Strategic Leadership

Avoid project management traps

December 21, 2017

Andrew Makar is all too familiar with project management challenges. An information technology consultant, he has learned how to avoid potholes and stay on track.

Keep talking—you just never know

December 14, 2017

Asked how he convinced his friend Warren Buffett to turn over most of his billions in an enormous donation to the Gates Foundation years ago, software pioneer Bill Gates said he never brought it up.

Steer your team through a crisis

December 4, 2017

Leaders step up in a crisis. Their calm, sturdy attitude boosts everyone’s spirits as they lurch toward a solution. To maintain grace under pressure, start by framing the situation clearly. Explain the crisis to employees in simple terms.

Identify growing markets—then leap

November 28, 2017

Ryan Cohen and his business partner decided to sell their jewelry inventory at a loss to try to corner the market on pet parents. The result was Chewy.com. Silicon Valley wasn’t that interested in parting with startup money at first, but the company is now valued at around $4 billion.

Could Barefoot have gotten luckier?

November 24, 2017

Michael Houlihan didn’t intend to launch a wine company. It all started by happenstance.

The gamble: Overhaul a culture

November 22, 2017

When Jennifer Cue left as CEO of Jones Soda Co. in 2006, she figured she could raise a family with the satisfaction of knowing she had positioned the beverage firm for years of steady growth. She was wrong.

Inventing the first computer

November 13, 2017
Before anyone had invented computers, two visionaries, John Mauchly and Presper Eckert, recognized their immense potential. They had to place a bet on the best way to get their imminent invention to market.

CEO John Legere is telling it like it is

November 9, 2017

If you’re a business leader, keep an eye on @JohnLegere and other leaders who have chosen to risk backlash by speaking bluntly on social media and putting their faces and words front and center of the company’s public persona.

My boss, the hypocrite

November 9, 2017

Q: Our CEO is always telling us to be more open about our failures. He wants us to innovate, and he knows that means some botched experiments. But the few of us who have taken high-profile risks have not been lauded; in fact, he’s privately (and publicly) shamed and embarrassed us. Is there a polite way to call someone a hypocrite?

Focus on positives to avoid excuses

November 9, 2017
Craig Ross was hired by a company to help its leaders innovate more effectively. Almost immediately, Ross detected a problem: The participants failed to connect well with each other.