The leadership circle

"Leaders get the best out of followers and followers get the best out of leaders," says Manfred Kets De Vries, Clinical Professor of Leadership Development at INSEAD. The connection between leaders and their staff is only one of many circular connections he sees.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/TheLeadershipcircle081215.cfm?vid=157

Turning social networking on its head: where horizontal and vertical networks meet

Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Ning are getting a larger than usual following these days, thanks in no small part to the current financial crisis.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/Throwingsheepboardroom081215.cfm?vid=154

Maximising shareholder value: an ethical responsibility?

Finance professors often get criticised by ethics professors because they tell their students that the goal of the firm is to maximise shareholder value. Financial scandals such as Enron, Tyco and others are regularly blamed on the excessive focus on shareholder value maximisation.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/Maximisingshareholdervalue081215.cfm?vid=158

Effecting change management: a reality with the LingHe Simulation?

With China's business environment undergoing fast and significant change - partially driven by the introduction of information and communication technologies into business relationships - managers now need to be more effective than ever in implementing change within their organisations.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/Linghechangemanagement081215.cfm?vid=159

Call me anything except Junior

The new Oliver Stone film W explores an important concern for business and wealthy families - how parent-child relationships shape a child's personality development and, specifically, individual drives and motivations. The coming of age drama could be many family businesses where a feckless son struggles to redeem himself by overtaking his preferred younger sibling to succeed his father as head of the family dynasty.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/Randy081206.cfm

Jet Li's world of One

It reads like a script of a traditional Chinese movie: the dutiful son promises his mother at her deathbed to spend his life in the service of the less fortunate. But that was indeed the promise international film star Jet Li made to his dying mother who only managed to utter a sigh when he asked about her final wishes.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/JetLiOneFoundation081215.cfm?vid=153

Getting to the heart of social innovation

Money is fairly easy to give; you just write a cheque. Talking about marginalisation and change is easy too. "The harder thing to do is giving your time and yourself to the cause. And that,” says Pamela Hartigan, “is what is critical to social innovation."

http://knowledge.insead.edu/Gettingtotheheartofsocialinnovation081215.cfm?vid=160

Governments have not done enough to address crisis

Governments around the world have not done enough to address the damaging effects of the global financial crisis triggered by the one-year old subprime credit crisis in the United States, economist Manu Bhaskaran says.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/GovernmentToAddressCrisis081203.cfm?vid=155

Global crisis forces corporations to look beyond quarterly earnings

With the US economy in turmoil, Wal-Mart, the nation's leading retailer boasting more than 144 million customers per week, is taking on a new leadership role. In a country where about one person in three is considered obese and 47 million people are without healthcare, the company is taking a unique stand in educating both its consumers and suppliers.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/GlobalCrisisSustainability081125.cfm

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.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/howmuchdiversityistoomuch081201.cfm?vid=45

Transforming risky 'business-as-usual' scenarios into a more sustainable future

Climate change and sustainable development are interlinked problems that pose serious challenges. Although the issues are complex, both problems could be solved together, provided we begin immediately, says Professor Mohan Munasinghe, co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace for scientific contributions related to climate change and sustainable development.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/Transformingriskyscenarios101208.cfm

Will India still be a land of opportunity in the face of global economic slowdown?

As the economic downturn takes hold in the United States and Europe, the Indian government is frantically trying to keep its economy from stalling, while trying to calm the nerves of foreign investors following the Mumbai terror attacks.

A general election must be held by May, and the government had been hoping that the nation would be insulated from the problems of the global economy.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/Indiaglobaleconomicslowdown081215.cfm

Social entrepreneurship emerging in India but needs are massive

Social entrepreneurship in India has progressed significantly over the last decade. More and more people are using entrepreneurial skills in building sustainable enterprises for profit and non-profit to effect change in India, says Deval Sanghavi, a former investment banker and now president of Dasra. Based in Mumbai, Dasra is a non-profit organisation which bridges the gap between those investing in social change and those spearheading the changes.

http://knowledge.insead.edu/Indiasocialentrepreneurship081215.cfm