The recent news of the Microsoft offer to acquire Nokia’s handset business has brought many layers of responses regarding technology, market niche and global footprint. Very few commentators have hit on what I see as the real issue, however: culture clash. With the button-down, northern European hardware culture of the Finns in stark contrast to the software-centric […]
Archive | Leadership
Why Every Breakthrough Idea Needs a Raft
Imagine this: you’ve just left your boss’ office and you were given the ball on a major, new, cross-functional project. You are buzzing with ideas about who you need, what you need, and the time and effort it’s going to take. The question running through your mind in those moments is, “what should I do […]
Three Ways to Engage Your Growth Leaders
Now that you know the value of growth leaders and how to spot the good ones, what do you do to keep them engaged? Entire books have been written on this topic, but let me touch on three key areas from my experience. 1) Ask them to go into new places and learn new things […]
3 Reasons You Need a Growth Leader
The global financial crisis of 2008 shifted the business world in a fundamental way. Today, it’s no longer sufficient to have a stream of products or a portfolio of solutions; to be effective and vibrant in this new world, you need a portfolio of business models. Business model engineering is done by a new breed […]
3 Stages of Rockstar Growth Leaders & How to Spot Them
Finding someone with just the right combination of qualities to lead a growth project for your organization can be tough. To make matters worse, they can be hiding right under your nose in the most unlikely of places. The search for under-the-radar growth leaders is not unlike the story of the Detroit-based musician Rodriguez — […]
Why Your Focus this Fall Holds the Key to Your Company’s Future
In North America, the fall season can only mean two things: the time of year when kids head back to school and my Badgers & Green Bay Packers are ready to go. Traditionally, there are two big cycles of energy release in the workplace: in January when the new year arrives and the days begin […]
Preparing for the Ascent: A Growth Leaders’ Action Plan
This is the sixth and final post aimed at helping you map your external and internal environments. To recap, we have found that the external environment is understandable and runs on very long, predictable waves of discovery and implementation. By studying these change waves, you can time your investments to be in the Growth […]
What Marvel’s Avengers Teach us About Leading Great Teams
By now, many of you have probably seen the Avengers movie that came out a few years back, which was based on the 1963 Marvel Comics series about a group of superheroes teaming up to defeat evil — Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor and Captain America among them. I have fond memories of going to […]
The Secret to Increasing Growth without Increasing R&D Spending
One of the great things about the technology business is that you invent your company’s assets by harnessing the global brain power of your enterprise. A few years back, Strategy+Business published their annual survey of the 1000 companies in the world that spent the most on R&D. What they found has important implications for innovators […]
Why We Need Difficult Leaders
Like so many others in our field, I devoured the Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs the moment it hit the shelves. I was struck by just how far Jobs was from our current managerial ideal, being as he was notoriously difficult and exacting in his vision. Many thousands of hours of managerial training have been […]