A Career in the Family Business: Duty or Choice?
Antoine Tirard, Claire Harbour, Morten Bennedsen
May 28, 2025
Would-be joiners of family businesses can have their cake and eat it – if they get the ingredients right. The career choices made by members of a family enterprise tend to be fraught with tension. Most experience unspoken pressure to join the family business, which becomes a problem when dreams and family expectations are at […]
Six Opportunities for CIOs in the AI Adoption Race
Theodoros EvgeniouMay 28, 2025
CIOs don’t need to own AI, but they do need to shape how it works across the business. Despite two decades of effort, many digital transformation initiatives have fallen short. Not because the technology failed, but because of misaligned expectations, fragmented execution and a lack of integration between business and IT. As companies race to […]
How the Misfit Bias Can Hurt You
Bryan Stroube, Keyvan Vakili, Michaël BikardMay 21, 2025
Poor combinations can negatively bias how individual parts are viewed – be it a song on an album, a picture in a gallery or a member of a team. Some combinations just work: a playlist of the year’s top techno tracks; a compilation of short stories about famous entrepreneurs; a flight of Japanese whiskies. Then, […]
Ten Questions Boards in Emerging Economies Must Ask
Ron SoonieusMay 21, 2025
Steering towards effective governance in the face of global disruptions. Geopolitical and trade uncertainty, regulatory shifts, rapidly evolving artificial intelligence development and extreme weather disruptions are the hallmarks of the business landscape today. On top of that, companies face heightened stakeholder scrutiny and often conflicting demands from diverse groups. As companies grapple with an increasingly […]
In Support of Serendipity
Klaus WertenbrochMay 13, 2025
AI algorithms are powerful tools, but we shouldn’t ignore the value of chance encounters. Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and TikTok – three global platforms that harness recommendation algorithms to keep giving consumers more of what they want. Their success is a testament to the incredible potential of this technology to enhance the consumer experience. The value […]
Don’t Be an “Authentic” Leader
Graham WardMay 13, 2025
Be clear on what you stand for, but flexible in how you express it. Ella faced a dilemma. Newly promoted to CFO at a large German commercial bank, she felt in over her head. Just 11 months earlier, she had joined from an upstart bank in London. Though she had been marked as part of […]
How to Transition Out of Consulting
Antoine Tirard, Frédéric GodartMay 6, 2025
Lessons from ex-consultants on when to leave and how to get it right. Consulting firms sell themselves as leadership factories. They promise exposure to senior executives and a clear path to top management roles. And in many cases, they deliver. In fact, more than half of the leadership teams we’ve worked with come from consulting […]
Rapid or Right? Making Start-Up Decisions Like Scientists
Chris IkosaMay 6, 2025
Like stress tests, the data-driven approach to entrepreneurship can uncover weaknesses – as well as more robust choices – in fledgling business models. The mantra “make data-driven decisions” has become gospel in entrepreneurial circles. In recent years, scientific methods – forming hypotheses, gathering evidence and letting data guide decisions – have gained traction as a way to […]
How Expensive Is It to Have Your Own AI Agent, Really?
Albert A. AngehrnApril 29, 2025
Why artificial intelligence isn’t just for Big Tech and billion-dollar budgets. AI is an exclusive, costly technology, accessible only to major corporations with deep pockets – at least, this is what many senior executives believe, based on a discussion I had with several corporate honchos earlier this year. Their assumption was understandable. After all, global […]
Can People With Extreme Political Views Change?
Nadav Klein, Rachel Eva LimApril 29, 2025
Those with extreme political attitudes are often assumed to be more resistant to change than moderates. But this isn’t always the case. Many families have long heeded the maxim to never discuss politics at the dinner table. That advice may be more relevant than ever today amid growing polarisation on either end of the political […]