A division president last year described her situation with unusual clarity. “The board wants bold. My people want stable. And I’m supposed to deliver both without acknowledging the contradiction.” She wasn’t exaggerating. Her board had approved an aggressive digital transformation roadmap tied to a three-year value creation thesis. Meanwhile, her organization had just been through […]
The business landscape has become a psychological minefield. Economic volatility sends tremors through every organization, the job market lurches unpredictably between extremes, and the future feels less like a strategic planning exercise and more like navigating fog. For business leaders, this environment demands more than operational excellence or financial acumen. It requires something fundamentally human: […]
The paradox of artificial intelligence adoption in large organizations has become strikingly clear: while executives trumpet AI as essential to competitive survival, fewer than 30% of enterprise AI initiatives make it beyond the pilot phase. The culprit isn’t the technology—it’s the people. AI resistance follows predictable patterns across organizations. The good news? So do the […]
In his book, Seeing What Others Don’t, Gary Klein retells the story of a seminar attendee. It illustrates perfectly the contrast between what managers should and should not do if they want to be fully engaged with their employees. The person in question said that when she went into her boss’ office, he was focused […]
Many believe that organizations have to continually reinvent themselves in order to keep up with all that is changing around them. They point to the fact that those who cling to the status quo eventually die or are acquired by those who don’t, and they often – quite proudly – point to themselves as the […]
It’s been suggested that successful change can be better achieved by working with or within the culture of organizations rather than against it. On the face of it, this seems to be so obvious that there’s no need to mention it all. But as Sherlock Holmes once observed, “There’s nothing so deceptive as an obvious […]
Deep organizational transformation is a combination of changed processes, procedures and behavior. While changing procedures may be relatively easy, transformation processes often stall a missing consequential behavioral change. A different dance “If you want a different dance, change the music.” This African proverb reminds us: If you want to stimulate different actions, find the driving […]
In the book The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael Porter suggests that differentiation is one way that companies can set themselves apart from competitors. While some advantage may be possible at a national level due to inherent natural resources, for example, we now know that this, as well as all the other means he suggests, […]
Jesse Jacoby
Erika Jacobi
