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CEOWORLD.BIZ February 2022

Warren BuffetWORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL INVESTOR

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EDITOR’S NOTECEO and Editorial DirectorProf. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj

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Published by CEOWORLD magazine.

Hello and welcome to the February 2022 issue of CEOWORLD magazine!

This issue focuses on looking positively ahead and planning for a super success-ful 2022. You’ll find wealth of useful and inspirational features, jam-packed with advice on how to navigate a rapidly political and business landscape.

At CEOWORLD magazine, we will continue to keep tabs on those in power – who is gaining it, who is losing it, how they are flexing it – and offer insight into how you can get it too. Thanks, as always for reading, we’re committed to arming you will all the tools you need to lead and succeed.

Here are some of our favorite stories from CEOWORLD magazine’s February 2022 edition:

Prepare for what is ahead in 2022. It promises to be a big year. But as you do, prepare to indulge the unexpected as well. Because I promise you, the unexpect-ed is where the payoff and the joy will really be.

We hope you find this issue illuminating, interesting, informative, engaging, and enlightening. As always, we welcome your feedback.

Here’s to a very happy 2022.

Best wishes,

Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj

CEO and Editorial Director

12 14 16

Content

2 EDITOR’S NOTEWritten by Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj,

6 What makes Warren Buffett the most successful investors in the world?Written by Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj,

10 Three Reasons Why Companies Need to Leverage L&D to Combat the Great ResignationWritten by Jason Lavender

12 Three Steps Startup CFOs Need to Take to Help Their Company GrowWritten by Mike Beach

14 Why your business needs a CFO From Chore to More: How to Make Coaching Work For You Written by Saheb Sabharwal

18 Upgrading Your Office Space for the New World of WorkWritten by by Matt French

20 How to Resolve Conflict in the Workplace Before It Gets Out of ControlWritten by Shawn Miller

22 Consulting For Executives: A Framework to Package & Position Your ExpertiseWritten by Michael Zipursky

26 Innocent Habits You Must Break To Stay Safe In A COVID WorldWritten by Tricia Holderman

28 Why You Need a Business Playbook in a Post-Pandemic WorldWritten by Chris Ronzio

30 You Are My Hero! An Ode to Inclusive LeadershipWritten by Vijay Verma

34 Technologies Every Business Needs to Succeed in the Future of Work.Written by Vara Kumar

36 Managers create circles of power. Leaders create circles of influenceWritten by Liz Brunner

39 Getting Past the Hesitation of Hiring Off-Site Workers Written by Nicole M. Sahin

41 Growth in the new normal: CEO’s Looking past crisis for opportunitiesWritten by Alan Martinovich

CEOWORLD Magazine · January 2022 3

Content

44 4 Translation Tips to Help You Elevate Your Brand WorldwideWritten by David Ciccarelli

46 How Can Elite Performers Overcome Nonstop Criticism & Find Strength?Written by Cathy Spaas

50 People Think Trading is About Trusting Your Gut. Trusting the Numbers is a Much Better StrategyWritten by Andrea Unger

52 How Leaders Can Retain Employees During The Great ResignationWritten by John Mattone

54 Welcome to the age of transparency on corporate culture – Is your company prepared to handle it?Written by Ralf Specht

57 Unraveling the Mystery of the Great ResignationWritten by Bob Nelson, Ph.D.

59 Three Tech Predictions for Office Space Analytics in 2022Written by James Wu

61 Bringing work from home closer to FinanceWritten by Isaac Saft

64 A Balanced Approach to Performance AssessmentWritten by Brian Hartzer

68 Fight to keep your Corporate ExplorersWritten by Andrew Binns

71 What Naturally Follows the Great Resignation? A Reskilling & Upskilling RevolutionWritten by Michael Veale

74 The Great Rehiring: How businesses and executives can rise to the challengeWritten by Carolyn Betts Fleming

4 January 2022 · CEOWORLD Magazine

Content

76 Relationships Are the New Currency Written by Dr. Shirley Davis.

78 Amazon after Lina Khan: Building Back BetterWritten by Robin Gaster Ph.D

81 Your Guide To Open InnovationWritten by Dr. Dorel Iosif

84 Is empathy the great resignation’s secret solution?Written by Marcelo Bartholo

86 FROM GREENPEACE TO BLACKROCK: How the pressure on CEOs is changing colourWritten by Andy Last

88 Best Business Schools In The World For 2021 96 Best Medical Schools In The World For 2021100 Best Fashion Schools In The World For 2021

104 Best Hospitality And Hotel Management Schools In The World For 2021

107 Global Passport Ranking, 2022

113 Best CEOs In the World Of 2022119 The World’s Richest People (Top 100 Billionaires,

123 Top Citizenship and Residence by Investment Programs

126 Best Practice Toolkit by the CEOWORLD magazine

CEOWORLD Magazine · January 2022 5

What makes Warren Buffett the most successful investors in the world?

W arren Buffett is a successful American business magnate, one who has invested in multiple and various successful business lines operating locally and internationally. According to CEOWORLD magazine Billionaire’s Index, Buffett is ranked as the top 10 wealthiest people in the world with a net worth of about US$111 billion. His high net worth reflects his successful

business investment over the years. He developed an interest in business at a young age, which influencing his career and the course he studied at the university. Buffett initially enrolled in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 and later completed his higher education course in University of Nebraska. He later proceeded to Columbia Business School where he developed his business philosophy around value investing. Through his American multinational conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway,

Written by Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj,

is CEO and editorial director of the CEOWORLD

magazine. Under Dr. Amarendra’s leadership,

The CEOWORLD magazine has become the world’s

most iconic news organization, whose rigorous

reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect

with millions of business leaders every day.

