Chris Bingham is associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at UNC Kenan-Flagler . He is also professor of strategy and entrepreneurship. Below, read his Insight into Innovation, the fourth in a five-part servies. Previous posts touched on innovation versus entrepreneurship, the importance of failing fast and often and detailed why organizations must innovate. Why do so many organizations find innovation so hard? I think there are a number of reasons that innovation is challenging and difficult in organizations. The first one is pretty simple – most new ideas are bad. If you look at stats about product failure, you’re going to see studies citing between 60 to 95 percent of new products failing. For the very simple reason that most new Read More
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3 Things to Consider Before Expanding Supply Chain To Emerging Markets
Thanks to globalization, multi-national supply chains that span across emerging economies are fast becoming the norm. While it’s easy to focus on the impressive growth and profit statistics that have accompanied this development, managing a supply chain in an emerging economy also comes with a unique set of challenges. Jayashankar Swaminathan, UNC Kenan-Flagler faculty director of the UNC Center for International Business Education and Research, has outlined three factors companies should consider before expanding their supply chains to India, Turkey or any other emerging economy. 1. Infrastructure Challenges When operating a supply chain in an emerging market, many of the things taken for granted in developed countries are often unavailable. Infrastructure challenges can manifest themselves in many different ways, from Read More
Four ways to boost global sales
By Jamie Gnazzo, UNC Kenan-Flagler writer Professor Dave Roberts, an associate professor of marketing at UNC Kenan-Flagler, led a recent webinar “Implications of Selling Globally,” as part of the “Best Practices in Global Business Education” series presented by the UNC Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER). Read key takeaways below. Roberts, who spent years working for multinational companies to improve their sales performance, consulting and management, discussed the benefits of expanding into global markets and the most important considerations to keep in mind when doing so. “The biggest environmental driver in moving outside of the United States is the notion of opportunity,” Roberts says. “The BRICS carrot – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa or America – provides Read More
Alum: Successful consulting is about client leadership
By UNC Kenan-Flagler writer Brooke Shaffer As part of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s new Consulting Speaker Series, Stu Pearman (MBA ’94) shared his experiences as a partner at the ScottMadden management consulting firm with students. Pearman, who is also an adjunct professor at UNC Kenan-Flagler, teaches courses in consulting and leadership. Nineteen years in the industry have taught him that these disciplines are closely intertwined, and during his lecture on Jan. 30, Pearman said that successful consulting is more about client leadership than problem-solving. “Consulting is the process of helping clients think and act differently so that they’re more successful,” said Pearman. “Often their biggest problems are their biggest opportunities for change.” The biggest mistake young consultants make, said Pearman, is focusing Read More
Using operations to benefit economic development & the bottom line
Operations management might seem like an unlikely candidate for economic development, but Brad Staats has found that changes in how work is performed and outsourced can aid economic development – and benefit a company’s bottom line. The work of Staats, an operations professor at UNC Kenan-Flagler, in “impact operations” extends from his research to his teaching – and opened the door to a dream job for a student. The way that work gets done has changed dramatically over the past 25 years, says Staats. Key among those changes is “work fragmentation” – the division of tasks into small, focused pieces – and the distribution of each piece to the best source of labor, wherever it is in the world. Three Read More
How to measure the ROI of Learning and Development
This post is an executive summary of a white paper by Keri Bennington and Tonny Laffoley from UNC Executive Development. A recent report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development found that evaluation of learning and development (L&D) programs was a top priority in organizations. Despite this finding, calculating return on investment (ROI) on L&D programs is seldom done, and too often, it rarely involves go beyond asking for feedback (e.g., “smiley sheets”) from participants immediately after the event. Calculating the effectiveness of L&D programs can be a challenge, particularly when the programs involve the development of softer skills such as improved collaboration, decision making, innovativeness and the ability to think strategically—common learning objectives in many leadership development programs Read More
How leaders can improve through improv
The following excerpt is from a white paper written by Kip Kelly, director of marketing and business development at UNC Executive Development. To paraphrase Isaac Asimov, the only constant in life—and in business—is change. It is constant, inevitable and rapidly increasing. Business leaders know that their organization’s success will depend on agile, adaptable and innovative leaders who can respond quickly, confidently and effectively to change, and who can inspire others to do the same. Developing these unique capabilities often requires a different approach to leadership development and is prompting some senior executives to embrace less conventional approaches. This is where improvisation—the art of performing without a script—can help. Improvisation can be funny—think Wayne Brady, Tina Fey or Amy Poehler—but that Read More
Industry insider interview: How to build talent faster than the competition
Listen to UNC Executive Development’s podcast interview of Corey Seitz or read the interview below. Seitz is President of Seitz Talent Consulting, LLC, is a recognized leader in global talent management. A trusted advisor and coach to executives, he specializes in aligning the growth of individuals and organizations. Corey brings extensive experience at Fortune 500 corporations having served as the Global Head of Talent Management for Switzerland-based Novartis International, Johnson and Johnson and EMC. Patrick Cahill: How can companies build talent faster and better than the competition? Corey Seitz: Well Patrick, thanks for spending some time with me today. I am excited about the opportunity to share a little bit of my knowledge with you and others on talent management. Read More
A Snapshot of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Entrepreneurial Offerings
UNC Kenan-Flagler's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies from UNC Kenan-Flagler
The Kenan-Flagler Way: Q&A with UNC Kenan-Flagler grads
The below is from the MBA@UNC blog. Not too long ago, UNC Kenan-Flagler ran a video competition called MTV@UNC. We asked full-time MBA students participating in a leadership immersion to create music videos that best represented their time at the school. We posted final videos on our Facebook page, where our fans could vote for their favorites. After a week of voting, the video titled “The Kenan-Flagler Way” (seen below) won the competition. We caught up with three team members for a Q&A Julie Hocker, Chris Ray and Naequan Jones told us about their inspiration for the video and also shared their post-MBA career plans. (John Fiscella was unable to join us.) 1. What was the inspiration for the video? Read More