Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms, to start off your work week. I’m pointing you to articles about leadership, strategy, industries, innovation, women and work, and work and learning now and in the future. Highlights include Using Business Model Innovation to Reinvent the Core, walk-in health care is a fast-growing profit center for retail chains, On Galaxy S5 Launch, Smartphones Have Become The Model For Innovation Everywhere, A Reality Check on Women’s Progress in the Workplace, and The Five Elements Of A ‘Simply Irresistible’ Organization.
Be sure to look for dots that you can connect.
Note: Some links require you to register or are to publications that have some form of limited paywall.
Thinking about Leadership and Strategy
From Zhenya Lindgardt and Charles Hendren: Using Business Model Innovation to Reinvent the Core
“What do microprocessors, power tools, and air transportation have in common? On the face of it, not much. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find that each of these industries has followed a similar pattern over the past 20 years. Each has a large number of established companies. Each has seen an accelerating pace of product innovation. And each industry has also, unfortunately, seen a decelerating pace of growth.”
Wally’s Comment: Whenever you use or evaluate models, it pays to repeat George Box’s classic observation: “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.”
From Chief Executive: 6 Tips for Improving a CEO’s Reputation Among Employees During a Crisis
“CEOs often have to make tough decisions involving mergers, acquisitions, layoffs, salary freezes and more. Certain events, even when they are the best decision for the long-term health of the company, can generate widespread fallout, including damaging the reputation of the CEO. Communications consultants David Johnson and Don Middleberg offer tips to help CEOs handle negative reputational issues.”
From The Economist: Hidden gems
“Reviving old brands sometimes makes more sense than creating new ones.”
Industries and Analysis
From Ridhima Aggarwal: Innovative Approaches to Healthcare Delivery
“Healthcare innovation isn’t just about new drugs and therapies but also service delivery, where front line clinics play a crucial role in new ways of operating.”
From Martha Hamilton: Why walk-in health care is a fast-growing profit center for retail chains
“Several trends are driving the expansion of health care into retail stores — including pharmacies, big-box stores and grocery stores — and some of those trends will be accelerated by the Affordable Care Act.”
From Ray A. Smith: Mannequins Make a Comeback
“From Bergdorf Goodman to Target, Stores Are Re-imaging How Mannequins Can Entice Shoppers”
Innovations and Technology
From Chief Executive: Food Makers Explore Crowdsourcing Through Social Media
“Is crowdsourcing the new front line for demand-driven manufacturing? Foodmanufacturing.com editor Holly Henschen reports that food processors are trying to use social media to identify new product formulations and hopefully boost new customers and advertisers.”
From Robert C. Wolcott and Jørn Bang Andersen: Scale Your Innovation Initiatives
“Five ways to boost the impact of new endeavors without adding bureaucracy or cost.”
Bonus: Here’s a pointer to a Kellogg Insight interview with Robert Wolcott.
“So too the smartphone industry’s platform and ecosystem model – Ford is busy developing a platform for autos and the Internet of Things under its OpenXC Platform. GE has been trying hard too, first with healthymagination, now with Industrial data. Looking for interesting examples of the platform and ecosystem model? Look no further than the travel industry and Expedia, which has gradually become a Platform as a Service provider.”
Women and the Workplace
From Laura Meckler: More Moms Staying Home, Reversing Decadeslong Decline
“After decades of decline, the share of mothers who stay home with their children has steadily risen over the last several years, a new report has found.”
From Susan Cramm: A Reality Check on Women’s Progress in the Workplace
“One of my friends recently told me a story over breakfast that made me almost choke on my croissant. It was a modern-day tale of overt gender discrimination that’s likely to cause more than a few spit takes, so please put down your coffee before you read on.”
Work and Learning Now and in the Future
From Douglas Belkin and Caroline Porter: Corporate Cash Alters University Curricula
“Many of the students who live there will be enrolled in a cybersecurity concentration funded in part by Northrop Grumman Corp. The defense contractor is helping to design the curriculum, providing the computers and paying part of the cost of the new dorm. Such partnerships are springing up from the dust of the recession, as state universities seek new revenue and companies try to close a yawning skills gap in fast-changing industries.”
From Michael Schrage: Why Your Analytics are Failing You
“After facilitating several Big Data and analytics sessions with Fortune 1000 firms and spending serious time with organizations that appear quite happy with their returns on analytic investment, a clear ‘data heuristic’ has emerged. Companies with mediocre to moderate outcomes use big data and analytics for decision support; successful ROA—Return on Analytics—firms use them to effect and support behavior change. Better data-driven analyses aren’t simply ‘plugged-in’ to existing processes and reviews, they’re used to invent and encourage different kinds of conversations and interactions.”
From Josh Bersin: The Five Elements Of A ‘Simply Irresistible’ Organization
“New Deloitte Global Human Capital Research shows that organizations today must work hard to create a meaningful, humanistic work environment to drive engagement, performance, and a magnetic attraction in the market.And this is good business. The Great Place to Work Institute has published studies which show that the ‘100 best places to work’ outperformed the S&P 500 by over four-fold from 1990–2009 and there’s no reason to believe this won’t continue.”
Some of My Leadership Reading Posts You May Like
If you liked these selections, you should check out my other curated posts. Here are the ones from last week.
Pointers to posts by and about Alessandro Carlucci, Bob McDonald, Domenico de Sole, Steven Kalczynski, and Daniel Ha.
4/9/14: From the Independent Business Blogs
Pointers to to posts on hiring good managers, the new game of management, nice guys (and where they finish, holacracy, and challenges.
4/11/14: Stories and Strategies from Real Life
Pointers to stories about about Coca-Cola, Apple, Jimmy Beans Wool, alternative lending, and Leica.
“Robots” and “Some Things We Know about the Future of Big Data” were popular posts on my blog last week.
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