Just back from an amazing week spent with thinkers, do-ers and executives considering culture at Novartis. Amy Edmondson, my dear friend, was there and both of us remain stunned that people are still confused about… Read more »
Business Start Ups / Entrepreneurship
NPV doesn’t work for risky, high-potential projects. Here’s a better approach.
This article was co-authored with Claus Hirzmann of Strategic Finance “Never test the depth of the river with both feet.” Ironically, this is the very behavior that plagues many of the innovations that ended up in… Read more »
Can’t Buy Me Growth…A Cautionary Tale
This article was co-authored with Alex Van Putten of Cameron & Associates We’ve been talking about what gets investors excited about a public company’s prospects and maintain that it’s when a management team can credibly… Read more »
Thought Sparks Wrap Up – May 2023
Uncertainty has a way of messing with people, and we sure saw much of that in May. With layoffs, trimmed budgets, and lumbering threats like the US approaching the debt ceiling, our innovation colleagues are… Read more »
Are you boring your Investors? Here’s how to tell.
This article was co-authored with Alex Van Putten of Cameron & Associates It isn’t hunger for short-term results. It’s not about meeting every number. It’s not about never being surprised. What investors really want is to… Read more »
Blast from the past – how companies behaved in 2008 is how a lot of them are behaving now
In October of 2008, I wrote about a company that had a reputation as a paragon of good management that was its own worst enemy when it came to sustainable efforts to innovate and transform…. Read more »
Assumptions are treacherous – just ask Lululemon about Mirror
In high uncertainty situations, one can obviously make decisions that turn out not to be so great. But seriously, do you want to be the CEO featured in a headline “How A Ballerina Outmaneuvered you”?… Read more »
Thought Sparks Wrap Up – April 2023
Reflecting this month on a spate of bad news, and how CEOs and other humans tend to react. The good news is that bad news mobilizes us. The bad news is that we can get… Read more »
Thought Sparks Wrap Up – March 2023
Yes, we are well into 2023 and if we’re going to make an impact, now is the time to get started. Considering that it takes 3-6 months to get anything accomplished, you should be starting… Read more »
Thought Sparks Wrap Up – February 2023
Yes, we are already staring down at the end of the first quarter. We’re back in person, back in airports, back at conferences, but … back to the office? The jury is still out. In case… Read more »
Thought Sparks Wrap Up – January 2023
An antidote to bureaucracy? Perhaps 2023 becomes the year that more organizations take advantage of technology to create what my co-author Ram Charan and I call the Permissionless Organization. By using technology to get the outcomes… Read more »
2022 in the Rear-View Mirror!-Yearly Round Up
Ideas – Thought Sparks Rebuilding Ukraine – huge risks, but potentially huge opportunities. Remembering the extraordinary Frances Hesselbein. How can you tell when a competitive advantage is going into erosion? One of my most requested articles (and a… Read more »