Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2018 i The European Business Review

In today’s business environment, what remains unchanged is that flicker of curiosity which fuels people’s imagination. And from that imagination, we see impressive results; we see leaders from bootstrapped startups to behemoth tech giants improve their offerings for our wellbeing and convenience. We see people and enterprises innovate. Similarly for our journal, our values, our mission… Everything transpired out of our sense of wonder, of our zest to discover the unknown. In this issue of The European Business Review, we present to you diverse perspectives on some of the most relevant topics concerning the business and society at large with the aim of letting you discover the answers to your inquiries. On the front cover, we cast the spotlight to the article “An Innovator’s Midsummer Dream Come True” which presents…

While the pursuit of innovation is viewed as a strategic imperative, there is a lack of alignment between the teams tasked with driving innovation and other strategic units within the organisation. While innovation is a strategic mandate for most organisations today, there is often a disconnect between teams tasked with innovation and other leadership and strategy units. This can be overcome by aligning the language, culture and frameworks that drive both disciplines, and creating opportunities for collaboration and peer support. IBM, Netflix and Amazon are examined as success stories. An innovation paradox can often be seen in organisations today; while the pursuit of innovation is viewed as a strategic imperative, there is a lack of alignment between the teams tasked with driving innovation and other strategic units within the organisation.…

2005 A group of VW employees designed and implemented cheat software after realizing they could not create an engine that adhered to strict U.S. pollution standards. May 2014 The California Air Resources Board (CARB) receives a study published by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) which shows discrepancies in NOx values for VW diesel vehicles. CARB requests an explanation from VW. Nov 2014 Winterkorn receives a memo that contains, among other items, information on current product defects and which refers to costs of approximately 20 million euros for the diesel issue in North America Dec 2014 VW’s US Division offers to recalibrate the first and second generation EA 189 diesel engines as part of regular service work in the hope that the engines will then pass muster with CARB…

Data suggest that it will take until the end of 2055 to have board parity in the United States at the current rate. In European countries like Norway, Belgium, Germany and France women hold 30 – 40% of corporate board seats. The legislative body of the European Union (the commission) has advocated for 40% of non-executive board members to be women. Among the FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange) in the UK, women board directors have increased from 17.3% in 2013 to 27.7% in 2018 with aims of increasing that percentage to 33% by 2020. In the United States, only 20% of board seats among the Fortune 500 are occupied by women. Although the government does not (wo)mandate the gender distribution of board members in the United States, groups like…

With the wave of increasing digital footprints in today’s technology-driven business landscape, more and more brands are stepping up their efforts in terms of harnessing data and extracting value from it. This article presents the next big thing about branding that is shaping consumer-driven data analytics. Ancient romans depicted their god of time and transition, Janus, as having two faces – one looking into the past and the other into the future. Very much like Janus, most digital disruptions are two-sided; they bridge the (recent) past with the future, offering ever-increasing opportunities to build customer relationships. They indeed accumulate information from our past digital behaviours – from whom we talked to on social media to how we search and shop for products or the route we chose to go to…

The latest 2017/18 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research report stated that female entrepreneurship is up by only 6% globally and that males are still more likely to start businesses than women. This article purposefully shifts the narrative that disadvantages female entrepreneurs to a focus on entrepreneurial differences in thinking, traits and behaviour of successful business leaders. It provides insight and suggestions from research to encourage a more inclusive approach to starting and building a business that both genders can adopt in order to play with their strengths. 20th Century thinking that focuses on entrepreneurial gender differences have been changing. However, the latest 2017/18 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research report stated that female entrepreneurship is up by only 6% globally and that males are still more likely to start businesses than women. The…

RATHER THAN ERASING HUMANS FROM THE EQUATION – AS SOME ALARMISTS HAVE CLAIMED WILL BE THE REALITY – AI’S VALUE WILL LIE IN ITS ABILITY TO EMPOWER PEOPLE. With the advancements in technology reaching their peak, we can see how powerful such disruptions are in upending our lives and the business processes in organisations, both in public and private sectors. What is needed now is to not just succeed in adapting to the ever-changing business landscape but also to thrive. In order to do so, we need to realise the importance of collaboration among and with technology experts across industries. Whether we are talking about artificial intelligence, 5G connectivity or blockchain, recent advancements in technology have drastically changed not only how businesses operate, but also the way in which people…

Industrial revolutions have changed society over the past centuries. Mechanisation with water and steam power was just as groundbreaking as mass production using assembly line technology or, most recently, the use of electronics to automate production. Now, digital transformation is bringing about the fourth industrial revolution, the digitisation of production. The term Industry 4.0 refers to the real-time-capable, comprehensive and intelligent networking of people, machines, objects and ICT systems in the smart factory of tomorrow. It provides enormous opportunities for industrial manufacturing processes. Germany, as the world’s leading industry supplier, offers outstanding conditions for this transformation. Companies are also increasingly investing in ICT solutions to meet the demands of Industry 4.0 transformation. At 97 billion euros, companies in NRW generate around one third of all German sales in this segment.…

