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Building a successful organization requires more than hiring smart people with the right skills. It also requires a mutual sense of purpose — a strong company culture. Even before COVID-19, that was no small task. Darden experts weigh in on frameworks for improving the quality of culture, as well as building the kind that benefits all involved.

Professor Chao looks at Husk Power Systems and the operations surrounding this start up.

an businesses learn from Eastern philosophies? Major names like Disney, Dollar General and Men’s Health have implemented principles of Ki Aikido to great success. Professor Bourgeois discusses the concept of ki and the six lessons on energy and strategy one may glean from Kōichi Tōhei’s simple, profound “Principles of Mind and Body Unification.”

Hoshin Kanri is effective strategy deployment without a bureaucratic air but with a commitment to continuous improvement. Elliott Weiss and Austin English describe the simple construct that increases engagement at all levels, detailing general concepts, basic steps, and keys to successful implementation and iteration.

Conventional wisdom is that active-fund managers are paid to be contrarians; they take risks and go against trends. But new research shows that sometimes they’re the herd: In the bear market of February and March 2020, institutional investors amplified price crashes and volatility by fire-selling, and they focused on cash rather than ESG metrics.

Every hot youth brand faces the core dilemma of how to expand without diluting its appeal as exclusive. The case of streetwear brand Supreme is extreme: Its identity is tied to ultra-small distribution and a “you chase us” marketing model. How can a brand grow when part of its appeal is due to scarcity? Especially in the context of a pandemic?

Entrepreneurship is a powerful engine for innovation and job creation in the U.S., and downturns are precisely the times in which economies are in greatest need of new ideas and agility. More than any type of business, startups depend on the quality of talent to grow. What has the pandemic done to new ventures in the U.S.?

Consumers’ growing appetite for streaming content is changing the way studios produce and market feature films. But could they better reach audiences through analysis of tastes, personalities and lifestyles? Professor Anthony Palomba finds there’s more data out there for studios to capture and better understand movie platform or genre consumption

One pressing concern for pharmaceutical companies is how to effectively allocate scarce resources across projects in R&D pipelines. Professor Panos Markou shares insights on how competitors’ investments in drugs that treat the same disorder may reveal potentially useful information, which senior executives can use to improve chances of success.

Darden Professor Anthony Palomba is an expert in media management, an interdisciplinary academic discipline that examines how audiences consume media and entertainment products and services, as well as how entertainment companies compete amid shifting consumer preferences. He recently answered five questions on the rapidly shifting media landscape.