Family business on the couch
In August, the Bancroft family gave up control of Dow Jones, the publishing group it had owned for some 105 years. The group, which includes the Wall Street Journal, has been taken over by another family-controlled business, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, for US$5 billion.
According to Randel Carlock, the Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Professor in Entrepreneurial Leadership and Director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise at INSEAD, the Bancrofts had a clear i
2014 Orientation Leaders Dance
Check out the welcome you get when you come to Ole Miss for Orientation. Of course, we think we have the best orientation leaders! Video by Mary Stanton Knight
A lesson in leadership: turning vision into reality
Abu Dhabi’s remarkable transformation in just a matter of decades can be attributed to the emirate’s astute leaders who have been able to translate their vision into action.
How much diversity is too much?
For French carmaker Renault, diversity – men and women, young and old, engineers and non-engineers, different nationalities – means increased creativity, imagination and performance. "Whenever we have a problem we cannot solve, we put together a cross-functional team and I am always amazed at the solutions they come up with," says Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO of Renault and Nissan.
CEO view: Fadi Ghandour of Aramex
The Aramex story – that of a small player in the Middle East rising to compete against the biggest companies in the global transportation and logistics market – has been heralded by Thomas L. Friedman in his book The World is Flat as a model for companies benefiting from the ‘flattening’ of the world through globalisation – the levelling of the economic field and the destruction of barriers to entry, opening the door wide for individuals or companies anywhere in the world to collaborat
Galileo's Improvements to the Telescope
Contrary to what many people think, Galileo did not invent the telescope. In this video segment adapted from NOVA, the Italian physicist and mathematician improves on an existing spyglass design to create a more powerful one -- a refracting telescope that he then used to study the night sky. Run time 01:50.
Advice to direct marketers: let the people do the talking
The explosion of social networking sites has been a boon for direct marketers. For the hundreds of millions of users of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and so on, they are fun ways to communicate with their friends and make more friends. But for marketers they are huge databases of consumer information.
Pricing guidelines for firms during a crisis
In their paper, When to Push the Panic Button?, INSEAD professors ‘Paddy’ V. Padmanabhan and Pushan Dutt show that consumers engage in consumption smoothing both across and within product categories, and that expenditure share of durable goods falls during a crisis. Also, within durables they find that expenditure on automobiles decreases, whereas expenditure on bicycles increases.
The quest for authenticity
After writing books on business and leadership for years, Manfred Kets de Vries has turned his attention to four of the main tenets of life, which have a profound impact on each of us.
Improving organisations through performance feedback
Performance feedback plays an important role in indicating when a firm needs to change its management strategy. It doesn’t, however, indicate just what this new strategy should be, and firms do not always respond appropriately, says Henrich Greve, INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship and Organisational Behaviour.
Cross-cultural negotiations: Avoiding the pitfalls
When entering into negotiations, we should always take into account cultural factors such as the educational or religious background of the person sitting across the table, but, says INSEAD professor Horacio Falcao, many people both underestimate and overestimate the cross-cultural aspects.
Foreign firms eye China’s rural markets
Foreign multinationals are setting their sights on China’s countryside, enticed by strong economic growth and favourable government regulations, says Andrew Cainey, Managing Director for Greater China at management consultancy Booz & Company.
Foreign companies that started their businesses in China’s tier one and tier two cities “see the need and the opportunity to move down and meet the rest of the demand in China, which is growing so rapidly”, says Cainey, who has been based i
Relationship building: A key driver for securing repeat business
A study of consulting firm Celerant has found that relationship building is key to bringing in repeat business which accounts for up to 70 per cent of its revenues each year.
The study of Celerant Consulting, conducted by INSEAD Professor of Organisational Behaviour Tom D’Aunno, also found that 91 per cent of clients surveyed would like to work with Celerant again.
Healthcare at $1.75. Is there a business in micro health insurance?
Micro health insurance is in its infancy but it's expected to take off in the next couple of years, with the financial success of microfinance helping to speed up the process. Yet Johanna Mair, a former doctoral student at INSEAD (PhD 01Jul) who is now an associate professor of strategic management at IESE business school, says microfinance and micro insurance are two very different processes.
Combating malaria: How an oil company is helping to tackle the problem
For Marathon Oil Corporation, its project to tackle malaria on an island off Equatorial Guinea is paying off. It reckons that for every dollar invested, the economic return is around four dollars.
Innovative and responsible leadership: Taking a long-term perspective
How can sustainability issues become part of everyday business decisions and should business leaders, especially from family-controlled firms, be looking to take a longer term view rather than get caught up in the 'obsession' with quarterly results?
Pay Attention to the Penguins
Think of penguins as ocean sentinels, says Dee Boersma -- they're on the frontlines of sea change. Sharing stories of penguin life and culture, she suggests that we start listening to what penguins are telling us. Dee Boersma considers penguins ocean sentinels, helping us understand the effects of pollution, overfishing and climate change on the marine environment. Run time 15:09.
Islamic microfinance gains popularity in war-torn Afghanistan
After spending several years in Iran as a refugee struggling to make a living, Shooperi Sharif never imagined that one day she would have a business of her very own. Last year, the 34-year old mother of three took out an Islamic microfinance loan to expand her business -- it was an Islamic loan as she's one of thousands of Afghans who refuse to take interest-bearing loans.
Energy technologies: some forecasts for the next decade
Affordable energy that is clean and consistent, delivered in a single system at a fraction of the price that people are paying today – 4.5 pence (US$0.07) per kilowatt hour (kWh) to be precise – isn’t that too good to be true? John Banham, Chairman of Johnson Matthey, doesn’t think so because these are the very benefits from fuel cells which are already powering homes and buildings in the US today. And it often comes from an unlikely source – methane gas from human waste.
Healthcare: at the crossroads
Healthcare reform today is being avidly discussed in political, social, medical and business circles around the world. In developing countries, the billions of dollars spent on containing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other pandemic diseases such as TB and malaria, are beginning to show some positive results. In Europe, the cost of government-sponsored healthcare is having a negative impact on GDP, while in the US, the Obama Administration is embarking on the country’s most ambitious attempt at p
