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Copyright: © 2013 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Lee Iacocca was a level 4 leader: effective in running the company but often more committed to self-aggrandizement than the sustained future of the institution. Darwin Smith the little-known former head of Kimberly-Clark was a level 5 leader. James Collins author of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies and the forthcoming book Good to Great explained the difference at a Wharton Leadership Conference earlier this month.
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Given recent increases in the use of stock options by both “new economy” and “old economy” companies one might reasonably expect that employees – the beneficiaries of this perk - understand how options work. But according to recent research by Wharton professors David Larcker and Richard Lambert employees tend to be relatively uninformed as to the basic economics of stock options a finding that has important implications for employers boards of directors and management consultants.
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Approximately 60% of new ventures fail because of bad marketing decisions according to Wharton professor Leonard Lodish author of a new book entitled Entrepreneurial Marketing. The book explores the critical role marketing decisions – on everything from brand building and positioning to advertising and pricing - play in a company’s success. As Lodish says: “There are some business people who intuitively understanding marketing but there are a lot who do not.”
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True or false: Leaders have followers but not all followers are subordinates. Quite true says Michael Useem director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management. Indeed if managers wish to be effective they must learn how to lead the people they report to as well as the employees they oversee. Useem calls this process “leading up” and it is the subject of his upcoming book.
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Entrepreneurs as most people know are risk-takers who thrive on uncertainty and change always on the lookout for their next startup. But according to new research from Wharton management professor Ian C. MacMillan and co-author Vipin Gupta entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones who should be able to operate in unpredictable high-risk environments. Drawing on an extensive worldwide survey of middle managers the two authors outline the qualities that define “entrepreneurial leaders.”
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Now that employees in many dot-com companies have suddenly found their stock options to be substantially “out of the money ” is it time to announce the death of stock options as an integral component of compensation packages? Not so fast argue Wharton accounting professors Christopher Ittner Richard Lambert and David Larcker in a new paper that studies whether the performance of new economy firms is related to the level of equity grants to employees.
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“When people have a choice they choose service over anything else including price and product attributes ” says Pat House co-founder and executive vice president of Siebel Systems the world’s leading supplier of eBusiness application software. During a visit to Wharton earlier this month House explained the strategy that has allowed Siebel to thrive in a notoriously turbulent industry.
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Choosing performance measures is a challenge. Performance measurement systems play a key role in developing strategy evaluating the achievement of organizational objectives and compensating managers. Yet many managers feel traditional financially oriented systems no longer work adequately. A recent survey of U.S. financial services companies found most were not satisfied with their measurement systems. In an article on Oct. 16 2000 in the Financial Times’ Mastering Management series Wharton accounting professors Christopher Ittner and David Larcker suggest that financial data have limitations as a measure of company performance. The two note that other measures such as quality may be better at forecasting but can be difficult to implement.
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In an article on Oct. 9 2000 in the Financial Times’ Mastering Management series Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn writes about the importance of turning customers into advocates who will not only develop loyalty to your company’s product or service but will also spread the word to other potential buyers.
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Let’s face it. Anyone reading this article thinks that information about how to reward highly-regarded employees applies to them. And we all have ideas about what these rewards should be (more money bigger title bigger office etc.) But short of giving out stock options that will be worth $500 zillion in six months how can managers provide meaningful incentives and rewards for star performers? Wharton management professor Anne Cummings makes some suggestions. (Hint: For starters ditch the company pen set.)
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