Management
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When a Rebrand Meets Backlash
When Cracker Barrel unveiled its new logo as part of a larger rebranding initiative this summer, the company hoped it would symbolize a new era for the company. The sleek, simplified branding was linked to the restaurant’s newly modernized interiors and menu, an attempt to revitalize the struggling roadside chain for a younger generation. But…
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Big Goals, Small Steps—Why Most Corporate Green Initiatives Fall Short
Facing pressure from investors and the government to reduce their carbon emissions, many firms have committed to net-zero emissions targets. In order to meet these lofty goals, one might assume that companies are making costly long-term investments in transformative technologies. But when Kellogg’s Aaron Yoon and his colleagues examined data on thousands of emission-reduction initiatives…
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When People Game the System, It Helps to Shake It Up
When you think of gaming the system, it usually implies cheating with malicious intent. But when critical resources are scarce, even well-meaning people can be found bending the rules. In the delicate and uncertain world of organ transplantation, for example, transplant surgeons occasionally resort to gaming the system in an effort to save their patient’s…
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How Durable Design Can Save Lives
Each year, nearly 5 million children around the world die before the age of 5, including more than 2 million newborns. Many of these deaths are preventable through high-quality hospital-based care. But even routine devices such as syringe pumps and phototherapy lights that are crucial to achieve this level of care—and standard in most U.S.…
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Customers Are Taking a Shine to Eco-friendly Products
At the supermarket, drugstore, and mall, eco-friendly options abound for everything from laundry detergents to toothpaste. Past research has suggested that people tend to believe these greener, more-sustainable alternatives aren’t as effective as traditional products—for instance, that dishwashing soap with “natural” ingredients will leave their plates less sparkly than “regular” soap. This phenomenon is often…
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Why Big Problems Can Feel Small
From lobbyists to nonprofit organizations, advocates for all kinds of causes often use statistics to illustrate how widespread a problem is. A fundraising campaign for Alzheimer’s might mention that nearly seven million people are living with the disease, for example. Similarly, a social-justice campaign might assert that the lifetime risk of incarceration for Black men…
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Work Hard, Play Hard, Bogotá Style: A Download on the SFI’s Complexity Global School
Earlier this month, Georgia Meyer, a PhD candidate in Information Systems and Innovation at the Department of Management at LSE, spent two weeks in Bogotá for the third edition of the Santa Fe Institute’s (SFI) Complexity Global School for emerging political economies. Here she shares her experience of the programme and encourages others who might…
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The High Cost of Executives’ Intellectual Property Blind Spots
Chris Gash / theispot.com The Research To understand the intellectual property knowledge that executives need and may be missing, the authors fielded a survey to an upper-echelon sample of 407 senior IP managers: 321 from the IAM 300 list, and a convenience sample of 86 senior IP strategists from the researchers’ networks. Data was collected…
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Four Traits of Forward-Looking CEOs
Grundini/Ikon Images A profound shift is underway in global leadership. Organizations are confronting technological disruption, geopolitical risk, climate urgency, and rapidly evolving social expectations. It’s clear that the leadership models of the past — built on hierarchy, control, and confidence about how the future will unfold — are no longer fit for purpose. I’ve both…
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Leaders at All Levels: How Bayer Simplified to Unleash Innovation
What happened when pharma giant Bayer radically simplified its management structure and empowered teams to run with new ideas? In just one example, a product team at Bayer brought a billion-dollar drug to market a year faster than was typical. In this episode of Leaders at All Levels, learn how the 90,000-employee company transformed its…