aggregage

Software leaders who are building applications based on Large Language Models (LLMs) often find it a challenge to achieve reliability. It’s no surprise given the non-deterministic nature of LLMs. To effectively create reliable LLM-based (often with RAG) applications, extensive testing and evaluation processes are crucial. This often ends up involving meticulous adjustments to prompts.

article thumbnail

6 Strategic Concepts That Set High-Performing Companies Apart

Harvard Business Review

Strategic concepts come in and out of fashion as the needs and dynamics of the marketplace change. Research and analysis of today’s landscape identifies six key strategic concepts that set outperforming companies apart: Borrow someone’s road, partner with a third party, reveal your strategy, be good, let the competition go, and adopt small scale attacks.

Company 142
article thumbnail

4 Reasons Why Managers Fail

Harvard Business Review

Gartner research has found that managers today are accountable for 51% more responsibilities than they can effectively manage — and they’re starting to buckle under the pressure: 54% are suffering from work-induced stress and fatigue, and 44% are struggling to provide personalized support to their direct reports. Ultimately, one in five managers said they would prefer not being people managers given a choice.

article thumbnail

Leading a Company That Can Thrive in a Chaotic World

Harvard Business Review

Worldwide, the past few years have been marked by multiple, intersecting crises — and things aren’t likely to get less complicated anytime soon. The authors met with a group of CEOs to discuss how they lead amid this ongoing chaos. To thrive in this chaotic new world, organizations need leaders with inner strength, character, and a moral compass. By continually adapting and learning, they’ll enable their organizations to navigate these ever-turbulent waters.

Company 141
article thumbnail

A Growth Strategy that Creates and Protects Value

Harvard Business Review

For organizations to truly innovate and grow, leaders in every role and at every organizational level must be attuned to how they are creating new value while simultaneously protecting existing value. Just as a soccer coach must simultaneously pursue both scoring and defending, leaders must constantly focus their attention on opportunities to create value — through innovation, risk-taking, and experimentation — and to protect value — by preserving and defending key aspects of their responsibilit

Strategy 139
article thumbnail

How Retailers Are Transforming Customer Experiences with Data & AI

Speaker: David Azoulay, Marc Stracuzza, Román Tejada, and Guest Speaker Sucharita Kodali

Imagine a retail landscape where every interaction is personalized, every decision informed, and every opportunity maximized 🤔✨ Join us for an exploratory journey into the heart of AI-driven retail innovation. We’ll unveil the transformative potential of AI and data analytics in shaping the future of omnichannel personalization and e-commerce.

article thumbnail

5 Well-Intentioned Behaviors That Can Hurt Your Team

Harvard Business Review

Most people can spot a toxic leader and connect the dots on why and how they are causing damage. But it’s much harder to recognize when well-intentioned leaders are actually hurting their teams because they aren’t aware of their negative impact, and team members aren’t always comfortable pushing back. If you’re a manager with a strong desire to be helpful to your team, be aware of these five common ways you may inadvertently hurt them despite your best intentions.

article thumbnail

When You Have to Make a Strategic Decision Without Much Data

Harvard Business Review

One big challenge that leaders have when figuring out how or where their companies can grow is that a dearth of data about future problems and opportunities. In these situations, there are three techniques that leaders can employ to develop insights: look at customers and startups for signs of change, experience new technologies rather than just read about them, and practice “associative thinking,” which means connect two seemingly disparate concepts to develop a novel idea.

Data 142
article thumbnail

3 Career-Building Strategies for an Increasingly Complex World of Work

Harvard Business Review

Most workers used to have fixed roles within a hierarchical organization, but today the nature of work today is becoming fluid and dynamic. Project-based work and freelancing are increasingly common, and many roles are now defined by outcomes rather than hours spent at a desk. Success in this new work environment requires not only recognizing that this shift has taken place but also actively strategizing to leverage it to your advantage.

Strategy 135
article thumbnail

How to Address a Resume Gap When Switching Careers

Harvard Business Review

The prospect of a new career can hold a sense of excitement. But what should you do if your job search has become a disheartening slog and the gap on your resume just seems to be growing wider by the day? What can you do to protect your mental health and rekindle your optimism for the future? In this article, the author offers practical advice to help you navigate your career switch when you’re worried about a widening gap on your resume.

How To 135
article thumbnail

How Mature Companies Are Scaling Transformational New Businesses

Scaling transformational innovations in large companies is challenging due to ‘Company Fit’ issues, which arise when the resources, processes, and priorities (RPPs) of the core business are not aligned with the needs of the new business. Many companies have learned how ambidexterity—the ability to both ‘exploit the present and explore the future,’ can help them address these issues for ideation and incubation of new innovations, but scaling transformative business innovations remains a challenge

article thumbnail

Put Marketing at the Core of Your Growth Strategy

Harvard Business Review

Companies that make the decision to put marketing at the core of their growth strategy outperform the competition, according to McKinsey research. Specifically, both B2C and B2B companies who view branding and advertising as a top two growth strategy are twice as likely to see revenue growth of 5% or more than those that don’t (67% to 33%). Yet their research also showed that few CEOs recognize the potential for marketing as a growth accelerator.

