Jean-Louis Barsoux

IBM, under CEO Ginni Rometty, is trying to transform itself into a cloud and cognitive computing services company. This huge shift requires a culture change that, Rometty argues, the company is wel...

When faced with strategic business decisions, executives often quickly home in on a narrow set of options. Systematically expanding the “decision frame” can result in better solutions that reflect ...

When subsidiary managers at global organizations are ignored or constrained by a parochial mindset at headquarters, the whole company can suffer. Here’s how one company set out to change that dynam...

Operations in growing markets such as China often draw substantial attention from corporate headquarters. Unfortunately, that attention does not always add value - and can even impede performance.

Many years later, after a successful career as chairman and CEO of the biotechnology giant Amgen Inc., Kevin Sharer would look back on a period earlier in his career when he had a hard time getting...

Good leaders make their work look easy. But the reality is that most have had to work hard on themselves — by managing or compensating for potentially career-limiting traits. To grow as an executiv...

This is an unusual turnaround case in that it involves a public sector institution, the British Museum (BM). The case study covers the period from around 1999 to 2010. It focuses more particularly ...

Historically, most managers equated innovation primarily with the development of new products and new technologies. But increasingly, innovation is seen as applying to the development of new servic...

This is the case of a leader who came into a hugely successful company only to find out that it lacked basic systems and was running out of growth opportunities in its existing markets. Though a no...

This case is about rebuilding a high performance culture at IBM. The case starts in 2002, shortly after Sam Palmisano succeeded Louis V. Gerstner as Chairman and CEO of IBM. By the time Palmisano t...

This case is about rebuilding a high performance culture at IBM. The case starts in 2002, shortly after Sam Palmisano succeeded Louis V. Gerstner as Chairman and CEO of IBM. By the time Palmisano t...

This case is about rebuilding a high performance culture at IBM. The case starts in 2002, shortly after Sam Palmisano succeeded Louis V. Gerstner as Chairman and CEO of IBM. By the time Palmisano t...

Subordinates sometimes make it extremely difficult for their bosses to be good leaders. Executives who fail to understand the forces at play may find their careers in jeopardy. While bosses certain...

Transitions are fraught with traps, the biggest of which are interpersonal. Entering a new job, executives underestimate the powerful urge to label the people with whom they interact - upward, down...

This paper aims to highlight the surprises awaiting executives making the transition from functional to general management responsibilities – and offer a guidance system to help general managers (G...

This case covers Bob Ayling’s efforts to cut costs at British Airways even as the airline was reporting record profits. Having secured equivalent savings elsewhere in the airline, British Airways m...

This case covers Terry Leahy’s career at Tesco, the UK-based retailer, and especially the ten years since he became CEO in 1997. Tesco has come a long way since the early 1990s, when it was playing...

With organizations of all sorts facing increased urgency and unpredictability, being able to ask smart questions has become key. But unlike lawyers, doctors, and psychologists, business professiona...

The dominant approach to managing project partners—first proposed by Aubrey Mendelow at an information systems conference in 1991—recommends mobilizing allies and transforming fence-sitters and blo...

The CEO of a European city’s public transit authority recently called us in to coach the organization’s new head of HR. Having joined the executive committee six months earlier, Jocelyn (not her re...

Innovation is all about finding and filling people’s unmet needs. But even innovators and organizations renowned for their scanning capabilities often have trouble perceiving and correctly interpre...

Given that the 120th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize took place on December 11, 2021, we felt the time was right to celebrate the life's work of its inaugural recipient, Swiss businessman Henr...

Innovation is widely viewed as an engine of progress — not only for driving economic growth, but also for bringing vital improvements in a variety of domains, from science and medicine to inequalit...

Innovators can be their own worst enemies, derailed by personal traits, such as confidence and optimism, that are essential to creativity but can be toxic when taken to an extreme, and by emotions ...

Innovators who experiment solely to validate their idea are making a dangerous mistake, and the authors point to the inventor of the Segway as a prime example. The purpose of experimentation should...

The difference between creativity and innovation is execution. While creativity is generating valuable and novel ideas, innovation is about successfully implementing those ideas, turning concepts i...

Innovators must prepare for their journey like adventurers: studying the conditions and being prepared to respond to dynamic elements along their path

Computer scientist Radia Perlman is often referred to as the “Mother of the Internet”—a title she shuns, but which has stuck due to her key role in driving the growth and development of the interne...

Once a leader in its field, by the mid-2000s, the Scandinavian paper giant Stora Enso had hit a wall. With the shift from print to online publishing and the shrinking demand for paper, company lead...

Today, as researchers work to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, it’s worth examining how, 100 years ago, the British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered his first antibiotic, and how that breakth...

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of homebound schoolchildren and university students have benefited from a valuable resource that most take for granted. Today, anyone with a desktop or mobile d...

Undiscussables exist because they help people avoid short-term conflicts, threats, and embarrassment. But they also short-circuit the inquiries and challenges essential to both improving performanc...