Strategy & Management

✒ Some of the interesting quotes from the interview: “We’re not against consultants. The problem is when an industry [has] no incentive to get government to be independent. A therapist who has their client in therapy forever obviously isn’t a very good therapist.” “For me, the big wake-up call was Brexit [preparations], because [the consultants] … Read More

✒ Microstress is far less obvious than stress, which virtually everyone can recognize and have sympathy for. It’s caused by difficult moments that we register as just another bump in the road — if we register them at all. Microstresses come at us so quickly, and we’re so conditioned to just working through them, that … Read More

✒ “Downsizing a workforce by just 1 per cent can lead to a 31 per cent increase in voluntary staff turnover the next year, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of South Carolina. Goodwill is fragile. Most individuals who thrive at work do more than is asked of them. Mass … Read More

✒ “The corporate headshot is the way that firms use photography to bend reality. But whereas stock photos tend to glamorise business, headshots achieve the reverse. They make corporate life seem less fun than it actually is.” “A headshot is something for a new executive to show their mother, and for a weary one to … Read More

✒ While Google is well positioned to be one of the big winners in the AI arms race, it has to face the impacts of AI on its business — how it is going to challenge its traditional revenue streams (more direct answers by AI rather than suggested links results in fewer searches); increase its … Read More

✒ “As soon as Musk actually took over, there were always three things that had to be done by yesterday.” — Manu Cornet, a software engineer and cartoonist, one of a number of former employees suing Twitter over the layoffs

✒ An executive chair is a hybrid position, having substantial oversight, strategic and board leadership responsibility at the same time. Executive board chair is typically a former leader of the firm — such as founder (e.g. Jeff Bezos at Amazon), member of founding family (e.g. Bill Ford at Ford Motor), or retired CEO (e.g. Eric … Read More

✒ The CEO is transforming Hershey from an iconic confection company to a leading snacking powerhouse by: Setting a bold vision; developing a more agile, risk-taking culture with the help of key influencers*; bolstering our core and international businesses; and then branching out into new and popular categories with well-vetted up-and-coming brands. * On how … Read More

✒ Few careers go unblemished, and big mistakes aren’t always terminal. A decadelong study of 2,600 business leaders, published by the Harvard Business Review in 2018, found that 45% had suffered major setbacks such as blowing a large deal or getting fired. Among those who faltered, more than three-quarters still went on to become CEOs. … Read More

✒ The answers according to The Economist: Companies that reduce inefficiencies, from the management of company expenses to the reconciliation of business payments, and thus ought to help companies cut back in more difficult times. Firms that create new revenue lines for their clients, such as enabling a travel agent to sell their customers insurance. … Read More

✒ Benefits of multilingualism: Boosts the “host” economy as a whole and may lead to a wage premium of 2-3% Good for brain health, delaying the onset of dementia; better executive control, or the ability to concentrate and process information Preserves a connection to a culture and identity Expands the number of people one can … Read More

✒ Last paragraph of this article: “Those who see the queue as a uniting national ritual find their theory confirmed in that long line of mostly calm, stoical, good-humoured people leading to Westminster Hall. This queue is not what retail experts call a “pain point”, to be suffered on the way to being served; it … Read More

✒ “On many websites the contact information is buried at least five links deep, because the company doesn’t really want to hear from you. And when you find it, it’s a form or an email address.” — Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos

✒ As someone who used to be on the advisory side of a Big Four firm, I agree that the audit and consulting skills are complementary and that the audit firms do rely on their advisory arms to provide expertise in tax and asset valuation for signing off companies accounts. EY as the newly-separated audit … Read More

✒ When Daewoo Logistics snaffled a 99-year lease on 1.3mn hectares — half the size of Belgium — in Madagascar in 2008, the private company said: “We want to plant corn there to ensure our food security. Food can be a weapon in this world.”

✒ Jorge Gomez, Moderna’s new CFO left the company a day after joining the company, after his former employer announced it had launched an investigation into financial reporting pertaining to the allegations that members of senior management directed to the use of incentives to achieve compensation targets. Despite of the chaos caused, Gomez will take … Read More

✒ “Sustainable business” is not simply a green business. It should be an enterprise that has a net positive impact on environment as well as community/society/economy, locally and globally. The business isn’t sustainable if the staff working for the enterprise is consistently burned out. Some might argue that high paying jobs like lawyers, bankers and … Read More

✒ Defining “the best job” or even “a good job” is difficult because different jobs suit different people at different stages in their life. However, the one common thread that linked many people’s opinions about job they loved: is a decent boss who gave them some autonomy and “had their back”. Take note of the … Read More

✒ The meta-skills that the author suggested are: Preparation — to read materials in advance, prioritize, identify the key issues and have an initial point of view. Discernment — to identify and focus on what’s essential, ignore the noise, skim when possible, and concentrate on what matters. Bias recognition — to learn to listen more … Read More

✒ “Sometimes, we make assumptions on people’s readiness to be promoted based on their ‘polish’, whether people fit and are the finished product.” Says Sarah Churchman, PwC’s UK head of diversity, inclusion and wellbeing. Collecting data to assess how social class may lead to pay gap is a challenge. On the one hand employees fear … Read More