The most promising candidates in your company may not be where you expect.

A new study shows that emotions really can drive stock prices.

After building the oil and gas distribution company UBI Group in her native Ghana and then selling a majority stake to an international investor, Salma Okonkwo turned her attention to solar power. As the pace of industrialization in Africa accelerates, she wants to make sure that political and corporate leaders don''t repeat the mistakes that their Western and Chinese peers made as they pursued development and economic growth. That''s .....more

Digitization may be necessary for many businesses'' continued success, but in our increasingly complex world, what companies really need to do is build new forms of competitive advantage and transform themselves for the future. And that requires fundamental changes in their top leaders--not just in individuals'' capabilities but in the way they collectively steer the ship. Drawing on their research at 12 prominent global firms, the .....more

All too often fitness centers, medical providers, colleges, and organizations in many other industries seek to distinguish themselves only on the quality, convenience, and experience of what they sell, say the authors. It''s not that those things aren''t important. But they matter only as means to the ends that people seek. Too many organizations lose sight of this truth. Even when they do promote what they sell in relation to consumers'' .....more

Some multigenerational companies or their predecessors have committed acts in the past that would be anathema today--they invested in or owned slaves, for example, or they were complicit in crimes against humanity. How should today''s executives respond to such historical transgressions? Drawing on her recent book about the effort by the French National Railways to make amends for its role in the Holocaust, the author argues that rather than .....more

Professional growth can get stymied for all sorts of reasons. But one of the most important is rarely discussed: You''re contending with ghosts from your past. Early in life, family dynamics give rise to many fundamental behaviors and attitudes toward authority, mastery, and identity. When similar dynamics emerge at work, people often revert to childhood patterns. To enable change in the personal realm, psychologists often encourage clients .....more

As people develop competence in a new domain of expertise, they move along an S Curve: Growth is slow and effortful at the outset, or launch point. It then progresses rapidly as people acquire new skills in a stretch known as the sweet spot. At the peak is mastery, when work becomes easier but the curve flattens. Understanding where your employees are on this S Curve of Learning will help you coach them appropriately, craft thoughtful succession plans, .....more

Quantum computers can solve problems exponentially faster than classical computers can. They will bring about two huge changes: an end to our current infrastructure for cybersecurity over public networks and an explosion of algorithmic power that holds the promise to reshape our world. Scientists face myriad challenges in developing commercially relevant quantum computers. But once they are overcome, the disruption caused by postquantum cryptography .....more

The amount of product and service information available to B2B customers--reports, blogs, display ads, email marketing, and more--has become overwhelming, leading to indecision and a sharply reduced likelihood of making a substantive purchase. The best reps have turned this conundrum into a prime selling opportunity. Above all else, they help buyers make sense of the information they''ve encountered. Their approach is a form of sensemaking, .....more