“Effective stories that win both listeners’ hearts and minds are critical communications tools that can enable leaders to achieve difficult strategic goals,” write Doug Randall and Aaron Harms in an article in Strategy & Leadership magazine. The onus is on leaders—not their audience—to deliver a successful narrative that transfers meaning and motivation. The authors warn executives that their strategy initiatives are at risk every time the message they deliver is not convincing or clear.

The global economy faces serious risks of a second “great recession” if world leaders fail to cooperate on solutions to prevent “near-term economic divisions to devolve into deeper-seated geopolitical divisions,” write Peter Schwartz, Jonathan Star, and Nikhil Prasad Ojha in The Times of India newspaper. In this piece that demonstrates scenario thinking, the authors project the global economy is likely to go through a near-term period of low growth. The long-term prognosis then depends on the actions—or failures—of leaders to respond.

A new report funded by the Rockefeller Foundation estimates that the field of Impact Sourcing, employing socioeconomically disadvantaged people in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centers, is currently $4.5 billion and has the potential to reach $20 billion and employ 780,000 by 2015. The report, conducted by Monitor Group, suggests a strong business case for Impact Sourcing, which can provide high-quality, reliable services at prices that are at least competitive with traditional BPO centers and, in some cases, almost 40 percent lower than what traditional providers can offer.

Agencies and departments at all levels of government are facing increased pressure to cut costs and become more efficient. In this article, leaders of Monitor’s High-Performance Bureaucracy® practice explain how to avoid the traps of traditional budget-cutting, and outline the three keys to “doing more with less.”

Successful societies are not only characterized by economic prosperity and political stability, but also by a vibrant social sector, one which works to ensure that the maximum number of citizens share in society’s benefits. One of the most important forces in building a robust social sector is the presence of social entrepreneurs, individuals and teams who create and build new organizations offering innovative solutions to unmet social needs.

This report, one of the most comprehensive analyses ever undertaken of financially sustainable enterprises that address challenges of poverty, shows conclusively that market-based solutions make a significant difference in the fight against poverty by delivering social impact in a sustainable way, at scale.

In this report, Monitor Institute and the Knight Foundation examine the role of networks in community life, to see how connected citizens are making a difference and how technology can unlock tremendous assets in communities.

Though the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused devastating and heart-wrenching destruction, the rebuilding process may actually be an opportunity for the country to come together under a new national mission, explains Monitor’s Michael Zielenziger in this column for the Japanese newspaper Nikkei.

Business Model Innovation is a hot topic in management thinking, even though there seems to be little agreement about what it looks like. By using the Ten Types of Innovation® and Economic Value Estimation®, analytic tools that provide better decision-making insights, executives can vastly improve their innovation success rate—and ensure their business model investments generate bigger returns.

Microfinance has gotten a huge amount of attention lately—both for its success and its complications, such as the controversial IPO of microfinance firm SKS. Those interested in microfinance may want to pay attention to the micromortgage industry, a similar market with an estimated worth of almost 10 times more than the microfinance market, writes Monitor’s Nishant Lalwani in an article for The Economic Times of India.