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You searched for the string:   "Articles from The Economist"   found 9 results

Leadership: how innovative are you?

published: 2011-05-23

According to The Economist magazine “Business writers have always worshipped at the altar of success” ... and ... “This success-fetish makes the latest management fashion all the more remarkable. The April issue of the Harvard Business Review is devoted to failure.” Well, what does that mean for you and me as leaders? Are you noted for fostering new ways - and risking failure? Do you innovate personally – including in how you lead? Here are 10 action suggestions, I’ve put together from reading The Economist report. ... read more

LEADERSHIP: WHAT PRICE ARE YOU PAYING FOR SILENCE?

published: 2011-01-31

Who said the following? “We are forecasting a $17 billion loss and no one has any problems!” Alan Mulally, after the first meeting with his senior team on arriving to turn around Ford in 2006. For the Mafia, omerta or “the code of silence” hides crimes. At Ford, as in many other companies, silence is the crime – destroying value and eventually viability. Do facts and faults get talked through in your business; or is bad news stifled? What would your people say? Here are some actions Mulally took and others I’ve picked up over the years. ... read more

LEADERSHIP: WHO’S YOUR "OTHER HALF"?

published: 2011-01-25

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards still work together. It’s a legendary, 50-year partnership. Even if at one time Mick “took care of the details” while Keith “took the drugs”. A recent Economist article* highlights the power of this and other successful pairings. Buffett and Munger at Berkshire Hathaway. Bill and Melinda Gates in their foundation. Rupert Murdoch and a number of lieutenants over the decades at News. But, what’s the wider point? Knowing your weaknesses and ensuring you have others providing the ying to your yang. As a leader, how well covered are you? Here are eight things to check. ... read more

LEADERSHIP: INNOVATE OR BE THE NEXT DODO

published: 2010-09-27

After last week’s Potshot (based on an outstanding article by Shoshana Zuboff), I searched for this one, which I wrote back in April. I discovered it never got posted. But, I think it’s still worth publishing, since it touches on the same life-and-death commercial imperatives that Professor Zuboff presents so starkly. ... read more

LEADERSHIP: BREAK THE HABIT

published: 2010-03-01

A recent article in The Economist ("The three habits ... of highly irritating management gurus"*) focuses on generalisations that gurus pass off as wisdom. The article makes plain that many of their "new" ideas are old; and, most of their case examples lack merit. For me, though, the absurdity is expecting you to replace your own default behaviours with theirs. Why swap one set of habits for another, when leadership should be about problem-solving: working out what to do in a specific situation that brings together a particular group of people and a particular set of business challenges. It's about something new; not what worked elsewhere or for someone in a different situation. It's certainly never about a single approach. So, are you a guru-child or your own leader? ... read more

LEADERSHIP: DEMONSTRATE SUCCESS NOT HUMILITY

published: 2010-02-08

When someone commented to Winston Churchill that Clement Atlee was a modest man, he famously replied that Atlee had "much to be modest about." I suspect Churchill (in contrast to gurus like Jim Collins) would find the current fashion for bland CEOs unacceptable. Collins says the best are "humble, self-effacing, diligent and resolute souls." Diligent and resolute sound good to me and my four decades of business involvement say they're needed characteristics. But, humble and self-effacing contradict my experience. Some CEOs cultivate quietness and consultation but that's not the same as being humble or self-effacing. So, what kind of CEO are you; and, is it working? Here are some things to ponder. ... read more

LEADERSHIP: LESSONS FROM TIANANMEN SQUARE

published: 2009-07-06

Most of us would rate the Chinese Communist Party as both tough and inflexible.  And, we'd be right about tough.  But, wrong about inflexible.  Reflecting on the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, here are some quotes from the May 30th edition of The Economist.  "After the massacre, the Communist Party set about transforming itself."  And, today, "the outcome is a wholesale reinvention."  If colleagues reviewed your leadership over the last two decades, would they report "wholesale reinvention"?  Or, more of the same?  And, if the Chinese Communist Party can change so radically, what can you learn from it? ... read more

LEADERSHIP: THE ART OF LIBERATING TALENT

published: 2009-05-11

An article in The Economist (October 5, 2006)* highlights the value of "brainpower (both natural and trained) and especially the ability to think creatively."  It states that "the value of 'intangible' assets - everything from skilled workers to patents to know-how - has ballooned (since 1980) from 20% of the value of companies in the S&P 500 to 70% today."  Also that "the proportion of American workers doing jobs that call for complex skills has grown three times as fast as employment in general."

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LEADERSHIP: THE LUSTIGER LEGACY

published: 2008-01-07

We all have something to learn from Cardinal Lustiger: above all, his courage. Courage to do what he believed in; and, to do it in a way he thought useful to the world. And, I’m not talking about action in some back corner or on insignificant issues. He was born a Jew and never rejected this. He converted to Catholicism as act of faith, but also as a continuation of his Jewish beliefs. Not everyone agreed. But, he set an example for us all as leaders. ... read more