In the language of psychology, individuals who are more afraid of missing opportunities than taking risks are considered promotion-focused. Their counterparts are individuals who are more afraid of taking risks than missing opportunities; these are prevention-focused individuals. A study of U.S CEOs and CFOs (the latter considered the second most influential executive in strategic decisions) […]
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Virtual teams, made necessary by globalization and possible by technology, are now common in business. They’ve taken over traditional functions such as procurement, manufacturing, IT and finance, as well as newer activities such as global supply chain and global service delivery. They’re often assembled for new-product development and R&D. And they’re increasingly found at the […]
Everybody dreams. Phantasmagoric ‘night journeys’ are part of life. It’s estimated that by the age of 60 most of us will have dreamed 197,100 dreams over 87,000 hours. The reasons why we dream, however, remain unclear. Oneirology, the study of dreams, has failed to produce a consensus. Some people argue that dreams are random firings […]
Read More… from Understanding Dreams: A New Tool for the Executive Coach?
Fear of death is a core part of the human condition. It’s been associated with everything from the enduring appeal of religion and spiritual beliefs to the desire to reproduce and raise children. It remains, however, largely ignored in management literature and mainstream motivational theories. Death is a powerful ‘stealth motivator’ that leads to defensive […]
Increased emphasis on continual innovation — and increased awareness that it demands knowledge beyond the confines of a single organization — means research partnerships have become a more common and more important strategic tool. These inter-organizational arrangements fall broadly into two camps: the tightly coupled partnership; the more loosely coupled alternative. The former is characterized […]
Read More… from Innovation Partnerships-Loosely or Tightly Coupled?
Procurement risks now include the possibility of someone in the supply chain flouting international labour laws, causing unnecessary damage to the environment or acting in other socially irresponsible ways. These risks are ‘high-impact’. Nike, which faced a storm of protest following sweat-shop scandals in the 1990s, is just one company to have discovered this. Management […]
Giving people the freedom to work on their own ideas is commonly associated with progressive leadership and company creativity. (Google’s policy of allowing employees to spend 20 per cent of their time on ‘pet’, company-related, projects, has led to profitable innovations such as AdSense and Gmail.) But is this ‘bottom-up exploration’ consistent with the idea […]
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Despite decades-long efforts to eradicate it, corruption continues to be a serious business risk in emerging markets. Policies by national and international governments have had only limited success; so, too, have strategies by companies. The difficulties are often said to be particularly great in Russia, where the rule of law has been diverted by a […]
Read More… from Reflective Leadership to Counter Corruption in Emerging Markets
The past 10 or so years have seen a significant rise in the incidence of product recalls. Multiple sectors and product categories, ranging from toys to automobiles and food to pharmaceuticals, have been involved — and, in some cases, the business and human costs have been immense. (Faults in Toyota cars in 2009 and 2010 […]
Read More… from Reasons for Product Recalls: Safety on the Line
Marketing messages promising powerful benefits such as enhanced social status in return for smoking a particular brand of cigarettes or sexual potency after taking a ‘cure’ for erectile dysfunction are often accompanied by grave warnings of possible side effects, including increased risks of stroke, heart disease and cancer. Such warnings buffer companies from liability — […]
Read More… from Health Warnings Can Boost Sales: Regulators Beware
