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 Antonio Neri, Andrew Shearer, Martina Merz, Niels Buus, Gabriel Silva and David Véle.

From Susie Gharib: HPE CEO’s Leadership Advice: ‘Aspire to Be Something Bigger’

“The son of an Italian homebuilder, Neri got his first job at Hewlett Packard in 1995 working in a customer call center in Amsterdam. He went on to have jobs in the printing unit, he ran services in the computer division, he led servers and networking businesses, and in 2017 was tapped to be president as Meg Whitman’s heir apparent. After 23 years in the trenches, he became CEO of the storied technology giant in 2018.”

From Dale Buss: Farmshelf CEO Counts On Manufacturing Scale To Become Big Hydroponic Feeder

“These days, Farmshelf basically is only helping grow basil in some of America’s best restaurants. But Founder and CEO Andrew Shearer is pursuing a vision of using manufacturing scale to bring down the cost of his hydroponic horticultural systems to transform his Brooklyn-based startup into a primary engine of the global food system.”

From the Economist: Martina Merz takes over at struggling thyssenkrupp

“WHEN MARTINA MERZ joined thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board as chairman in January, she was not her new colleagues’ first choice. They had approached Bodo Uebber, a former chief financial officer of Daimler, Tom Enders, ex-boss of Airbus, and Marijn Dekkers, a former chief executive of Bayer. All three turned them down. When Ms Merz said yes, she had no idea that within nine months she would be chief executive of the struggling German industrial conglomerate. She took over on October 1st.”

From Lawrie Holmes: Changemakers: Niels Buus

“The Danish entrepreneur at the forefront of satellite technology talks about commercialising the final frontier”

From Katia Savchuk: How Stanford GSB Alums Created One of the Most Valuable Startups in Latin America

“São Paulo-based Nubank, valued at $10 billion, is disrupting the region’s banking sector.”

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