Dr. Amarendra holds a Ph.D. in Finance and Bank-

ing from the European Global School in France; a

Doctoral Degree in Chartered Accountancy from

the European International University Paris; and

a Doctorate in Business Administration from Kyiv

National University of Technologies and Design

(KNUTD), Ukraine.

He earned his Master of Business Administra-

tion degree in Finance and his master’s degree

In Chartered Accountancy (CA) from European

Global School Paris. Dr. Amarendra also holds

a Master of Business Administration degree in

International Relations and Affairs from the

American University of Athens, Alabama, United

States. Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj is a

macro-economist and visiting professor at Kyiv

National University of Technologies and Design

(KNUTD), Ukraine.

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6 February 2022 · CEOWORLD Magazine

What makes Warren Buffett the most successful investors in the world?

Buffett owns about 60 companies operating in various industries. Buffett’s investment success stems from his interest in business and core business values, business philosophy and investment strategy, and a secure investing style.

Why is Buffett a Great Investor?

Warren Buffett has over the years demonstrated attributes that define him as an astute investor and businessman.

An Interest in Business and Core Business Values

From a young age, Buffett demonstrated an interest in business, a characteristic that set the foundation for his investment orientation, career choice, purposive education, and core values. While assessing the importance of having an interest or a passion in a particular career, Forbes business magazine highlighted that passion facilitates a person’s commitment to his work and self-motivation (Gold, 2019). By having passion for specific fields or careers, people are likely to enjoy their engagement in such fields and do what it takes to succeed. Correspondingly, having an interest in one’s field facilitates a sense of job satisfaction and the desire to succeed. Passion in investment and business has been the fundamental drive in Buffett’s strategy as exemplified by his key business values, philosophies, investment strategies and the level of effort and resources he invested to succeed. Therefore, having an interest in business and investment helped Buffett to choose and focus on appropriate career that worked to his strengths, making it easy for him to achieve self-motivation and engagement.

The influence of his interest in business and investment over his career can be assessed in the context of his educational trajectory and how it aligns with his career choice. His interest in business and investment influenced his career choice and the type of education he chose. Initially enrolled in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 and later completed his higher education course in University of Nebraska. He later proceeded to Columbia Business School where he developed his business philosophy around value investing. As such, his educational experience aligns with his career choice because he developed an interest in business at a young age. His educational experience provides a solid fundamental structure for the strategic decisions he makes during investment. For instance, his ability to assess and evaluate firms before investment partly stems from his educational experience. He can use assessment tools such as SWOT and Porter’s five forces analysis among other tools to assess the value of firms before buying their shares, leading to smart and effective investment decisions.

Based on this interest in business, he analyzed existing businesses, leading to core value investment values that have brought him success over the years. He bought his first shares from the Cities Service when he was 11 years. The stock prices was 38 per piece at the time. His experience from this investment exposed him to America’s business environment. From the moment onset, he developed core investment values that have been influencing his business decisions to date. Firstly, he observed that investors should buy stock in companies that demonstrate solid fundamentals. Correspondingly, he observed that people should invest in firms that demonstrate reliable and sustainable growth potential over an extended

periods. A company’s outcomes within a short duration cannot be controlled and may not reflect its true value. As such, the focus of evaluation is whether the firm can hold its value in the long term and deliver financial success to investors within that period. He also believes that people should invest in companies that demonstrate strong potential for sustained growth over the years. Again, this attribute cannot be assessed in the short-term period, but based on past performances over extended periods.

Business Philosophy and Investment Strategy

Warren Buffett’s business philosophy is one of the important outcomes of his interest in business. His interest in business drove him to analyze America’s businesses and other businesses across the world. Based on this analysis, he adopted value investing business philosophy. Value investing involves buying stocks that trade for less than their intrinsic value. Intrinsic value of stocks include an objective value contained in the stocks, and is often undermined in the market value of such stocks. Various methods can be used to assess the intrinsic value of shares. These evaluation methods use residual income, discounted cash flows, and dividend streams to arrive at the intrinsic values of stock. Using his sound business knowledge and skills obtained from his educational preparation and experience, Buffett is able to pick stocks whose market values are less than their intrinsic values or underestimated in the stock market. Because the market overreacts to events and news, the stocks of companies with significant growth and revenue potentials are often under-valued. For instance, the market value for a company’s stock is likely to plunge following the news of exit of its long-term CEO. Correspondingly,

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CEOWORLD Magazine · February 2022 7

the market value of several companies’ stock reduced significantly from the onset of COVD-19 outbreak following the adverse impacts of the pandemic on businesses. Therefore, people tend to overreact to news about companies in ways that do not reflect the market value of their stocks realistically

As part of his investment strategy, Warren Buffett picks companies with stock whose market values are undermined in the stock market. Such companies have significant financial potential when assessed based on their history and ability to turn things around in the long term. Buffett realized that people tend to overreact to bad or good news in ways that affect the market value for stock (Chirkova, 2012). However, such market values do not reflect the true potentials of companies. In time, the stock would regain their accurate market value. Based on Buffett’s analysis of the American business environment, he concluded that no company truly ever dies. Some of the negative financial projections about firms and their performances are circumstantial and do not reflect their long-term potentials for growth and profitability. As such, Buffett has always invested in companies whose stock are under-exterminated in the market, but has immense intrinsic value. Working with this investment philosophy, Buffett has always generated significant returns from his investments over the years, making him a great investor.

Warren Buffett’s investment strategy has significant support from studies. For instance, a study conducted by Chan, Jegadeesh, and Lakonishok (1995) found that investment in stocks with low price-to-book multiplier generates significant returns in the long run than stocks with high price-to-book multiplier. According to Caj (1997), stocks with low price-to-book outperforms glamour stocks by 6% to 12% per year for five years after the

formation of portfolio. A study conducted between 1975 and 1998 on British public companies confirms the above observation. The study indicates that value investing yield higher return on investment than investment on glamour stocks because it exploits investors’ mistakes and tendency to overreact to information about companies (Lakonishok, Shleifer & Vishny, 1994). Value investments are not riskier as perpetuated in the stock investment discourse as long as companies are objectively evaluated based on their long-term potentials and financial histories. Buffett understood this fact and modelled his investment philosophy around it, leading to his successful investment decisions over the years.

