Leadership

• Forthcoming
• Book

By: Richard S. Tedlow

In The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership is an examination of how the role of the business leader in the U.S. has changed from World War II to the present. A small number of high-profile individuals have transformed the face of modern-day leadership, making charisma essential to the task. How and why did this transformation take place? What does it mean for the future? In order to answer these and other questions about the increased importance of charisma, we must look at leaders such as Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk. Today, Jobs is considered the model of the modern charismatic business leader. It is inconceivable that he would have been the CEO of a major company in 1955, the year he was born. Though all three of these pioneers were once outsiders, they each found success by innovating their management style and using their charisma to champion their clear and ambitious visions.

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• Forthcoming
• Book

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta

Trust is the most powerful force underlying the success of every business. Yet it can be shattered in an instant, with a devastating impact on a company’s market cap and reputation. How to build and sustain trust requires fresh insight into why customers, employees, community members and investors decide whether an organization can be trusted. Based on two decades of research and illustrated through vivid storytelling, Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta examine the economic impact of trust, the science behind it and conclusively prove that trust is built from the inside-out. Trust emerges from a company being the "real deal": Creating products and services that work, having good intentions, treating people fairly, and taking responsibility for all the impacts an organization creates, whether intended or not. When trust is in the room great things can happen. Sucher and Gupta’s innovative foundation for executing the elements of trust—competence, motives, means, impact—explains how trust can be woven into the day-to-day and the long term. Most importantly, even when lost, trust can be regained, as illustrated through their accounts of companies across the globe who pull themselves out of scandal and corruption by doing the right things right.

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• Forthcoming
• Book

By: Hubert Joly and Caroline Lambert

A remarkable turnaround by a leader with a remarkable philosophy: Find your noble purpose. Put people at the center. Unleash human magic. "It was fall in Minnesota. It was getting cold and we were supposed to die." This is how Hubert Joly describes the early, dark days as CEO of Best Buy, a job most thought he was crazy to accept. Amazon was tearing a disruptive path through retail, but in the face of that existential threat Joly did something remarkable: he saved Best Buy and remade it into a thriving company rated as one of the most desirable businesses to work for. Having recently stepped down as Chairman and CEO, Joly is ready to share the leadership principles that underpinned the resurgence of Best Buy and that he believes are at the heart of business: pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center, unleash human magic, and treat profit as an outcome. There was a time when many would call this a soft philosophy. But times are changing. Best Buy and 180 other companies signed the momentous Business Roundtable statement in support of stakeholder capitalism. The COVID-19 pandemic further pushed many businesses to lead from a place of purpose and with humanity. The changes underway are not a revolt, but a revolution. And Joly provides concrete advice on how to implement principles that can serve as beacons for the next era of capitalism. Joly himself was transformed from a hard-charging, deeply analytical McKinsey consultant to a leader who believes in what he calls human magic. He will share how so much of what he initially learned about management is either dated, incomplete, or simply wrong—including how to turn around a business, develop and implement a strategy, mobilize an organization, and what it takes to be a great leader. The leadership principles Joly lays out worked at Best Buy. They can also contribute to the necessary re-foundation of business and capitalism around purpose and humanity.

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• 2012
• Case

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Olivia Leskinen

Robert Whelan and the Student Loan Crisis (A) 2009 AL Fellow Bob Whelan developed an idea with partners that was a seed before his fellowship year and seemed to address a significant national challenge - college financing - with a creative concept and experience from his years in venture capital. His nonprofit was called 13th Avenue Funding and it provided equity as an alternative to debt for students to finance college. Since he first set out on his journey, he faced a lot of resistance and difficulty in scaling his non-profit aimed at enabling one million low income students to obtain a postsecondary education debt free. Whelan continued to persist and adapt to the changing environment.

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• 2012
• Case

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Anne Arlinghaus

After successful careers as lawyers Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek set out to tackle a large-scale infrastructure challenge in a complex environment by increasing Liberian citizens’ access to lighting solutions. They developed the Liberian Energy Network, which aimed to distribute solar light fixtures to citizens across the country, including some of the most remote regions. Working in Liberia presented a large set of challenges and difficulties, however Fahey and Saudek persevered.

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• August 1975 (Revised July 1993)
• Case

By: John J. Gabarro

Describes the formation, selection, and experience of a task force with multidepartmental membership. The problems faced by the task force leader at the end of the case raise issues of who does the selection; the establishment of group norms, values, and goals; the leadership of a task force; confidentiality and responsibility; individual rivalry; and intergroup conflict and politics. Based on Belmont-White Co. and Vandercook Chain Stores, Inc. by E.P. Learned.

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• October 1979 (Revised March 1986)
• Case

By: Evelyn T. Christiansen and Richard G. Hamermesh

Covers history of PC&D from 1960 to 1975 as it grows from a single business firm to a diversified firm. Emphasizes the use of subsidiaries for product development and fast growth. Other issues include problems of a new CEO in keeping control of fast growing divisions.

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