Tips for Facilitating Meetings with Different Personality Types
Anyone who has lead a meeting has been there. You are leading a meeting, ideation session or workshop, and watching the meeting run off track or hijacked by the mix…
Key Metrics to Benchmark Innovation Performance
Benchmarking the performance of your organization’s innovation initiatives is a key part of making improvements. It allows your organization to determine where it falls short against top performers and where…
How PARC Saved Xerox
Xerox invented the core technology that made personal computing easy and fun—the mouse, the graphical user interface and the ethernet—but it was Steve Jobs who built the Macintosh and profited. By…
To Succeed with the Internet of Things, Start Smart
The potential value of the Internet of Things (IoT) varies as widely as the definitions of the term. If your approach to IoT requires that every last thing be connected…
How Companies Can Avoid Getting Left Behind in the Talent Wars
On July 13, the Federal Reserve released the latest edition of the Beige Book, a compendium of observations, gossip, and free associations — kind of like Larry King’s old USA…
Threatened by Dislocation
You may not be able to control if or when your company closes a plant or lays off workers—but you can plan ahead and take steps to manage the financial…
What Whole Foods Is Learning by Trading Down
Whole Foods turned in another disappointing quarter on July 27, as a decline in store traffic, discounts, and healthcare costs hurt the upscale grocery chain’s bottom line. Sales hit a…
Diagnosing Dislocation
Illustration by Ryan Peltier Imagine that you run a large company, prominent in its industry, with a loyal customer base and strong profit margins. Suddenly, a new product comes along…
Silicon Valley’s Farsighted Banker
Photograph courtesy of Silicon Valley Bank Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has a privileged view of the prospects of the companies around it. SVB provides…
The Double-Edged Sword of Overseas Experience
Bottom Line: Executives who accumulate international experience are no more likely than others to advance their career at multinational companies. Thanks to the increased emphasis on globalization and the continued…
"Bad" Innovation Is Just What Your Company Needs
It’s easy to spot and celebrate the innovations that change company fortunes: Apple’s iPhone, Warner-Lambert’s (and then Pfizer’s) Lipitor, Microsoft’s Windows, to name a few. What is harder to appreciate…
Unlocking Your Organizational DNA
Most strategic planning essentially focuses on two questions: “Where are you going?” and “How will you get there?” But they feel those two questions, while legitimate, need to be preceded…
Wage Pressure
Precisely a year ago, I noted that the norms surrounding wages may finally be changing — especially for those on the lower rungs of the income ladder. Yes, many states…
TV Ad Dollars Finally Follow Viewers Online
At the May 2016 TV upfronts, the annual mating ritual between advertisers and television networks, agency and brand executives received an inside peek at broadcast and cable’s 2016–17 programming. They…
How Startups Can Avoid the Chrysalis Effect
As startups grow, they shelve their breakthrough innovations and move toward incremental releases such as feature updates. This problem is generally attributed to lags in market demand for new products.…
How to Find and Engage Authentic Informal Leaders
In a recent article, “10 Principles of Organizational Culture,” strategy+business highlighted how crucial it is to deploy authentic informal leaders (AILs). As the acronym suggests, AILs are not people in your…
For Innovators, a Drawback to Data Analytics
Bottom Line: Number crunching can be valuable for firms exploiting their existing resources, but can backfire for companies seeking to branch out with new products or services. As companies have…
Building Strategic Capability through Good Works
Corporate philanthropy is big business these days. In 2014, according to a study by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy and the Conference Board, companies gave more than US$18 billion in…
Don’t Fret About "Gas Guzzlers"
When gas prices are high, and remain persistently high, U.S. consumers tend to choose smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. When gas prices are low, and remain persistently low, Americans tend…
ElBulli and the Limits of Corporate Innovation
In 2010, elBulli was named the second-best restaurant in the world. In 2011, superstar chef and co-owner Ferran Adrià shuttered the small restaurant in a small town on Spain’s Mediterranean…