Investing Style

Warren Buffett’s investment style is partly responsible for his investment success over the years. His investment style includes four tenets, including business decisions, management decisions, financial measures, and value-related decisions. His business decisions includes the type of businesses he considers for investment. To meet his eligibility criteria for investment, Buffett only focuses on businesses he can analyze in a straightforward manner. Such businesses must have clear and non-ambiguous operational philosophy that can be used to assess their history and predict their performances. This criteria protected Buffett from the financial losses that many investors incurred during the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s. The bubble was facilitated by the unprecedented market rise amidst increased speculation regarding high technology-related stocks. Buffett is one of the few investors who did not buy technology-related stocks because most technologies were new and unproven.

The management tenet of his investment style focuses on whether companies strive to optimize shareholder values. He analyzes companies he is interested in to determine whether they tend to re-invest part of their profits or distribute them to shareholders. He favors the distribution of profits to shareholders or the maximization of shareholder values. He also evaluates companies with great potential based on their transparency. He understands that business operations may not be easy or straightforward. However, how companies bounce from temporary setback matters a lot to Buffett. Correspondingly, the ability of companies to demonstrate transparency is critical for developing shareholders’ trust. Lack of transparency can lead to significant financial losses for investors. Enron Corporation is a case in point where financial statements were manipulated to create a perception of a financially healthy organization. Because of this manipulation, many investors bought the company’s stock. However, they incurred significant losses in the long run because the market value of the stocks could not match the company’s financial potentials. Buffett avoids this mistake by evaluating firms based on their ability to demonstrate transparency even when they incur losses or mistakes in their course of their operations. Lastly, Buffett focuses on firms that make strategic innovative decisions as part of their strategies for overcoming business challenges and adjusting to their environments. Innovative companies demonstrate that they can withstand shifts in their business environments and remain relevant for extended periods. Because value investing focuses on the long-term potential of firms, innovative companies are safe or less risky considering that they can survive for extended periods through innovation.

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His tenets on financial measurement focuses on profit margins and economic value added profits. By assessing a company’s profit margin, Buffett is interested in companies with low operational cost and high profits. By keeping their operational costs low, such companies offer safety against potential financial losses. Secondly, Buffett evaluates companies based on their financial health following value added calculations. This calculation reveals a company’s profit after shareholders’ stake is distributed. In other words, it calculates a company’s profits minus the initial cost of acquiring capital from investors. The relevance of this calculation is to assess whether companies can sustain high-level shareholder values for an extended

period, giving investors significant return on investments.

Lastly, value tenets focuses on a company’s intrinsic value. Intrinsic value of stocks involves an objective assessment of the value contained in the stocks that is undermined in their market values. Various methods are used to assess the intrinsic value of shares. These evaluation methods use residual income, discounted cash flows, and dividend streams to arrive at the intrinsic values of stock. As observed above, stocks with low price-to-book generates significant returns in the long run than glamour stock (Chan, Jegadeesh & Lakonishok, 1995). These business tenets help Buffett to make effective investment decisions.

Conclusion

Buffett’s investment success stems from his interest in business and core business values, business philosophy and investment strategy, and a secure investing style. From a young age, Buffett demonstrated an interest in business, a characteristic that set the foundation for his investment orientation, career choice, purposive education, and core values. Warren Buffett’s business philosophy is one of the important outcomes of his interest in business. Warren Buffett’s investment style is partly responsible for his investment success over the years.

References• Cai, J. (1997). Glamour and value strategies on the Tokyo stock exchange. Journal of Business Finance &

Accounting, 24(9‐10), 1291-1310.

• Chan, L. K., Jegadeesh, N., & Lakonishok, J. (1995). Evaluating the performance of value versus glamour stocks. The impact of selection bias. Journal of financial Economics, 38(3), 269-296.

• Chirkova, E. (2012). Why is it that I am not Warren Buffett? American Journal of Economics, 2(6), 115-121. DOI: 10.5923/j.economics.20120206.04

• Gold, E. (2019). The Importance of Passion as a Business Leader. https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2019/07/08/the-importance-of-passion-as-a-business-leader/?sh=613cb30f21d1

• Lakonishok, J., Shleifer, A., & Vishny, R. W. (1994). Contrarian investment, extrapolation, and risk. The journal of finance, 49(5), 1541-1578.

CEOWORLD Magazine · December 2021 9

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Three Reasons Why Companies Need to Leverage L&D to Combat the Great Resignation

S omething happened in 2021 that we hadn’t seen in more than half a century: 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in a single month - September. This wasn’t a mere blip. November’s job gains were even slower, meaning that many of those recently unemployed Americans weren’t in a rush to get back to the grind.

The factors are many: some Americans accumulated more savings in 2020, when many travel and entertainment options were limited due to lockdowns, closures, and travel restrictions. On the emotional side, the stresses, adjustments, and uncertainty of 2020 left many people asking deep questions about their career paths.

In light of all that, 2021 has undeniably been a year of adjustment. With 2022 on the horizon, companies are tackling attrition by using unique Learning & Development (L&D) programs to attract — and retain — the best talent. Here are three reasons why this strategy is paying off.

Written by Jason LavenderJason Lavender is the co-founder and

CEO of Electives. Prior to Electives, Jason worked at Buoy Health, a healthcare

technology startup in Boston. He started his career in HR consulting at Willis Tow-

ers Watson, leading the health innova-tion team for North America. Jason holds

his MBA from MIT Sloan.

