CEO-MAG.COM
STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD: THE KSU EMBA
/ AUTUMN 2021
TAKE ACTION NOW TO SAFEGUARD YOUR OWN SUSTAINABILITY
TO FIND YOUR DREAM CAREER, SHOW YOUR UNCONSCIOUS WHO’S BOSS
HOW ENTREPRENEURS SOLVE THE BIG FISH VS. BIG POND DILEMMA
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ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
IN A CONSTANTLY CHANGING WORLD, CAN THE MBA KEEP UP? EU Business School 2021 GLOBAL MBA RANKINGS CEO Magazine
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ACHING CORNER: A E FIVE BATTERIES EEP CHARGED 1 00TO 11 0 10 11 00 00 BE AT YOUR BEST COACHING CORNER: THE FIVE BATTERIES TO KEEP CHARGED TO BE AT YOUR BEST Francesca Giulia Mereu
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FRANCESCA GIULIA MEREU
“How can I consistently be at my best and give my best when the definition
s an executive coach, this is a question I keep hearing from my clients. We are used to demanding a lot of ourselves. That’s normal when the way you got to where you are took ambition, discipline, and dedication, and it’s critical when your role involves being responsible for others. Yet, the pandemic we’re living through has challenged so many of the practices that got us to where we are, and from Zoom fatigue to being ‘always on’ and more, we’ve all felt drained more often than we’d like to admit. In its 2021 Work Trend Index, almost 40% of respondents described themselves as outright exhausted. According to Britain’s
TABLE OF CONTENTS
experienced some kind of depression in early 2021, up from around 10% pre-pandemic. And on the other side of the Atlantic, surveys show
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STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD: THE KSU EMBA Kennesaw State University
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HOW EMPLOYEES CAN BECOME BETTER ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENS Knowledge@wharton
34 TAKE ACTION NOW TO SAFEGUARD YOUR OWN SUSTAINABILITY George Kohlrieser
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ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
Executive MBA
#1 EMBA in Georgia CEO Magazine, 2020 | #3 EMBA in the U.S. CEO Magazine, 2020
Become the LEADER You’re MEANT TO BE At Kennesaw State, we believe in fueling aspirations and delivering pathways to enable you to achieve your goals. Our Executive MBA has a convenient one weekend per month format (Sat/Sun) designed for working professionals like you.
TEAMWORK AND INSPIRATION
INDIVIDUAL COACHING
INTERNATIONAL CONSULTING
As a member of a program-
You’ll receive one-on-
Experience on-site, global
long team, you’ll be a part of a
one coaching from career
projects where you’ll learn
diverse group of peers where
professionals that will help you
and exchange ideas with
you’ll learn, share, and grow
hone your leadership skills and
business leaders in a global
with other leaders like you.
fuel your career trajectory.
environment.
kennesaw.edu/emba ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021 CEOad_EMBA_July2020.indd 1
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38 TO FIND YOUR DREAM CAREER, SHOW YOUR UNCONSCIOUS WHO’S BOSS Kyung Min
42 WOMEN AND MINORITY INVESTORS ARE TAKING MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS Waverly Deutsch
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ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
Economics & Management
ceo-mag.com / Winter 2022
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48 HOW COMPANIES AND TALENT CAN GAIN FROM A SHARED PURPOSE Alyson Meister and David Bach
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HOW ENTREPRENEURS SOLVE THE BIG FISH VS. BIG POND DILEMMA Henning Piezunka
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
CEO Victor J. Callender Group Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Skinner Design & Illustration pentacreate.com Financial Controller Anthony Gordon
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@ceo_mag
/CEOMagazineGlobal
Published by CEO Magazine. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the expressed approval of the copyright owner. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the Publisher accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions. The Publisher disclaims responsibility for the views and opinions expressed herein by the contributors. Furthermore, the Publisher does not give any warranty regarding the accuracy thereof. For further information on annual subscription rates visit: www.ceo-mag.com
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A Flexible, Top-Ranked MBA tailored to you! Learn online or in-person and customize your coursework with specialisations in: • Accounting • Business Analytics • Industrial/Organizational Psychology • Supply Chain Management
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Accreditation earned by less than five percent of business schools
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ceo-mag.com / Winter 2021
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COACHINGCORNER: CORNER: COACHING THE FIVE BATTERIES THE FIVE BATTERIES TO KEEP CHARGED TO TO KEEP CHARGED 1 00TO 11 0 BE AT YOUR BEST BE AT YOUR BEST FRANCESCA GIULIA MEREU
FRANCESCA GIULIA MEREU
“How can I consistently be at my best “How be atthe mydefinition best and can giveI consistently my best when and give when the definition ofmy ourbest ‘new normal’ seems to be of our ‘new normal’ seems to be constantly changing?” constantly changing?” 8
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0
A A
s an executive coach, this is a question I keep hearing from s an executive coach, this is a my clients. We are used to demanding question I keep hearing from my aclients. lot of ourselves. normal We are usedThat’s to demanding when theaway you got to where you are took lot of ourselves. That’s normal ambition, discipline, and dedication, and when the way you got to where you are took it’s critical when your role involves being ambition, discipline, and dedication, and responsible for your others. the pandemic it’s critical when roleYet, involves being we’re living through has challenged so many responsible for others. Yet, the pandemic of the practices that got us to where we are, we’re living through has challenged so many and from Zoom fatigue to being ‘always of the practices that got us to where we are,on’ and from more, we’ve all felttodrained more on’ often and Zoom fatigue being ‘always than we’d like to admit. and more, we’ve all felt drained more often In its 2021 Work Trend Index, almost 40% than we’d like to admit. of respondents described themselves as In its 2021 Work Trend Index, almost 40% outright exhausted. According to Britain’s of respondents described themselves as Office for National Statistics, one in five adults outright exhausted. According to Britain’s experienced some kind of depression in early 2021, up from around 10% pre-pandemic. And experienced some kind of depression in early on the other side of the Atlantic, surveys 2021, up from around 10% pre-pandemic. And show that the percentage of Americans on the other side of the Atlantic, surveys show reporting an anxiety or depressive disorder that the percentage of Americans reporting has risen to 4 1.5% from 36. 4% between August an anxiety or depressive disorder has risen 2020 and February 2021. Over the course of to 4 1.5% from 36. 4% between August 2020 our professional lives, we’ve learned how and February 2021. Over the course of our to manage the day-to-day of our jobs and professional lives, we’ve learned how to
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MOCK UP ILLUSTRATION STYLE
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“The pandemic we’re living through has challenged so many of the practices that got us to where we are, and from Zoom fatigue to being ‘always on’ and more, we’ve all felt drained more often than we’d like to admit.”
to look after ourselves – if perhaps not always as much as we wished we did. But then the pandemic came along, disrupting the rhythms we learned to work within and, at the same time, offering an opportunity to stop and reflect. From going fully remote to hybrid to trying to ‘return to normal’, we’ve all done what we can to make the best of a situation that we cannot change. In some areas, we may have gained a new level of agency; in others, we’ve found ourselves continuing to struggle to find a balance that allows us to flourish. Maybe you’ve felt that despite the abundant stream of self-help tools, resilience tips and stressreduction techniques that are available, you are still looking for how to integrate these various strategies in an effective and flexible routine. When you look at how to strengthen your resilience and wellbeing, I’ve found that what helps the most is being able to clearly focus on: ● Identifying what you need to be at your best ● Establishing what being 'at your best' looks like ● Building strong daily habits that motivate and
sustain you Over my 24 years as an executive coach, I’ve helped driven, passionate professionals to achieve and sustain their goals by specifically improving how they manage their energy. The key, I’ve found, lies in charging your five 'batteries'. Your Five Batteries Your energy is like the battery in your phone: you want to keep it charged to use it when you need it. In the Professional Energy Management framework, we like to break it down into five “batteries” that drive and sustain you in tangible and practical ways. They are: ● Physical: your health, stamina, and vitality ● Mental: your clarity, focus, and intellectual
agility ● Emotional: your resilience, creativity, and
emotional self-regulation ● Spiritual: your values, motivation, and sense of
purpose ● Social: your relationships, surroundings, and
professional environment Each dimension is recharged or drained by 10 specific 'indicators', such as your habits, your perceptions, your lifestyle, and so on. What’s important to remember is that each dimension is always influencing the others, which means that changing one has the power to both benefit us by reinforcing another, and that bigger issues in one area often boil over and affect others. When you start to break down energy into the five batteries, you begin to have a clearer, more granular sense of what’s affecting you and what 10
ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
you could tweak. If you are struggling in certain areas, you can begin to ask, ‘How have my habits, perceptions or context changed? How are they currently helping or hindering me? What can I change? What do I need to accept for now?’ Consider these anecdotes to help you reflect further: ● Physical: The ‘convenience’ of working from home left Jakob feeling more sluggish. He never realised how much he relied on the rhythm of his daily commute to get him moving. ● Mental: With the day beginning and ending with her laptop’s blaring screen, Simona feels drained by the monotone trawl of attending meetings and sending emails without a moment to really disconnect. ● Emotional: Gustavo loves his work and his family but being at home all the time has made it harder for him to appreciate both of them, and it’s made him feel unhappy about the situation and with himself. ● Spiritual: Yasuhiro’s truest sense of fulfilment came with seeing how his team’s projects affected communities. With everything remote, his sense of purpose has waned as his contributions have felt more abstract than ever. ● Social: With rigid, regimented Zoom meetings the norm, Tamara lost the relaxed moments between in-person meetings that allowed her to speak with members of her team in an organic way, leaving her feeling disconnected.
“Whatever your situation may be, understanding how you are managing your energy is the first step to kick-starting new habits to help you consistently be at your best.”