Late 2014 A “state-sponsored” hacker breaks through Yahoo’s network security and steals data belonging to at least 500 million accounts. July 2016 Verizon announces it has won the auction to buy Yahoo’s internet business, including the company’s search, email, advertising and media operations for nearly $5bn. July 2016 Technology publication Vice Motherboard tells Yahoo a hacker known as Peace had contacted it about a cache of 200m Yahoo credentials he was selling on the dark web. August 2016 An exhaustive audit of Yahoo’s security networks takes place. The bigger break-in in 2014 is revealed through a further deep-dive analysis. September 2016 In a preliminary filing to the SEC relating to the Verizon sale, Yahoo says it has no knowledge of “any incidents” of “security breaches, unauthorised access or unauthorised use”…

Emotional contagion is a three-step process through which an individual’s emotions transfer to another individual within a group. Investment banks – and the financial services industry at large – continue to bear the reputational scares of some high-profile ethical scandals. In spite of numerous efforts for avoiding ethical risk, emotional contagion, a key factor of ethical risk remains largely overlooked. Hence, it is critical to address the question of how emotional contagion arises and how it can be detected. Following a number of high-profile ethical scandals in investment banks, the call for changing corporate culture is increasingly gaining traction. However, beyond the fact that cultural change programmes often fail to deliver upon their expected outcomes, such programmes may not be required – or should, at least, be revisited – in…

There are behaviours that can have meaningful impact: things that every working mum and dad can do, regardless of role, function, or family composition, that make it easier to perform, and happily so, at home and at work. Organisations of all sizes and types struggle with the “working parent problem”: how to retain, and foster best performance amongst the significant percentage of their employees who are raising young children. At the same time, working fathers and mothers themselves are provided little practical, realistic guidance on how to meet the simultaneous demands of office and home. For companies that do want to “win through talent”, the key to success lies not in defining the problem – but in pointing parents, particularly new and expectant ones, to the specific behaviours that will…

How impactful can simplexity gap be in corporate boards? In this article, the authors show how such gap undermines the role, function and integrity of the board by making it impossible for boards to ratify decisions on the basis of all of the information that is valid, reliable and relevant to the case at hand, as well as how the design and execution of the right board communication process can help boards bridge the gap and restore agency and accountability to the board. The simplexity gap is the yawning space between the simple expectations of board members and the complex predicaments, problems and rationales of management. A Widening Chasm. A growing chasm separates corporate boards from the competent exercise of their duties of care and diligence. It threatens to…

2011 Wells Fargo employees begin to create more than 1.5 million unauthorized deposit accounts and issued more than 500k unauthorized credit card applications. 2013 A L.A. Times investigation uncovers the fraud. It receives good publicity, and several employees call in to confirm he allegations. Wells Fargo does not respond to allegations. 2015 The city of Los Angeles files a lawsuit against Wells Fargo for opening unauthorized bank accounts. 2016 Federal regulators from the SEC get involved. Wells Fargo settles for $185 million in fines. 2016 Wells Fargo announces that it will abolish all sales goals in retail bank. September 20, 2016 John Stumpf testifies in front of the Senate Banking Committee. Senator Elizabeth Warren strongly believes he should resign. October 2016 CEO & Chairman of the Board John Stumpf resigns.…

Having hosted programmes with participants from 16 countries, across 4 continents and from more than 200 organisations in the past 10 years, the Center for Leadership at Florida International University (FIU) continues to fulfill its work and passion of delivering the very best results for leaders and their organisations. To learn more about the center’s top-ranked executive programmes on leadership development, we spoke with Director of Strategy, Dr. Mayra Beers, and Academic Director, Dr. Nathan Hiller. Q Good day, Dr. Beers and Dr. Hiller! Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. To start this interview, would you share with us what do successful directors and leadership mentors like you have in mind every single day? What do you eagerly anticipate? A Mayra: What do leaders need to…

In the age of analytics, how would advertisers take full advantage of the growing potential of big data? In this article, the author elaborates on various applications of data science in advertising which can help advertisers strategically position themselves in today’s highly competitive business environment. The digital world of today infiltrates people’s lives more pervasively than ever before and this has made online marketing a major business concern for some while it opened a plethora of opportunities for others. The objective of businesses around the world today is to create a product or service of value to the consumer, whether these consumers are individual users, business houses, government agencies or societies. To accomplish this, business houses have tasked marketers and advertisers with the job of finding potential customers, attracting their…

In a collaborative negotiation situation, teams actually help increase the joint gain. In a nutshell, teams should achieve better results overall in negotiations. Whether you’re negotiating solo or with a team, it is crucial to have a smart approach to get the best deal in every situation. In this article, the authors focus on the significance of team negotiation toward value creation as well as the imperatives to making collaborative effort yield desired outcomes. A participant in a negotiation course once confessed that he hated to negotiate in front of his wife. When asked why, he said he found it difficult to close the negotiation. For example, once he was negotiating to buy a used car. Both he and his wife had agreed that €15,000 was a fair price for…