Marketing 141
article thumbnail

Lessons from Beyoncé on Navigating Exclusion

Harvard Business Review

In 2016, Beyoncé’s performance at the CMA Awards sparked backlash from fans complaining about everything from her attire to her lack of connection to the genre. This year, she released her first country album, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Her actions over the past eight years have been a case study in how to navigate workplace exclusion.

article thumbnail

How to Actually Execute Change at a Company

Harvard Business Review

The author analyze project teams across 257 firms to identify why only 60% of planned value is typically realized in change initiatives, focusing on four key factors: effective initial communication (“ACE the Memo”), ensuring resource accessibility and autonomy (“Master the Means”), employing mechanisms to align actions with goals (“Amplify with Mechanisms”), and strategic measurement to influence future outcomes (“Measure to Account”).

Change 140
article thumbnail

How to Discuss the Undiscussables on Your Team

Harvard Business Review

Surfacing the undiscussables on your team may be uncomfortable, but it must be an ongoing campaign, or they will sneakily build up in the background and impact your employees’ morale. In this article, the author explains how to spot the classic signs of undiscussables — meetings marked by quick consensus, a lack of productive debate, or uneven participation — and offers strategies on how to uncover those unexpressed thoughts and feelings to help your team work more productively.

How To 134
article thumbnail

How Automation is Driving Efficiency Through the Last Mile of Reporting

Speaker: Jamie Eagan

As organizations strive for agility and efficiency, it's imperative for finance leaders to embrace innovative technologies and redefine traditional processes. Join us as we explore the pivotal role of digitalization and automation in reshaping what is commonly referred to as the “last mile of reporting”. We’ll deep-dive into why digitalization is no longer a choice, but a necessity for finance departments to stay competitive in a fast-paced environment touching on: 2024 trends for the Office of

article thumbnail

How to Make Small Talk with Anyone from Anywhere

Harvard Business Review

Meet-and-greet conversations can be uncomfortable. And they can feel especially daunting when you’re paired with strangers from different cultures, like when networking in a global business context. In this setting, light and introductory-style conversations (what some of us know as “small talk”) can be very helpful, and even necessary. Small talk is a quasi-universal tool for initiating conversations with strangers from different cultures, for building a quick rapport, and for planting the seed

How To 140
article thumbnail

5 Networking Tips for Introverts (and Anyone Else)

Harvard Business Review

Even if you’re an introvert who dreads the notion of networking, you can develop your skills to get out there and do it. Research by the Lehigh@NasdaqCenter, a partnership between Lehigh University and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, identified make-or-break factors for developing networking skills. They include: the ability to adapt your thinking swiftly in response to changing situations; combating a tendency to focus more on avoiding errors and negative results and instead striving for pos

Tips 127
article thumbnail

When New Hires Get Paid More, Top Performers Resign First

Harvard Business Review

To attract new talent, employers often offer new hires higher wages than existing employees. But today, a combination of regulatory changes and technological advances have dramatically increased pay transparency in many sectors, making employees increasingly aware of these pay disparities. How do existing employees (and especially top performers) react to these higher-paid new hires?

Agile 139
article thumbnail

A Simple Hack to Help You Communicate More Effectively

Harvard Business Review

Using a structured approach when communicating can help you prioritize what you need to convey. In this article, the author introduces his “What, So What, Now What” framework. Much like the Swiss Army knife, known for its versatility and reliability, this structure is flexible and can be used in many different communication situations. The structure is comprised of three simple questions: 1) What: Describe and define the facts, situation, product, position, etc. 2) So What: Discuss the implicati

Meeting 144
article thumbnail

Implementing Intelligent Document Processing Solutions: Why It Works

See how companies like yours are tackling some of today’s most common business problems using AI-assisted automation for document processing. Manually capturing, extracting, and processing data within documents is a costly and outdated practice that’s holding your company back. IDP takes document processing to a whole new level so you can understand and use your data more effectively than ever before.

article thumbnail

What to Do When Your Team Blames You

Harvard Business Review

When you’re a manager, at some point, regardless of how the circumstances arise, your team will blame you for something that’s making them unhappy, whether you have control over it or not. Being accused by your team of failing them in some way induces a threat state in your brain, impairing your ability to think clearly and triggering a variety of cognitive distortions and defensive behaviors.

Strategy 129
article thumbnail

How to Make Peace with a Company Decision You Don’t Like

Harvard Business Review

In our work, there are times when we lead but there are also times when we must follow — and we may not always agree with the path we’re told to follow. We may feel “stuck” in anger, anxiety, and confusion. But, we want to demonstrate resilience to our team and we want to maintain a good relationship with management. So, how do we forge ahead and follow with grace?

How To 140
article thumbnail

How to Succeed When You’re Not the Boss’s Favorite

Harvard Business Review

Staying positive and motivated is tough when your boss has a clear favorite. When you feel like you’re not favored, you may hesitate to proactively communicate with your boss, worrying that you might be a bother and worsen your relationship or that your attempts will be futile. However, a passive approach will result in missed opportunities for growth, clarification, and relationship-building.

How To 138
article thumbnail

To Succeed with AI, Adopt a Beginner’s Mindset

Harvard Business Review

Times of substantial tech progress and change, like the current AI revolution, create fear and anxiety. This often causes leaders to fall back on their ego and emphasize their expertise, closing their minds and negatively impacting their people and organizations. Instead, leaders need to take on a beginner’s mindset of openness and curiosity. This is not easy.

article thumbnail

The Big Payoff of Application Analytics

Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.