Management - Leadership

Accelerating technological improvements have changed the speed with which new innovations penetrate markets. Graphed over time, the market adoption of innovations now resembles a dramatic shark fin--a dangerously deformed version of the classic bell-curve model of diffusion.

Cognitive technologies are increasingly being used to solve business problems; indeed, many executives believe that AI will substantially transform their companies within three years. But many of the most ambitious AI projects encounter setbacks or fail.

Fifty years ago a good blue-collar job was with a large manufacturer such as General Motors or Goodyear. Often unionized, it paid well, offered benefits, and was secure. But manufacturing employment has steadily declined, from about 25% of the U.S. labor force in 1970 to less than 10% today.

More than a billion people in the developing world remain in extreme poverty and outside the formal economy. Traditional CSR programs have done little to alleviate the situation and rarely produce transformative change.

Customer satisfaction depends on creative problem solving, not empathy.

What do you call a dense, overly lengthy contract that's loaded with legal jargon and virtually impossible for a non-lawyer to understand? The status quo, says Shawn Burton, the general counsel for GE Aviation's Business & General Aviation.

It mostly makes people avoid the peers who criticized them, new research shows

What sets exceptional business leaders apart? One thing, says Sydney Finkelstein, is their ongoing commitment to giving direct reports one-on-one instruction. Finkelstein, a management professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, has studied world-class leaders for more than a decade.

The idea behind Muji was to manufacture and sell beautiful, inexpensive housewares, food, and apparel that every Japanese consumer might need. In the late 1980s Muji sparked interest among British retailers at an exhibition of Japanese products, and a joint venture with Liberty ensued.

In this fictional case, the leadership team at one of the largest multi-specialty hospitals in Noida, India, has established a new liaison position called the patient care executive.