News

Nov 18, 2016

Cyrus Mistry Fiasco: Acid Test for Brand Tata’s Business Basics

Quotes Vijay Govindarajan about the problems facing Tata Group after the controversial dismissal of Cyrus Mistry as chairman of Tata Sons Limited. "First, the Tata group is always known for management excellence despite being family-owned. That is why the current leadership crisis stands out as an anomaly," says Govindarajan. "Second, this incident raises fundamental issues of corporate governance that all Indian companies must address going forward. Third and perhaps the most important is the distraction this crisis is causing at a time when the Tata group has to contend with many challenges like Brexit or the most recent US elections that have cast globalization in a different light. The last thing they need is a crisis at the top."
Jun 07, 2016

Jobs abound, but skills to fill them are lacking

Highlights Eric Spiegel T'87, CEO of Siemens USA, as the keynote speaker on Monday at Governor Maggie Hassan's summit on work-based learning and better preparing students for the job world. According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, Spiegel will speak about America's "training gap" and how New Hampshire can develop public-private partnerships to train workers for jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
Jun 07, 2016

The Climate for Corporate-Charity Partnerships Is Hotting up

Cites the 2011 study, Does Retailer CSR Enhance Behavioral Loyalty: A Case for Benefit Segmentation, co-authored by Kusum Ailawadi, Scott Neslin, and Gail Taylor that showed that extremely price-conscious consumers are not swayed by corporate giving.
Jun 07, 2016

Stop Saying Big Companies Can’t Innovate

An opinion piece co-authored by Vijay Govindarajan about how contrary to popular belief big companies can still innovate just as well—if not better—than startups. “The world faces many complex problems,” says Govindarajan. “Big companies, such as GE, with historic global presence and valuable resources can help to tackle some of those complex problems. Emergent firms would do well to follow their example.”
Jun 03, 2016

How Disney Found its Way Back to Creative Success

An opinion piece co-authored by Vijay Govindarajan about how the contrasts between Disney and Warner Brothers provide an instructive study on how the key to success is adapting to industrial changes. "Repeating what you've done in the past or copying what someone else is doing now is not innovative, and it's innovation that underwrites future success," says Govindarajan. "The contrasting fortunes of Disney and Warner Brothers highlight the importance of continuous innovation. Indeed, long-term competitiveness depends on it."
Jun 03, 2016

Big automakers vs. disruptors

As a guest on CNBC's Power Lunch, Paul Argenti discusses management issues in the auto sector as companies like Uber and Tesla are disrupting the industry. "This comes at a really bad time for them, and I think the new competition is something that they're not ready for," says Argenti.
Jun 03, 2016

No Venture Capital Needed, or Wanted

Highlights Dana Ehrlich T'05, founder and CEO of the grass-fed beef company Verde Farms, in an article about successful startups that have been growing and expanding without the help of investors or venture capitalists. Ehrlich used $100,000 from savings and student loans to secure debt financing. The New York Times writes that the company, “Sold 10.1 million pounds of grass-fed beef in 2015, up from 240,000 pounds in 2008. Sales, which totaled $665,000 in 2008, surged to $7 million in 2009 and more than $50 million in 2015.”
Jun 03, 2016

What’s At Stake: Politics of Fear, Exclusion and Hate a Threat to Progress

An opinion piece by Fred McKinney about the rifts that the presidential campaign is causing in America. McKinney challenges readers to come together as a nation before the current crisis becomes an existential crisis for the Republic. “There is too much at stake to let hate and ignorance rule,” he says. “The only superiority one group or person can ever have over another group or person is based on the capacity to love.”
Jun 03, 2016

AOL’s newest employee perk: VC funding for your startup

Quotes Vijay Govindarajan in an article about a new incentive being offered to AOL employees—the chance to launch their own startup with funding and six months to develop their project. Govindarajan argues that the more a company is productive in the present, the less it can be focused on the future. “The performance engine is too powerful,” he says. “The focus on preserving it is too intense.”
May 31, 2016

To Win the Civil War, Lincoln Had to Change His Leadership

Vijay Govindarajan describes how Abraham Lincoln applied elements from his book The Three Box Solution during the Civil War. He writes that Lincoln, "decisively left behind the conventions of the past and created a new relationship with both the military and the general public."
May 27, 2016

