Greetings from Hong Kong! One of my most enjoyable opportunities is teaching in Kellogg’s Executive MBA programs in Chicago, Miami, and Hong Kong. I spent this past week with KH21, a wonderful group of 48 executives from countries across Asia and Europe, at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) teaching my course on “Leading a Global Company.” Here’s
Read more
I always focus on my second principle of BALANCE when discussing any issue…..that is “take the time to understand all sides of the issue,” or as St. Francis stated, “Seek to understand before you are understood.” As a result, when I am having a debate with someone, I try to never say, “I don’t understand” because that seems ignorant. I
Read more
Hi Everyone, After a lot of great events in Shanghai, I headed to Beijing for two days. I was fortunate to have Julie join me (her first trip to China). Our good friend Helen He took us to the Great Wall and also to the Forbidden City in Beijing. You really have to see the Great Wall to believe it….the
Read more
[Guest blog post by Rick Waddell, Chairman of the Board, Northern Trust] My personal journey as a leader began in Pittsburgh, PA where I was born. College years were spent in Hanover, NH where I met my future wife, Cate, who was one of the first women to graduate from Dartmouth College. Upon graduating in 1975 I was offered a
Read more
As the former CEO of a multi-billion dollar company and a business school professor at Northwestern Kellogg, I definitely understand the concepts of efficiency and economies of scale. I also realize the benefit of leveraging operating expenses and improving the operating margin. Yup, that all makes sense. However, as two recent incidents reminded me yet again, too many businesses take
Read more
I had the opportunity to spend this past weekend at the Kellogg Miami campus in Coral Gables teaching my class “Executive Perspectives in Leadership” to EMBA 107, a great group of executives who will graduate this December. I really enjoyed spending time with them. One of the topics we discussed was “Why do companies make so many bad decisions?” I
Read more
I must admit, Bali was not a place I thought I would have the opportunity to visit this year. I knew it was in Indonesia, and I remember seeing the Broadway musical “South Pacific,” but that was about the extent of my familiarity with the island. Last year I gave a lecture at a MarkPlus event in Jakarta, and Mr.
Read more
Greetings from Jakarta! I am spending two days here before teaching in the Kellogg-HKUST executive MBA program this coming weekend in Hong Kong. I had the opportunity to spend time on Sunday with Kellogg and K-HKUST alums at the Jakarta offices of Catalyst Strategy, a very innovative marketing firm founded by Farina Situmorang, a Kellogg alum. We spent several hours discussing
Read more
Several of my Kellogg students have asked my “opinion” of the Wells Fargo scandal that has captured significant media attention over the past several weeks. I must say that as a former CEO and a current Kellogg professor teaching values-based leadership, only one word comes to mind: UNBELIEVABLE!!! Let’s start with the facts: It appears that several thousand (yes, I said
Read moreI had the opportunity to participate in the Chicago Cubs/Aon Executive Summit last week. It was led by Tom Ricketts, the Executive Chairman of the Chicago Cubs, and Greg Case, the President and CEO of Aon. The agenda included several interesting panels that were attended by more than 100 Chicago executives. I moderated a panel on “Talent Management in the
Read more