Theme: Leadership
Features
In Conversation: Warren Bennis on
Leadership
By Stephen Bernhut
"In an analogue world," says one
of the foremost authorities on leadership in this interview, "the CEO
knew everything. But in the digital world, it’s more humility and
vulnerability. Leaders have to understand these differences if they want
to really create not only intellectual capital but also social
capital." Mr. Bennis goes on to describe the challenges facing
leaders today and offers his observations on why some of those leaders
fail to understand and meet these challenges. He also outlines the
qualities that make a leader succeed in these volatile times, and how a
leader can create a dynamic organization in which employees work their
best and end up wanting to remain with the organization.
Building Leaders at Every Level: A
Leadership Pipeline
By Stephen J. Drotter and Ram Charan
Developing managers to be effective at the
next level is one of any company’s most important tasks, and in this
helpful article, the co-authors identify and describe the six steps in
building a leadership pipeline to supply the next generation of effective
leaders. As the authors write, "The six turns, or passages, in our
pipeline are major events in the life of a leader. Grasping what each
passage entails, and the challenges involved in making each transition,
will help organizations build a leadership pipeline. It will also help
build a leadership culture that will enable the organization to respond to
changes and threats in the business environment."
Creating Profits from Integrated
Product-Service Strategies
By Roger More
Many companies are differentiating
themselves more on service than on product, and in this article, Ivey
Associate Professor Roger More helps managers making the transition to a
product-service strategy ask the right questions. Professor More, who has
consulted extensively for General Electric, identifies and describes the
potential positioning strategies for a product-service-centric company,
and then formulates the key questions a manager must ask before
implementing one of those strategies. Even the mighty, such as GE, can
stumble, so a manger attempting to implement an integrated product-service
strategy would do well to follow the suggestions in this article.
Building a Strategy-Focused Organization
By Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
Strategy is very important, but as these
co-authors point out, managers’ ability to execute strategy can be more
important than the strategy itself. Authors of The Balanced Scorecard, one
of the most influential business books of the last 25 years, Messrs.
Kaplan and Norton argue that successful organizations create a
performance-management program that puts strategy at the center of its
management processes. In the article, they enunciate five principles that
will allow an organization to become strategy focused, and provide a
blueprint for translating each of those principles into action.
Leading and Creating Value in the
Knowledge Economy
By Mark Van Clieaf
Shareholders want not only results, but
also results-based leadership. However, today, traditional ways of
evaluating that leadership no longer apply. Mr. Van Clieaf, the Managing
Director of MVC Associates International, conducted seven years of
research on leaders and the result is a new model for evaluating the
performance of leaders in public companies. Called the Complexity Based
Organization ™, the model identifies the scope and scale jumps of
executive work that must be unique in order to add value. The challenge
for leaders today, says Mr. Van Clieaf, is to fit multiple, value-creation
activities that take place at the same time into the organization’s
structure, decision making and leadership system.
Universities and the Knowledge Economy
By Paul Davenport
Through advanced education and
research, universities play a special role in allowing Canadians to take
full advantage of the New Economy. Yet the quality and accessibility of
that education is imperiled by continually diminishing public funding.
Higher student-faculty ratios and the loss of top academic talent to the
United States because of more attractive salaries are just two of the
realities that diminish quality. Mr. Davenport, the President of the
University of Western Ontario, argues that in the Knowledge Economy
especially, the quality and accessibility of university education and
research must be maintained if society and the firms that operate in it
are to benefit. And only increased public funding, supplemented with
private giving and tuition, can maintain the quality and accessibility
that are hallmarks of a Canadian university
education.
Departments
International Trade
Government relations communications is no
longer secret.
By Riyaz Dattu
Recent decisions by NAFTA Chapter 11
Arbitral Tribunals have changed nature of government relations and
lobbying activities. Once withheld from judicial and public scrutiny,
internal ministerial communications, as well as communications between
lobbyists and various ministries will no longer be allowed to always
remain secret on the basis of Cabinet privileges and other statutory bases
for restricting disclosure. Mr. Dattu, the head of McCarthy Tetrault’s
Trade law group, says that corporations need to be aware that their
discussions with government could be subject to production at a Chapter 11
arbitral hearing.
Headstart
Customer Relationship Management: From
Conflict to Collaboration
By Ian Gordon
Is collaboration better or more productive
than conflict? It certainly is, argues this author, if any business that
is based on relationships hopes to succeed. And given the critical
importance of Customer Relationship Management, collaborating effectively
is the foundation of a successful business relationship today. In this
practical article, Mr. Gordon, a consultant who has written a book on
relationship marketing, suggests how managers can build a collaborative
environment that will allow them to achieve the full potential of Customer
Relationship Management.
The Individual Investor Comes of Age
By Jane Craighead
Disclosing significant changes in corporate
strategy has an important impact not only on equity markets but on the
firm itself. A study conducted by Ms. Craighead, a professor at McGill
University, revealed that some firms disclose more than others, and that
there is a negative relationship between disclosure about the change and
the size of the bid-ask spread. The move to greater disclosure has been
spurred by individual investors, whose access to information has never
been greater, and whose resulting demands for greater disclosure are
making the proverbial "level playing" field far faster than
might have otherwise occurred.
Asian influence
An Evaluation and Strategic Overview
By Nicolono Strizzi and Luca Rispoli
The Asian final meltdown, combined with the
more recent global economic slowdown, is causing many observers to
intensify their focus on Asia’s economic and financial situation. Once
unquestioned, Asian countries’ ability and willingness to meet their
foreign debt obligations is now being scrutinized very closely. This
article examines some of the major factors that might affect the future
debt-servicing capacity of most Asian countries and highlights some of the
economic and financial implications for Canadians.
Entrepreneurship
Business Activities that Support
Strategic Execution
By Michael Hays
Flexibility is key to an entrepreneur’s
success, underlining the need for a start up to establish a basic business
infrastructure that supports the execution of a flexible strategy. The
author of this article interviewed the leaders of 50 rapidly growing firms
in the Chicago area. He concluded that building a basic infrastructure
enables an entrepreneur to make more effective decisions and increase the
chances of building an enterprise that will endure.
Viewpoint
As the Economy Turns: Ten Questions for
Executives
By John S. McCallum
A serious economic slowdown may not be far
off, writes economist and regular contributor John McCallum, and there is
no better time for executives to prepare for it than the present. As Mr.
McCallum writes, "Lamenting what was not done when times were ideal
takes an executive nowhere. Prosperity always lies in doing what can be
done now." In this article, he lists ten questions that business
leaders should ask themselves. Facing these questions will help them
address the crucial issues that will prepare them to weather the downturn,
and mark the beginning of the road back to prosperity.
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