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to it. Prospective employees can get a good sense of a company’s culture just by looking at the L&D programs it offers. If everything on the menu is about productivity, time management, and industry-specific skills, it’s a fairly safe bet that the organization’s focus is solely on the bottom line. Of course, it’s important to cultivate skills that directly impact the job at hand. But if that’s all that’s offered, a prospective staffer can rightly expect that that’s all the company leadership cares about. A different picture emerges when companies invest in education that is applicable elsewhere in life. Some offer programs that focus on work/life balance, or support for parents. Many engage in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion training that goes far beyond the “checked box” approach; exploring histories and societal issues and creating greater contextual understanding. When current and prospective employees see that a company offers a wider range of training and growth opportunities, they develop deeper trust, pride, and loyalty toward their workplace and its leadership.

3. Your company must go beyond compensation to show value Millennials represent 35% of the labor force in the US. More than a third of all workers here were born between 1981-1996. As many researchers, reporters, and - yes - armchair scholars have pointed out, this generation is different from the ones that preceded it in many ways. Even before the

pandemic hit, a study of 3,153 respondents conducted by FlexJobs found that this large subset of laborers highly values flexibility and unique benefits along with compensation rates.Both the employees you’re courting - as well as the ones you’re trying to keep on staff - base their decisions on more than just dollar figures. Research from PWC shows that Millennials in particular value opportunities to progress more than they value salary. 52% of PWC’s respondents said that career development opportunities are what attracted them to their jobs, and 65% said that they’d based their acceptances on what the organization had offered in professional development.As such, in a competitive marketplace you’re better off stepping up in L&D than trying to eke out a hiring win with a few extra bucks in salary.

The Bottom Line

Between recruiting costs, onboarding expenditures, and productivity losses, every unfilled position becomes more expensive by the minute. Historically speaking, it costs anywhere from six to nine months’ salary, on average, to replace a non-hourly employee - and the current labor shortage is driving these costs even higher.

Smart companies are stepping up with stronger L&D programs to entice new employees through the door, and to keep existing workers in their seats. The right L&D program shows that the company values its people, wants them to grow, and will support them long-term. It makes a compelling case for reciprocal loyalty between employer and employee - a major factor in facing down the Great Resignation.

1. Your employees want to learn Research shows that most employees (especially Millennials) believe that workplace L&D is important. In fact, 41% of employees consider their organization’s career advancement opportunities to be a “very important factor to their job satisfaction.” And yet, there’s a gaping hole here. 74% of employees reported that they feel as though they’re not reaching their full potential because their employer doesn’t provide ample developmental opportunities The answer lies in supercharged L&D. Researchers for LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report found that 94 percent of employees surveyed would stay with a company longer if it invested more in professional development. Research shows that organizations offering solid professional development offerings have retention rates as much as 34% higher than average.

2. Employees need to see that you care about their wellbeing Historically, organizations that provide options for employee development have benefitted from jumps in sales and profits. One Gallup study of 49,495 business units across 45 countries found that “ninety percent of the workgroups studied had performance increases” to the tune of 10%-19% in increased sales and 14%-29% in increased profit.But when we’re talking about attracting talent and retaining current staffers amid the most lopsided labor market in decades, there has to be more

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Three Steps Startup CFOs Need to Take to Help Their Company Grow

W hen businesses enter a hypergrowth phase, CFOs have to be as much “Chief Growth Officers” as they are “Chief Financial Officers.” Gone are the days when the CFO’s sole focus was improving cost efficiency through data driven results and cutting costs. Financial solvency is obviously essential, but in the past CFOs have been like the parent you don’t want to ask because you know they will say ‘no.’ Today, CFOs need to be at the forefront of building agility and driving the kind of change that will help the business compete and succeed in the future.

In a fast-growth environment, speed and direction are essential for the long-term success of a business. However, financial reporting tunnel vision can cause CFOs to hit the brakes on new avenues of growth and turn a blind eye to innovative business changes. The pandemic has brought to light the importance of accepting change and being ahead of the curve, causing an evolution to how businesses run. With these changes, CFOs now have to operate with a different mindset and embrace the pivotal role they play in driving hypergrowth.

Here are three steps a startup CFO should take to support business growth:

1. See unpredictability as opportunity As your company grows, the one thing you can - and should - expect is the unexpected. For

example, when the pandemic hit, it threw a sudden wrench into how every business operated. Yet companies, like Zoom, that were able to quickly

react and pivot saw positive outcomes. When work suddenly became remote, Zoom leveraged and expanded their capabilities to turn the pandemic into a

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These things are important, but they are the table stakes of finance - and don’t fan the flames of hypergrowth. Reported by McKinsey, CFO’s should take a bigger role in driving enterprise-wide transformation, however less than half of CFOs have led those efforts. Thus, I suggest that CFOs should only spend the minority of their time managing finance and compliance functions and the majority of their time focused on creating the future direction of the business, influencing operating decisions and influencing the messaging to the market and investors. The modern CFO now has tools and applications that allow them to monitor the influence of growth initiatives in real-time and make adjustments accordingly; thus playing a critical role in establishing the future direction of the business.With this evolution towards being a “Chief Growth Officer,” CFOs are now playing an integral role in conversations such as capital allocation and investment in technology. The CFO’s input is far more valuable in these strategic areas, than merely making sure that all of the proverbial ‘i’s are dotted and ‘t’s are crossed - there are platforms, applications and even consultants that can help with these tasks. The new CFO should be more focused on championing and supporting change.

