Strategy & Leadership
The $112 Billion CEO Succession Problem
Poor planning for changes in leadership costs companies dearly. Getting it right is worth more than you might think.
Issue 79, Summer 2015
Cover story
In this issue
The Decline of the COO, Frances Hesselbein’s Merit Badge in Leadership, Mark Bertolini’s Preventive Disruption, and More
Strategy & LeadershipThe Decline of the COO
Is it time to add chief operating officers to the list of endangered species?
Global PerspectiveCEMEX’s Strategic Mix
An s+b Roundtable: This Mexican cement company redefined itself as a global solutions provider with the critical capabilities to match. See also “The Foundation of CEMEX’s Success — In Pictures.”
Organizations & PeopleFrances Hesselbein’s merit badge in leadership
The former CEO of the Girl Scouts has spent decades bringing professional management to nonprofits.
Thought LeadersMark Bertolini’s Preventive Disruption
For Aetna’s CEO, the lauded move to raise employee wages is just part of a broader strategy to adapt to changes in healthcare.
Leading Ideas
Auto, Airlines & TransportThe Right Track for Connected Cars
Five ways automakers can design for safety and profitability.
Young ProfsThought LeadersKristin Behfar on How We Fight at Work, and Why It Matters
The Darden School of Business professor describes a new framework for predicting conflict outcomes.
InnovationBoost Your Innovation Confidence
Know your customers, understand new technologies, embrace failure, then take a leap of faith.
Consumer ProductsBrands and Retailers Should Team Up in Emerging Markets
When companies “share the shelf,” everyone wins.
Strategy & LeadershipAgility Is Within Reach
With strategic responsiveness and organizational flexibility, you can move quickly when your industry changes.
Energys+b Trend Watch: R&D Investment Pays Off in Oil and Gas
Oil-field services companies, which invent the technologies used to drill for oil and gas, have reaped the rewards of an intense focus on innovation.
Essays
Let’s Megadeal
Seven strategies for managing the unique challenges of large technology acquisitions.
10 principles of organization design
These fundamental guidelines, drawn from experience, can help you reshape your organization to fit your business strategy. See also “A guide to organization design.”
How emerging markets can finally arrive
Building world-class domestic firms is the overlooked key to economic development.
Books in Brief
The Ghost of Financial Crises Past
Economic historian Barry Eichengreen finds telling parallels between the botched responses to the stock market crash of 1929 and the financial crisis of 2008.
What’s Wrong with the Internet?
Author Andrew Keen offers a stirring guide to how the Internet has changed everything — mostly for the worse.
Hey, Leaders: Stop Thinking So Much and Just Do It
To reach your true leadership potential, writes INSEAD professor Herminia Ibarra, push yourself outside your comfort zone.
Everyone Profits from the Return on Character
Veteran management guru Fred Kiel uses hard data to prove that soft factors like integrity, forgiveness, and compassion energize employees and customers — and deliver better returns.
Why Beanie Babies Boomed — Then Busted Badly
The 1990s mania surrounding plush toys tells us as much about irrational behavior as the coincident dot-com bubble.
Recent Research
s+b BlogsFor New Product Design, “Likes” Can Lead You Astray
Your next innovation breakthrough probably won’t come from social media.
Trending articles
- 1.Are You Increasing Your Learning Agility — Or Are You Missing Out?To be a more agile leader, nurture the habits that accelerate your learning capacity and be aware of the ones that block new experiences. For more insight, see “Leaders: Break Through Your Learning Blockers.”
- 2.The power of feelings at workBy aligning the pursuit of business objectives with the meeting of human needs, companies can tap into powerful emotional forces in their current cultural situations.
- 3.How fearless organizations succeedAmy Edmondson describes three steps leaders can take to create psychological safety, the prerequisite for greater innovation and growth.
- 4.10 principles of organization designThese fundamental guidelines, drawn from experience, can help you reshape your organization to fit your business strategy. See also “A guide to organization design.”
- 5.The rise of the eco-friendly consumerDuring the pandemic, people have become more sensitive to the environmental impact of their shopping decisions—and companies are responding.
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