Author Archives: David

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Sweet But Dangerous: The Challenge of Institutional Change

There was a very interesting story in the Sunday Telegraph a couple of weeks ago about John Yudkin (1910-1995), a British physiologist and nutritionist who did pioneering work on the connection between the consumption of sugar and all manner of … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Alfred Wegener, conscious capitalism, continental drift, fructose, institutional change, John Yudkin, paleomagnetism, sugar, Whole Foods | 2 Comments

Watch Your Language! Why Metaphors Matter in Management

It’s another launch of another strategic plan to the company’s senior and middle managers and the CEO is rattling on about “roadmaps” and “blueprints” that will generate “traction” in the market and “buy-in” from the employees. The employees are watching … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Aristotle, blueprint, buy-in, change, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, embodied cognition, Gareth Morgan, George Lakoff, Gibson Burrell, Mark Johnson, metaphor, roadmap, Thomas Kuhn, top-down | 1 Comment

Skating To Where the Puck Is Going To Be: CVS Decides to Stop Selling Cigarettes

“Cigarettes have no place in an environment where healthcare is being delivered.” With these words, Larry Merlo, the CEO of CVS, the US second-largest drugstore chain, announced that they would be the first such chain to discontinue the sale of … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged American healthcare, business model, change, Clayton Christensen, community, diagnostics, disruption, drugstore chain, ecological perspective, ecosystem, facilitated network, general hospital, hernia, Innovator's Prescription, Jason Hwang, Jerome Grossman, lukemia, Minute Clinic, pharmacy, Roman Catholic Church, Shouldice Clinic, solution shop, subsidiarity, value-added process, Wayne Gretsky | Comments Off on Skating To Where the Puck Is Going To Be: CVS Decides to Stop Selling Cigarettes

“Ethical Capitalism – Worth a Try?” – Confusion at Davos about What “It” Is

“Ethical Capitalism – Worth a Try?” was the rather timid title of one of the open forum sessions at the recently concluded World Economic Forum at Davos.  It was chaired by Zanny Minton Beddoes, the Economics editor for The Economist, … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Davos, ethical capitalism, Henry Schein, Ignazio Visco, Jasmine Whitbread, KPI, Martin Sorrell, Max Weber, Muhammad Yunus, Quakers, Stan Bergman, wertrationale, World Economic Forum, WPP, Zanny Minton Beddoes, zweckrationale | 2 Comments

The “3Rs” of Management Part II: Rationality and Power

Walter Bagehot once wrote that “The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards”. Following on my blog from last week, I think that this is a fair description of … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged agency theory, Bent Flyvbjerg, Bertrand Russel, Bertrand Russell, domination, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, exploitation, Harold Leavitt, hunter-gatherer, innovation, investor capitalism, Machiavelli, means and ends, Nietzsche, power, Rakesh Khurana, Rationality and Power, rationalization, Realpolitik, Realrationalitat, shareholder value model, Walter Bagehot | Comments Off on The “3Rs” of Management Part II: Rationality and Power

The 3 “Rs” of Management: Rigour, Relevance and Rationality

The debate between rigour and relevance continues in management education, usually spurred by management professors’ concerns that practitioners are paying little attention to their research. The history of the problem is now familiar: in the first half of the 20th … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Bloom, Carnegie Corporation, constructivist, ecological rationality, engineering, Ford Foundation, Hayek, Kahneman, Martin Wooldridge, Michael Raynor, Mumtaz Ahmed, rationality, relevance, Richard Rorty, rigour, rules, Schumpeter, System 1, System 2, The Economist, Van Reenen, Vernon Smith | Comments Off on The 3 “Rs” of Management: Rigour, Relevance and Rationality

Why Isn’t ‘Servant Leadership’ More Prevalent?

This was the question posed recently on the Wisdom Research Network of the University of Chicago by James L. Heskett, Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus at the Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University. He continued: “Servant leadership is an age-old … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Leadership | Tagged Adam Grant, First Industrial Revolution, Give and Take, Herman Miller, James L. Heskett, Lao-Tzu, leadership, Mary Parker Follett, Max de Pree, power-over, power-with, Quakers, Robert Greenleaf, servant-leadership, ServiceMaster, Taoism, wisdom | 5 Comments

Words are Easy, Numbers can be Faked, Behaviour is Difficult: The Case for Embodied Management

When I wrote Learning from the Links back in 2002 I was trying to make the case that management, like golf, was a practice and attempts to make progress in either activity should follow similar paths. I was particularly inspired … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged artificial intelligence, body, body-mind, brain, Charles Sanders Peirce, dualism, embodied management, Genghis, GOFAI, integrated reporting, John Dewey, Learning from the Links, Mark Johnson, pragmatic turn, pragmatists, Rodney Brooks, Upton Sinclair, William James | Comments Off on Words are Easy, Numbers can be Faked, Behaviour is Difficult: The Case for Embodied Management

Every Manager a “Janus”: Ambidexterity and the Ecological Perspective

I can’t believe it’s almost January again, but perhaps it could make a timely theme for a blog. The month is named after Janus, the Roman god of thresholds – beginnings and endings – who looked two ways, toward both … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Academy of Management Perspectives, ambidexterity, change, complex systems, creative leadership.strategic management, Duncan, ecocycle, ecological perspective, Janus, Jesuits, means and ends, O'Reilly, Pope Francis, Roger Martin, Roman Catholic Church, Roman god, Rothenberg, The Opposable Mind, Tushman | 1 Comment

Fire and Ice: All I want for Christmas is a Sump Pump!

It’s been a horrid two weeks week weather-wise in Southern Ontario. First we had a hard freeze, making it unusually cold for this time of the year, then we had a heavy snowstorm, which dumped about 30 cm of snow … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Christmas, ecology, fire, Holiday, ice, plumbing, pump, renewal, Southern Ontario, sump | 5 Comments ← Older posts Newer posts →