Issue 78, Spring 2015

In this issue
Cover story
- For today’s financial leader, decisions are based on strategy, not spreadsheets.
What Self-Made Billionaires Do Best
They don’t just generate results. They produce breakthroughs.The Power of Immersive Media
The most successful advertising today convincingly takes on the qualities of real experience.How to Seize the Opportunities When Megatrends Collide
Preparing for the inevitable interactions between global forces can help you stay ahead of the competition.Ellen Langer on the value of mindfulness in business
A pioneer in mindfulness research says that companies can promote innovation and their own rejuvenation by setting the right context. And watch the video “Mindfulness for Senior Executives.”
Leading Ideas
Creating What Consumers Want
A new approach can help CPG companies introduce products with the right features, price, and packaging.Stop wasting your employees’ time
Smartphones are not the problem — it’s bad management that people resent. And watch the video “How Inattentive Management Wastes Employees’ Time.”Nir Halevy on Motivating Your Workforce
The Stanford professor explains how social distance affects the way people respond to feedback.The Future of Health Is More, Better, Cheaper
New entrants and established players are racing to create the next generation of medical products and services.Making Sense of Globalization
The DHL Global Connectedness Index, now in its third edition, shows that not all flows of trade, capital, information, and people are alike.s+b Trend Watch: 3D Printing’s Impact on the Transportation Industry
As more products and their parts can be made locally, the need to ship them to market will be reduced.
Essays
The Quantified Self Goes Corporate
How to make data your source of sustained growth.How to Lead in Ambiguous Times
Stability, resilience, and relationships are the keys to thriving amid geopolitical crises.
Books in Brief
The Hard Work of Invention
Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of Steve Jobs, plumbs the history of digitization to get to the roots of successful innovation.What’s Your Relational Intelligence?
In Leading with Sense, Professor Valérie Gauthier defines leaders as genuine, generous, generative — even poetic.Creating Resilient Organizations
Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, describes how to build the capacity to survive disastrous events.An Iconic Brand, but at What Cost?
In Citizen Coke, Bartow Elmore serves up a snarky environmental history of Coca-Cola Company.
Recent Research
- s+b Blogs
Nice Companies Finish First
Firms that make an effort to be responsible are rewarded more than those that seek only to make money.