David Helfgott, arguably one of the transcendent pianists alive in our time, played at the Tonhalle in Zurich on Wednesday. It was an experience I will likely never forget. His piano recital of works by Scarlatti, Beethoven and Liszt was brilliant. But it was the man and his being that roused the audience to several standing ovations and four encores. Helfgott, who is mentally ill and whose life story was movingly portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie "Shine," showed us something rare: being completely yourself, utterly unguarded and connected with all others around you without armor or mask or censorship. It is a lesson that we as leaders and managers might all heed in a world of egos, hidden agendas and power plays.
Interest: of the devil. Speculation: a sin. Exorbitant profits: amoral. It sounds like a bailout package at the height of the crisis. In reality these are the ground rules of Islamic banking, based on Sharia law and stemming from the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet Mohammad in the 7th century but offering just about any banking solution of conventional banking, from currency swaps to structured products. What can Islam teach us at a time of greed, growth at all costs, and white-collar financial crime? Is Islamic banking viable for the 21st century? or is it an irrelevant, dogmatic ideology not suited to today's needs? The answer is not trivial: the sector is estimated at $400 billion to $1 trillion that analysts say is growing at 25% annually.
Last April, Warren Buffett spoke at Coca-Cola's annual meeting and warned the beverage giant of being too complacent about its success. His words could hardly have been more prescient. About a year later, Coke is facing major challenges from competitors, health activists and consumers. How can the company weather these strategic assaults? How can it end its dependency on its flagship products, diversify and regain its leadership, especially among young people? Above all, how can Coke show that it cares about its customers' best interests?
If you thought that Amazon is a bookstore or even an online "everything store," you would be (mostly) wrong. Amazon has moved far from its beginnings. Not only is the company revolutionizing the publishing industry through its Kindle, CreateSpace self-publishing, and used-books marketplace; many people don't know, for example, that it is now a major cloud computing platform. Beyond that, you could say that Amazon is a prime example of the "Strategic Organization": it is generating business models faster than any competitor. What is Jeff Bezos's secret?
Mary Barra was named the first-ever female CEO at General Motors, the second largest automaker worldwide, a month ago and has just been named the most powerful woman in business by Fortune magazine, ahead of Ginny Rometti, chairman (sic!) and CEO of IBM, and Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi. Ms. Barra's appointment was celebrated as a milestone in equality. But it turns out that (unless GM hits performance targets) Ms. Barra earns just half of what her predecessor made as GM's CEO in guaranteed compensation. Is that fair? Unfair? Or unimportant?
At the start of a New Year, almost half of us make resolutions to work out more, eat less, be better parents, blow up less, be more grateful, stop smoking or travel the world. Do New Year's resolutions work? Recent research by psychologists shows they work better than we think. But the real cause might be something else. What really works, behavioral economists say, is posting your promises and boxing yourself in. Online witnesses of your commitments raise the stakes and make you much more likely to meet your promises. One site takes this quite literally: tens of thousands of people use StickK.com to make contracts and put money on the line to elevate the price of failure.
Nelson Mandela's death might be a fitting moment in time to step back and reflect on his leadership, and on ours. What can you and I learn from Madiba? And what kind of leader do you and I want to be? Three principles jump out that turned Mandela into the transcendent leader he eventually became.
In the new movie "Jobs" based on Walter Isaacson's biography, Steve Jobs comes across as an "enlightened being with an evil streak," as a former girlfriend put it. (He had got her pregnant, only to throw her out of his house saying "I have no time for this, I'm building Apple"; it would take him 17 years to recognize their daughter as his.) Jobs's life and supreme success as a technology innovator, and his repeated cheating of colleagues without whom he could not have done it, face us again with the age-old Machiavellian question: Do nice people finish last? Do you have to walk all over people to get ahead?
Researchers at the New School for Social Research in New York City found that if you read literary fiction for a few minutes, you will be better prepared for difficult negotiations, blind dates or interviews. Does literature build social skills, empathy and emotional intelligence? Is it time to add a little high-brow literature to the daily leadership regimen?
The Americans who called for a boycott of Stolichnaya vodka meant well: They protested Vladimir Putin's new law banning "homosexual propaganda" and what they saw as a rising tide of state-sponsored homophobia in Russia. The only problem: Stoli is not made in Russia but in Latvia. The lesson: Before you target a transnational campaign, do your homework.
ShareThis
