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Design for Conflict: Make Tension in the Matrix Work to Drive Business Results

Kates Kesler

Organizational simplicity is great when the business is simple – when there are only a few products, serving a few markets (in one or two countries). But in a complex, multi-divisional company, managing brands across several products and geographies things get more complicated. Great talent may well overcome lousy organization design.

Apparel 56
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Is Your Company Actually Set Up to Support Your Strategy?

Harvard Business

And since people ultimately make all the difference, your operating model should define how you manage the assignments and career paths for your difference-making talent. A decade after the global financial crisis, many banks remain averse to risk, and their legacy talent pools, processes, and IT systems are ill-suited to major change.

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How to Strengthen Your Reputation as an Employer

Harvard Business

Many companies are aiming to be more transparent and authentic about their products, services, and costs. If your company is among those struggling to attract or retain the talent they need, it’s possible that it has a credibility problem. Take outdoor apparel retailer Patagonia. Juj Winn/Getty Images.

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The 3 Essential Jobs That Most Retention Programs Ignore

Harvard Business

But over and over again in our three decades of experience as talent development and retention specialists, we’ve seen that companies consistently overlook half of them. These are jobs in R&D, technology, and other areas vital to a firm’s strategic direction, product development, and process efficiency.

Talent 28
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Innovation Should Be a Top Priority for Boards. So Why Isn’t It?

Harvard Business

Innovation ranks fifth, after more-conventional concerns such as attracting and retaining top talent and the regulatory environment. apparel, automobiles, retailing, media, hotels, restaurants & leisure); Consumer Staples (e.g., food, beverage & tobacco, household and personal products); Energy & Utilities (e.g.,

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Why Top Management Should Listen to Activist Investors

Harvard Business

For our recent book we studied companies from a broad range of industries that operate this way, including Apple, CEMEX, Danaher, Haier, IKEA, Inditex (known for its Zara apparel business), Starbucks and many others. Starbucks applies its capabilities in talent management and distinctive retailing to everything it does.

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The Biggest Obstacles to Innovation in Large Companies

Harvard Business

So can designing new kinds of incentives, recognizing and rewarding the behaviors you want to encourage, and bringing in new, more diverse viewpoints and types of talent to the company. Are they looking for ideas to streamline operations and serve customers better, or developing new business models around existing products?

Company 53