3. Prepare for the financial complexities that come with growth As your business grows, your

finance workflows become more complex. Before you know it, your team is balancing accounting, financial planning, managing the revenue cycle, ensuring tax compliance and meeting regulatory requirements. All of these moving parts are then stacked on your plate, leaving you with little time to manage. This is why it is important to build the finance team for growth rather than in response to it. Practically, this means investing in technologies that can effectively scale with your business. Keeping technology up to date and evaluating what’s important for your team can be difficult due to its unpredictability. One minute your current system works just fine, and the next you are struggling to manage unprocessed payments, stop revenue leaks and locate a reliable source of accurate data that will inform your strategic decisions. The right tools will not only save you time that you can invest in making strategic decisions, like branching out into new markets and trying out different pricing models, it will also give you the data to make those decisions with confidence.

As the CFO, you don’t just have to be the ‘no’ person who is constantly running numbers. The transformation of the role of CFO, and finance more generally, means you now have the ability to lead an enterprise-wide alignment, innovate, and inspire by following the steps above to maximize your impact on growth as your company scales.

business opportunity, driving a 33x increase in profits. Companies that truly embraced change and were willing to take risks and to innovate not only survived the lockdowns, but many came out with entirely new business models; that now have offerings that will have a long-term impact. From retail stores that began offering subscription services to deliver items directly to their customer’s doors; to storage companies that capitalized on the number of physical offices that temporarily closed down and needed a place to put the office furniture, highlights how the impact of the pandemic will have ripples for years to come. These business changes are not always associated with a CFO, but the pandemic also changed the role of C-suite, increasing flexibility and often expanding the role to be more strategic. CFOs became digital transformation leaders, making important decisions on upgrading systems and tools to adapt to changing business needs and models, all while keeping track of spending and revenue in real time. CFOs had to be agile and open to change and these enhanced expectations will now be the new normal. The big takeaway: Always be ready for and unafraid of change.

2. Focus on strategy over compliance As a CFO, it’s easy to spend the bulk of your time focused on accounting, taxes, financial reporting, internal controls, budgeting and risk management.

Chief Financial Officer at Chargebee, the lead-ing subscription management platform.

Written by Mike Beach

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Why your business needs a CFO

W hen you are in business you want to be sure that you have surrounded yourself with a qualified team that will help you reach your business goals.

Traditional corporate structures lay a good foundation for the types of team

members you will want to work with. When your business needs strategic financial planning and leadership, it is time to bring on a CFO in the mix.

A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is the most senior financial position in an organization. There was a time when

the CFO role was reserved for large, publicly traded companies, primarily due to the cost and commitment of hiring a full-time CFO. That is no longer the case.

Smaller and medium-sized

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intelligent and most profitable business decision? A CFO can help you work that out.

2. Holds the business accountable to its goals Your CFO will report your monthly financial results to you and track and report KPIs that are essential for your business. Through these critical business metrics, you will base your business decisions on, so ensuring that these are reported accurately and efficiently each month (at a minimum) will help your business be accountable to its goals. You will know how your company measures up against its goals through tracking. By measuring the performance of your business, you can identify issues through fluctuation in KPIs, and make changes to improve them before they become larger issues.

3. Offers a strategic partner in business Every CEO needs a sounding board, a trusted advisor, and a person who will look out for their blind spots. CFOs are highly trained and experienced and identify many growth strategies through trend analysis and reporting. If you have plans for high growth in your business, your CFO will plan out a strategy that safely manages growth so that you don’t overextend the company, run out of cash to fuel that growth, and ensure the longevity of your business.

4. Identifies opportunities and threats for your business Risk management is a crucial component of running a

successful business. There will always be threats against your business, and mitigating those risks and threats is part of being a strategic business owner. A risk management strategy can be as simple as installing a sprinkler system should a fire start or as complex as creating an IT backup system to protect business data. Risk management strategies are also to develop policies and procedures for employees to follow and ensure financial data maintains its accuracy and integrity. A large part of risk management strategy is ensuring internal controls are set up to protect the company’s assets from theft and fraud.

5. Help you develop hiring plans You know you need to start building your team, but you have no idea if you can afford to. A CFO will plan that out for you, build financial models that show you what it will look like to bring new team members on. You’ll understand how long it will take for new hires to start generating revenue and how it will affect your cash flow and impact your bottom line.

The bottom line is that there are many ways a CFO brings value to the table. As your company grows and the complexity of the business increases, it may feel impossible to keep up with demand. CFOs help plan that out and plans growth strategies that won’t put too much risk on the business or overleverage it. When you engage with a CFO you are working with a trusted, qualified strategic thinker who adds value to your company.

businesses see the value that a CFO brings to the table and with the trend of fractional CFOs, they are able to bring on a CFO on a part-time basis. This offers small to medium-sized businesses the same benefits of having a growth strategist and financial guidance for the company without making the significant financial commitment of bringing on a CFO in-house.

The new trend in accounting is good news for smaller businesses that cannot afford to hire a full-time CFO on the payroll but still need strategic guidance and advice. Now that you know this is accessible for your business, there are many reasons you need to bring on a CFO in your business.

A qualified and experienced CFO brings many valuable skills to the table. A few value-added activities are offering valuable insight into increasing revenue, business growth strategies, cost control measures, capital acquisition, and tax-saving strategies, along with offering support and guidance to the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

How a CFO can help you in your business:

1. Create a financial forecast for your business Having a 12-month operating forecast is a must for your business, as it outlines your business goals for the upcoming year and gives your business a roadmap on how to achieve those goals. Not only is financial forecasting valuable, but a CFO can build out financial models and scenario analysis to ensure that you are making solid business decisions. Are you confused about what makes the most

is a Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) and a Financial Strategist for CEOs. Me-lissa helps successful business owners increase their profit margins, so they keep more money in their pocket and build their net worth. Melissa is the founder of The Business SocietyTM blog and is host of The Business SocietyTM podcast.

Written by Melissa Houston

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From Chore to More: How to Make Coaching Work For You Feedback sessions should be the highlight of a leader’s day.

Your employees are getting fed up with feedback. That, at least, is the takeaway from one recent Gallup survey, which found that only 26% of workers believe that feedback actually helps them improve their performance.