When we feel stuck with our energy, we often start trying to figure out how we can get ‘more’ or ‘better’. Yet, the question I invite you to ask is, ‘How can you optimize how you use your energy each day?’ It takes building new habits, and it starts with understanding where you are right now. How Optimally Are You Using Your Energy? Whatever your situation may be, understanding how you are managing your energy is the first step to kick-starting new habits to help you consistently be at your best. Through Personal Energy Management, we do this through ‘mini-habits’: small, beneficial practices that you can insert between existing habits – like brushing your teeth, making coffee, or opening your computer – to start the change that you want for yourself. To do that, I created an ‘Energy Check’ to help you establish where you stand and where you can go from here by showing how you take care of your energy through fifty key indicators. Click here to take the Energy Check. After taking this anonymous, brief assessment, you will be able to download a self-debriefing report featuring questions, further information, and effective steps to get you on your way to creating new Mini-Habits aligned with where you want to feel change the most. How can you consistently be at your best when work and the world around is constantly changing? Understand what energises you and use that knowledge as a resilient foundation to prosper past this pandemic and beyond. ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
BIOGRAPHY
Francesca Giulia Mereu is an executive coach with more than 20 years’ experience and author of the book, ‘Recharge Your Batteries’. She regularly works with Frontline Humanitarian Negotiators (CCHN) and at IMD with senior leaders of global organisations. 11
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2021 GLOBAL MBA RANKINGS
he benefits attached to an MBA are well documented: career progression, networking opportunities, personal development, salary... and the list goes on. However, in an increasingly congested market, selecting the right business school can be difficult, which is far from ideal given the time and investment involved. Using a ranking system entirely geared and weighted to fact-based criteria, CEO Magazine aims to cut through the noise and provide potential students with a performance benchmark for those schools under review. Given the current climate, and in the absence of meaningful data, scores have been expressed as an average based upon data received over a four-year period (20172019/20).
Weighting of Data Points (full-time and part-time MBA)
Quality of Faculty:
34.95 %
International Diversity:
9.71%
Class Size:
9.71%
Accreditation:
8.74%
Faculty to Student Ratio: Price:
7.76% 5.83%
International Exposure:
4.85%
Work Experience:
4.85%
Professional Development:
4.85%
Gender Parity:
4.85%
Delivery methods:
5%
10 %
15 %
20 %
25 %
30 %
35 %
*EMBA Weighting: Work experience and international diversity are adjusted accordingly. **Online MBA Weighting: Delivery mode and class size are removed.
EUROPEAN MBA RANKINGS Business School Country AIX Marseille Graduate School of Management France Aston Business School UK Audencia Business school France Brunel Business School UK Business School Lausanne Switzerland Business School Netherlands The Netherlands City University: Cass UK Darmstadt Business School Germany Durham University Business School UK EBS Business School Germany École des Ponts Business School France Emlyon Business School France ESADE Business School Spain EU Business School Germany, Spain and Switzerland GBSB Global Business School Spain Grenoble Graduate School of Business France HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management Germany IFM University Switzerland ISEG Portugal
3.8% 0%
TIER ONE
Business School Country Lancaster Management School UK Leeds University Business School UK Maastricht School of Management The Netherlands Nebrija Business School Spain Newcastle University Business School UK Nyenrode Business University The Netherlands Politecnico di Milano School of Management Italy SBS Swiss Business School Switzerland The Lisbon MBA Catolica|Nova* Portugal Toulouse Business School France Toulouse Business School (with IMM Bangalore) India Trinity College Dublin School of Business Republic of Ireland UBIS University Switzerland United International Belgium, Italy Japan, Business Schools The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland University of Exeter UK University of Liverpool Management School UK University of Sheffield Management School UK
*Some data unavailable
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NORTH AMERICAN MBA RANKINGS Business School American University: Kogod Appalachian State University* Ashland University Auburn University: Harbert Baylor University: Hankamer Bentley University: McCallum Boston University: Questrom Butler University California State University-Chico California State University-Long Beach California State University-East Bay California State University-San Bernardino College of William and Mary: Mason Colorado Technical University Concordia University Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins Drake University Florida International University* Florida Southern College School of Business Fordham University George Washington University Georgia State University: Robinson Gonzaga University* HEC Montréal Hofstra University: Zarb* Hult Internatonal Business School Indiana University: Kelley Jacksonville University* Kennesaw State University Kent State University Loyola Marymount University Marquette University McMaster University: DeGroote Oakland University Pepperdine University: Graziadio Queens University of Charlotte Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Lally Rochester Institute of Technology: Saunders Saint Joseph's University: Haub Seattle University: Albers Simon Fraser University: Beedie Suffolk University: Sawyer Texas A&M University-College Station: Mays Texas Christian University: Neeley Texas State University: McCoy* The Global MBA (Dongbei University of Finance & Economics, Technische Hochschule Koeln, University of North Florida and University of Warsaw )
University of Akron
Country North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America Canada North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America Canada North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America Canada North America North America North America North America North America North America North America Canada North America North America North America North America China, Germany, North America and Poland North America
TIER ONE
Business School University of Alabama: Manderson University of Alberta University of Baltimore University of California at Davis University of California-San Diego: Rady University of Cincinnati: Lindner* University of Delaware: Lerner University of Denver: Daniels University of Hawaii-Manoa: Shidler University of Kentucky: Gatton University of Louisiana at Lafayette University of Louisville* University of Maine University of Massachusetts-Boston University of Massachusetts-Lowell University of Massachusetts-Amherst: Isenberg University of Memphis University of Michigan-Flint* University of Nebraska-Omaha University of New Mexico: Anderson* University of North Alabama University of North Carolina-Charlotte: Belk University of North Carolina-Wilmington: Cameron University of Oklahoma: Price University of Oregon: Lundquist University of Pittsburgh: Katz University of Portland: Pamplin University of Richmond: Robins University of South Florida: Muma University of Tampa: Sykes University of Texas at Arlington University of Texas-Dallas : Jindal University of Texas-San Antonio University of the Sciences University of West Georgia University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Lubar Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Tech: Pamplin Walsh College Willamette University: Atkinson Xavier University
Country North America Canada North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America
TIER TWO Bryant University* Fairfield University* Iowa State University Northwest Missouri State University University of North Texas University of San Diego*
North America North America North America North America North America North America *Some data unavailable
REST OF THE WORLD MBA RANKINGS Business School Auckland Institute of Studies Central Queensland University Griffith University IAE Business School INCAE Business School* La Trobe University Lagos Business School Macquarie Graduate School of Management Massey University National Chiao Tung University RMIT University Swinburne University of Technology The American University in Cairo
ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
Country New Zealand Australia Australia Argentina Costa Rica Australia Nigeria Australia New Zealand Taiwan Australia Australia Egypt
TIER ONE
Business School Country The Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) Mexico The University of Adelaide Australia The Univerisity of Newcastle Australia Australia Torrens University Australia Australia University of Canterbury New Zealand University of Chile FEN-CHILE Chile University of Otago Business School New Zealand University of Pretoria Gordon Institute of Business Science South Africa University of South Australia Australia University of Southern Queensland Australia University of Western Australia Business School Australia University of Wollongong Sydney Business School Australia Victoria Graduate School of Business Australia
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GLOBAL EXECUTIVE MBA RANKINGS Rank
Country
1 2 3 4 5 6
The Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) University of Ottawa: Telfer SBS Swiss Business School IFM University Switzerland Maastricht School of Management Global OneMBA
(Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV-EAESP); Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM); Tecnológico de Monterrey (EGADE); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC); and Xiamen University, School of Management (SMXMU))
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
City University: Cass Kennesaw State University University of Texas-San Antonio Emlyon Business School Grenoble Graduate School of Business University of Pretoria - Gordon Institute of Business Science South Africa Rutgers Business School North America Hult Internatonal Business School North America University of Denver: Daniels North America Business School Netherlands The Netherlands Swinburne University of Technology Australia Audencia Business school France Purdue University-West Lafayette: Krannert North America Business School Lausanne Switzerland INCAE Business School Costa Rica Maastricht University The Netherlands IMM Global Executive EMBA
(Purdue University-West Lafayette: Krannert, TIAS School for Business and Society Tilburg, North America, Tianjin University, the Netherlands, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV- EBAPE), China, Brazil, MIP Politecnico di Milano Italy and ISM University of Management and Economics) and Lithuania
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
The American University in Cairo Egypt Georgia State University: Robinson North America Massey University New Zealand Trinity College Dublin School of Business Republic of Ireland University of Wollongong Sydney Business School Australia University of Texas-Dallas: Jindal North America Kent State University North America Pepperdine University: Graziadio North America RMIT University Australia Concordia University Canada Baylor University: Hankamer North America Nyenrode Business University The Netherlands Simon Fraser University: Beedie EMBA & EMBA-IBL Canada IfM Institut für Management Austria United International Business Schools Switzerland Oakland University North America University of Nebraska-Omaha North America Virginia Commonwealth University North America
Rank
Country
42 Durham-EBS Executive MBA Mexico Canada Switzerland Switzerland The Netherlands
Brazil, China, Mexico, The Netherlands and North America UK North America North America France France
Germany and UK
43 Texas Christian University: Neeley
North America
44 University of California-San Diego: Rady
North America
45 University of Chile FEN-CHILE
Chile
46 Florida International University*
North America
47 Loyola Marymount University
North America
48 University of Oklahoma: Price
North America
49 California State University-East Bay
North America
50 Rochester Institute of Technology: Saunders
North America
51
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Chile
52 Villanova University
North America
53 Boston University: Questrom
North America
54 University of Texas at Arlington
North America
55 Washington State University: Carson
North America
56 IAE Business School
Argentina
57 The University of Alabama: Manderson
North America
58 University of Kentucky: Gatton 59 University of North Carolina-Wilmington: Cameron
North America
60 McMaster University: DeGroote
North America Canada
61 University of Oregon
North America
62 University of Tampa: Sykes
North America
63 Virginia Tech: Pamplin
North America
64 Fordham University
North America
