Here is a tricky question: How many living management gurus can you name who did not learn their trade in North America? I have asked many colleagues this question, and it’s pretty hard to come up with a good list. For example, consider the individuals in last year’s “Thinkers 50” ranking list. Most of the obvious non-American names such as Mohammed Yunus, Ratan Tata, and Manfred Kets de Vries actually studied in the US, so they don’t count. By my reckoning, there are only seven who make the cut: Richard Branson (Virgin), Kris Gopalakrishnan (Infosys), Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale (Stockholm School of Economics), Lynda Gratton, Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones (London Business School). Does this matter? I think it does.... Continue Reading

Are the people in your organisation good at collaborating across boundaries? Do you have effective ways of building and delivering cross-unit offerings? I know of no large company where the answers to these questions are an unequivocal yes. But increasingly cross-unit collaboration is becoming a critical strategic imperative, and a lot of companies are actively seeking out new ways of raising their game in this area.... Continue Reading

We all know that big, established companies struggle to respond to "disruptive" change. Blockbuster, HMV, Nokia, and Yahoo! are all current examples of companies who are struggling with this problem – they are trying to adapt, but are being held back by powerful and often invisible inertial forces. ... Continue Reading

There is a deep gulf between the sterile, one-way and almost Orwellian practices of the corporate IT network and the rapidly-evolving, chaotic organism of today’s Intranet.
What would it look like if the social world of Web 2.0 collided with the corporate Intranet? What would happen if information was disseminated from outside in, instead of inside out; from the people working on the front line?... Continue Reading

Employee engagement is, as they say, a no-brainer. There are stacks of literature showing that companies with committed employees who feel strongly about their organisation do better financially than those with indifferent employees. In many cases, too, improvement is actually quite easy to achieve. Large numbers of employees work in silos, with deep functional expertise but no line of sight to the person ultimately buying their product. Yet it turns out that exposure to the customers who use the product, particularly if it’s something that makes a difference to their lives, can be a powerful source of insight and motivation.... Continue Reading

One of the key tasks of management is coordinating activities – making sure the right people are working on the right projects at the right time. Indeed, if you have ever worked in a management role in a large consultancy or an IT services company, you will know that this is a big part of the job – and one that causes enormous headaches. ... Continue Reading

If you are a regular reader of London Business School’s publications, you probably already have a point of view on the future of management. Indeed, business schools were set up in large part to help managers and students to understand the changes underway in the business world, so chances are you have already bought into the argument that we are going through a period of upheaval that will transform the way we work in organizations in the year ahead.... Continue Reading

We need to develop a more comprehensive understanding of what management is really about to make better choices. By going back to a basic definition of management—the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals—we can frame our discussion of the activities and principles of management much more explicitly... Continue Reading

It is only when the tide goes out you can see who’s swimming naked. And so, it is only when times get tough that you see whose business and management models are most robust. The global downturn has exposed the frailties of many organisations and confirmed the strengths of others.... Continue Reading