Clearly, things aren’t working the way they should. At most organizations, feedback sessions are viewed as, at best, a necessary evil: a way to nudge your team in the right direction, but a process that isn’t much fun for either party, and seldom delivers the desired results. Most people want to get it over with, and get back to the real work of running a business.

I’ll admit that I used to think that way

too. But over my career — including a stint at McKinsey & Co., a consulting powerhouse where people are literally the only asset of the company — I’ve learned that coaching and mentoring are actually among the best and most important parts of being a business leader.

It’s true that feedback sessions can be stressful. But done right, they are a key strategic investment, both in yourself

Written by Saheb Sabharwal

is the Chief Strategy Officer at Cart.Com, the first end-to-

end Ecommerce-as-a-Service (ECaaS) company. Prior to

Cart.com, he was a Managing Director at CSL, an operation-

ally-focused Venture Capital and Private Equity fund that

has raised $2B. Before that, Mr. Sabharwal was an Engage-

ment Manager at McKinsey & Company where he focused on

Operations, Strategy and M&A engagements for various For-

tune 500 companies, including merger integration efforts for transactions with a combined

deal value of $8B+. Mr. Sabhar-wal graduated with an M.B.A.

from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from the

University of Texas in Austin.

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done differently the next time you sit down to chat. To ensure accountability — for both you and your team — it helps to keep careful notes documenting what was discussed and what was agreed. Being structured in this fashion can help you spot long-term trends, and showcase data-driven impact. It can also be a real morale booster — looking back on my team’s feedback notes from years ago, I’m amazed by how far we’ve come and how much we’ve learned along the way.

3. Make it work both ways According to leadership development guru Joseph Folkman, the best leaders don’t just give feedback well — they also demand feedback from others. In fact, Folkman found, bosses who ranked at the bottom 10% in asking for feedback also rated in the bottom 15% for overall leadership effectiveness, while top requesters of feedback ranked in the 86th percentile for overall effectiveness. Bear in mind that each time you sit down for a feedback session, make sure you ask what you could be doing better, and how you can do a better job of supporting your employee’s growth. This two-directional approach makes coaching more collaborative, as you find ways to move toward the common goal of achieving peak performance as a team.

4. Make it a way of life Coaching doesn’t have to happen in formal meetings. In fact, much of the best coaching happens in the margins — a casual chat over coffee, or on the drive back from a big meeting, or a simple word of praise after someone nails a big presentation. Keep looking for opportunities to provide mentorship in real time, and you’ll find coaching becomes a way of life rather than a chore.

By the same token, recognize that people learn from people. Keep your eyes and ears open as you go about your daily life — you’ll find there are many people who can inspire you and help you gain new insights. Discuss those learnings openly with your team and find new ways to implement them in your own life. Simply paying attention as you interact with people can yield amazing dividends, making you a better you and your team a better team.

Make time for coaching

I’ve been fortunate to work at companies that truly value talent, including currently at Cart.com where we take a thoughtful approach to encouraging effective feedback and mentorship as not only an investment in the business, but an investment in the people themselves. One thing such companies have in common is an awareness that at the end of the day, a business is only as good as its people — so investing in your team is often a good way to spend your time and energy.

That’s the key mindset adjustment that leaders need to take as they try to make coaching a more positive and powerful part of their working lives. Feedback sessions might seem like they consume a lot of your time, but by helping your team to unlock their potential, you’re also making them happier, stronger, and more independent. That, in turn, means you’ll spend less of your own time putting out fires or stressing over work that wasn’t done right.

Spending time on coaching, in other words, is arguably the best way to free up your own bandwidth. A little bit of time helping your team-members to shine can literally give whole workdays back to you in the long term — and help both you and your employees to bring your best selves to work each day. In other words, done right, coaching can be a highlight of not only your day but also your team’s day!

and in your team. In fact, another Gallup study found that employees who get good quality coaching can have a significant impact on the bottom-line of the business and drive up profits by as much as 29%.

That brings the value of coaching into focus: your team deserves good mentorship, and you deserve a team that’s working to the fullest of its potential. Achieving that, though, starts with a mindset shift, and a commitment to viewing coaching as more than merely a managerial chore that happens once or twice a year during performance reviews. Personally, I aim to have one-on-one coaching sessions every two weeks, and here are four steps I’ve taken to turn coaching sessions into a highlight of my workday:

1. Talk about strengths and weaknesses Few bosses enjoy giving negative feedback, and few employees like receiving it, so it’s always best to offer praise alongside criticism. The goal of giving feedback isn’t to scold or shame workers — it’s to help them be their best selves, and that means acknowledging successes as well as opportunities for growth. To get the best out of your team, make it a point of using your sessions to recognize good behavior, as well as to identify areas for development. The goal should always be to reinforce and sustain the things that are working well, as well as to remedy the things that aren’t. Make sure you are offering tactical steps to take both to the next level.

2. Take action and follow up Feedback isn’t an end unto itself — in fact, your coaching sessions won’t be truly productive unless you make them a launchpad for action. Make it clear that you expect your team to put in the work between coaching sessions, and to come prepared to discuss what they’ve achieved or

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Upgrading Your Office Space for the New World of Work

W ay before the global pandemic hit, enterprises were taking a second look at how to manage the changing workplace and use of office space.

COVID-19 just accelerated the process. There are a few reasons for this: heightened health and safety protocols,

more employee burnout and higher turnover rates, and unpredictable office attendance due to remote and hybrid workforce policies. Enterprises have had to re-evaluate how spaces are being used and how offices are designed.

These changes – plus employees’ increasing desire for more flexibility

and autonomy in the workplace – have created a demand for data so that facility managers and building operations managers can take a new approach to designing and maintaining workspaces. Companies can use data and analytics to really put employee experience front and center.

