Harvard Business Review

MARCH 27, 2014

We know intuitively that innovation goals are well served by cross-functional “SWAT” teams that are diverse in their membership. As Andy Zynga argued in an earlier post , diversity is a means to overcome the cognitive biases that prevent people from seeing new approaches or engaging them when found.

Diversity 8

Diversity Team Automotive Chemicals 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 25, 2014

But there is a deeper lesson to my story that I hope will help others build exceptional, and exceptionally diverse, teams. Ironically, my story is a story of overcoming my own biases about diversity—and then using these hard-won insights to build one of the most diverse leadership teams and board of directors in the world.

Team 12

Team Diversity CFO TSR 12

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 6, 2012

At most innovative organizations, job definitions tend to be flexible and fluid. For example, at FedEx (#20), the company actively assists executives in moving between functions in order to accumulate a diverse range of experiences that improve their overall adaptability. Enable organizational agility.

Innovation 15

Innovation First-mover Advantage Chemicals Agility 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 7, 2017

Just look at Uber to understand the importance of diversity and product safety or at car manufacturers scrambling to develop a competitive advantage in electric cars as countries seek to decarbonize their economics and fight pollution. In both cases, social and environmental metrics matter for the business’s financial success.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Asset Management Chemicals Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 4, 2011

Here's how Sophie described it: I don't understand why R&D kills so many of my projects when I am supposedly measured on new product development! Organizations lose out in a big way if their professionals become disengaged. The VP of R&D killed my new hand-held mixer three times before it was approved a couple weeks ago.

Chemicals 15

Chemicals Creativity Micromanagement Wilde 15

Great Leadership By Dan

MARCH 7, 2016

New DDI research explores leadership differences between men and women and makes the case for gender diversity in the workplace. The research also provides a snapshot view and analysis of gender diversity across countries and industries. The disparity in gender diversity has little to do with competence levels.” Wellins, Ph.D.,

Diversity 120

Diversity Globalization Transportation Industry 120

Harvard Business Review

JULY 29, 2014

Put the most strategic pieces into the hands of up-and-comers passing through the leadership-development revolving door? Lynanne Kunkle, VP-Global Talent Development and HR-Asia for Whirlpool, is a case in point. HR strategy is an expertise that takes years to fully develop.”.

CFO 11

CFO Charan Intangible Assets Human Resources 11

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

In 2008, Dr Reddy's acquired Chirotech, Dow Chemical's R&D unit, for $32 million, and in April 2011 relocated it to a new 33,000 sq. Dr Reddy's plan is to leverage Chirotech's scientific capabilities to optimize drug development processes, thus lowering manufacturing costs and speeding time-to-market.

Globalization 9

Globalization Innovation Decentralization Chemicals 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Only 13% of directors in the energy and utilities industry consider innovation to be a major strategic challenge, but the swift growth of renewable energy companies and such developments as the use of drones for monitoring oil and gas production suggest that no industry is impervious to the forces of innovation.

Innovation 10

Innovation Short-term Telecommunications Long-term 10

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 17, 2016

Organizations, whether businesses or nonprofits, almost universally pursue growth. Its goals are extremely ambitious; it is not just a pioneer in developing new fabrics for active wear, but in developing wearable electronics. Thirty percent said that growth was more important than anything else.

Company 8

Company Engineering Apparel Survey 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

The lure of establishing an organization that uses market mechanisms to achieve its mission is substantial. The men and women who choose this path have diverse expertise and job responsibilities: marketing, leadership development, communications, operations, new business development, purchasing. Some are recent graduates.

Real Estate 8

Real Estate Constraint Entrepreneur Restructuring 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

We developed an analytic tool—the Pioneer-Migrator-Settler Map—to address precisely that challenge and, as we discuss in the new Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition , its beauty is that it can be applied dynamically over time to shift the trajectory of a company’s profitable growth prospects.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Blue Ocean Strategy Price 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

In True North Groups , Bill and Doug provide an extremely insightful and practical roadmap for how you can create your own ecosystem for mutual support, feedback, development, and, ultimately, lifelong learning collaborators. What other resources have you found useful in developing this system? It is a very timely book.

Open-book 9

Open-book Chemicals Chief Operating Officer Goleman 9

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2017

But the ones who really understand the issue see gender balance as not just a numbers game but part of a broader, more strategic cultural shift that includes developing leadership teams representing geographically diffuse markets. They tend to frame gender as one diversity dimension among many. How did he do it? Related Video.

Diversity 8

Diversity CFO Globalization Video 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2013

In one of the most comprehensive global surveys of corporate directors to date, we found that they were very worried about developing and enacting strategic plans that will enable their organizations to succeed. In fact, in two practices in particular — "firing" and "leveraging diversity" — many companies fail dismally.

Talent Management 8

Talent Management Company Telecommunications Management 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 12, 2012

Conglomerates are defended for their synergies, and for the benefits of diversity as a hedge against failure in one sector (though this argument is often oversold by management, since shareholders can diversify and thus hedge risk for themselves). But conglomerates are inherently more vulnerable than other companies.

Welch 8

Welch Diversity Hedge Chemicals 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

Corporate cultures where diversity and openness thrive will more likely attract top talent, especially young, creative, and entrepreneurial candidates. The two decades that have followed have seen an increase in marketing and advertising to the LGBT market that Marketing firm Witeck-Combs estimated at $800 billion in 2011.

Advertising 17

Advertising Market Segmentation Diversity Chemicals 17

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 6, 2016

It wasn’t until 1939, a decade later, that two chemists, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain , came across Fleming’s paper, immediately understood its significance, and developed a method to produce penicillin in quantity. Great innovation happens when a diverse set of skills are integrated to effectively solve problems.

Innovation 8

Innovation Business Model Competitive Advantage Chemicals 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2016

That’s just the beginning of the confusion—even if you accepted that such diverse investments should all be grouped into one category, how do you even measure and compare impact anyway? Investors might have a geographic focus: they may care more about developed or developing economies, or a particular country or community.

Class 8

Class Microfinance Supply Chain Education 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 4, 2014

Now consider the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) , an organization that seeks to bring cutting edge innovation techniques to social initiatives, many of which are similar to those Pepsi Refresh sought to promote. OK, you might say, it’s not fair to compare a large, for-profit enterprise with a mission-driven organization.

Media 8

Media Marketing Strategy Groupthink Kaplan 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 19, 2014

Adding to the momentum, Google publicly cut ties with climate-change-denying lobbying group ALEC , saying that the organization was lying about the science. All the major players in the personal care product value chain — the giants of consumer products, chemicals, and fragrances — were there (as was I).

Chemicals 13

Chemicals Short-term Energy Report 13

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 20, 2016

With the support of chemical companies , more than 170 countries also agreed to phase out HFCs , the high global-warming-potential chemicals used in air-conditioners and refrigerators everywhere. Others want to attract and retain diverse talent. The UN also agreed to slash emissions from the airline industry.

Energy 8

Energy Banking Chemicals Globalization 8