65 University of Bradford School of Management UK and Dubai 66 Texas A&M University-College Station: Mays 67 Lagos Business School
Nigeria
68 University of Pittsburgh: Katz
North America
69 University of Alberta
Canada
70 Politecnico di Milano School of Management 71
North America
Jacksonville University*
Italy North America
72 University of South Florida: Muma
North America
73 Auburn University: Harbert
North America
74 ESADE Business School
Spain
75 University of Exeter
UK
76 Aston Business School*
UK
77 Saint Joseph's University: Haub
North America
78 College of William and Mary: Mason
North America
79 Iowa State University
North America
80 Crummer Graduate School of Business
at Rollins
North America
81 Suffolk University: Sawyer
North America
82 Seattle University: Albers
North America
83 Marquette University
North America
84 University of New Mexico: Anderson*
North America
85 California State University-Long Beach
North America
86 Xavier University
North America
87 University of Memphis
North America
88 The Lisbon MBA Catolica|Nova*
Portugal
89 Hofstra University: Zarb*
North America
90 University of North Alabama
North America
91 University of Lousiville*
North America
*Some data unavailable
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ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
GLOBAL ONLINE MBA RANKINGS Rank Country 1 EU Business School Germany, Spain and Switzerland 2 Business School Netherlands The Netherlands 3 SBS Swiss Business School Switzerland 4 OBS Business School Spain 5 Nebrija Business School Spain 6 United International Business Schools Switzerland 7 Maastricht University The Netherlands 8 University of Otago Business School New Zealand 9 Macquarie Business School Australia 10 Maastricht School of Management The Netherlands 11 University of Business and International Studies Switzerland 12 University of South Australia Australia 13 Politecnico di Milano School of Management: International Flex EMBA Italy 14 GBSB Global Business School Spain 15 Massey University New Zealand 16 University of Denver: Daniels North America 17 La Trobe University Australia 18 The EuroMBA (Aix-Marseille, Audencia Nantes, EADA, France, Spain, HHL Leipzig, Kozminski University Germany, Poland and the Netherlands and Maastrict University) 19 Jack Welch Management Institute North America 20 University of Bradford School of Management UK 21 Pepperdine University: Graziadio North America 22 Griffith University Australia 23 Politecnico di Milano School of Management: Flex EMBA Italy 24 The Open University* UK 25 RMIT University EMBA Australia 26 Durham University Business School* UK 27 Torrens University Australia Australia 28 Queens University of Charlotte North America 29 Colorado Technical University North America 30 University of Massachusetts-Lowell North America 31 Rochester Institute of Technology: Saunders North America 32 Georgia WebMBA (Columbus State University, Georgia College, Georgia Southern University, Kennesaw State University, University of West Georgia, Valdosta State University) North America 33 University of the Sciences North America 34 Washington State University: Carson North America 35 Ashland University North America 36 University of Massachusetts-Amherst: Isenberg North America 37 University of North Carolina-Wilmington: Cameron (MBA & EMBA) North America 38 University of Southern Queensland Australia 39 Aston Business School* UK =40 Marquette University North America
GLOBAL DBA LISTING Business School Aston Business School Baruch College, City University of New York: Zicklin Case Western Reserve: Weatherhead Cranfield School of Management DePaul University: Kellstadt Drexel University: LeBow Durham University Business School École des Ponts Business School EU Business School Florida International University GBSB Global Business School Georgia State University: Robinson Grenoble Graduate School of Business Harvard Business School IE Business School Jacksonville University Kennesaw State University: Coles Leeds University Business School
Rank =40 Florida Southern College School of Business 41 Central Queensland University 42 Victoria Graduate School of Business 43 Walsh College* 44 Baylor University: Hankamer 45 American University: Kogod 46 University of Maine 47 California State University-San Bernardino 48 University of Delaware: Lerner 49 George Washington University 50 University of Cincinnati: Lindner* 51 Saint Joseph's University: Haub EMBA 52 University of Kentucky: Gatton 53 University of Texas at Arlington 54 Saint Joseph's University: Haub 55 University of Baltimore 56 University of Pittsburgh: Katz 57 University of Exeter 58 University of Texas-Dallas : Jindal 59 Swinburne University of Technology 60 University of Memphis 61 Niagara University 62 College of William and Mary: Mason 63 Suffolk University: Sawyer 64 Kent State University 65 Bentley University: McCallum 66 University of South Florida: Muma 67 Drake University 68 Virginia Commonwealth University 69 Seattle University: Albers 70 Appalachian State University* 71 Oakland University 72 California State University-Long Beach 73 Xavier University 74 DePaul University: Kellstadt 75 University of Louisville* 76 Kennesaw State University 77 University of Michigan - Flint 78 Florida International University* 79 University of Louisiana at Lafayette 80 Hofstra University: Zarb* 81 Auburn University: Harbert 82 Indiana University: Kelley* 83 University of North Alabama 84 The Univerisity of Newcastle Australia 85 University of North Texas 86 Jacksonville University* 87 Bryant University* 88 The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 89 Northwest Missouri State University
Country North America Australia Australia North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America UK North America Australia North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America North America Australia North America North America North America North America North America
Based upon accreditation, quality of faculty, geography, and international standing, this year’s Global DBA Listing is designed to showcase the market’s premier DBA providers.
Country UK North America North America UK North America North America UK France Pan-European North America Spain North America France North America Spain North America North America UK
Business School Maastricht School of Management Newcastle University Business School Nyenrode Business University Pepperdine University: Graziadio Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Rollins College: Crummer SBS Swiss Business School Temple University: Fox The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater United International Business Schools University of Bradford School of Management University of Dallas: Gupta University of Liverpool Management School University of Manchester: Alliance University of Missouri-St. Louis University of Pretoria-Gordon Institute of Business Science Washington University in St. Louis: Olin
Country The Netherlands UK The Netherlands North America Chile North America Switzerland North America North America Pan- European UK North America UK UK North America South Africa North America *Some data unavailable
ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
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IN A CONSTANTLY CHANGING WORLD, CAN THE MBA KEEP UP?
EU BUSINESS SCHOOL
Leaders need high levels of agility, awareness and experience to tackle the challenges and disruption of modern business. Can these skills be taught?
T
echnological advances are charging through the business landscape like an unstoppable juggernaut. Increasingly intelligent automation and machine learning are here to stay, as are the debates about the ethics of their application. Global, social and economic events disrupt business on an ongoing basis, with empowered consumers voting with their wallets in response to a hint of negative press that can spread across the globe within seconds.
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ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
And, of course, we’re dealing with the ongoing Covid pandemic. Despite positive strides in vaccination programmes, the virus and its new variants continue to surge in many countries. PWC’s 24th Annual Global CEO Survey 1 declared the Covid pandemic to be “an accelerator of transformation and amplifier of disruptive forces.” Most of the 5,050 global CEOs responding to the survey said they were anxious about “the trajectory of the pandemic, tax and regulatory policy uncertainty, and, to a slightly lesser extent, climate change.” The threat of cyberattack and the spread of misinformation were also cited as barriers to an economic comeback. Today’s leaders face a set of unprecedented challenges and ongoing disruption. Tax policy, trade disagreements, Brexit, the rise of populism and a growing shift towards localism; the leadership agenda is a long and often grim one. To take on such monumental tasks on a daily basis requires a very wide set of skills. A 2020 survey2 by leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles examined what companies are looking for in CEOs, ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
comparing criteria of appointments prepandemic (March 2020) and since. “Our findings indicate that companies have returned to the more traditional comfort zone of candidates, appointing more executives with prior CEO experience and a successful leadership track record; deprioritising, for the moment, advanced education and racial and ethnic, gender, or industry diversity,” say the report’s authors. Can you teach experience? Where does this shift leave traditional advanced management qualifications? How can a formal qualification like the MBA, with programmes planned months in advance, keep up with this pace of change? If the priority is on experience and leaders with the high levels of awareness and agility needed to respond to ongoing events, are these skills that can be taught? “Yes, they can,” says David Falzani, MBE, CEO at Polaris, President of Engineers in Business Fellowship and a Professor at Nottingham University. “A good MBA programme is delivered by both practitioners and researchers. The practitioners bring state 17
“Despite the trend towards appointing experienced global players, the skills advanced management education delivers are still very much in demand.”
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of the art insights, tools and perspectives, whilst the academic researchers bring analysis on overall trends, key changes and a glimpse into the future.” And, he adds, global disruption is not a new phenomenon. “The accelerating pace of change has been a continuous and important topic over the last 25 years.” Yassine Bakkari, who completed his MBA in Marketing at EU Business School (EU), believes that learning from faculty who have extensive business experience to complement their academic credentials is key to gaining real-world business knowledge and skills. “EU transformed my life. Although I was interested in business, I didn’t know what it really meant. Through the programme, I not only learned what business was, but I learned it in an environment where I could discuss my ideas with my peers and other professionals.” Markus Perkmann, academic director of the MBA at Imperial College Business School in London, agrees. “The world changes constantly, but our tools for interpreting and acting upon it do not change on a daily basis,” he says. “A key skill lies in being able to interpret global social and economic events and technological advances. What do these events mean for our business and what are the opportunities? This requires an executive, for instance, to master the framework of disruptive innovation or the foundations of sustainable advantage. It’s these kinds of skills that an MBA provides.”
Re-branding education as being prepared for a crisis Laurent Choain is head of people, culture and learning at global professional services firm Mazars. An expert in corporate educational strategy, Choain is responsible for 30,000 people in 93 countries. MBAs aren’t out of date, he says; they just need a re-brand. “We should reimagine management training as crisis management preparedness,” he says. “It’s not just a question of furnishing letters after a CEO’s name; of occasional attainment. It’s evidence of a commitment to consistent development through real-life education that needs to be captured and assessed. We need to build a corporate culture in which real-world professional training future-proofs a company not as a stand-alone strength, but as the beating heart that informs its decisions, fuelled by objective insights from outside the enterprise that resist the cosy eco-system of management-speak and company-think.” The tendency towards groupthink was used by the billionaire entrepreneur venture capitalist Peter Thiel as the very reason not to hire an MBA: “They will ruin your company,” he famously said. Thiel was the first outsider to invest in Facebook, founded by college dropout Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg’s fellow tech billionaire Bill Gates is also often cited as an example of why you don’t need an MBA to succeed; Gates dropped out of Harvard after two years to found Microsoft.
