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CEO Exits Provide Lessons in Crisis Communication
In a historic wave of exits over the last year, McDonald’s, Disney, IBM, Salesforce, UberEats and other companies have lost their CEOs. The 1,600 CEO departures that happened in 2019 and the 219 CEO departures in January 2020 are all-time records for any single year...
A Time When Generalists Are Most Needed
The piece below first appeared in the Q2 issue of Corporate Board Member, before the pandemic struck. In the aftermath of this crisis, the argument for generalists appears even more compelling as boards lean heavily on their seasoned directors, who may lack micro...
How 5G will Power Smart Cities of the Future
Imagine a city where autonomous vehicles communicate with traffic lights and on-the-ground sensors to clear traffic jams.A 10-per-cent drop in commuter travel time could increase productivity that would boost GDP by $270-million in Vancouver and $535-million in...
Shanghai Cofco Cultural and Health Center
Construction work just resumed at the Shanghai site for the new Cofco Cultural and Health Center designed by Steven Holl Architects.The 80,944-sf facility combines medical spaces, a pharmacy and nursery with cultural functions, including a library, gym, exhibition...
Leadership: Our People and Our Communication
I recently shared with a friend notes of my take-a-ways from the book, The Zillion Dollar Coach, which is about Bill Campbell, who was an exemplary leader. Campbell absolutely understood that leadership is not about our being great, rather it is about helping our...
Virtual Meetings and Events: An Ambition Cube
I recently had a number of conversations on “Virtual Meetings” or “Virtual Events”. The briefing boils down to the following two questions: How can I create a virtual version of my now canceled physical event, meeting, and interaction with my customers/partners? How...
The COVID-19 Recovery will Be Digital: A Plan For the First 90 Days
By now, most C-suite executives have led their companies to digitize at least some part of their business to protect employees and serve customers facing mobility restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.As one CEO of a large tech company recently stated, “We...
The Plate-drop Challenge How to Respond to Failure
The only way to learn how many plates you can spin is to break some plates.The question of capacity guarantees failure.T.S. Eliot said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” The idea is scary, even if Eliot wasn’t thinking...
How Construction Firms Can Prepare For a Potential Second Wave of COVID-19
Although many coronavirus-related shutdown and stay-at-home orders are in still in place, the U.S. is on the road to loosening restrictions to keep the outbreak at bay. Since several areas of construction were considered essential, the industry has a leg up on others...