Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2022 i The European Business Review

LEADERSHIP While in the past we saw our careers as ladders to climb, leadership transition opportunities are now plentiful.3 Non-linear leadership paths include the traditional, vertical transition - the step up the ladder. However, many other transition types offer new leadership and personal development opportunities. • Lateral transition: moving to a different part of the business or to a different function • Company transition: getting a job in a different organisation in the same industry • Industry transition: getting a job in a different industry • Geographic transition: moving to a different country for the job • Entrepreneurial transition: moving to a start-up/entrepreneurial role from a corporate role • Corporate transition: moving to a corporate role from a start-up/entrepreneurial role We also identified “invisible transitions” - additions to the nature…

In our everyday life, we are constantly faced with different situations that require drastic critical thinking and decisionmaking skills, especially in the business sector. Decision-making can be described as the process of making important decisions both in your private, everyday life and in business. Decision-making refers to the process of selecting an option from among a set of alternatives according to its probability of leading to the best outcomes in terms of the survival chances of the organism. According to the Oxford AdVanced Learner’s Dictionary,2 the term “decision-making” means the process of deciding about something important, especially in a group of people or with an organisation or a company. It follows from the above that in their everyday duties and activities, bosses, managers, and leaders continually make decisions on various…

GEOPOLITICS Macroeconomic conflict and geopolitical volatility were among the top five threats to growth anticipated by CEOs, according to the latest PWC survey, published in January 2022. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of this year, geopolitical volatility and macroeconomic conflict have the potential of leading the threat to growth as reflected in the latest McKinsey’s Economic Competition Outlook. For US international corporations, emerging geopolitical trends are affecting the operational environment in host countries around the globe in five major ways. Shifting alliances. New and shifting regional economic blocs and security alliances are complicating market entry. As an example, firms in the US looking to enter the Chinese market may experience political and regulatory challenges that can increase the cost of doing business. The same can be said about…

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE By some estimates, the market for conversational artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will reach $13.9 billion by 2025—and it’s easy to see why.1 Using advanced technologies like affective computing, facial recognition and large transformer models like BERT and GPT-3, companies can vastly improve customer and employee experiences. For example, “Digital human” technologies can replicate human emotions, gestures, and visual cues in some customer service touchpoints, as UBS, BMW, Southern Health Society and Noel Leeming’s Stores are discovering. UBS, for example, created a prototype digital double for its chief economist, Daniel Kalt, with the potential to use that avatar (with full disclosure) in certain “face-to-face” meetings with high-wealth clients. The “digital Kalt,” created in a process using more than 100 DSLR cameras, draws on information provided by the real Kalt…

“Innovation” is possibly the hottest buzzword of the twenty-first century. A quick Google search on it will return almost two billion results1. Amazon alone contains over 70,000 books focusing on innovation2. One recent survey of managers shows that 75 per cent of companies report innovation among their organisation’s top three priorities3. The World Economic Forum considers innovativeness as a key employability skill of the future4 - a view that is shared by many academics5. Despite the immense appreciation of innovation - almost amounting to obsession - creative ideas rarely follow a smooth path. History is full of anecdotes of breakthrough ideas that are dismissed, ridiculed or even booed6. A case in point is Katalin Karikó’s idea of employing mRNA to fight disease, which was considered “too far-fetched for government grants,…

But why is there such a paucity of wisdom? Why do so many very knowledgeable people lack wisdom? And what is wisdom all about? There are no easy answers. Generally speaking, however, looking at the wisdom equation, it pertains to the ability to determine the truth and validity of accumulated knowledge, meaning that you have the power of discernment, to judge properly the correct course of action in challenging situations. Thus, wisdom can be looked at as the pairing of accumulated knowledge and the ability to synthesise this knowledge using the moral understanding of the world we live in. In other words, the primary difference between wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence is that wisdom involves a healthy dose of perspective and the ability to make sound judgements about challenges that come…

