Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2017 i The European Business Review

 In this article, the authors trace giant telecom Huawei’s success to its founder’s commitment to compassionate leadership. In a fast modernised wold, how do ancient Confucian and Buddhist teachings of compassion drive you, your business, and the people around you not only to success but to a better life? In fact, with a focus on sustainability at all levels of business and society, the leadership type for the 21st century may well be the compassionate one. More and more voices in the business world are asking to bring more humanity back to the workplace. A desire has emerged to consider employees in their totality, as the person they are, and the stories they bring with them. Where does this sensitivity come from? Are workplaces really that bad? According to Robert…

Great strategies often go to waste because they cannot be properly executed. In this article, the authors share not only how to make sure your strategies are executed but also improved by input from the functions responsible for implementing the strategy. Many strategies look great on paper, but stumble during execution. A common problem is that functions such as HR, IT, Finance, Operations, R&D, Purchasing, Supply Chain and Communications do not fully support the organisation’s strategy.1 These functions are often seen as operating in a world of their own; the cartoon character Dilbert has to deal with “the Trolls” in Accounting – a label that might be applied to other functions, and not just Finance. A recent survey found that “Only 9% of managers say they can rely on colleagues…

Promoting products and services through marketing and PR is a very different ballgame in the United States compared to Europe. An integrated “owned”, “earned” and “paid” campaign that takes pain to avoid these mistakes will yield the best results and help European companies succeed on the American market. Promoting services and products on the American market looks at first sight very akin to how things are done in Europe. Are Americans B2B and B2C consumers not comparable to their European counterparts? And are the right means to reach them not very similar to what is used in Europe? The answer to both questions is to a large extent: no. European companies need a dedicated American marketing and PR playbook if they want to be successful on the American market. Before…

Virtual and augmented reality technologies are promising to revolutionise the way we present and experience information, which will have profound implications for educational institutions. This article discusses the current state of these technologies and their educational applications today, as well as exploring the exciting future possibilities they will enable. It’s no secret that the rapid pace of technological advancement is providing unprecedented challenges and opportunities for primary, secondary, and higher education institutions. Schools and universities alike are facing the fact that traditional “stand and deliver” pedagogies, where students passively absorb information presented by a lecturer, are often not the best way to achieve optimal learning outcomes. In the past decade, academic institutions have made significant advances in improving these outcomes through the implementation of new teaching methods enabled by technologies…

 When thinking of a “successful executive”, we often use the description of an “alpha”, most of the time a male one, too. In this article, Professor van Vugt shares interesting leadership clues and patterns from the animal world which are undeniably useful to human leadership. From dominance-prestige orientation, leader benefits, to gender comparisons, we are asked, “Would you rather be led by an alpha male, a queen bee, or a wise elephant?” By taking an evolutionary approach, it is immediately obvious that there may be parallels between leadership in humans and in nonhumans, particularly for species that, like us, pursue group activities. To get into the C-suite, is it better to possess the qualities of an alpha primate, a king of the jungle, a queen bee or a wise old…

The Internet of Things is one of the many inevitable changes happening in our digital world. In this article, the authors provide key factors that will help a business thrive in an IoT-driven market. More importantly, they pose the question, will you be leading – or participating? There is currently a battle waging for your home. Which enterprise is going to lead the Internet of Things (IoT) network in your smart home? Phillips and Flux produce IoT-enabled light bulbs, Motorola and Belkin produce connected cameras, Honeywell and Nest produce IoT-enabled environment management and much more. There are IoT-enabled locks by Schlage and August, IoT televisions by Sony and Vizio and IoT-enabled everything else is on the way. Which enterprise will you trust to coordinate all of those assets – and…

Whereas in the past, an innovation cycle would span a generation, it is by no means unusual today for a generation to experience several innovation cycles. Innovation cycles run ever faster – with each of us experiencing ever more discontinuity. Anand Swaminathan and Jürgen Meffert, Senior Partners at McKinsey and Company and authors of DIGITAL @ SCALE: The Playbook You Need To Transform Your Company , discuss the markets and technology of the digital age, examining and putting forward proposals on what is needed to successfully negotiate the upheavals of the future. Jürgen Meffert: Many people feel unsettled by the rapid pace of change brought about by digitisation. To overcome these anxieties, it helps to understand a little of the context. Ever since the days of Adam Smith, the frameworks…

As the digital era is continuously in its process to ripen, discussions of destructive unforeseen scenarios are always on the picture especially in the aspect of work. In this article, the authors comprehensively tackle and focus on the bloom rather than the gloom that awaits modern and future society in terms of work and of life. “Too often the focus of work has changed from life sustaining purpose to transaction paid activities, which means that work has lost its meaningfulness.” There are thousands of articles and books about the future of work. The vast majority describes doom and gloom scenarios. It is very easy to join the crowd and elaborate on this negative and catastrophic landscape. Here are some typical examples that make the news: • A large portion of…

 As B2B companies strive to become providers of solutions rather than products, sales managers face significant challenges. Among them: new requirements for incentivising sales teams. All of these companies have substantially invested in their transition from being providers of products to being providers of solutions. In other words, instead of merely selling goods that customers use to solve their problems, companies aim to solve customers’ problems themselves. In 2016, the world’s second largest forklift producer KION Group acquired Dematic, a leading provider of supply chain automation technology, software, and services. KION’s rationale according to CEO Gordon Riske: “We are becoming a unique provider of products, solutions, and services. Like no one else in our industry we are now able to accompany every customer seamlessly on their journey towards industry 4.0…

Customer-centric practices are indispensable in this age of digital transformation. In this article, Professor Stijn Viaene elaborates on how customer experience as value must be prioritised and how the concept can drive an organisation to its success. The digital economy has put customers firmly in the driving seat. Freely roaming around the Internet, triggered by popups or alerts and assisted by Internet bots, customers are switching between different sites, between their laptops and their mobile apps, combining online searching with offline buying and vice versa, as the boundaries between the online and offline are increasingly blurred. Customers want, and digital allows them, to take control over their lives’ journeys. Products and services are no longer enough to win over or keep customers in the digital era. The digital space is…

Marketing, along with the market and all its innovations, is also imperatively evolving. In this article, the authors elaborate on brand activation and show how CEOs, CMOs, and others can align marketing disciplines to better drive prospects toward transaction; leverage data to develop more effective strategies and creative; and design solutions that improve business results and marketing ROI. While traditional marketing’s concentration on the positioning of a brand relative to its competitors is still absolutely critical, it is clearly no longer sufficient. To drive trial, increase visits to a store or website, incent trade-up, increase purchase frequency, propel greater sharing and advocacy, inspire consent for data collection or usage, or enable other outcomes that build business, marketers need to activate specific behaviours by their consumers. Once it is understood that…