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“But he has six honorary doctorates,” points out Choain. “Developing this analogy, it was medical research that quickly found the vaccine. How could a cancer specialist function today with the learnings gained 20 years ago? Would greater management research have inoculated enterprise against unforeseen risk just as successfully? “Just as academia and practice coincide in a hospital, so should management research reconnect with management reality as we apply and recognise a new attitude to open-minded academic thinking inside our companies.” Carl Craen, vice president and managing director of EU Business School (EU), agrees that real-world training is crucial in business education: “We are continuously updating our programme portfolio and courses to meet the latest demands of industry and ensure our students are comprehensively prepared to become agile and creative leaders. As well as providing both real-world, practical experience and academic theory, we hone our students’ entrepreneurial thinking skills, which are essential for success in the rapidly evolving workplace of the future.” Changing trends According to industry research experts IBISWorld, the top 10 global industries by revenue include insurance, banking, manufacturing and energy. The common denominator and the one area on which all
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these industries rely is technology. It’s this sector which is seeing the biggest changes in demand, according to Nick Patterson, co-founder of strategic and commercial professional recruitment consultancy Movemeon.com. "Over the last ten years, we have seen trends change drastically,” he says. “We would regularly see employers demanding that potential applicants had an MBA. Now, that is very much the exception and not the rule. “This shift in priorities has been driven largely by the evolving business landscape, and the growth of VC-backed start-ups and tech companies. Over half the roles on movemeon.com are shared by VC-backed start-ups or scale-ups. Of the corporates we work with, the majority are now in a techrelated space. “These businesses are thriving because they're able to be agile and disruptive. As such, their leaders are valuing experience in the field over education. Now, the demand is for candidates who can do much more than just identify the issues; they need people who have experienced similar challenges associated with scaling and disruption firsthand." But if experience is valued over education, and candidates are expected to have dealt with challenges on a global scale, what’s the entry path that will take them to a leadership role?
“The faculty is formed of academics with extensive business experience, and the curriculum emphasises case studies, company visits and prestigious guest speaker events that give students the chance to connect with world-class business leaders.”
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“The role of the MBA in responding to real-world developments isn’t just to educate leaders but to transform the lives of those they deal with.”
PROFILE
Established in 1973, EU Business School (EU) is an international, professionally accredited, highranking business school with campuses in Barcelona, Geneva, Montreux, Munich and online. We offer English taught foundation, bachelor’s, master’s and MBA programmes.
Learning to learn Susy Roberts, founder of executive leadership coaching group Hunter Roberts, works with global leaders in sectors including technology, hospitality and retail. She says we need to rethink the career path and channel experience into education. “A decade or so ago we reached a stage where MBAs had become the accepted route straight from university and people didn’t have the level of practical business experience they needed to make the most of what they were learning,” she says. “Any academic qualification is useful because it builds skills and knowledge. But what I think is much more useful is having the practical experience to apply to what you’re learning.” The value, she says, lies in gaining a thorough working knowledge of business and operations, taking sideways moves if necessary, and then developing that with an advanced management qualification. “You need to take a deep dive into the structure of a business and know how it operates on a practical level,” she says. “When you can apply that to what you’re learning, you can utilise the expertise and knowledge you gain from your professors to really fine hone your skills, develop your agility and think critically about how you grow as a leader.” At EU Business School, the experiential learning methodology is fundamental to their forward-thinking business education. The faculty is formed of academics with extensive business experience, and the curriculum emphasises case studies, company visits and prestigious guest speaker events that give students the chance to connect with worldclass business leaders from Paul Polman, now CEO and Chair of Imagine and formerly the CEO of Unilever, to Zev Siegel, the co-founder of Starbucks. Jesse Bak, currently studying an MBA in Entrepreneurship at the EU Business School campus in Barcelona, believes that “Alongside the development of my critical thinking, which was the fundamental reason I applied for the MBA programme, it also sharpens my entrepreneurial thinking and adaptability for the future business environment”. The customer perspective The role of the MBA in responding to real-world developments isn’t just to educate leaders but to transform the lives of those they deal with. That’s the view of Seán Meehan, professor of marketing and change management and dean of the MBA programme at IMD Business School and author of The Customer Copernicus: How to be Customer-Led.
“What sets great MBAs apart is their ability to see the business as a servant to society taking an outside-in perspective and rethinking processes from the customer perspective,” he says. “With this outside-in clarity of purpose, adapting quickly and appropriately to sudden developments is a distinctive competence. The competence isn’t forecasting; predicting what to react to. It’s having the organisation designed to serve the customer in a way that creates value for them and then having the ability to adapt to new circumstances so that you can continue to serve the same role. “We must stop thinking of disruption as an excuse for temporary or longer-term underperformance. The scientific progress we’ve made on so many fronts ensures disruption is the norm. MBAs need to be prepared for that. The big switch for MBAs and all leaders is from the dominant and convenient inside-out thinking that has prevailed for decades to a more enlightened outside-in way of looking at the world.” Increased visibility The EU Business School says that MBA applications are already on a level with 2019 and set to surpass pre-pandemic levels. Despite the trend towards appointing experienced global players, the skills advanced management education delivers are still very much in demand. The reason is simple, says James Berry, director of the UCL MBA. “If you are driving a car at 70km an hour and your headlights only go 15 meters in front of you, you have very little time to react to the road ahead. “Having an MBA is like having really powerful headlights. It delivers a far better capability to see the twists and turns that are coming, judge possible disruptions and take advantage of long-range opportunities.” For graduates, the increased visibility also comes from the badge of honour the MBA provides. It proves a level of commitment and ability that open up access to places that may otherwise be out of reach. “In essence, getting my MBA told my potential employer (MediaMath) that I was capable and came with a certain set of skills they knew I had to have acquired through my business studies,” says Zlatka Ruseva, who completed an MBA with the EU Business School in 2014. “The most valuable thing I learned was focus and discipline, and discipline means freedom. It opened the doors to where I am today.”
1 https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-agenda/ceosurvey/2021/report.html 2 https://www.heidrick.com/Knowledge-Center/Publication/Route_to_the_Top_2020
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A f f o r dabl e
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Georgia WebMBA is a consortium of six universities: Columbus State University • Georgia College • Kennesaw State University • Georgia Southern University • University of West Georgia • Valdosta State University ceo-mag.com / Winter 2022
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STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD: THE KSU EMBA A L E X A N D R A S K I N N E R TA L K S TO TH E C O L E S C O L L EG E O F B U S I N E S S AT K E N N E S AW S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
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“From the very beginning, what is learned in an EMBA programme can be instantly applied in the workplace resulting in increased responsibility, promotions and therefore an increase in salary.”
Q. How has Kennesaw State University (KSU) adapted to the current climate in terms of teaching and delivery? At the beginning of the pandemic, both the university and the faculty did a tremendous job of quickly pivoting to virtual learning. Our Executive MBA (EMBA) programme was only virtual for a few months before transitioning back to inperson classes utilising larger classrooms and COVID-19 protocols. We did have a few students that remained virtual due to health concerns, and they were provided with a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous options. The students entering the programme in the Fall of 2020 were not able to have their opening residency retreat, which plays an important part in the teaming process and helps the teams and class to bond early in the programme. The graduating class was not able to go on their international residency to Panama and conducted their global business consulting projects virtually; however, they will be given the opportunity to join the class of 2022 on their international residency if desired. Q. We’ve talked in the past about disruptive innovation shaping both the MBA marketplace and industry in the wider sense, but nothing has been as disruptive as the current pandemic. What does the current climate mean for executive education and, specifically, the EMBA going forward? The pandemic quickly forced everyone (corporations and universities) to ensure that their employees had the technological ability to work remotely and that their services could be delivered remotely. With respect to executive education and the EMBA, in many cases, universities were forced to deliver programmes online that had traditionally only been offered in-person. What the pandemic taught us was that it is fairly easy to morph from face-to-face teaching to online learning without losing the discussion interaction. The potential loss of these rich discussions would have been more disruptive to our students than anything else. We have always been a technology-forward programme where, aside from lectures and team meetings, all other aspects of the programme are facilitated online. Q. What does this mean for the future? I think we will see a trend at least toward more hybrid programmes, if not a full push toward online EMBA programmes because it can be done with the right technological infrastructure in place. Going forward, this will increase competition as geographic borders will no longer be an issue.
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“Students will be challenged with curriculum and professional development activities that broaden their business perspective and hone in on their innate abilities to increase their leadership skills.”
PROFILE
The KSU Executive MBA at the Coles College of Business teaches leadership and business acumen and digs deep to uncover its students' strengths, goals, and personal brand. Coles offers cutting–edge global teaming, programme-long executive coaching, and an integrated curriculum designed for professionals ready to advance their careers.
