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 the rise of emergent organizations, the future of oil, keep innovation management simple, three measures for destroying the glass ceiling and promoting more women to CEO, shifting megatrends and how they will affect the workplace, and future jobs, future work, and multi-generational workforce.

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 Josh Bersin: Digital Leadership Is Not an Optional Part of Being a CEO

“While these are all sound ideas, our research shows that something more fundamental is at play. Companies that rapidly adapt to digital business models don’t just ‘do digital’; they ‘act digital.’ In other words, they practice an entirely new model of management. And their CEOs are leading the charge.”

From Ioannis Ioannou: Four principles – translating purpose into practice

“Some of the world’s most reputable organisations adopt sustainability as their core purpose. How are they translating purpose into results?”

From Beth Comstock: The Rise of Emergent Organizations

“As we pass the tipping point toward a world fast enough and interconnected enough to be dominated by emergent systems, our methods of making decisions, and the tools available to help us make them, are changing. Here are some rules of thumb and useful modes of understanding for managing ourselves and others in The Emergent Era.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

Industries and Analysis

From the Economist: The future of oil

“The world’s use of oil is approaching a tipping-point, writes Henry Tricks. But don’t expect it to end imminently.”

From Ally Marotti: Man-made diamonds, though more affordable, pose challenges on Jewelers Row

“Jewelers are noticing a change in that blind devotion toward the gemstone in its natural form. Technology has allowed man-made diamonds to become so similar to mined diamonds that they’re working their way into the jewelry market, for better or worse, with some budget-conscious shoppers requesting them as a cheaper alternative.”

From Wharton: The Final Frontier: How Entrepreneurs Cracked the Aerospace Industry

“Space exploration is a complex, highly technical and increasingly expensive endeavor that traditionally has been the domain of big governments. But more private firms are jumping into the fray and achieving success. In a recent paper, ‘Watershed Moments, Cognitive Discontinuities, and Entrepreneurial Entry: The Case of New Space,’ Wharton management professors Laura Huang and Anoop Menon — along with coauthor Tiona Zuzul from the London Business School — studied the watershed moments that have enabled this frenzy of entrepreneurial activity. Huang and Menon recently spoke with Knowledge@wharton about their findings.”

Innovation and Technology

From Bill Barnett: Bake Your Own Pie

“Recently I was lecturing a group of high-level Chinese executives, when one asked me: ‘What do you think of plagiaristic innovation?’ Before I could answer, he went on to explain that for China to ‘catch up,’ he felt it needs to have innovation of any kind – even what he called ‘plagiaristic’ innovation.”

From Kevin McFarthing: Keep Innovation Management Simple

“Innovation is the lifeblood of business growth. Innovation management is also a process; a means of getting the right product to the right people at the right time. Yet all too often innovation management doesn’t work well”

From Irving Wladawsky-Berger: How Will AI Likely Impact How We Work, Live and Play?

“A few weeks ago I discussed whether AI is finally reaching a tipping point, mostly based on a recently published report, – Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030. The report was developed by a study panel of AI experts convened by the One Hundred Year Study of AI (AI100), an initiative launched at Stanford University in December, 2014 ‘to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every aspect of how people work, live and play.’ To better understand the future impact of AI on everyday lives, the panel focused the study on the likely influence of AI on a typical North American city by the year 2030.”

Women and the Workplace

From J. P. Donlon: 3 Measures for Destroying the Glass Ceiling and Promoting More Women to CEO

“Have prospects for women business leaders improved, worsened, or stayed the same over that last decade? The answer is all of the above depending on what measures one looks at.”

From Melissa Wylie: 10 books by women, for women (and maybe for some men, too)

“The list features TV personalities and accomplished academics among the authors. Their efforts got people talking about their work and perspectives over the past 12 months.”

From Matt Palmquist: Female CEOs: A Steady Hand at the Wheel

“The number of women presiding over large companies still lags far behind men, yet the firms they lead tend to be more risk averse and more profitable over the long term.”

Work and Learning Now and in the Future

From James Manyika: Technology, jobs, and the future of work

“Automation, digital platforms, and other innovations are changing the fundamental nature of work. Understanding these shifts can help policy makers, business leaders, and workers move forward.”

From Ira S. Wolfe: Future Jobs, Future Work, and Multi-Generational Workforce

“Like most of our conversations, we started off with a discussion about the multi-generational workforce. And like we do so often it led off with a discussion of the Baby Boomers and Millennials. Rick started with, ‘What is the major shift you see occurring right now and where is it headed?’ I’m not sure Rick got the answer he was expecting.”

From Mike Haberman: Shifting Megatrends and how they will affect the workplace

“Price Waterhouse Coopers, LLP also known as PwC just released a new paper discussing five megatrends they have identified. These five megatrends are discussed in their paper in terms of how they will affect global defense and security. I am going to discuss two of these megatrends in terms of how they will affect the workplace in the U.S.”

More Leadership Posts from Wally Bock

Learning to Lead

Learning to lead isn’t easy or automatic and it’s sometimes painful. But that’s the only way to get better.

Book Review: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by The Creator of Nike

My review of Shoe Dog: A Memoir by The Creator of Nike by Phil Knight.

By and About Leaders: 12/13/16

Pointers to pieces by and about Andrew Ritter, Raul Casares, Jeff Bezos, Neal Gottlieb, and Henry Paulson.

From the Independent Business Blogs: 12/14/16

Pointers to posts by Jesse Lyn Stoner, Kate Nasser, Marcella Bremer, Mary Jo Asmus, and Ed Batista.

Stories and Strategies from Real Life: 12/16/16

Pointers to stories about Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Opendoor, Wayfair, and Miami Fishing Supply.

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