This morning, I moderated a panel on "Managing Complexity with the Santa Fe Institute at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. One of the featured thought leaders was Stephanie Forrest, a computer scientist who… Read more »
Insights and ideas
Symbolism – Plastics Journal picks up McGrath’s blog
I just ran across the following interesting article – Title: AIG mess embodiespower of emotions. By: Grace, Robert, Plastics News, 1042802X, 4/6/2009, Vol. 21, Issue 5 The author ran across a blog I did… Read more »
Taking the time every day to learn and reflect
This article, entitled "the best way to use the last five minutes of your day" made me think about a lot of the executives I work with who are just too busy to reflect on anything at… Read more »
More on Total Recall Technologies
I’ve been getting a lot of interested reactions from the World Economic Forum / Harvard Business Review “Ideaslab” session I did at Davos. You can find the YouTube version here and it is also published… Read more »
Session at Davos: Growth Through Innovation
This had to be one of the more fun sessions I attended at Davos, on a topic near and dear to my heart. Here’s the WEF summary: Growth through Innovation The financial crisis will be… Read more »
Snippet from Davos - Cool ideas from older industries
I’m sitting in a panel entitled “Cool ideas from older industries”. Among the participants is Brad Anderson, the CEO of Best Buy. Great phrase: The huge disadvantage established organization have is habits. Many organizations choose… Read more »
Green: Nice while it lasted?
Only the blink of an eye ago, it seems, you couldn’t open a paper or read a magazine without someone talking about how ‘green’ their businesses were and how environmentalism has become a top-line concern. … Read more »
More examples of the benefits of early warnings and leading indicators
As I often say in class, information that we use to make decisions falls into three categories: 1) Lagging indicators: Often highly accurate and precise, but give us data only about the past; 2) Current… Read more »
Making passengers smile at Zurich International Airport – the power of small differentiators
Here I am in Switzerland, working with one of Columbia’s best clients, Swiss Reinsurance. We run a program called “Creating Breakthrough Strategies” for their most senior executives, and it’s always a highlight. I was struck… Read more »
Of curtains and cup holders
Today I was teaching in Columbia Business School’s “Emerging Leader Development Program,” which as the name suggests is an executive education program focused on developing the leadership skills of younger, high-potential managers. We were chatting… Read more »
How will TV change
One thing we can predict about the new ways that people will interact with television is that the new uses will surprise us. As has been the case with the way many new technologies have… Read more »
Leaner not necessarily better for corporate Headquarters
Quick, do you believe that smaller, leaner corporate headquarters are associated with higher performance? A recent study published in the Strategic Management Journal suggests that such a taken for granted belief may not make sense…. Read more »