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…
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…
Alex Nabaum/theispot.com Despite a recent retrenchment of corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, asset managers and companies know that sustainable business practices are crucial for reducing risk and delivering shareholder value. Still, they need a reliable way to tell when a business’s activities are truly green and when it’s greenwashing — claiming that its…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images How does a manufacturing company founded in the 19th century apply data and artificial intelligence to transform its business? At Michelin Group, a French multinational manufacturing company founded in 1889 by the brothers Édouard and André Michelin, today’s leaders are figuring that out. Michelin is the second-largest tire manufacturer…
The rise of artificial intelligence has been rapid and broad, with rampant excitement—and concern—about how the technology will transform industries, the economy, and people’s lives. In this roundup, we dive into research and insights from Kellogg faculty on AI’s past, present, and future, and its implications for scientists, advertisers, and the labor force. 1. An…
Andrew Baker/Ikon Images Business leaders use corporate purpose to define the strategic direction of a company and imbue the collective efforts of its employees with a meaning beyond simply increasing shareholder value. For example, Veolia, a large global service provider in energy, waste, and water management, pledges “ecological transformation, that is our purpose,” while toolmaker…
Tommaso D’Incalci/Ikon Images Executing strategic change is critical to a company’s performance — whether it’s making an agile pivot to grasp an emerging opportunity or positioning the business for long-term resilience — but it’s a process many leaders struggle to pull off successfully. Such initiatives typically trickle down to staff members, often causing upheaval and…
Let’s be frank: the core purpose of a company is profit. But many firms also want to make an impact, whether it’s helping their customers solve a problem, filling a gap in a market, or promoting broader social change. In more-ambitious cases, these dueling motivations can create a seeming paradox: Is it possible to build…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images On July 15, 2021, I received an email from three coauthors of a data-sleuthing website called Data Colada. They informed me that they would soon be publishing compelling evidence that a field experiment in my coauthored 2012 research paper “Signing at the Beginning Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest…
Aleksandar Savic In January 2023, General Electric spun off GE HealthCare as a publicly traded company, and in 2024, it generated revenue of nearly $20 billion. With more than 50,000 employees, GE HealthCare has built a strong culture — the highest-rated culture among its peer companies, based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees speak particularly positively about…