Bloomberg Stocks

Changing which parts of your company have full profit and loss (P&L) responsibility is not a decision to take lightly. Executives considering a major rearrangement need to carefully consider the timing and pacing of these changes. The authors offer three scenarios in which to consider a restructure, and advice on how to manage organizational change without too…

Unreasonable requests don’t have to be seen as intractable demands. These six strategies can help you respond more effectively and feel more empowered. First, assess the relationship. How (or if) you respond to the individual and how much you decide to try to accommodate the request, will likely depend on your relationship. Also, be curious.…

April 13, 2022 Venture capitalists offer their investors outsized financial returns in exchange for taking on considerable risk. But what if that risk includes backing products where the economics of the end market aren’t clear? Moreover, what if the companies being supported have the non-financial goal of tackling climate change? As more money than ever…

One need only look to widely publicized cases such as Theranos and WeWork to see that the most charismatic, convincing founders do not always make the best investments. What can VCs do to ensure that they invest in startup founders for the right reasons? The authors used LinkedIn data from the founders of more than…

The so-called “death valley curve” represents a crucial early phase of new ventures, when substantial work on a new enterprise has begun but no sufficient revenue has been generated. During this period, companies deplete their initial capital in their quest to establish the business. To help navigate this tricky time, the authors have created a…

Why are leaders so reluctant to make ESG investments? Even those who know they’ll pay off are reluctant to do so, for five key reasons. The authors outline each — the numbers hide the truth about the real cost, our biases trick us, we focus on short-term benefits, we think about costs in silos, and…

April 12, 2022 Politics has traditionally been a taboo topic to discuss on the job. But as people get more vocal about their views — on everything from from climate change to racial justice, elections to invasions — it’s increasingly hard to keep debate out of the workplace. And that can lead to conflicts between…

How do leaders persuade people to do things they would rather not do? The author outlines two very different persuasive techniques based on social science: the “foot-in-the-door” technique and the “door-in-the-face” technique. Each of these techniques can work in the right situation, although neither of them translates perfectly from the ivory-tower world of social-science research…

Any effective system of greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting needs to measure each company’s supply-chain carbon impacts accurately, providing visibility and incentives for it to make more climate-friendly product-specification and purchasing decisions. The authors’ recent HBR article, “Accounting for Climate Change” (Nov-Dec 2021), noted how the current dominant system for carbon accounting, the GHG Protocol, misses…

As companies contemplate adjustments to their global strategies, it is important to recognize how much continuity there still is even in a period of wrenching change. The idea of a world where economic efficiency alone drives patterns of international flows was always a myth. Globalization has always been an uneven process, with cross-country differences and…