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of the bigger picture of creating a truly collaborative environment in which employee experience is front and center and in-person interaction is.

Smart buildings and the new world of work

Enabling these types of amenities and appeal requires more use of smart building technologies. We’re seeing many companies still have antiquated building systems that are expensive, not energy-efficient and not suited to the new ways of working.

It really comes down to the whole instrumentation of the building. It’s not just about making a building intelligent; it’s about understanding everything that there is to know about the building. And then it’s about using all that data at your fingertips to share with users or leverage it to run your daily operations more efficiently.

Once you have data about every part of the building, you can start to automate things in interesting ways. For instance, meeting rooms are often one of the priciest elements in a corporate real estate portfolio, as they tend to use a lot of high-tech equipment. But they’re also some of the most underutilized spaces. There is a lot of opportunity to suggest or automate actions based on utilization, which brings us to the next point of how to actually use this data and analytics to transform the workspace.

Three use cases for data, automation and analytics in facilities management

There are three main categories of improvement for facilities managers and building operations teams:

1. Real-time occupancy data helps create a better workplace experience. For example, creating an agile seating strategy by connecting accurate, real-time desk availability with existing desk booking tools for employees empowers every worker to find the right space at the right time.

2. Repurpose underutilized spaces with usage metrics. Real-time occupancy sensors help workplace leaders iterate workplace design quickly by understanding how space is actually being used by employees from day to day.

3. Make better decisions for future efforts. You can use analytics about how employees are using the space to shape future decisions in terms of office fit outs or re-designs.

Empowering the employee experience

The shift to hybrid work has had a huge impact on where and how employees work, the way offices are used and how facilities managers and building operations teams do their jobs. Allocation of space and resources is tricky when you don’t know who’s coming into the office or when. Some workers are excited to return to an office setting, while others want to remain remote. It’s up to you to incentivize employees to come back to the office by emphasizing the employee experience. Collecting and using data and analytics enables facilities management professionals to do just that. This information empowers optimal use of all resources while safeguarding health and increasing productivity.

Returning to the physical office

An employee’s reasons for wanting to work in a physical office often differs by age and stage of their career. More senior employees or employees further along in their career are usually more likely to want to show up in the office to manage and direct people and projects. New hires or employees earlier in their career want to return to build their professional network and develop their foundation. For the employees in the middle bucket, remote work is a dream because they want flexibility, so they want to stay remote indefinitely.

We’ve seen this dynamic play out with customers in the banking industry, for example, which tends to be a very personable, network-heavy environment. But even in this industry, we’re seeing that those who are somewhere in the middle of their career may not want to return to a corporate setting, as they are established with their professional network already.

Overall, the most significant reason for having people return to a physical office, at least as a starting point, is to foster and support live, in-person collaboration. But enterprises need to think beyond collaboration, because some of that can be done through tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

You need to create more compelling reasons to return to the corporate center of gravity. Enabling the physical office to be a fully collaborative, attractive and amenity-driven is critical. It’s not going to be enough to simply have a desk – a place to park – anymore. It’s not going to be enough to just have the necessary technology. Those will still be features, but they will be a part

leads customer success at VergeSense, the leading workplace analytics platform. Matt has 6 years of experience advising the world’s largest enterprises on their workplace strategy, specifically supporting decisions involving right-sizing real estate portfolios, agile seating strategies, building world class employee experiences and internal data integration strategies.

Written by Matt French

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How to Resolve Conflict in the Workplace Before It Gets Out of ControlWorkplace conflict isn’t a new issue in the world of business, but it has become more pressing in the past couple of years. According to one survey, 55% of respondents said conflict at work is more common now than it was before the pandemic due in part to increasing workloads and personal demands. Knowing how to handle conflict resolution in the workplace should be a top priority for all.

W orkplace conflict isn’t a new issue in the world of business, but it has become more pressing in the past couple of years. In one recent survey, 55% of respondents said conflict at work is more common now than it was before the pandemic due in part to increasing workloads and personal demands. The report also suggests that returning to the office and integrating new workloads and changing protocols will further increase conflict and stress.

Considering that working with others is part of nearly every job, from high-powered CEOs to warehouse night-shift workers, everyone is likely to face less-than-ideal interactions at one point or another. Knowing how to

handle conflict resolution in the workplace should be a top priority for all.

Written by Shawn Miller leads the People Solutions Services

practice area at Morrison, serving clients nationally in industries such as agribusiness, manufacturing and processing, distribution, healthcare,

and non-profit.

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managed to strike a balance between sticking to my principles and maintaining a healthy relationship with my colleagues that I cherish.

2. Remember that distance doesn’t mitigate conflict. Workplace conflict isn’t confined to just the physical office. As more and more people work remotely, conflict in virtual teams will happen more often. Because remote interactions often feel more impersonal, it can be tempting to sweep these types of conflict under the rug, dismissing them as minor incidents. However, this is exactly the type of environment where misunderstandings are common and minor disagreements can escalate quickly. The less personal nature of a virtual interaction might make it seem like the conflict will just go away when you hit the X button, but, in truth, the weak nature of the relational connection actually increases the intensity of the conflict. When dealing with others in a remote environment, it’s crucial to actively consider the humanity of the other person on screen. Make the effort to create a meaningful relationship with your remote colleagues and talk through issues before they escalate into full conflict. On the flip side, it’s also necessary to let the little things go. For instance, you might see someone roll their eyes while you’re in the middle of talking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re itching for a fight. Consider for a moment that the gesture might not have had anything to do with you. Maybe that person’s dog just committed a household crime for the fourth time that morning or their son just wandered by missing his pants. Certainly, if the eye-

rolling continues, it’s important to talk it out, but in the moment, be willing to give people the benefit of the doubt and not take things so personally. Because it may turn out not to be personal at all.

