The Jacobs group said it is to sell a 16% stake in Adecco, the world’s largest staffing agency, as members of the Jacobs family seek to diversify by cutting their holdings in the company they helped found

Switzerland’s Jacobs family cuts Adecco holding

2:37pm EDT

By Freya Berry

LONDON (Reuters) – The Jacobs group said it is to sell a 16 percent stake in Adecco (ADEN.VX: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest staffing agency, as members of the Jacobs family seek to diversify by cutting their holdings in the company they helped found. Read more of this post

Anil Agarwal on Simplicity and Determination at Vedanta Resources

Anil Agarwal on Simplicity and Determination at Vedanta Resources

An Interview with the Executive Chairman

MARCH 06, 2014

Anil Agarwal left his home in Bihar in northern India to seek his fortune in Mumbai in the 1970s. Armed with a high school education and boundless determination, Agarwal started out as a scrap-metal dealer. Today his Vedanta Resources is a global mining and metals company, the largest producer of zinc, the second-largest producer of cooper, and an active competitor in oil and gas and power generation. Read more of this post

Natura’s Alessandro Carlucci on Countering Complexity with Culture

Natura’s Alessandro Carlucci on Countering Complexity with Culture

An Interview with the CEO

MARCH 06, 2014

Chief executive Alessandro Carlucci joined Natura nearly a quarter century ago, when the Brazilian cosmetics company was small, entrepreneurial, and still run by its founders. Today, the company has nearly 7,000 employees, a direct sales force of 1.5 million beauty consultants, a strong presence throughout cosmetics-crazy Latin America, and annual sales approaching $3 billion. Read more of this post

Standard Chartered’s Jaspal Bindra on the Human Face of Complexity

Standard Chartered’s Jaspal Bindra on the Human Face of Complexity

An Interview with the Asia Group Executive Director

MARCH 06, 2014

Asia is a complex region, home to more than 4 billion people, dozens of countries ranging from among the wealthiest to the poorest in the world, and myriad languages and ethnic groups. Banking is an equally complex undertaking, especially with the regulatory and public scrutiny brought on by the global financial crisis more than five years ago. Read more of this post

Agco’s Martin Richenhagen on Cutting Through Clutter

Agco’s Martin Richenhagen on Cutting Through Clutter

An Interview with the Chairman, CEO, and President

MARCH 06, 2014

Agco was a study in complexity in 2004, when Martin Richenhagen joined the global agricultural-equipment manufacturer as chief executive. The result of multiple acquisitions, the company was officially created in a 1990 management buyout of Deutz Allis Corporation from its German parent. Read more of this post

The Opportunities – and Pitfalls – for Non-resident Indian Entrepreneurs

The Opportunities — and Pitfalls — for Non-resident Indian Entrepreneurs

Mar 07, 2014

Some 25 million people of Indian origin do not live in India, according to the country’s ministry of overseas affairs. The Indian government recognizes them as People of Indian Origin (PIO). A high-profile subset of this group (though, strictly speaking, it is a classification for tax status) is the Non-resident Indian (NRI), which is loosely considered to mean Indians who have emigrated in recent times. Their ranks include many highly successful scientists, entrepreneurs and corporate executives, including PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and Google chief business officer Nikesh Arora. Read more of this post

The Prime Minister of Malaysia on Balancing People and Performance

The Prime Minister of Malaysia on Balancing People and Performance

An Interview with Najib Razak

MARCH 06, 2014

Malaysia is a diverse nation with ambitious economic aspirations. Najib Razak, the country’s prime minister since 2009 and a public servant since the mid-1970s, has been working both to move and to advance Malaysia. Najib sees the two goals as inseparable: progress must benefit all slices of Malaysian society and all regions, he contends, if it is to be sustainable. Read more of this post

Using Incentives to Calibrate a CEO’s ‘Risk Appetite’

Using Incentives to Calibrate a CEO’s ‘Risk Appetite’

Mar 10, 2014

The issue of CEO pay and how to compensate managers in a way that encourages the “right” amount — and type — of risk to grow a company and protect stakeholder interests has garnered a significant amount of debate. Many executive pay packages include incentives that tie compensation to a firm’s performance, often through the use of stock options. But a number of research studies have found that if a manager’s wealth is tied to share price, he or she may be more likely to misreport financial data. Read more of this post

Conversations with Leaders About Thriving amid Uncertainty

Conversations with Leaders About Thriving amid Uncertainty

Leading in a Complex World

by Christian Orglmeister, Grant Freeland, and Roselinde Torres

MARCH 11, 2014

Globalization, technology, and rapid change are creating a more complex world. Corporate leaders are operating in more markets than ever before. Their companies are generating and dealing with more data than ever. Social media are amplifying the effects of customer complaints and internal discussions, creating a greater need for open, honest, and multichannel communications. Executives are interacting with a widening array of stakeholders and addressing an expanding set of business, political, and social issues. Public leaders are facing analogous pressures. Read more of this post

Ten tips for leading companies out of crisis: Even good managers can miss the early signs of distress, says McKinsey’s Doug Yakola, who’s been running recovery programs for 20 years. The first step is to acknowledge there’s a problem

Ten tips for leading companies out of crisis

Even good managers can miss the early signs of distress, says McKinsey’s Doug Yakola, who’s been running recovery programs for 20 years. The first step is to acknowledge there’s a problem.