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Q. Does this mean demand for on-campus programmes is waning? While there are discussions amongst EMBA programmes regarding offering online and hybrid programmes, the appetite for inperson programmes is still strong and may be even stronger in the future as people continue to experience ‘zoom fatigue’. There is also a generational issue - as the pandemic fades, we will see the older EMBA generation (Gen X) wanting to be face-to-face again. However, the Millennial generation is pushing for greater online opportunities, and therefore a hybrid type model will become more prominent in the EMBA industry. Q. With job security an ongoing concern, upskilling has moved to the top of the list for working professionals, especially for those wanting to pivot or hedge against redundancy. To this end, what can the EMBA offer in regards to futureproofing one’s career? For the KSU EMBA programme, it’s the horizontally integrated education they receive. They obtain the ability to acquire skills across all functional areas of business, not just in one or two, which broadens their knowledge of how a business should function properly. On top of functional areas, students also receive leadership, teaming, coaching, and consulting curriculum, which many EMBA programmes do not offer. This differentiates not only the KSU EMBA programme but the students in the programme, allowing for an overall increase in upskilling and making students more marketable for future opportunities. Q. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s Application Trends Survey, there was a spike in MBA applications last year. Whilst this is not surprising, given current economic instability, it does mean that there will be a larger pool of MBA graduates on the other side of the pandemic. With this in mind, how important is it for students to try and differentiate themselves, and can they do that with an EMBA? The more branding an individual can do, the greater their chances of increasing their marketability and differentiation within the job market. There are so many job candidates out there with the exact same skills, so an Executive MBA degree is a great way for an individual to differentiate themselves from other candidates with more traditional MBA degrees. The KSU EMBA takes a holistic leader approach to professional development so our
students have the much sought-after leadership skills, teaming skills, and coaching skills that will propel them to the top of the resume pile. Q. There is no question that the pandemic has changed the business landscape. To what extent has this informed your EMBA curriculum, career advice, and support? The support we offer our students and alumni has always been a strong suit of the KSU EMBA programme. We are always available to help our students navigate their career paths so that they can achieve their goals. We have modified our curriculum and career advice for our current students and alumni to focus on increased differentiation and sought-after leadership capabilities that will allow them to stand out. We are also currently not requiring our students to be employed full-time. This is in direct response to the pandemic and the fact that many prospective students have unfortunately lost their jobs. However, our programme can provide the knowledge and skills to help these individuals find their next career. The networking aspect of the programme can also be very beneficial. Q. In spite of the pandemic, according to the Executive MBA Council, EMBA graduates enjoyed compensation increases of 14.1 per cent in 2020. Will this continue, what is this reflective of, and what does this say about the EMBA in terms of ROI? EMBA graduates have always enjoyed a strong return on education. This is largely due to the curriculum of EMBA programmes, which combines high-level business acumen with leadership and strategic planning. From the very beginning, what is learned in an EMBA programme can be instantly applied in the workplace resulting in increased responsibility, promotions and, therefore, an increase in salary. Another reason for the strong ROI of EMBA programmes is that the majority of EMBA students have been identified as high-potential employees within their company and are therefore already positioned for success. Q. What can students expect from the KSU EMBA going forward? Students can expect the same high-quality, high-touch programme alumni have always experienced. In addition, students will be challenged with curriculum and professional development activities that broaden their business perspective and hone in on their innate abilities to increase their leadership skills.
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eeo
HOW EMPLOYEES CAN BECOME BETTER ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENS
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F
ood Co., a pseudonym for a large food processing plant in the Northeast, had been operating successfully for several years when the plant manager realized he had a problem he couldn’t solve alone.
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The employees did their jobs well, but they didn’t seem to care much about taking care of each other. Workers were reluctant to call out unsafe practices when they witnessed them and rarely offered a helping hand when it was needed. “The plant manager said to me, ‘I want people to do the right thing when no one is watching,’ recalled Wharton management professor Michael Parke. “Well, that’s organizational citizenship.” That conversation led to a yearlong field experiment for Parke and his colleagues that not only helped transform the culture at Food Co., it also proved their theory that both supervisors and peers can be powerful agents of change when they are allowed to intervene at different times of the change process. According to the study, supervisors are more effective at guiding change early in the process, when there is greater uncertainty and confusion about the new standards of behavior, while peers are effective later in the process, when the standards are better understood by everyone. “Peer-led and supervisor-led role interventions can complement one another, especially in the later stages of change,” Parke noted. The paper, “Creating Organizational Citizens: How and When SupervisorVersus Peer-led Role Interventions Change Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The co-authors are Subrahmaniam Tangirala, management professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, and Insiya Hussain, assistant management professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. What Is Organizational Citizenship? Parke explained organizational citizenship as a range of behaviors that promote the social environment of the workplace. “It’s all the things that aren’t task performance that contribute to the organization, its culture, and that benefit the team,” including behaviors like showing up on time, not taking unnecessary sick days, being a team player, volunteering to help, and speaking up. These behaviors aren’t always codified, which is why they can be hard to incentivize. But now, Parke said, more organizations are including them as part of their stated values and are trying 30
“Supervisors have the most influence at the beginning of the process because they can use their authority and legitimacy to set direction, clarify confusion, and answer questions, but they need to know when to cede control to employees.”
to recognize and reward employees who embody them. That’s what Food Co. did during the experiment. Working with the professors, the plant managers identified seven behaviors they wanted to amplify: Help others, Take initiative, Give 100%, Be safe, Be clean, Speak ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
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“When I’m teaching students about building culture, I often tell them you need to annoy people with how much you live your culture.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Republished with permission from Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge. wharton.upenn. edu), the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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they’ll respect you and understand that it’s up, and Be respectful. These behaviors were important.” nicknamed the “Food Co. 7” and became everpresent through the course of the experiment Implications for Managers — they were either printed on a worksheet A key takeaway from the research is that or a badge that was carried by participants in creating, communicating, and implementing three of the four study groups. (The fourth interventions — then measuring their impact group was a control group.) Also, in half — can be an effective way to drive behavioral the experimental conditions, teams had change and make better organizational “engagement meetings” where they would citizens. But equally important is the timing review the Food Co. 7 as a team and discuss of these practices involved in the intervention. two examples of people living out those values Supervisors have the most influence at the and solicit feedback for ways the team or beginning of the process because they can company could improve further on them. use their authority and legitimacy “I think that’s what’s cool about to set direction, clarify confusion, our jobs. We can do intervention and answer questions, but they need research with companies that want to know when to cede control to to change the culture,” Parke said. employees. “One common mistake we tried to It can be tricky for supervisors to avoid in this study is how managers “They have seize key moments of empowerment implementing change often think they don’t recognize them, Parke and communicate about the change great values and ifsaid. But they can learn to read the so broadly and abstractly. They signs, such as employees becoming have great values and inspirational inspirational more comfortable speaking up in quotes and great belief systems that quotes and great meetings or correcting problems can help give meaning, but these before the supervisor has to step in. often fail to translate into the day-to- belief systems “It’s almost like being a parent. day jobs and work of employees. We that can help give You have to give kids the chance to wanted to reverse-engineer it.” self-lead. You have to give teams the The initial reaction to the meaning, but chance to self-lead,” he said. “The proposal was mixed. Some more you’re mindful of that process, employees were on board from the these often fail and make minor encouragements start, while others felt it was silly, to translate into and adjustments if they fail to selfirrelevant, or a waste of time. But correct, over time they will start to with consistent messaging and the day-to-day take ownership and you won’t need accountability, the culture slowly jobs and work of to intervene as much.” began to turn. The researchers Timing is so important that measured a 25% increase in employees.” the professors found that the organizational citizenship behavior peer-led interventions actually over the year, and the Food Co. 7 interfered with the supervisor-led eventually became part of employee interventions when both occurred performance reviews. Supervisors early in the change process. Parke reported that employees were said mixed signals were likely to taking ownership of problems blame for the failure. “This message and proactively addressing them, alignment among multiple groups of change like cleaning up trash instead of waiting for agents can take time to resolve,” he noted. “It’s someone else to do it. Meanwhile, employees almost like dance work. Who’s leading? Who’s said they felt empowered to speak up, like following?” reminding someone to put on the proper Although the study was done in a safety gear before performing a dangerous production setting, Parke thinks it may work task. even more efficiently in a knowledge work Parke said the study exemplifies how environment, where there may be less of repetition and practice are paramount to a structured hierarchy, and feedback and culture transformation. collaboration are the norm. With a similar “When I’m teaching students about intervention, those who work in professional building culture, I often tell them you need to offices may have fewer barriers to adopting annoy people with how much you live your new citizenship behaviors, he said. culture,” he said. “They’ll be annoyed, but
ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
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TAKE ACTION NOW TO SAFEGUARD YOUR OWN SUSTAINABILITY GEORGE KOHLRIESER
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A
wareness, acceptance and action – these are the three vital steps needed to make sure that you can perform at your optimum. Think of sustainability and what comes to mind? For most of us, it’s global warming, preserving ecosystems, or protecting natural resources. How often do we think of personal sustainability or our sustainability as a leader? Not enough, generally. It is especially important for leaders to reflect not only on externals, involving the planet, but also about themselves and their followers. What is personal sustainability? It means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to thrive, which we pass on through our legacy. Resilience and inspiration are essential components. Yes, we can develop those skills, this is a talent rather than an innate characteristic or trait. Understanding yourself and being more aware of your needs and surroundings are crucial to fostering sustainable leadership and avoiding mental and physical deterioration. When the Olympic gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from several events at the Tokyo Games, some carped. But others praised her honesty and courage in recognizing her boundaries and needs.
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“Sustainable performance is often ill-defined or even misunderstood. A major component is individual resilience and the ability to recover quickly from failures and losses.”