How Bae is going to change the game with mobile dating for Black people

Features an interview with Brian Gerrard who worked with his brother Justin Gerrard T'16, to create the mobile app Bae (Before Anyone Else).The brothers won a Dartmouth pitch competition last year and received $30,000 to launch the app.
May 27, 2016

Laid-Off and Looking for Work? Access to Credit Can Give You a Big Leg Up

Continued coverage of a study conducted by Gordon Phillips and colleagues that examines the correlation between job loss and credit access and how it can affect the job seeking process in the U.S.
May 27, 2016

From Accountant to Yogi: Making a Radical Career Change

An opinion piece co-authored by Vijay Govindarajan about making a radical career change—offering six tips on how to be successful while making the shift. Govindarajan writes, “Once we’re on the path of growth, we can continually move through the seasons of transformation and renewal.”
May 27, 2016

Book Review: Balance The Boxes

Review calls The Three Box Solution by Vijay Govindarajan, "a clear winner" with concepts that should be part of every organization's DNA.
May 26, 2016

Column: The downward spiral of IPO generations

Cites a recent study co-authored by Anup Srivastava about why successive cohorts of certain firms are persistently riskier. The study found that each new cohort uses riskier production technologies and operates in more competitive product markets than its predecessor.
May 26, 2016

US Probes E-Commerce Giant Alibaba’s Accounting Practices

Quotes Anant Sundaram about Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba which is now under investigation by the U.S. for questionable accounting practices. "I think it's a moment of truth for the company. If I'm buying into that stock, what am I buying into?"
May 26, 2016

Digital Transformation: concept too big for Spanish companies?

Highlights Sydney Finkelstein as a guest speaker at the 2016 Digital Enterprise Show in Madrid, Spain. Finkelstein discussed the need for organizations to generate and regenerate talent in order to survive and shared what characteristics employers should look for in new hires.

May 26, 2016

The One Time It’s OK to Pile Up Credit-Card Debt

Features a study conducted by Gordon Phillips and colleagues that examines the correlation on how job loss and credit access can affect the job seeking process in the U.S. Bloomberg writes, “It turns out that credit can often help jobseekers get back on their feet, especially those with lower income and fewer savings.”
May 26, 2016

How firms can avoid being boxed in

A feature article about Vijay Govindarajan and his new book The Three Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation.

May 24, 2016

Central Jersey Native Part of Holocaust Ethics Program

Robert Devers Wilson T'16 is one of 13 business students and early-career executives chosen by Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) to participate in its two-week program in Europe this summer. "The FASPE program is a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from history's greatest tragedy and apply those lessons to our world today," says Wilson. "The types of ethical breakdowns that led to the Holocaust still abound in the world today, and FASPE is designed to help us fight against such injustice."
May 24, 2016

Buyer Sought for Iron Horse Park

Quotes John Vogel in an article about the marketability of Iron Horse Park—a proposed project zoned for construction of a combined 660,000 square feet of residential, retail, office and industrial space. Vogel argues that developing affordable housing or successful brick-and-mortar stores may be tough given the slow growth of the Upper Valley and the convenience of online retailers.
May 20, 2016

Overcome Your Reluctance and Start Negotiating Your Salary

An opinion piece by Judith White about the excuses made when it comes to negotiating a better salary and tips on how to overcome them. "You can overcome these excuses. Each one that I've described boils down to a normal, healthy desire to avoid feeling bad about ourselves. Each results from framing negotiation as losing something: relationships, self-esteem, self-worth. To put it simply, we make excuses for negotiating in order to avoid losing face—ours or someone else's."
May 19, 2016

How to Find a Job with No Sunday Night Blues

Sydney Finkelstein shares how to find a career that won't make you dread Monday mornings. "Your career isn't something beyond your control. It is in fact one of the absolute most important things you need to actively manage as CEO of your own life. If you can make Sunday night feel no different than Friday night, you'll know you did it."
May 17, 2016

