Strategy & Leadership
Creating a strategy that works
The most farsighted enterprises have mastered five unconventional practices for building and using distinctive capabilities.
Issue 82, Spring 2016
Cover story
In this issue
Organizations & People10 principles of organizational culture
Companies can tap their natural advantage when they focus on changing a few important behaviors, enlist informal leaders, and harness the power of employees’ emotions. See also Video: What Is Culture?
Thought LeadersMike Christian on mindfulness and mental energy
The UNC Kenan-Flagler professor explains the science of self-control, and how it affects your performance at work. See also “How Mindfulness Can Prevent Retaliation at Work.”
Strategy & LeadershipDanaher’s Instruments of Change
An s+b Roundtable: Highly focused and diversified, this industrial company grows through acquisition, customer-facing innovation, and continuous improvement.
Thought LeadersThe Thought Leader Interview: Jonathan Haidt
The NYU social psychologist says that the ethical risks for a business depend on its ingrained cultural attitudes.
Features
TechnologyRaising Your Digital IQ
A global survey of business leaders shows how the smartest companies develop and wield their technology strategy.
TechnologyA strategist’s guide to blockchain
Our annual review of the year’s best business books. : An Expensive Breakdown in Communications • : Leading by Biographical Example • : The Machine Age • : Capturing Attention – and Data – in a Digital Age• : What a Character! • : The (Very) Political Economy • : The Search for Innovation
Leading Ideas
Strategy & LeadershipSecrets of the Activist Manager
Outside investors have their megaphones. But insiders have a more powerful tool for creating value: deep knowledge of their business and customers.
InnovationIn Search of Ingenuity
The quiet heroes of innovation do the little things that bring big ideas to life.
Business LiteratureBreaking Bad Barriers
In her new book, journalist Gillian Tett convincingly shows how companies can be constrained by silos that inhibit collaboration — and how they can break out of them.
TechnologyMutually Assured Disruption
Why established companies should join forces with upstart competitors.
Marketing, Media & Saless+b Trend Watch: New Opportunities in Entertainment and Media
A look at spending on media in cities worldwide today, and in the near future.
Essays
TechnologyEnterprise Architecture Planning 2.0
A new approach to digital strategy reinvents legacy IT by aligning it to a company’s capabilities.
Organizations & PeopleThe Mindful Board
Directors facing complex corporate governance challenges can develop their capacity to think together about the implications of their decisions.
Books in Brief
Business LiteratureThe Margin of Safety
In his new book, Wall Street Journal veteran Greg Ip makes the counterintuitive argument that the preventive efforts that makes us safe can encourage dangerous risk taking.
Business LiteratureThe Empathy Solution
Ever-smarter computers may be poised to steal the jobs of a rising number of people. In a new book, Geoff Colvin argues that humans can deploy a secret weapon: their ability to care.
Business LiteratureThe Fed’s Original Intent
In his new book, Roger Lowenstein describes how financial crises and political tensions spurred the creation of the U.S.’s central bank.
Business LiteratureMy Tunes
In his new book, Stephen Witt offers a compelling tale of how music industry executives, technologists, and pirates upended the business of selling recorded music.
Recent Research
s+b BlogsOne Bad Apple Spoils the Company
Don’t let the performance of superstars distract you from the damage toxic employees inflict.
Trending articles
- 1.Jargon monoxide, friction fixers, and the meeting that could have been an email
Organizational psychologist and best-selling author Robert Sutton discusses companies’ obstacles and catalysts for getting things done.
- 2.10 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.”
- 3.Reimagining consumer insights at PepsiCo
Stephan Gans, PepsiCo’s Chief Consumer Insights and Analytics Officer, wants to bake real-time, data-rich insights into the food-and-beverage giant’s commercial decision-making processes.
- 4.The power of incremental momentum
When big changes are required, taking a step-by-step approach is often the best strategy.
- 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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