Leaders and Strategies in Real Life: 10/30/18

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Instead of studying leadership, why not spend some time studying leaders and strategies in the wild? You can learn a lot from leadership experts, but you always see the leader and what he or she does through the expert’s personal lens. Supplement that learning with studying real leaders in real life situations and draw your own conclusions. The posts in this series will help you.

Every week I’ll point you to articles by and about real leaders in real situations and to articles about how real companies are faring in the marketplace. Read them. Think about them. Draw your own lessons and conclusions from them. Then try to apply those lessons in your own real life.

This week I’m pointing you to articles about Nokia, Chick-fil-A, Weight Watchers, and Vodafone.

From Quy Huy and Timo O. Vuori: How Nokia Bounced Back (With the Help of the Board)

“To help the former mobile giant find a radically new strategic direction, Nokia’s board assumed a unique role.”

From Bridgett Weaver: Chick-fil-A to test new prototype stores without dining rooms

“Chick-fil-A is set to open a first-of-its-kind store in Louisville later this month, and it will focus on catering and delivery services.”

From the Economist: Weight Watchers rebrands itself for an anti-diet era

“UP A STEEP flight of stairs just off Fifth Avenue, in New York City, a dozen people trickle into an early evening gathering. The furniture is soft and Scandinavian, the group mostly female. Acoustic background music is occasionally drowned out by a car honking. The only giveaway to why people are here—to attend one of 31,000 weekly Weight Watchers meetings that are held globally—is hidden behind a curtain in another room: the scales.”

From HBS Working Knowledge: Vodafone’s Innovative Approach to Advanced Technologies

“William Kerr discusses how Vodafone, one of the largest companies in the telecommunications space, incorporated technological advancements like big data, automation, and artificial intelligence to improve productivity while ensuring new opportunities were created for the next generation of workers.”

For some ideas about how to get more from this series of posts, check out “Studying Leaders in the Wild.

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