Readers of the business press have been watching the slow decline of the famous New York law firm Dewey and LeBoeuf, which took on too much debt and is reported to be investigating financial misconduct by one of its leaders. Most troubling for a law firm, which lives on the expertise and customer networks of its leading partners, it has experienced an increasing stream of defections by its partners to other law firms.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/what-if-our-best-people-join-the-competition/
The innovator’s quest has been to find the win-win proposition: a great new product that can create differentiated value for consumers while supporting differentiated profits for the producer.
But the focus on win-win can blind us to the needs of critical partners.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/a-sad-lesson-in-collaborative-innovation/
“Australians don’t trust Qantas management” was the leading head line of a recent national poll. The fact that the unions were unhappy with the way management conducted the industrial dispute is no surprise. So perhaps this distrust can be discounted as a one off.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/trouble-at-the-top/
Did you know that if you think you are creative, you’re more likely to actually be creative? This surprising fact pops up again and again in our research. In our database of over 6,000 professionals who have taken the Innovator’s DNA self & 360 assessments, people (entrepreneurs and managers alike) who “agree” with the survey statement “I am creative” consistently deliver disruptive solutions — by creating new businesses, products, services, and processes that no one has done before.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/crush-the-im-not-creative-barrier/
Chances are that you will find a news story about a drone attack on militants within a week of reading this blog post. They have become common in Pakistan, and are now used in other places such as Somalia and Yemen.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/network-theory-and-drone-attacks/
Since the launch of the Euro, there has always been a question about the benefits that Germany could enjoy of sharing a currency with other countries. While for the other countries (the “periphery”) the benefits in terms of credibility and stability of a strong currency were obvious, for Germany the benefits were simply the additional trade integration that the Euro would produce.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/germany-and-the-benefits-of-the-euro/
There is something broken in the way many businesses obtain the resources necessary for growth. Most companies are very good at identifying what those new resources are, and nearly all of them take that challenge seriously. Yet, we have seen company after company– even highly regarded ones — get into trouble as they grow because they pay much less attention to choosing the right way to obtain resources than to the task of identifying them. … Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/the-corporate-growth-dilemma-build-borrow-or-buy/
The latest issue of Harvard Business Review features an article “The Darwinian Workplace” on promoting healthy competition in the workplace that I co-authored. The key message of the article is based on several research projects with highly innovative technology companies that implemented tournaments among its workers to increase worker productivity and, at the same time, to increase firm’s profitability.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/the-darwinian-workplace-in-the-winners-take-all-organizations/
