By Bill Fotsch and John Case We’ll be writing in the coming months about a business phenomenon called open-book management. So we better tell you something about who we are and how we came across this simple but powerful idea. Bill graduated from Harvard Business...
This column begins the story of Ben, a company vice-president facing some tough decisions. Though fictional, he and the other characters in the saga are composites of people we have worked with over the years, and the challenges they must confront are all too real. Source:...
Celebrities have to expect that every detail of their lives will find its way into the public press. Businesspeople—barring some egregious wrongdoing—have a right to expect some privacy, and some respect for the confidentiality that their organizations depend on. In fiction, these limits are off. Source:...
“It is almost a cliché,” our colleague James Jennings mused the other day. “A CEO reads a book, likes it, and buys dozens of copies for the team. Some people read it. The book likely has good ideas, but most people resist them. If anything...
We think a good definition of employee engagement—real engagement—is employees who think and act like owners. Like businesspeople. Top companies foster this kind of involvement, sharing responsibility and rewards with people at every level of the organization. But there’s a sticking point here. Source: Forbes |...
Years ago we witnessed an awkward moment. A well-known open-book-management company was holding a seminar to share its experiences and best practices. During the Q&A, an audience member suddenly asked the speaker, “What’s your salary?” Source: Forbes | Making Salaries Public? Definitely Not Required -- And...
Let’s begin by clearing the variable-compensation air, because there’s a lot of confusion out there. Profit sharing, stock awards, individual bonus plans, and the like—the usual staples of variable comp—are nearly always good things. But they are not incentive plans. Source: Forbes | The Key To...
You have to wonder why performance management in a business usually falls so flat. Heaven knows, it isn’t for a lack of tools. Annual or quarterly reviews. Key performance indicators (KPIs). Coaching. Incentives. Yet most companies still can’t get where they want to be. Why...
Are you facing the prospect of selling your company, possibly one you founded? If you are a baby boomer and own a business, the answer is almost certainly yes, even if you don’t yet think so. But you want to be extra careful in determining...
The annual NCAA college basketball tournament, known as March Madness, came to a stunning close last night, with Villanova winning. Congrats to Villanova—but it was another Catholic university that really caught our attention. Source: Forbes | Engagement Leads To Success? Maybe That's Exactly Backward...