The Saïd Business School at Oxford University hosted a dynamic Womensphere Summit, “Creating the Future .” 300 participants from around the world joined in dialogue during panel discussions headed by 30 distinguished speakers. I was particularly touched to receive the Inspiration Award recognizing what for me always has come natural: providing support and encouragement to other women and especially for younger women to step into their full authority as leaders. Through the day we discussed many dimensions of global opportunities for women’s leadership. Analisa Balares, CEO of Womensphere, said, “At Womensphere, we believe that by coming together, and by exchanging insight, success models and best practice cases, we can collectively create a much better future, advance women’s leadership in corporations... more

The best strategic plans and/or state-of-the-art technologies are only as good as the people who actually execute them. Long-established research shows that people yearn most powerfully for human connections. More recent scientific studies using mathematics show that an ability to cooperate is the secret of humanity’s success. So, when we help our leaders and teams know how to engage with a broad stakeholder spectrum we give them tools to reach their greatest potential. Neuroscience research supports that deep relationships with stakeholders are vital to success. Studies show that the combined levels of engagement of your employees and customers have an outsized effect on your performance. Thus, creating and sustaining SRE – multi-directional, emotionally deep, profoundly trusting relationships that unleash people’s... more

With deepest feelings of love for Mama Albertina Sisulu, we share with the Sisulu family members, the South African nation and freedom loving people throughout the world in the sorrow of her death at age 92 and the joy of knowing the magnificence of who she was. We can envision her joining her husband Tata Walter Sisulu, as being side by side is who they are in life and death. South Africa was blessed to have such fearless yet humble leaders who always served their nation, community and family. We knew and loved them for a very long time: we will cherish and honor their memory.  Mama served on our Global Citizens Circle International Advisory Board since its inception. Shortly after... more

An airline company sues an online ticket provider. Fishermen from the Gulf pay a visit to an oil firm in London. An investment brokerage is accused of misleading government. Today’s headlines could be quite different if more companies embraced efforts to engage stakeholders.  Why should you care about engagement?  More enterprises understand that a broader spectrum of internal and external stakeholders has a direct impact on their core business. Those that have engendered deep levels of engagement – what I call strategic relational engagement (SRE) – are far more successful in shaping that impact to their advantage. Neuroscience research supports experience that profound relationships with stakeholders are vital to business success. Other studies show how employee and customer engagement are intimately... more

Listening to international musicians improvize at the Cully Jazz Festival  I thought about the “beautiful music” made through the interactions of 28 senior executives from 19 countries representing 15 industries during the IMD program Advanced Strategic Management.  Each ASM participant entered the program determined to design the best solution to a concrete business challenge they faced.  They left not only as individuals each with his or her own finely honed action plan, but also as a team of  executives who indeed made beautiful music together through helping each other.   And, as I led my session first at ASM and then for the full IMD community on the importance of Highly Relational Engagement of Stakeholders – internal and external – for creating long-term value, I also experienced how through our engaged dialogue we too created unique and beautiful music since it is... more

As Executive-in-Residence at IMD, I am building on my decades of experience facilitating for clients from all sectors globally my trademark process of stategic relational engagement (SRE™) of stakeholders. I am focusing on the strategic position of value creation and competitiveness through SRE. I am distilling and synthesizing key teachable lessons for leaders who participate in IMD executive education programs . I am developing essential guidelines for practical applications in various contexts. These include internal stakeholder applications for boards and senior management whether horizontal across function or vertically in direct reports; external stakeholders whether customers, suppliers or willing partners; and more complex potentially adversarial external stakeholders (i.e.: activist shareholders, government regulators, NGOs and other civic groups, etc). Companies know they... more

We started 2011 with a magnificent hike through Verbier in the Swiss Alps. We got there by the fantastic Swiss public transportation system with the second to last segment on the St Bernard Express and the final segment on a Gondola: at every stage, we were surrounded by beauty!  Shortly after I was honored to learn I was chosen as one of the 100 Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior.  Really nice personal and professional start to a new year.  Wishing you the best in this year too!

I’m finding my niche, seven weeks into Executive-in-Residence at IMD: master bridge-builder; a role that has applicability in much of the executive education knowledge exchange being done here.  I‘ve begun to focus on why businesses should engage with non-market, non-traditional stakeholders for current brand value as a basis for long term value creation with Paul Strebel who leads the High Performance Boards program.  I’ll continue to develop this further with Didier Cossin who next year will take over this program.  I’m writing about creating and sustaining mutually beneficial cross-sector partnerships to support an exciting body of research by Tom Malnight and Kees van der Graaf.  And I’m finding my stride in my local village where the butcher, baker, winemaker and most... more

In my first week as Executive-in-Residence at IMD I observed and commented on executive education programs.  One was led by Dan Denison whose focus includes organizational culture, leadership and the impact they have on performance and effectiveness, and Tom Malnight whose focus includes global strategy, evolutionary organizational change, internal growth and renewal.  They guided participating executives through exercises designed to help them effectively tackle a changing and uncertain future.  Another group of executives interacted with James Henderson  whose focus includes helping companies achieve and sustain their competitive advantage, through a comparable exercise in developing strategies under times of uncertainty.  And in my first gathering of faculty and senior staff with IMD president Dominique Turpin we as an internal team explored many of... more