Forget Apple & Alphabet, these 2 stocks are better investments: McNamee

As a guest on CNBC’s Fast Money, Roger McNamee T’82, Elevation Partners co-founder, discusses Amazon and Facebook as his top two tech stock picks. "Amazon and Facebook really stand out," says McNamee. "They have enormous opportunities."
May 17, 2016

The 5 Habits of Spectacularly Successful Bosses

An opinion piece by Sydney Finkelstein about five habits that successful individuals exhibit. “There’s no formula for divining the next great idea, but what you can do is develop a series of habits that increase your chances of an innovative breakthrough,” writes Finkelstein.
May 16, 2016

The Best & Brightest MBAs In The Class of 2016

T’16s Alicia True Dagrosa, Whitney Flynn, Joseph Mpumelelo Ngwenya, Johnny Mathias and Pete Mathias have been named to Poets & Quants’ list of 2016 Best and Brightest MBAs. Poets & Quants selected 100 MBA graduates, hailing from 53 different MBA programs globally. Check out their profiles on page four of the P&Q story.
May 13, 2016

Poshmark co-founder Tracy Sun: The mind behind the fashion-tech startup

A feature story about Tracy Sun T'05, co-founder and vice president of merchandising at Poshmark, a social commerce app that enables the buying and selling of secondhand clothing and accessories online. San Francisco Chronicle highlights that the company has accumulated more than 1.5 million sellers, who engage with the app an average of seven times per day. "Those are the kind of numbers you'd expect to hear from a Facebook or a Pinterest," says Sun. "You don't often hear that kind of addictiveness or engagement in a commerce app."
May 13, 2016

Vogel: Housing Assistance

John Vogel discusses the challenges that low income households face when in need of housing assistance. “Food, housing and medical care are all basic human needs,” says Vogel. “All of which leads me back to wonder again, why we can’t administer housing vouchers the way we administer food stamps.”
May 13, 2016

To Grow as a Person, Selectively Forget the Past

An opinion piece by Vijay Govindarajan about how his Three Box Solution theory can be equally applied to an organization and an individual seeking personal growth. Govindarajan writes, “Even as the Three Box Solution framework helps organizations innovate and grow, it reveals a set of principles that can help leaders in their personal transformation journey too."
May 12, 2016

The Most Iconic Ad Campaigns And What Marketers Today Can Learn From Them

Kevin Lane Keller is referenced in an article about how the criteria for an iconic ad campaign is shifting. Forbes notes that Keller would put the Milk Board's "Got Milk?" campaign in the iconic ad campaign category.
May 11, 2016

Few U.S. Workers Receive Federal Assistance for Trade Deal Consequences

Dean Matthew Slaughter comments on the inadequacy of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program that supports U.S. workers who lose their jobs to foreign competitors. Slaughter calls the program, "vastly inadequate and improperly designed.”
May 06, 2016

Energy Transfer ‘can’t close Williams deal’: CEO

Sydney Finkelstein comments on how Energy Transfer Equity LP Chief Executive Kelcy Warren recently delivered a public and concrete renunciation of his once-coveted deal for rival Williams. "I've never heard of an example like this—of this degree of buyer's remorse. It was a bad deal from the beginning and they've realized it afterward, and now they're going about the process of trying to get out of the deal in a way that destroys the credibility of their own management."
May 06, 2016

A ‘Three-Box Solution’ For Leading Innovation

An interview with Vijay Govindarajan about his new book The Three Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation and how the theory was inspired by his Hindu faith.
May 06, 2016

Donald Trump won’t be shunned by CEOs, experts say

Sydney Finkelstein says we shouldn't expect Donald Trump to be shunned by CEOs if he lands in the White House. "CEOs don't have much of a choice. If it happens to be a President Trump, they're going to have to deal with him."
May 06, 2016

Fed’s structure is broken and needs overhaul, former insider says

Quotes Peter Fisher who has joined the growing chorus calling for reform of the U.S. central bank. "The Fed's decision-making and communications process is broken and has been for some time," said Fisher in a speech to the Shadow Open Market Committee last week.
May 06, 2016

Three Traits that will Get You Hired by the Best Bosses

Sydney Finkelstein says, "The determination of superbosses to recruit the most intelligent, creative, and flexible employees possible is central to how they think about talent, and success.”