Organization and Leadership

We view organizations as dynamic, complex systems -- with people as their most critical asset. People strategy is a critical element, and sometimes the driver, of successful corporate strategies.

We help transform leaders, teams and organizations. We align organizational design with strategy. We examine the distribution of decision rights and the impact of incentives on the type and quality of decisions the organization is making. We help organizations manage their corporate center and overhead costs. We identify, map, and diagnose internal and external networks of collaboration. And we design corporate governance systems to improve board effectiveness and manage risk.

Recent work has included assisting firms with new organizational designs prompted by trends in new technologies, offshoring, globalization, and the rising demands of top talent.

Growth at Work: The Benefits of Building Entrepreneurial Environments

Francesco Fazio, Joel Finlayson and Neil Pearse March 28, 2011 Article

The benefits of having an entrepreneurial culture are clear—it leads to more effective and loyal employees, higher levels of innovation, and faster reaction times, just to name a few. But entrepreneurial environments aren’t just for small start-ups in new markets—even large companies in existing business sectors can create an entrepreneurial environment by employing five key enablers, explain Monitor’s Francesco Fazio, Joel Finlayson and Neil Pearse in this article.

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Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict into Strength

By Diana McLain Smith Book

Based on over 25 years of research, Divide or Conquer provides a navigational system with which to see and traverse—with far greater intelligence—that often unpredictable and sometimes treacherous organizational terrain called “relationships.”

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Redefining Health Care

By Michael Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg Book

In Redefining Health Care, Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg prescribe a powerful and actionable agenda for change–setting forth a vision of the health care system in which every actor is focused on improving value, as measured by health outcomes per dollar expended.

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Japan's Business Renaissance

By Mark Fuller and John C. Beck Book

Japan is poised on the brink of a major economic revival. Are you prepared to meet the challenge? This book examines the most successful companies in Japan today - and reveals the powerful strategies based on ancient Japanese philosophy that have reinvigorated their businesses.

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Powerful Times - Rising to the Challenge of our Uncertain World

By Eamonn Kelly Book

Eamonn Kelly’s Powerful Times asserts that competitive nations operating in a global economy are essentially engaged in learning races, and the society that can most rapidly adapt its skills, knowledge, and capacities to a changing world wins.

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Reasons and Rationalizations: The Limits to Organizational Knowledge

By Chris Argyris Book

Management scholar Chris Argyris tackles an important problem in Reasons and Rationalizations: the pervasiveness of defensive reasoning prevents people in organizations from understanding when and why they are skillfully incompetent.

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Flawed Advice and the Management Trap

by Chris Argyris Book

Argyris contends that management advice rests upon discrepancy and appealing as the ideas for creative change may be, most are simply not workable.

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Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance

By Michael Porter Book

Competitive Advantage extends Michael E. Porter's proven analytical techniques to the discrete activities of the individual firm. Analyzing the basis of competitive advantage, Porter presents the “value chain” as a framework for evaluating and improving companies’ competitive position.

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