BIOGRAPHY
George Kohlrieser is an organizational and clinical psychologist. He is Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour at IMD and consultant to several global companies including Accenture, Amer Sports, Borealis, Cisco, Coca-Cola, HP, Hitachi, IBM, IFC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Morgan Stanley, Motorola, NASA, Navis, Nestlé, Nokia, Pictet, Rio Tinto, Roche, Santander, Swarovski, Sara Lee, Tetra Pak, Toyota, and UBS. 36
Sustainable performance is often ill-defined or even misunderstood. A major component is individual resilience and the ability to recover quickly from failures and losses. The “Constant biggest challenge to both is change learning is an – itself constant and inevitable. Awareness, acceptance and action important way are key parts of addressing change to remain constructively. We all know people who have motivated, experienced loss, “never got over it” inspired and and suffer serious consequences of illness, burnout or even premature engaged. New death as a result – hardly good discoveries can examples of sustainability. On the other hand, there are also many help people find cases of people who have overcome unimaginable losses and recovered greater meaning their inspiration and joie de vivre. and purpose in Dr Edith Eger, the American psychologist, Auschwitz survivor life. And learning and leadership mentor, has written should include extensively about these themes in her bestselling memoirs. pursuits that are Remember that acceptance is not the same as resignation. As not necessarily Eger puts it: “We all have a story, comfortable.” but I refuse to be my story. I was victimized, but I am not a victim.” It is essential to retain your sense of personal power. Research shows resilience, and the ability to recover fully, can be maintained and reinforced based on four practical pillars of wellbeing: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. The first is relatively straightforward and can be addressed largely by staying fit through exercise, diet and adequate sleep. The others present different challenges, touching on issues of personality and belief. Emotional awareness encompasses shame, guilt, anger, depression and fear as well as, by contrast, joyfulness. Sustainability also embraces broader themes, such as finding positivity in mindset and achieving work-life balance. Spiritual sustainability involves finding the purpose, meaning and trust in your life. What can be done to develop such attributes? Developing resilience and wellbeing involves more than simply the accumulation of money and things. Throughout life we are redefining what matters to us, including how we serve family, community and the broader world. Personal and work setbacks during the current pandemic have highlighted more than ever how important it is to focus on the present. The past is written in stone and can’t be changed. What can be changed, however, is how we think about our past, especially
the lessons learned. Gratitude is important too: remembering what we have, rather than regretting what we don’t. Constant learning is an important way to remain motivated, inspired and engaged. New discoveries can help people find greater meaning and purpose in life. And learning should include pursuits that are not necessarily comfortable. Absorb these lessons and the chances are you’ll boost your sustainability, resilience and leadership ability. The great gift of life is to be alive and to protect life for future generations. How much time do you place on your personal sustainability?
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Economics & Management
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TO FIND YOUR DREAM CAREER, SHOW YOUR UNCONSCIOUS WHO’S BOSS
I
KYUNG MIN
n a 2010 Deloitte survey, 80 percent of workers reported unhappiness in their jobs. In another survey, 52 percent said they would start over if they could. Yet the number of resignations remained very low until the pandemic hit. Why do so many people hesitate to leave unfulfilling careers?
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Research suggests that your intimates – spouses, bosses, close friends and parents – hinder your transition. Hermina Ibarra argued, “When it comes to reinventing yourself, people who know you best are also the ones most likely to hinder rather than help.” She highlighted that they would pressure you to stay the same, even by saying, “You are out of your mind.” But the real story is much more complex. As Kyung Min found while studying the voluntary career transitions of 23 executives for her Executive Master in Change (EMC) thesis at INSEAD, the perceived social pressure is often partly, if not wholly, conjured in the minds of the career-changers themselves. With the proper understanding, they can prevent feeling swamped and stymied by these negative emotions.
“In another survey, 52 percent said they would start over if they could. Yet the number of resignations remained very low until the pandemic hit.”
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Social pressure in mind Some of Kyung’s interviewees proceeded with their transition without being hindered by their intimates’ adverse reactions, whereas others were affected despite support and encouragement. One executive recalled his peers telling him, “I admire you so much for your courage to become an entrepreneur.” Rather than feeling emboldened, he perceived pressure to match their admiration. It suggests that how others react to your transition doesn’t matter. How you interpret their reaction does. The root is not in the other’s response but instead, in your internal struggles, heightened by unconscious fears and anxiety about what others will think, say and do. An aggravating factor can be a complicated history with the person from whom you’re seeking support; for instance, a critical father, a mother who has been treating you as a trophy child, or a friend who’s been envious of you. The unconscious ambush When approaching your close friends and family, you have certain expectations about how they might respond. It’s a product of your past relationship patterns etched with hidden motivations and beliefs. For instance, if you remember your dad as critical of you, that memory makes you anticipate more of the same, influencing your emotions and behaviours. With this tension in play, the more you get anxious or under pressure, the more you become defensive. Freud defined these mental models and behavioural coping responses as defence mechanisms, such as projection, denial or avoidance. The tricky part is that you are not aware of what’s going on. Once triggered, the next thing you do is interpret the response in a way that justifies your provoked emotions. Examples from ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
the interviews: “My parents would’ve been happier if I had a normal job”; “I believed my friends disliked my transition as they always expected me to be a corporate executive”; or “My father wouldn’t have cared anyhow because I was a failure to him.” These interpretations are, by nature, a predictionbased judgment. You are aware of “what” you are judging, but “why” you interpret that way seems unknown. Such an automatic process serves the unconscious motivation to justify your feelings, at the risk of developing ego defences, distorted thoughts or projections. But, watch out. These defensive responses work to stimulate you further, establishing your beliefs that ‘they’ are hindering you. This influences your future approach to them and can develop into a toxic process with ongoing vicious cycles. The result is unconscious selfsabotage.
self-image at different stages of your life: at age six, sixteen and when you started your career. For instance, a charming trophy daughter who kept parents proud and happy or a straight-A performer. How you see yourself in relation to others can mirror your experience of the relationship. Therefore, this exercise helps you to review your history in relationships and to identify triggers and recurrent patterns. In doing so, you can make sense of how it influences your perceived social pressure and thus increase self-control.
2. Practice impulse control We call our sudden drives to react an “impulse”. If your impulse is activated, you are more likely to “act out”, riding on the highway to an unconscious spiral. When triggered, try to hold your emotional response and do a quick reality test. Look for objective data to verify your thoughts and feelings. Challenge your interpretation by asking hard questions such as, “How do I know my dad meant it that way? What’s the data to suggest it?” A practice “As you disrupt of impulse control is central to your long-held managing your behaviours and emotions, preventing you from professional falling into invisible traps.
Taking personal control of pressure Of course, not all social pressure is a figment of your imagination. It may be real, in whole or in part. Nonetheless, you get to control how you process it. As you disrupt your long-held professional identity and shared identity and history, your loved ones may feel as uncomfortable as you do. Whether 3. Step into your transitional space shared history, well-intended or otherwise, any A moment of struggle might still your loved ones sign during interactions can trigger return. Creating inner transitional you. And very often, we interpret space to meditate might help you to may feel as the other’s discomfort or concern keep track of your internal dialogue. as disappointment or disapproval. uncomfortable as This purposeful introspection can It’s crucial to exercise empathy and raise your awareness of why you remember that the proposed change you do.” feel and think the way you do. You in your life can affect those close can create the transitional space to you. What matters most is your anytime, anywhere, as long as you ability to stay in control of your can concentrate. For example, agency against the unconscious you can be mindful when you’re mental hijack. It’s about knowing walking, breathing in fresh air, and what lies beneath your feelings and thoughts not just in the yoga studio. so you can manage it better. You can also harness reflective social interactions to co-create a transitional “Acting-in” space – working with someone neutral What can you do about the unconscious as a sounding board – and explore both threat? Here are ways you can clear your conscious and unconscious. For example, mental space and increase your self-control, the EMC programme is designed to provide namely “act-in” strategies. a psychologically safe and supportive space for participants to look within and examine aspects of their unconscious that would go 1. Know your triggers and patterns unnoticed in everyday life. Each of us has a history in terms of the In summary, the unconscious manifests social role we play in relationships – for in our lives. It has significant implications example with family or with peers. Your for our experience of social pressure at work behavioural and emotional patterns prevail in and in life, during career transitions and how you interact with these people, often at beyond. This awareness won’t liberate you the cost of unconscious drama. Knowing your from the unconscious, but it will help you be triggers is a first step to avoid these patterns. the conscious creator of your life and career One of the tools coaches use with clients journey. is a “role biography exercise”. You draw your ceo-mag.com / Autumn 2021
BIOGRAPHIES
Kyung Min (INSEAD EMC ‘20) is a change management consultant and coach. Erik van de Loo is an Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. He is also a programme director of the Executive Master in Change (EMC), an executive degree programme at INSEAD. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This article is republished courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge. insead.edu). Copyright INSEAD 2021. 41
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MEN AND MINORITY INVESTORS ARE TAKING MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS WAV E R LY D E U T S C H
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“With more women creating venture funds to encourage female entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of their journeys, more deals are being done at the top of the funnel.”
