In the early 2000s, Microsoft under Steve Ballmer was a rigid, profit-driven behemoth, locked into a toxic culture of internal rivalries, departmental fiefdoms, and a single-minded fixation on squeezing every cent from Windows and Office. Creativity? Stifled. Expansion? Sluggish. The tech giant fumbled massive chances, standing by as competitors like Apple and Google dominated emerging markets.[…]
Continue reading
We’ve reached a strange moment in business where intelligence itself is overrated. Everywhere you turn, companies are proclaiming their “AI-first” future, yet few can explain what that actually means in practice. The illusion isn’t in the technology; it’s in the belief that AI, by its mere presence, will fix what’s broken in how we work, lead, and learn.[…]
Continue reading
In times of deep societal transformation—climate change, technological disruption, geopolitical volatility—companies are increasingly called upon to “take a stand.” Whether on sustainability, AI ethics, or democracy itself, managers are expected to lead with values.[…]
Continue reading
Leadership is being tested across every sector, but nowhere is the challenge of widening access sharper than in how we prepare the next generation for work. This is not only about young people; it is a live case study of a wider truth: leadership today is about opening opportunity in business, in culture, and across communities.[…]
Continue reading
Managers can influence employees’ daily motivation for the work by using a number of tools. Below, I list five of them (of course, this is not a comprehensive list). In terms of their effectiveness as management tools for influencing motivation, how would you order them, with 1 being the most effective and 5 being the least effective? […]
Continue reading
Corporate lifespans are collapsing worldwide – from decades to mere years – yet longevity builds wealth, and wealth builds nations. While most organisations struggle to survive their first decade, a remarkable group of enterprises has endured for generations, creating an institutional backbone of national prosperity and social wellbeing. […]
Continue reading
A failure is not the same as a mistake. Maybe, you think, this is just semantics. I see it as an important distinction that matters for today’s leaders. First, words are the leader’s primary tool. Leadership is the art of harnessing the ideas, talents, and efforts of others to achieve challenging goals. And the harnessing is largely accomplished through words – written communication, town halls, team meetings, or one-on-one conversations. […]
Continue reading
Moving beyond military metaphors, leaders must create conditions where strengths align and unpredictability becomes an asset.
The traditional paradigm of managers as distant commanders is giving way to a richer image—that of the enabler and servant leader (The Death of the Manager: The Rise of the Enabler). Inspired by that, we might consider a radical reimagining: what if managing an organisation were more like orchestrating a mega-event…of cat management?[…]