STRATEGY Organisational leaders are expected to be visionary and inspirational by providing direction and empowering their people to collectively attain the goals the company set out to achieve. Although this view on effective leadership makes much theoretical sense, practice teaches us that achieving those company goals takes time and that successful performance very much depends on how well leaders take care of their company over time. Indeed, one of the most important responsibilities for leaders is to get to know their company so well (its purpose, vision, and values) that, in times of crisis or existential challenges, they know what change is needed to ensure that the company can endure. It is thus essential for company leaders to study the values that lie at the heart of the company and…

SUPPLY CHAIN Even since the trade war between the US and China broke out in 2019, few would have expected our globe to become so restless, even up to the present, amid a sequence of major crises such as COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. Gartner is a UK-based research and advisory institute. It interviewed almost a thousand professionals in supply chain management after the trade war began. The survey1 revealed that foreign entities were fleeing from China, while countries in South East Asia and South America were clearly benefiting from the outflow of job opportunities. The recent “dynamic clearing” mandate by the central government of China in response to COVID-19 has only made this wave of job migration even worse. One of the most visible consequences of the disruptions is…

TECHNOLOGY For employees, at least in part, working from home is seen in the same light as that of companion research, which found that work welfare is closely linked to meeting six fundamental human needs through work.2 But despite the large quantity of management books on the value-added of giving responsibility and freedom to workers3, the harsh reality is that there are only a few Shopifys and Ryans among the many companies stuck in the old Taylorism-like paradigm of work organisation. There, workers have often been assigned to a specific rigid posture in a hierarchy which in turn provides the orders for a job done fulltime and on-premises. One peculiar expectation of new work organisations was remote work, but this has failed to scale as fast as anticipated. Looking at…

Nonprofits are at a loss in their quest for professionalisation without competent leadership personnel and their ongoing development. This article draws on recent research findings on the strategic actions of nonprofits with respect to talent and leadership staff development. It specifically discusses the benefits such an approach brings to nonprofits. In the interests of operational sustainability, the author appeals for a proactive, strategic approach to leadership continuity through the implementation of key HR development as a shared responsibility of boards, executives, and HR professionals - especially regarding succession management. Nonprofits cannot get by without volunteers, honorary personnel, and professional staff. The last of these are particularly relevant in nonprofits’ pursuit of professionalisation. From front-line workers, administrative and division executives to executive directors, employment and areas of responsibility in nonprofits can…

There is a global shift in policies to curb the power of big tech platforms. Europe leads the way with antitrust regulation, but others, such as China, Australia, and the UK, are catching up. Even in the liberal US, there are changes in the regulation of competition and labour. The changing regulatory landscape compels tech giants to become more responsible businesses. Regulation is back in fashion. At the core of this shift, there is a shared view among policymakers, academics, and political leaders that the monopoly power of tech giants has gone too far and needs fixing. There have been some hefty penalties in the past but, these days, leading companies in the tech field need an antitrust lawyer1 more than ever before. The common misconception is that this is…

At 2019’s World Water Week2 in Stockholm, Truke feverishly took notes during a session based on a company guide3 that outlined a step-by-step approach on target setting for water. She felt she had finally found the playbook for Cargill’s water strategy. In 2017, Cargill had listed water alongside climate and land use as a top priority for its sustainability strategy. A dedicated team, including Truke, was tasked with detailing the strategy, setting the targets and coordinating the implementation. However, when she sat down with a director from a leading environmental group and excitedly shared the Cargill vision and her tasks, the response from the director was muted, to say the least. “The scale and the complexity of the initiative is massive. Honestly, I don’t see a path to solving this…

SUSTAINABILITY This article presents an unprecedented business opportunity emerging from the transition of societies and economies in cities towards net zero. With cities responsible for more than 60 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), Wang and Kalra (ICE, 2021)1 propose that “as a minimum, 80 per cent of the reduction targets should be achieved by tangible mitigation measures rather than offset by an equivalent amount of CO2 absorption”, with such targets embedded into policy and legislation, as well as comprehensive transition plans for practical action. In the aftermath of the global pandemic, the World Bank (2020)2 further recommended that to fully recover from the aftermath of the pandemic, future growth should be green, resilient, and inclusive (GRI), by making efficient use of resources, being able to withstand (natural…