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everal recent studies point out that the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a greater toll on women in the workforce than on men. In this respect, the startup world is no different. A December 2020 headline from Crunchbase News tells the story: “Global VC funding to female founders dropped dramatically this year.” This in the same time frame during which global VC investments grew 15 percent year over year, to $259 billion, and US investments reached an all-time high of $130 billion, according to a PwC and CB Insights report. When I last wrote about female founders and how much venture capital they received versus male founders (“What venture capitalists can learn from ‘racist’ rats”), women-only teams were getting a paltry 2.6 percent of the VC dollars, while all-male teams took home 87 percent. I wondered: How much lower could it go? Digging into the data, I learned that investment in female-only founding teams hit a high-water mark in 2019—of 3.4 percent of VC dollars, before falling to 2.4 percent in 2020. Funding to mixed-gendered founding teams dropped from 13 percent in 2017 to 9 percent in 2020, which still leaves an astounding 87 percent of funding going to all-male founding teams. VCs invest in people who look like themselves, and data indicate that they do this even though it hurts portfolio performance. Research by Harvard’s Paul Gompers and Silpa Kovvali finds that VCs that increased their proportion of female-partner hires by 10 percent saw, on average, a 1.5 percent improvement in annual fund returns and a nearly 10 percent increase in profitable exits. Nevertheless, women appear to have made little to no progress in venture capital in the past four years, despite the persistence in the industry of the buzzword diversity. According to research conducted by Deloitte, the National Venture Capital Association, and Venture Forward this past March, the number of venture firms with diversity initiatives increased from 24 percent in 2016 to 43 percent in 2020. Forty-one percent of the VCs interviewed reported that their limited partners—the high-net-worth individuals, pension funds, family offices, corporate investment arms, and other institutions that supply the capital that VC funds invest—now asked about their diversity strategies. The same report indicates that women
currently make up 23 percent of investment professionals and 16 percent of the partners at venture firms, up from 9 percent of partners 20 years ago—although research from Women in VC, a global community of women venture investors, suggests that the actual percentage of female VC partners may be much lower, finding that just shy of 5 percent of VC partners are women. Why haven’t these initiatives and new cohorts of women investors affected the funding going to female founders? Maybe they have, just in a surprising way, producing results yet to be seen in the data. ‘Sisters are doin’ it for themselves’ In response to this situation, many women appear to be going out on their own. As the Eurythmics song goes, “Sisters are doin’ it for themselves.” Some 140 new women-led investment funds launched in the past four years, more than doubling the number that existed before 2017, according to the Women in VC report. Half of the women partners in the survey said they had started their own firm. These emerging managers, as the VC industry calls new fund managers, are investing from small first funds and are heavily focused on seed- and early-stage deals. In March 2021, I had a chance to engage with a dozen of these women to find out what motivated their decisions to start their own venture firms. Most are fairly new to the game, having launched their funds in 2020 or 2021, with the oldest firm dating to 2015. All but one of the women are focused on seed- and early-stage investing. A third are investing from small funds, with less than $10 million, but two of them are on a second or third fund with assets under management of $21 million to $50 million. The remainder manage funds that have $10 million–$20 million. These women have invested in 174 portfolio companies so far, and several have seen successful exits, with one reporting that her fund had already invested in two unicorns (private companies with valuations of over $1 billion). Despite the fact that only three of the investors have a gender-specific investment thesis, 64 percent of the startups in this portfolio group have a female founder, and 18 percent have an underrepresented minority (Black, Latinx, or indigenous) founder. All told, their aggregate portfolio shows a very different profile from the traditional VC industry.
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Building up their own funds While the venture-capital industry as a whole has made poor headway in terms of leadership diversity over the past decade, the number of funds started by women or by Black or Latinx founders has risen considerably.
275 VC funds led by women By time of formation 300
140 funds started over 2017-20
280 260 240 220 200 180 160
117 started over 2010-16
140 120 100 80 60 40
18 started over 1999-2009
20 20 20
18 20
16 20
14 20
12 20
10 20
08 20
20
06
04 20
02 20
00 20
19
98
0
“If Gartner is correct, it appears that— the established industry’s lip service to diversity notwithstanding —a truly diverse startup ecosystem is now developing in the hands of women, minorities, and A.I.”
Deutsch, 2021; Women in VC, 2020 A Flourish chart
55 VC funds with Black or Latinx founders By time of formation 60
16 funds started over 2017-20
55 50 45
29 funds started over 2010-16
40 35 30 25 20 15
10 funds started over 1999-2009
10 5 20 20
18 20
20 16
14 20
12 20
20 10
08 20
06 20
04 20
02 20
00 20
19
98
0
Deutsch, 2021 A Flourish chart
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Two-thirds of these investors considered joining an existing VC firm before launching their own funds, but chose to go it on their own for a variety of reasons. Nearly half mentioned wanting to build their own company and be the decision maker rather than join someone else’s firm and have less say in the investment thesis or process. Others were aware that they had nontraditional backgrounds that would not get them in the door at most VC firms. Even when women have a more typical VC résumé, it is difficult for them to be seen in the same light as male candidates. For example, one woman who had experience in commercial banking and several years of corporate venture investing was asked by a company where she interviewed if she would consider an investorrelations job instead of one on the investment team. All of the women I spoke with expressed how difficult it is to raise money for their funds. Their early LPs tended to be highnet-worth individuals. In one case, several early investors were successful founders the woman had worked with at previous venture funds, and they wanted to back her when she went out on her own. Another was financed by a single LP, a family office with a mission of supporting women entrepreneurs. One woman told me that raising her first fund required more than 1,000 conversations. Many said that LPs (especially larger foundations, corporate investors, and pension funds) frequently commented that the women’s funds were too small and didn’t have enough of a track record, and two stressed that most institutional investors won’t look at emerging female VCs unless they have been partners at large, top VC firms. The impact of emerging managers What has this surge of new women-led VC funds meant for female entrepreneurs? Despite a 25 percent decline in overall funding to women-only startup teams, the number of deals done declined by only 18 percent. With more women creating venture funds to encourage female entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of their journeys, more deals are being done at the top of the funnel—the earliest startup stages—where the amount of capital deployed is the smallest. But that early financing can make all the difference between hitting key milestones and failing to launch. The female investors I interviewed said they had no trouble finding good deals. Their
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diverse paths to venture capital gave them strong networks that were different from their male counterparts’, plus the female entrepreneurs they were meeting had a lot of difficulty getting in front of the guys. At the same time, a couple of them noted that once female entrepreneurs had achieved significant milestones in their businesses, it was too late for their own small funds to get into the round. The guys had taken notice of these successful companies and priced the young funds out of the deal. Anecdotally, this implies that if women-led VCs can nurture more female entrepreneurs through the early funding desert, more women-led companies will attract conventional growth-stage capital successfully. Of course, this remains to be seen. Women aren’t the only group of investors taking the issue of diversity into their own hands. Harlem Capital Partners, a Blackowned VC firm founded in 2015, conducted research to identify Black and Latinx venture capitalists, a rare breed that together account for only 7 percent of venture partners. Their report identifies 200 investors, of whom half are at the partner level in their funds. Unsurprisingly, 80 percent of the partners are at funds they themselves started, and from what I see, most of these funds have been created in the past decade. I was able to identify 55 Black- or Latinx-founded VC firms, all but 10 founded since 2010. Can we get beyond diversity lip service? When it comes to gender diversity, inertia seems to be the strongest force in this industry. According to the VC Diversity Index from the tech news site the Information, 41 of the 102 largest VC companies have zero women partners. The situation is even worse for underrepresented minority investors, as only 16 of those largest 102 companies have one or more Black or Latinx partners. The Deloitte report indicates an increase in female investment professionals over the past four years, but if the majority of the new underrepresented minority and women investment partners are self-made, are establishment VCs changing at all? The report also showcases the lack of change in the number of Black investment professionals, at 3 percent, and the decrease in Latinx investors, from 5 percent in 2018 to 4 percent in 2020. Some large LP investors have created emerging-manager programs and dedicated to them a small portion of their overall
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investment capital. However, considering that they often define emerging manager as any VC firm with fewer than three funds under its belt, they are still looking for a new VC firm to have a significant track record before they will consider an investment. And as several of the women I interviewed pointed out, when female and minority managers are shunted off to the emerging-manager program, they are kept away from the decision makers who write the biggest checks. These programs can also hide bias in how asset allocators evaluate emerging managers. Many LPs anticipate lower returns from these so-called emerging investments, perceiving them as riskier than allocations to established funds, even though first funds are more likely to see 25 percent or higher returns than later funds. Further, a group of researchers from Stanford and Illumen Capital modeled profiles of emerging managers raising their third venture fund, demonstrating that asset managers don’t perceive white and Black fund managers the same way. When submitting fictitious profiles to asset allocators for evaluation, they altered only the race of the managing partner. Profiles of successful funds, indicated by previous fund returns, the number of exits, and partner credentials, were given lower ratings on fund performance, investor skills, overall competence, social fit, expectations of how much the team would be able to raise, and likeliness that managers would take a meeting with the team when the managing partner was Black, the researchers found. Is technology the diversity silver bullet? As I was conducting this research, I came across an interesting early-stage VC firm out of Covington, Kentucky, called Connetic Ventures that is taking a different approach. Connetic was founded by Brad Zapp, a white man whose thesis was to let technology do all the prescreening for the fund’s deals. He and his team built an artificial-intelligence engine they named Wendal, embedded in it the deal characteristics they believed would lead to good investment opportunities, and trained the engine on data from 100 companies where the outcomes of success or failure were known. Wendal has been refined with data from 3,000 startups over the past four years, and the results are fascinating: 52 percent of the startups that Wendal has recommended for further due diligence have either a female or
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“VCs invest in people who look like themselves, and data indicate that they do this even though it hurts portfolio performance.”
nonwhite founder. Gender and ethnicity are not variables that the algorithm considers, so Connetic discovered this statistic when they analyzed Wendal’s results. It turns out that Wendal recommends female and nonwhite founders at about the same proportion that those founders apply to Connetic and go through their screening process, which counters the myth that there aren’t enough good female and minority entrepreneurs for VCs to fund. Connetic’s portfolio reflects this diversity, with 36 percent of its companies led by female CEOs, and 18 percent by people of color. Connetic isn’t the only venture capitalist trying this approach. San Francisco– based SignalFire and EQT Ventures out of Stockholm have also built A.I. engines that are directing parts of their investment process. Technology research firm Gartner predicts that three-quarters of VCs will be using A.I. to make at least some of their investment decisions by 2025. If Gartner is correct, it appears that—the established industry’s lip service to diversity notwithstanding—a truly diverse startup ecosystem is now developing in the hands of women, minorities, and A.I. Take note of that, entrepreneurs. So much for the old boy network.
BIOGRAPHY
Waverly Deutsch is clinical professor at Chicago Booth. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Courtesy of the Chicago Booth Review.
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HOW COMPANIES AND TALENT CAN GAIN FROM A SHARED PURPOSE A LY S O N M E I S T E R A N D D AV I D B A C H
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hy is purpose so important for organizations? Why should more leaders take it seriously? How can we align our personal purpose
with work? Some argue that the main driver behind the rise of purpose comes from pressure from external stakeholders, including consumers, governments and investors. But employees are just as important as a motivational force. An organization that embraces a genuine, clear purpose rooted in a societal need can unleash higher performance and engagement because employees connect on a personal level with the business. There is a recognition that placing purpose at the centre of the enterprise and defining it with reference to the needs of society is increasingly something that leaders are embracing.
