Issue 105, Winter 2021

In this issue
Cover story
- Drawing on research of transformative companies, PwC Strategy& authors recommend ways that executive teams can disrupt themselves and become leaders in the digital age.
A new role for business leaders: Moral integrator
With stakeholders and shareholders vying for attention, CEOs need to develop a new kind of ethical leadership to build trust in society and deliver results.Reaching your full cloud potential
Few companies are harnessing the full power of the cloud to catalyze innovation and digital transformation. Business leaders can change the game by paying careful attention to seven mission-critical factors.- s+b Blogs
Designing a better meeting
Good meetings need to be designed, whether they are virtual or face-to-face.
Leading Ideas
- Strategy
Navigating an asymmetrical recovery
Shock waves from the pandemic show no sign of letting up—and businesses need to plan accordingly. - Leadership
What it means to be a “human” leader
There are many types of CEOs. But in a post-pandemic world, those who connect with their staff on a personal level will be the ones who thrive. - Thought leaders
Super Coffee’s high-energy disruption
CEO Jim DeCicco explains how the ready-to-drink coffee startup is eliminating sugar, doubling down on purpose, and fueling growth. - s+b BlogsLeadership
Leading under pressure
To control the anxiety produced by moments of intense pressure, first step back and analyze the stakes. - Leadership
Five ways to avoid the pitfalls of binary decisions
Before you decide, check how the question is framed to ensure you have all the information you need and have considered all your options.
Essays
- Tech & innovation
The world is spiky, not flat
The era of exponential technologies will reshape business by inverting traditional ideas of globalization and changing industries and their supply chains. - Workforce
To build trust with employees, be consistent
Leaders who want to avoid a retention and recruitment crisis need to walk the talk on culture.
Best Business Books 2021
Best Business Books 2021: Old man and the C-suite
Tom Peters’s Excellence Now exhorts leaders to focus on the needs of people.Best Business Books 2021: An unstoppable force
The best business history of 2021 tells the remarkable tale of a Holocaust survivor who built a fortune in the postwar United States.Best Business Books 2021: Right out in the open
In Open Strategy, four professors explain how to tap into the power of people when developing and implementing a company’s path forward.Best Business Books 2021: The pandemic rewrites geopolitics
In Shutdown, the best economics book of 2021, historian Adam Tooze looks back at a terrifying time and ahead to even greater challenges.Best Business Books 2021: Taming collaborative dysfunction
In the year’s best management book, Rob Cross identifies the causes of collaboration overload and offers tips and techniques for curing it.Best Business Books 2021: The right time to yell “fire!”
A collaborative manifesto by academics urgently calling for change is the most provocative technology book of the year.Best Business Books 2021: Making attention pay
In Four Thousand Weeks, journalist Oliver Burkeman distills the central dilemma for today’s consumers: how to efficiently allocate time.
Thought Leader
History lessons
Adam Tooze trains a historian’s eye on the fragilities and strengths of our global systems.
Endpage: Recent Research
Quick! Do you know your company’s values?
Some companies’ lists of principles are short enough to be easily remembered, while others have more than a dozen entries. Maybe some editing is in order.