March 2014 | byDoug Yakola

“I’ve seen my share of boiled frogs,” says Doug Yakola, comparing companies in crisis with the metaphorical frog that doesn’t notice the water it’s in is warming up until it’s too late. As the chief restructuring officer or CFO of more than a dozen turnaround situations over nearly two decades, Yakola has witnessed firsthand how managers back right into a crisis without recognizing that their situation is worsening. “They’re not bad managers, but they’re often working under a set of paradigms that no longer apply and letting the power of inertia carry them along.” And if they don’t realize they’re facing a crisis, they won’t know that they need to undertake a turnaround, either. Read more of this post

How to take your business global; All from the comfort of your home, by an entrepreneur now turning over $3 million a year.

How to take your business global

March 10, 2014

Jellaine Ross

All from the comfort of your home, by an entrepreneur now turning over $3 million a year. Read more of this post

Kumar Mangalam Birla on the Principles and Practices of the Aditya Birla Group

Kumar Mangalam Birla on the Principles and Practices of the Aditya Birla Group

by Sourav Majumdar | Mar 12, 2014

No other business group spells Marwari enterprise and success as much as the Aditya Birla group. The man at the helm, Kumar Mangalam Birla, explains the principles and practices that have shaped its success Read more of this post

Using Nostalgia for an improved brand communication strategy; Brands use nostalgic theme to expand their target market and create a link between generations

Using Nostalgia for an improved brand communication strategy

by Aurelie Kessous | Mar 12, 2014

Brands use nostalgic theme to expand their target market and create a link between generations

Today, many brands are jumping on the nostalgia bandwagon. This retro trend has become an international phenomenon and is affecting the entire marketing mix. Some brands have developed products evoking nostalgic flavor of childhood memories. In the food industry, for example, Chuao chocolatier has recently introduced a Rocky Road bar that contains salted almonds and vegan marshmallows. Other brands have chosen to re-run their best historical ads, such as the detergent brand Persil, for its 100th anniversary to capitalize on its longevity accompanying consumers in their lives from the “good old days” until now, thus enhancing brand credibility and authenticity. Finally, a nostalgic atmosphere can be achieved through the interior design. Jack Daniel’s whiskey has come up with a classic cool with a special edition to mark Frank Sinatra’s 100th birthday. Launched last December at Las Vegas’ airport with interactive stations for tasting, viewing and listening to all things Frank Sinatra did, the initiative expanded to 200 airports, coinciding with the evocative “Legend” campaign. Read more of this post

Scientists Have Discovered Genghis Khan’s Secret Weapon

Scientists Have Discovered Genghis Khan’s Secret Weapon

LESLIE BAEHR SCIENCE  MAR. 12, 2014, 12:37 AM

In 2010, two scientists researching wildfires in Mongolia’s Khangai Mountains stumbled upon the secret that led to the largest connected land empire in history: the Mongolian Empire. Read more of this post

Can You See the Opportunity Right in Front of You?

Can You See the Opportunity Right in Front of You?

by Warren Berger  |   12:00 PM March 12, 2014

Do you find your household thermostat to be endlessly fascinating? How about that smoke alarm installed in your basement — spend much time gazing at it with wonder? Tony Fadell did. The founder of Nest has had a lifelong penchant for looking at mundane everyday household devices and wondering Why hasn’t somebody improved this thing? That tendency led him to reinvent the aforementioned gadgets — and recently resulted in a $3 billion payday, when Nest was acquired earlier this year by Google. Read more of this post

Surviving a Start-Up’s Transition from Projects to Processes

Surviving a Start-Up’s Transition from Projects to Processes

by Derek Lidow  |   11:00 AM March 12, 2014

“Why change my leadership style? It got us to this point, where we’ve established a real beachhead in our market.”

These are the famous last words of many an entrepreneur. Failing to realize that critical transition points in the growth of an enterprise require leaders to shift emphasis, they blindly stick with what has been working up to that point. The company stalls. Confusion grows among key team members, investors, customers and suppliers.  And, ultimately, the failure to understand the demands of the transition lead to the failure of the company itself. Read more of this post