Viewed in SaaStr Not all sales functions are the born the same. Product, Cost of Product and Sales Cycle Time In fact, as most sales professionals will attest, it is really a gross oversimplification to label anything a “sales job” since there are such a broad number of sales categories that exist between the type… More
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Viewed in Inc. Even in normal business times, business terms are seemingly ever-evolving and ever-emerging. But when a crisis, opportunity, or trend emerges, these new business terms develop at even an even more rapid pace. Keep pace with change In such scenarios, the burden falls on executives, managers, and employees to keep pace with new… More
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Viewed in Inc. What is “emotional intelligence”? Before the phrase gained prominence in the mid-1990s following publication of a book by the same name by science journalist Daniel Goleman, it is not something most executives could answer. Ability to recognize the emotions of others But in the years since, its definition—“the ability to recognize, understand,… More
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Viewed in MIT Technology Review Andrew Ng, the British-born technology entrepreneur, has proven a pioneer in 21st century artificial intelligence leadership, co-founding Google Brain in 2011, serving as chief scientist for China’s Baidu, and serving as an adjunct professor at Stanford University. Customer-Led and Mission-Led Artificial Intelligence So what does this artificial intelligence pioneer have… More
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Viewed in Heidrick & Struggles It is not particularly common to see over ninety percent of executives agree on anything these days. Need for Agility But such consensus does exist on one perceived business necessity: the need for agility in business management. Heidrick & Struggles, the Chicago-headquartered executive search giant, surveyed executives and found, in… More
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Viewed in Spencer Stuart As the Covid-19 pandemic enters its second year, one thing is abundantly clear: Not much is moving quickly, and much has slowed down. The traditional office environment has been disrupted, and so have the traditional business processes, including succession for corporate chief executives. CEO transitions fell in 2020 In this report… More
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Viewed in SaaStr “Strong salespeople fail all the time in new roles,” business to business community SaaStr reports in this article. That is a fairly documentable fact. Less known is the bigger question: Why do they fail? Fit between industries, sizes and methodologies The answer is that there is great sensitivity of fit between industries,… More
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Viewed in Harvard Business Review It is undeniably true that the world’s major economies have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has cost many millions of jobs globally and slowed growth. But that fact is not universally true. Some industries have actually blossomed from it, and technology is certainly one of those. Two… More
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Viewed in The Wall Street Journal What attributes ultimately characterize the best resume? It’s a question that might answer itself: It’s the one that secures the applicant the interview and a job offer. An endless discussion The resume question has been one in constant discussion over the decades—and the answers have and continue to evolve…. More
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Viewed in Harvard Business Review What attributes define the successful executive and manager? Hard skills, compassion and kindness It seems like we move through evolutionary periods in business management that emphasize hard skills and metric-driven performance only to later discover that we’ve emphasized them at the expense of soft skills and need to be reminded… More
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Viewed in Fast Company The pandemic has proven immensely tumultuous to the traditional work environment, leading that environment to often be anything but traditional as we begin 2021. The biggest change is the vast emergence of work from home trends and the associated challenges of keeping businesses moving with employees decentralized and facing the new… More
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Viewed in Fast Company If there has been one profoundly altering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global business, it has been the closure of many physical offices globally and the ascent of remote work. Surveys conducted by FlexJobs in 2020 tell the story. In February 2020, 4.7 million Americans (3.4 percent of the population)… More
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Viewed in Inc. Human interaction is an essential part of work life. But let’s face it: Not all colleagues make it easy. Nemesis Fairly commonly, people have one or more individuals in their professional orbit who are particularly difficult. Sometimes they may even be a nemesis. Emotion management This is where “emotional intelligence” comes in,… More
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Viewed in The Wall Street Journal Among the soft skills associated with most successful professionals and executives is charisma, the form of charm that often can inspire loyalty in peers and colleagues. It is a key leadership trait. In the traditional office and boardroom environments, its characteristics have largely remained unchanged over the years. Charisma… More
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Viewed in BCG Management consulting leader BCG is known for being ahead of the curve in management and industry trends, and its reports very commonly help in understanding what companies should do to prepare for that future. Three Major Disruptive Forces This BCG report, based on the firm’s book Beyond Great, contends that three major… More
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Viewed in Russell Reynolds Associates Along with a company’s chief executive officer, the non-executive board chairman may be a company’s single most consequential and important leader. It is a function that has always been a vital one, and its importance is only growing in present organizational structures. But what characteristics define a successful non-executive board… More
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Viewed in The New York Times To understand today’s marketing lingo, one literally must understand words you won’t find in any standard dictionary. Many corporate functions, of course, have their lingo and acronyms that have become embedded inside these respective professions, so this is not an entirely new phenomenon. But marketing seems to lead all… More
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Viewed in Egon Zehnder It’s increasingly recognized that much of global business may be altered in permanent ways by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Marketing will likely be no exception. Executive search firm EgonZehnder interviewed 65 executives from 61 countries around the world, asking the following question: “How will the marketing function look different post Covid-19?”… More
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Viewed in BCG The COVID-19 pandemic is increasing companies’ urgency with digital transformation, management consulting firm BCG contends in this research report. 80% of companies accelerate their digital transformation In a survey of 825 board members, CEOs, chief experience officers, and other executives across eight industries, BCG found that 80 percent of their respondents intend… More
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Viewed in Russell Reynolds Associates Management consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates has communicated with senior leaders in risk and data and come away with seven actions for chief risk officers, which they detail in this report. Digitally fluent Perhaps most important in this current era of data, they conclude, is that chief risk officers “need… More
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