Spring 2021 Articles

Future organizations will be flash powered - recruiting freelancers looking for high-autonomy work and engaging them in a collective production process - to generate innovative solutions for complex business and societal problems. Arvind Malhotra, Ann Majchrzak, and Alpheus Bingham present frameworks through which to understand the rapidly evolving nature of work and organizations and to address the resulting issues.

Firms around the world strive for disruptive leadership. Through a case study of Admiral Jacky Fisher, who completely disrupted the immensely powerful British Royal Navy at the beginning of the 20th century, preparing it for the onset, just four years later, of World War I, Jan-Benedict Steenkamp identifies six key characteristics of disruptive leadership.

Can corporate responsibility persist in the Covid-19 era? If so, how? Paul Argenti explains why now is the time to focus on the long term and think about the opportunity that comes out of crisis.

Life entails a great deal of uncertainty, shaping our careers and personal paths in unexpected ways. Paul Schoemaker examines eight complementary approaches which can improve the odds of favorable outcomes, both in business and in life. This strategic road map will help you to increase the number of times luck smiles upon you and to incur risks only when you have a sufficient statistical advantage. 

Stefan Wuorinen, Brian Burgess, and Patrick Wright present a wide range of considerations and strategies to bolster acquisition success by expanding the influence of human resources on the processes. Using insights drawn from interviews with Fortune 500 Chief Human Resource Officers, they examine the role of HR in acquisitions and provide practical advice for increasing its effectiveness.

Direct marketing communication is often seen as unnecessary. Nonetheless, Hannah Kim and V Kumar ask: Can it still help firms to make money? How can they communicate with each customer to increase its effectiveness? Is it possible to determine whether money incentives or relationship building is more effective? More importantly, can firms discover their customers’ preferences without asking?

Harry Markowitz developed the modern portfolio theory which earned him the Nobel Memorial Prize and is today used in managing trillions of dollars in assets. Suresh Sethi describes the fascinating life of a scholar whose footprints led the way to almost everything in finance.

The Conference Board’s Paul Washington and Thomas Singer find that, in the last five years, the number of companies with purpose statements has almost tripled. They stress that choosing a purpose is not to be undertaken lightly. To help businesses avoid the pitfalls of purpose and capitalize on the benefits, the authors offer practical guidance rooted in research.

Teppo Felin, Alfonso Gambardella, and Todd Zenger argue that managers and entrepreneurs should develop their own theory of value. They present Value Lab, a tool which provides the framework to help businesses create such theories. Their purpose is to help startups and established firms to be more scientific and experimental in creating new value.

Putting a new strategy into effect is always difficult. Andrew Campbell and Mikel Gutierrez provide a practical solution to designing the necessary changes: the Operating Model Canvas. They describe how they applied it to the merger between Siemens and Gamesa, demonstrating how this framework, along with its supporting tools, can help leaders to design changes in their organization and operations.