Exceptional leaders often excel as skilled storytellers, and for good reason. Once a company hits a certain level of organizational complexity, one of the most important tasks the CEO has is to craft intellectually coherent and captivating narratives about the firm, its purpose, and its performance. Failure in this task means undermining the very existence of the company; a sin…
Our current political climate is a little scary, so going public around controversial issues can be terrifying. When does it make sense to use your business as a platform?Often speaking up can drive business and foster customer loyalty. If you choose to remain silent, that's your prerogative, but you're more…
After a month of colorful endcaps on the typically unadorned aisles of our favorite mass merchandisers, love is love t-shirts on allies that express their support through fashion choices, and unnuanced social media posts from brands proclaiming their support for the LGBTQIA+ community, perhaps it’s time for us to follow…
The A.I. revolution stands to disrupt nearly every aspect of the people function and how it manages the full employee life cycle. Much is at stake. “HR is going to be a massive use case for A.I.,” says Josh Bersin, founder and CEO of the Josh Bersin Company, a human…
As a long-time strategy consultant, I learned early on in my career that if I wanted my clients' businesses to succeed — financially and otherwise — then I had to first help them clarify and strengthen their business culture. This idea is backed by Peter Drucker, one of the most…
Chicago just hosted a widely covered presidential speech. In it, President Biden told Americans that they have a mistaken view on the economy. Although the average of polls shows that only some 38.3% of American voters have confidence in the president’s handling of the economy, Biden thinks he is doing…
In 2011, IBM put its Watson A.I. computing system, the size of a master bedroom, up against former Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter—it won. In the final round of the three-day man-versus-machine match, Jennings offered a tongue-in-cheek concession: “I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.” That was…
Nothing can make a business more irrelevant than saying, "That's how we've always done it." Relying on existing ideas and processes is attractive. After all, if your business is built on one way of operating, why would you risk trying something new?Here's one reason: of the companies listed in the…
In 1940 PG Wodehouse was (as he might be) spending the summer in Le Touquet, when he found himself surrounded by German troops and interned. Naively, he agreed to be interviewed by a Nazi propaganda team about his internment, and the subsequent diffusion of this led some in England to…
An executive recently described artificial intelligence (A.I.) as being like “giving everyone a superpower.” That is an exciting vision, with the equivalent of A.I. assistants eliminating dull tasks, providing useful support, and enhancing people’s capabilities. But you can’t just give someone a superpower and expect them to be able to…
Innovation today is moving faster than ever. In the last two years, we collected 90 percent of the world's data from various sources, like social media posts and online purchases to GPS tracking and health devices. In 2023, 91.6 percent of Fortune 1000 companies planned to invest in Big Data…
In a declining economy, startups face an uphill battle when it comes to securing funding.…
With all of the recent news about artificial intelligence (AI), it got me thinking about…
A while back, I took a couple of my grandchildren on a tour of the…
Startups face numerous challenges on their journey to success, and failing to overcome any one…
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