Leadership & management

When Apple’s longtime design guru Jony Ive announced that he’d be starting his own agency, it meant major change. The situation serves as a case in point for any organization whose success rests on strategic human capital: If strategy is intrinsically tied to talent, how does a firm support that talent or proceed if that talent disengages?

Top stories from Ideas to Action in February 2020

What does it take to transform? What if the challenges are huge: globalization, economic uncertainty, technological disruption, market innovations, changes in customer expectations, new competition — maybe all of the above? Here’s how luxury goods distributor and retailer The Chalhoub Group is responding to a changing world.

A collection from the editors of Darden Ideas to Action:

How did CEOs of Fortune 100 companies come to helm the world’s largest businesses? And is there anything we can learn from their stories that might suggest lessons about how they made it to the top? Professor Kimberly Whitler looked into the education and career choices of every Fortune 100 CEO and made some surprising discoveries.

Years of inequality have led to lasting challenges faced by minorities in opportunities for advancement. Efforts to “manage diversity” could benefit from education about historical context, as well as contemporary experience, that lead to low inclusion. Courtney McCluney discusses challenges of diversity practices and potential solutions.

Valuable: employees who can connect with diverse people to improve relationships, facilitate information flow and communication, increase coordination and reduce conflict. Research shows that “social class transitioners,” people who move between socioeconomic classes, can bring a special skillset to the workforce.

When it comes to the most popular pieces of the year, in 2019 Darden Ideas to Action readers cared about teamwork, self-awareness, strategy, leadership and navigating innovation in evolving industries. Here’s a rundown of what Ideas to Action readers read the most in 2019 and what it was all about.

A collection of what to read from the latest Ideas to Action posts.

Authenticity tension, lack of engagement, contested authority: These are challenges faced by black leaders. Resilience, resourcefulness, the ability to cultivate cross-race and -hierarchy connections: These are traits that give such leaders the ability to effect change. Professor Laura Morgan Roberts discusses the reality of the black experience.