Do you study people?

Many firms nurture corporate cultures through careful hiring practices. For startups and young growing firms, these practices represent a one-time opportunity to start with a clean slate and build a culture. For example, Google screens for “Googliness” – defined as “a mashup of passion and drive that’s hard to define but easy to spot.” Zappos […]

Making prepaid cards better for everyone

The Senate was set to vote recently on legislation to contravene regulations promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to provide more protections and legitimacy to the prepaid card industry. Now, the legislation will not come to a full vote after the CFPB announced it would delay the regulations by six months. This six-month […]

Are you encouraging change?

Let’s face it – every business, to some degree, struggles with being trapped in yesterday. It’s so easy to focus on the rear-view mirror and stop changing. Successful organizations are particularly vulnerable to inertia. Success makes failure all the more difficult. A lack of failure is a tell-tale sign of an organization that fears change. […]

Should Work Friendships be a Management Objective?

Strengthening relationships with friends is a popular New Year’s Resolution. It comes as little surprise – research has documented a strong link between quality friendships and happiness, well-being, and even health. But surprisingly, friendships at work appear to be on the decline. A few hip corporate cultures encourage workers to authentically blend the personal and professional. For example, inside […]

Are effective managers also great leaders?

Organizations large and small thrive under good management. Effective managers bring order to chaos and drive results. They coordinate the work of others and ensure that projects complete on time and within budget. But are effective managers also great leaders? Or, more fundamentally, is there a difference between management and leadership? This question echoes in […]

Engaged Leadership

As with most industries, technology has dramatically changed the way the military operates. From transportation to communication, the Armed Services have adopted new technologies and adapted to new threats. The rapidly evolving landscape of terrorism and cyber-attacks are bringing even more challenges. To rise to those challenges, the military is looking outside of itself, to see the future […]

Culture remix – realizing the best of both worlds

The vast majority of corporate reorganizations take place far away from public gaze. However, reorganizations that are the product of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are often a spectator sport. Investors and pundits enthusiastically urge executives to quickly integrate business processes in order to find elusive synergies that will increase shareholder value. Doug Parker, CEO of American […]

Soaring to New Heights while Maintaining Equilibrium

An auto executive once told me a funny story that I often use to illustrate one of the biggest challenges when implementing strategic initiatives—integration. The firm had introduced a modest set of colors that year for a new vehicle launch. Shortly into the model year, executives noticed that green vehicles were not selling. For some […]

Competition Moves the Marbles

Marketplace competitors are like a bucket full of marbles. Each marble represents a firm and the contact boundaries between the marbles are areas of intense competition. Like marbles shifting in the bucket, as firms move in the marketplace they end up competing with different firms and their movement causes competitive shifts for the others. Boston […]

What Makes A Firm Competitive? Wisdom from BCG’s Bruce Henderson

This year I have been reflecting on the legacy of Bruce Henderson. A Vanderbilt alumni and Owen School professor, Bruce was a pioneer in the business world, founding the Boston Consulting Group and participating in the creation of the management consulting industry. To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of his birth, BCG launched an Institute in […]