Companies that remain exceptional for a long time succeed through the quality of the decisions they make. These three rules provide the compass that can keep your decisions on track.
If you have an idea for a new venture, you don’t have to be innovative. You don’t need to be an expert in the business you’re thinking of building. And you don’t have to be young.
Great leaders are like shepherds: They stay behind their “flock” and let the most nimble individuals go on ahead. As a result, the most talented followers achieve their potential—and realize their dreams.
Is that team member more focused on what he has to lose if he doesn’t succeed or what he has to gain if he does? Your answer will determine how you communicate with him and what job responsibilities you give him.
Cities are growing fast, and they’re consuming huge amounts of resources critical to quality of life. That’s why they offer the best opportunities for companies to surmount environmental and social sustainability challenges.
Does your organization want to do business with consumers in emerging markets? If so, consider partnering in new ways with local businesses and community groups to create offerings that your target customers not only need—but can afford.
If you don’t use business data to make smarter decisions, you’re wasting the data. This three-step process will help you gather and analyze the right kinds of data to inform your most important business decisions.
You’ve got a great idea for how to make the world a better place. But your idea won’t help anyone unless you get people to notice it, embrace it, and put it into action. Here’s how.
Some management practices and assumptions made sense in the past but no longer reflect current business realities. Eliminate these “management myths,” and you can recharge innovation and profitability for your organization.
Transitioning into a new role? Make a great first impression—by securing early successes that excite people and create value for your organization. These three steps can help.
To reach your potential at work, you need to know what kinds of activities you’re most passionate about, honestly assess your strengths and weaknesses, and understand how your past successes and failures may be holding you back now.
Two-day brainstorming sessions won’t encourage your people to innovate, because when they go back to work, nothing will have changed. Instead, make innovation part of their everyday work lives, using these five tactics.
To adapt to change, your brain needs to learn something new. Help it learn—by adopting healthy habits, exercising your cognitive powers, and taking frequent breaks during times of high stress and fatigue.
Will you be doing business with, reporting to, or managing someone from another culture? If so, find out how that culture differs from yours. Then adapt your behavior to those differences—but in ways that feel authentic to you.
A company can’t be satisfied with success in a current market. It also has to search for new markets to keep growing. That means inventing the future while continuing to manage the present so you protect your current success.
People who appear to put the most effort into their work aren’t necessarily the most productive. To accurately assess someone’s productivity, you need meaningful metrics, the right incentives, and access to a broad range of performance data.
Expanding a brand into new countries takes careful planning. These five tips can help you take your brand global by leveraging its power while also accommodating local realities in the new markets you’ve targeted.
Has your company acquired a successful business that sells a product that’s totally different from your existing offerings? If so, use insights about the new product to improve your existing offerings or develop new ones.
Defining a strategy? First decide where to play—the geographies, products, and customers you’ll do business with. Then decide how you’ll win there—by beating rivals on key dimensions like speed, customer satisfaction, or product quality.
If customers already know about your product's features and benefits, consider marketing it from a fresh new angle.
How to tell if a job candidate really has a skill that’s critical for the role? Ask the person to describe a time he or she used that skill. Keep asking questions until you get to one the candidate can’t answer. This shows the extent of the person’s skill.
In the digital age, you need to cultivate networks that can help you do three things: solve problems, restore your energy, and turbocharge your creativity.
People with certain cognitive conditions may not do well in job interviews—but they may have exactly the talents you need for an open position in your team.
When you’re giving a presentation, don’t just narrate the text shown on your PowerPoint slides. Instead, create slides that make your ideas stand out and help your audience remember your message. These five tips can help.
State-founded industries often catalyze the emergence of pirate organizations. Pirates challenge the state’s monopoly on the industry and demand new rules of the game. Understand the pirates, and you can play the game more effectively.
How to excite your employees to deliver exceptional performance? Give them the four things that all followers want: a sense of community, your own authenticity, your appreciation, and stimulation.
To innovate, ask, "Where else has somebody seen and solved that problem?"
Make sound hiring decisions by learning what job candidates value most—personally and professionally.
At any stage of growth, treat your business like a startup. "Bootstrap" it to make the most frugal use of your resources.
Use this three-step process to improve how you react to difficult people.
