Blog

  • Could Your Team Make the Leap from Cars to Ventilators?

    Could Your Team Make the Leap from Cars to Ventilators?

    12 Questions Team Leaders Should Be Asking Themselves Major auto manufacturers are acting quickly to repurpose their production lines to generate ventilators and other vital medical supplies to aid in the Coronavirus pandemic. Does your team have the same level of agility and innovation? It’s up to you as the team leader. Ask yourself: How……

    Read More

  • The Rise of the Stakeholder Calls for High Character Leaders

    The Rise of the Stakeholder Calls for High Character Leaders

    Since the late 1970s, the Business Roundtable, a nonprofit association based in Washington, D.C., whose members are chief executive officers of major U.S. companies, has endorsed principles of shareholder primacy—that corporations exist principally to serve shareholders. But in August 2019 the organization took many by surprise when it revised its stance with a statement outlining……

    Read More

  • The Death of Shareholder Primacy and the Rise of the Stakeholder

    The Death of Shareholder Primacy and the Rise of the Stakeholder

    “It is widely-recognized that “The Age of Easy Oil” is over, and companies are entering more inhospitable environments – both politically and geologically-speaking – than ever before in the quest for the Black Gold.” Introduction Since the late 1970s, the Business Roundtable, a nonprofit association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers……

    Read More

  • Martin Shkreli Adds Fraud Arrest to His Resume

    Martin Shkreli Adds Fraud Arrest to His Resume

    Both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Business News announced the arrest today of Martin Shkreli, who was recently made famous for prescription drug price gouging. But what got him nailed today are charges of securities and wire fraud perpetrated against his former company Retrophin in an elaborate Ponzi scheme. There’s no shortage of headlines……

    Read More

  • When Genius Isn’t Enough: What the Character Evolution of Steve Jobs Teaches Us

    When Genius Isn’t Enough: What the Character Evolution of Steve Jobs Teaches Us

    by Fred Kiel Walter Isaacson’s biography made us think Steve Jobs succeeded by his genius in spite of his character flaws and abysmal management skills. The new biography by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli entitled Becoming Steve Jobs claims the opposite: that Jobs should not just be remembered as a genius, but also as a skilled manager and even……

    Read More

  • ROC Is for Leaders — at Any Level

    ROC Is for Leaders — at Any Level

    The implications of our findings extend well beyond the executive suite and into every aspect of business operation and performance, and beyond. We offer ideas, insights, and a new approach to leadership behavior for people working at any level, within organizations of size or makeup: At KRW, we have been working with organizational leadership for nearly……

    Read More

  • Don’t Bet on Workers’ Selfishness

    Don’t Bet on Workers’ Selfishness

    The model of “economic man” is not only passé but also counterproductive Fred Kiel In spite of the recent past turmoil in the world’s capital markets, I’m a big fan of capitalism. Still, there is a bad apple in the barrel of its foundational concepts. It’s called “homo economicus,” or “economic man.” This nineteenth-century concept,……

    Read More

  • Bet the Jockey, Not the Horse: What ROA Is and Why It’s Important

    Bet the Jockey, Not the Horse: What ROA Is and Why It’s Important

    The effectiveness of a given management team can be tough to measure. If you look at it from an investor’s perspective, there are a few tried and true metrics like Net Income and P/E Ratio that can be useful for determining a company’s relative valuation, but they don’t really tell you anything about the character……

    Read More