Organization, Change & Leadership Foresight

Managing the Global Enterprise in Today’s Multipolar World
by Paolo Pigorini, Ashok Divakaran, David Suarez, and Ariel Fleichman
Though most global companies have ambitious expansion strategies, they don’t have the kind of management model that would enable them to thrive. Emerging markets are shifting the balance of economic power and pace of change, and a “business as usual” approach will no longer suffice. This article spells out three critical management enablers that global companies need: a rebalanced organizational structure and footprint, dispersed decision rights and tighter controls, and a fresh approach to leadership and talent management. download (490kb, PDF) >

How to Prevent Self-Inflicted Disasters
by Eric Kronenberg
During the last few years, a number of well-publicized “black swan” events — highly destructive calamities that seemingly come from out of nowhere — have had immense negative impacts on the companies involved. But a closer look at these crises reveals that they were self-inflicted; the root cause was a set of internal organizational factors that caused decision makers to take on or create risk. Rather than trying to prepare for each type of external danger, companies should look within, and redesign the factors – including misaligned incentives and decision authority, lack of information, and counterproductive mind-sets – that contribute to systemic self-inflicted risk. read more >