One of the most urgent problems confronting many governments today is high unemployment, which has given rise to worker frustration, as evidenced by the international Occupy movements. The latest issue of IESE Insight magazine offers plenty of expert advice that speaks to these issues, featuring everything you need to pursue your dreams, find meaning at work, develop new skills and mind-sets, learn how to overcome roadblocks to innovation and handle personal setbacks.
The cover dossier on “Choosing a Better Path” was guest edited by IESE Prof. Mireia las Heras, who suggests four ways in which companies can drive personal and professional development among their workforce.
Boston University’s Tim Hall and Elana Feldman identify strategies for companies to formulate career development programs that help individuals realize their dreams.
Dutch expert Ton Wilthagen, one of the first to develop the concept of flexicurity, advises European institutions, and now our readers, on a new employment model that could go a long way toward tackling current societal challenges.
Also, Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld provides tips from personal experience on how to recover from a career setback. Overcoming adversity, like a job loss, is not a matter of luck; it’s about choosing a better path, he says.
Elsewhere in the magazine is an exclusive interview with Kathy Xu, considered one of the most influential venture capitalists operating in China today. This straight-talking businesswoman tells IESE Prof. Pedro Nueno that her strategy is simple – “to be No. 1.” Given China’s unstoppable growth, she’s well on her way. She offers valuable insights into the minds of Chinese consumers.
Kimio Kase (IESE), Alesia Slocum (Saint Louis University) and Yingying Zhang (CUNEF) delve deeper into Asian mind-sets, identifying two different approaches to thinking and acting, based on Eastern vs. Western philosophies, which can be used to broaden and deepen every manager’s toolbox.
Over the past couple of years, many companies have been taking steps to formalize the innovation function, creating a separate innovation office and appointing a Chief Innovation Officer. IESE’s Paddy Miller and Azra Brankovic seek to define the role of the CIO in creating a culture of innovation.
Innovation is explored further in an interview with Josep Baselga, whose transatlantic research teams are trying to cure cancer, and in our case study on Magazine Luiza, the Brazilian retailer that is shifting from physical stores to e-commerce.
Go to the IESE Insight Review website and register to receive the quarterly e-mail update, which will alert you to the publication of the next issue, so you don’t miss out on any of this essential reading.
IESE Insight is a quarterly research-based magazine, published in separate English and Spanish editions. Its premium content is linked to articles from the IESE Insight knowledge portal, which contains research and teaching materials, opinion articles, business indices, audiovisual materials and an extensive database of more than 7,000 scholarly references.