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“While young talent used to want to work for a big brand, younger generations now look for employers that fit with their values.” “If you connect with your work on that personal level, you are naturally more engaged and motivated.”
Research shows that companies with a strong purpose perform better on the stock market. A study of 20,000 employees showed that when leaders are clear about purpose, employees are about 100% more likely to stay in the organization. The importance of purpose has only grown during the COVID-19 pandemic: nearly twothirds of US-based workers surveyed said the pandemic had caused them to reflect on their purpose. Why personal purpose matters Purpose is personal, Meister explains; it’s “the intersection between what you love, what you are good at and how you can contribute to society or the world”. If you connect with your work on that personal level, you are naturally more engaged and motivated. While young talent used to want to work for a big brand, younger generations now look for employers that fit with their values. “They want to work for an organization that cares, that has some kind of social impact,” she states. “If you want the best talent, you need to make sure you invest in what drives and motivates them, or else they will leave.” However, research shows that while 85% of executives feel they can live their purpose in their day-to-day work, the same proportion of frontline managers and employees is either unsure or say they can’t do the same. There appears to be a purpose deficit in the workplace. So how can leaders improve their organization’s approach to purpose? It starts at an individual level. The three types of purpose for employees Meister outlines three typical ways that individuals can connect to their purpose in the world of work.
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1. Through the work they do The work that an employee does on a dayto-day basis is aligned to their own sense of purpose. Their identity, values and motives connect with the organization’s sense of purpose. 2. Through their work community A role’s actual tasks may not match a person’s purpose, but they can still find purpose at work. Maybe the job is not what inspires the person, but it’s in the way they frame their function, role or relationships at work. 3. Enabled by work If a person is not in an environment that supports their purpose at all, their employer can still be the enabler by providing the employee with the fuel to realize their purpose outside of work. Building a purpose-driven organization From an organizational perspective, there are some simple steps that executives can take to make a bigger impact with purpose and to attract and retain more talent. Bach cites the example of clothing company Patagonia, which has used its website to tell people not to vote for climate change deniers in US elections. “If you think about why a company would do such a thing, if their purpose is to save the planet – this might make a lot more sense,” he said. “The people that go to work at Patagonia are passionate about the environment, public lands and using business to drive positive change.” The ways organizations tend to approach purpose can be organized into three camps. 1. No clearly defined organizational purpose The organization has not established or articulated its purpose. This makes it tough for employees to connect with their work on a personal level.
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2. Clear organizational purpose not defined around pressing societal needs The organization has a strong purpose that is well communicated, but it is not focused on positive impact. This approach can motivate employees, but it may prove difficult for talent to truly feel inspired on a personal level. 3. Clear organizational purpose defined around pressing societal needs This approach can attract and retain talent that feels a deep connection and alignment with the organization while also creating a highly motivated atmosphere. “We start businesses for a reason – they have a purpose, there is a need. If that need is formulated around societal needs, engages the employees and taps into their own personal purpose, greater performance follows,” Bach explains. How leaders can get purpose right Meister and Bach offer four key points for leaders seeking to better align their corporate purpose with the personal values of today’s talent.
“An organization that embraces a genuine, clear purpose rooted in a societal need can unleash higher performance and engagement because employees connect on a personal level with the business.”
Elevate your organization’s purpose: Think outside of your sphere of influence. Why does the organization exist? Align across dimensions to unlock meaning and performance: Embed purpose throughout your organization and communicate it to all stakeholders so that your teams feel part of something bigger.
BIOGRAPHIES
Alyson Meister is a Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD Business School. David Bach is the Dean of Innovation and Programs at IMD Business School.
Discover your own sense of purpose: What inspires and motivates you? Are you aligned with your organization’s purpose? Connect to your team members’ sense of purpose: Know what drives your team and why they are here. Let them see that you are motivated by purpose too.
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HOW ENTREPRENEURS SOLVE THE BIG FISH VS. BIG POND DILEMMA HENNING PIEZUNKA
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ollaboration with a partner is not strictly a two-way affair; instead, prospective partners take the entire competitive landscape into account when forming ties. In the movie Jerry Maguire, a sports agent played by Tom Cruise is fired from his top agency after openly criticising its impersonal approach. He is forced to go it alone, but all his clients desert him, preferring to continue to be represented by a large, established organisation. That is, all except American footballer Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr), who feels his career could use more personalised attention.
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While movie-goers know that, indeed, things end well for Tidwell, an important question remains: When striking a partnership, is it better to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond? In a paper published in the Academy of Management Journal, my co-authors* and I looked at the particular case of developers and publishers of PlayStation2 (PS2) video games at a time when self-publishing of titles was not yet an option and developer-publisher ties were necessary to commercialise a game. We found that the level of experience of developers and the relative uncertainty they faced in terms of getting personalised
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attention from a publisher were driving much of their decision to seek a certain “pond” size. Two conflicting goals requiring a trade-off Akin to the book industry with its authors and publishing houses, the video game industry involves developers that propose game concepts and initial development, and publishers that provide late-stage development and access to markets. Out of the 163 PS2 games which have sold more than 1 million units, only 30 were published directly by Sony, the manufacturer of the console. When partnering up, developers typically seek two things. On the one hand, they want
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a close collaboration in order to develop the very best product there is. In an extremely crowded video game market, an average product may essentially be a “dead fish”, so to speak. (Over 3,800 game titles have been released for the PS2.) On the other hand, developers would also like to secure the largest market access. After all, how sad if no one ever hears about their newly launched PS2 game. The problem is that meeting both goals to the highest degree is unrealistically difficult. Large publishers with strong connections to retailers and which are able to organise vast launch campaigns often attract many
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“If we choose to work for a new start-up, we may rise rapidly, but our opportunity to shine outside the firm (through speaking engagements or media requests, for instance) may remain limited.”
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for developers. As a matter of fact, our data high-calibre partners. As such, a partner may showed that when a developer ranked lower not receive a lot of personalised attention. than average (in terms of the quality of its Especially if many other, stronger developers previously published games), it was 26 percent work with the same publisher. A trade-off is more likely to have its projects cancelled than usually necessary. its higher-ranked peers. We collected data on 367 developers of In all, experienced entrepreneurs who PS2 games and 170 publishers between 2000 didn’t expect to need as much support based and 2009, the time period when console on their track record were willing to give up games were most popular. The majority of almost four times as much development help our sample firms were based in the three as inexperienced developers to secure better countries that dominated the industry: market access. Of course, publishers Japan, the United States and do not wait around to be chosen. the United Kingdom. Our data Naturally, established publishers collection strategy enabled us to with high market access also build a comprehensive dataset on prefer to partner with experienced the activities of the mostly private developers, reducing their risk of developers and publishers in the “When we take needing to toil over duds. industry. a job in a famous We supplemented our data Collaboration is more dynamic analysis with two waves of in-depth company, we than it may seem at first glance interviews. We found that younger Although our dataset concerns or newer entrepreneurs focused accept the idea the video game industry, our on getting development help and that we are (in results apply to other types of worried less about reaching the entrepreneurs who need to form largest number of customers. This all likelihood) collaborations, partnerships or point was particularly salient for going to be just other types of ties to go to market. early-stage developers. As one include content creators of of them told us: “When you’re one of the many These any kind partnering with platforms innovating … there’s always some snag and always some complication very smart people or other market intermediaries that may help refine their products. that you did not foresee. It is crucial Biotechnology entrepreneurs then [an established firm] is going to working there. support you.” Standing out may partnering with pharmaceutical firms to hone their products and gain market access are another great Keeping an eye on the other horses prove difficult.” example. in the race In fact, we all face the big fish/ In addition, the more competitive big pond dilemma more often than the market – i.e., the more we realise. When we take a job in developers are out there competing a famous company, we accept the for publisher attention – the more idea that we are (in all likelihood) going to a novice entrepreneur might be concerned be just one of the many very smart people about getting the proper level of attention working there. Standing out may prove that will ensure product differentiation. difficult. Conversely, if we choose to work for An interviewee said: “You have to worry a new start-up, we may rise rapidly, but our about the competitive set that the publisher opportunity to shine outside the firm (through supports. The publisher may have great speaking engagements or media requests, for capability in your title because they also instance) may remain limited. In our personal publish your major competitor. Then you lives, if we choose to befriend a very popular have to ask yourself, is it going to lead them to person, we may have to fight for their time and prioritise your project lower.” attention. After all, entering a collaboration is only Any sort of collaboration entails a tradethe first step. Securing the desired resources off between our status, the status of the from the partner/publisher is not always partners we have in mind, and the status of guaranteed. Established firms in technology the other people interested in partnering industries may sign more developers than with them. The process is a lot more dynamic they can eventually support, a fact that is not than it seems. Depending on the competitive lost on these entrepreneurs. The number and landscape, you may want your very own Jerry the quality of the “other horses in the race” Maguire. create uncertainty – and a definite threat –
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BIOGRAPHIES:
Henning Piezunka is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD. Co-authors: Riitta Katila, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, Philipp Reineke, PhD Candidate at Stanford University, and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, the Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This article is republished courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge. insead.edu). Copyright INSEAD 2021.
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n University of Chicago (Booth)
n Florida Southern College n Fordham University (Gabelli)
n EU Business School
n Waverly Deutsch
n IMD Business School n INSEAD n ISEG
IST OF CONTRIBUTORS n Kennesaw State University n George Kohlrieser
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n Francesca Giulia Mereu n Kyung Min
n Henning Piezunka
n RMIT
n UniSA
n knowledge@wharton
n University of North Alabama
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Leaders of tomorrow We believe purpose and great ideas impact how our world works, connects, and lives.
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