3. Remember that you’ve probably been someone else’s difficult person. Giving the benefit of the doubt and being empathetic can get you a long way in resolving conflict. To start adopting a more understanding mindset, remind yourself that workplace conflict runs both ways. In other words, you’ve probably been the difficult one at some point. Maybe it was due to a difference of opinion, or maybe you were having a bad day, but what’s certain is that being the cause of conflict didn’t make you a bad person. Remember this when you find yourself getting frustrated with someone at work. Everyone messes up, and everyone has hurt and been hurt — that doesn’t mean you have to forgive and forget, but remembering this fact might help you extend a little grace and empathy. There’s no excuse for bad behavior, but recognizing that someone’s bad behavior isn’t the entirety of who they are is an important step in resolving conflicts amicably.

When it comes to conflict resolution in the workplace, the primary thing to remember is that every circumstance involves (at least) two sides, and agreement can happen only if each side seeks to understand the other’s perspectives. If you can do that, you’ll be able to create objectivity in your conversations and reduce negative emotions even in the most heated of disagreements. Workplace conflict might be inevitable, but you do have control over how you resolve it.

3 Strategies to Resolve Conflict in the Workplace

Dealing with difficult people at work doesn’t have to be a daunting challenge. It is possible to resolve conflicts amicably and strengthen your professional relationships in the process. You just need to know how to do it.

1. Question your first instinct. When dealing with conflict, the fight-or-flight response can sometimes feel overpowering, but it’s important to remember in tense moments that succumbing to either of these impulses will usually just make things worse. Fighting will likely add fuel to the fire, but running away from the problem won’t solve anything, either. Instead, try to find the middle ground between these two extremes. If the situation is very tense, give the other party space to calm down, but remember that you will need to come back eventually to hash things out. When you do, approach the situation as objectively as possible and begin by asking open-ended questions rather than making demands or accusations. This type of approach is active but not confrontational and can help you truly solve a conflict — instead of turning it into a winner-loser situation. I understand how hard taking this advice can be in practice. I have more than once let my “fight” instinct get the better of me during disagreements, especially in cases when I was passionate about the subject. While standing firm no matter the cost might have helped me win some arguments, it also damaged some of my professional relationships. These aren’t the times I look back on with fondness. Instead, it’s the times when I’ve

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Consulting For Executives: A Framework to Package & Position Your Expertise

Written by Michael Zipursky is the CEO of Consulting Success® and Coach to Consultants. He has advised

organizations like Financial Times, Dow Jones, RBC, and helped Panasonic launch

new products into global markets, but more importantly, he’s helped over 500

consultants from around the world in over 75 industries add 6 and 7 figures to

their annual revenues. Michael is also the author of the Amazon Best Sellers ACT NOW: How successful consultants

thrive during chaos and uncertainty, The Elite Consulting Mind and Consulting

Success®, the book.

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Packaging Your Expertise: Problems & Results

You have many different skills, experiences, and accolades.

How do you package these into something that prospects would buy?

That’s the first challenge: packaging your expertise in a way that engages buyers and encourages them to buy.

Here is a simple way to do this.

Your experience, skills, and knowledge solve problems.

By solving these problems, you create results.

For example, let’s say you’re an executive at a non-profit foundation.

In your role, your expertise is raising money through engaged governance, strategic planning, and fundraising performance.

These are your areas of expertise.

The problem you’re solving is a problem that many nonprofits have: challenges in raising money.

And the result you create is simple: you help them raise more money.

This is how you begin to package your skills, expertise, and knowledge into an offer.1. Start by writing down the

PROBLEMS you solve in your current role.

2. Then, write down the RESULTS of solving these problems.

3. Finally, write down the ACTIONS you take (or skills you use) to solve these problems and achieve the desired result.

The actions you take or skills you use are the “meat” of your offer.

They are what get your prospective client from point A (their current situation) to point B (their desired situation).

But if you don’t understand point A (the problem) and point B (the result), you can’t create an offer that is attractive to buyers.

Without these two elements, there is no narrative as to how your skills can actually help them.

Once you’ve written these elements down, you’ll begin to create consulting offers.

You can package your expertise into a discovery offer: a smaller-scope, lower-priced introductory service offer.

Because it’s inexpensive and low-risk, it’s easier to get your foot in the door and sell it to a client.

You can also create full-engagement offers. These are your standard custom consulting services.

After having a meaningful sales conversation with a buyer, you draft up 3 different ways you can help them.

Have you ever wondered how you could monetize your expertise outside of your corporate role?

As an executive and business leader, other companies would benefit from your expertise.

Companies around the world will pay you to solve problems and create results for their business.

However, your challenge isn’t delivering your expertise.

You do this on a daily basis in your day job.

Your challenge is packaging and positioning your expertise so that buyers engage with you.

These are marketing and sales challenges.

And any subject-matter expert who wants to market and sell their expertise faces these challenges.

However, if you learn how to package and position your expertise effectively, you’ll create an endless stream of consulting opportunities.

By the end of this post, you’ll understand…

• How to package & position your expertise...

• Win consulting opportunities outside of your corporate position, and...

• Feel confident while doing so.

Let’s dive in.

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There are also retainer offers, productized offers, and ROI-based offers.

Packaging your offer begins with... • Deeply understanding the

problems your clients want to solve...

• The results that they want... • And how your expertise, skills, and

knowledge can get them there.

Once you understand those elements, you’ll start to position your expertise.

Positioning Your Expertise: Magnetic Messaging

Positioning is the process of making your expertise stand out among your competitors.

It’s about finding a unique spot in the market where you can stand out and attract the attention of your ideal clients.

After working with thousands of consultants across the world, we’ve

created a formula to help you find and declare your positioning.

It’s called the Magnetic Messaging formula.

Here’s the formula:I help [WHO] to [solve WHAT problem]

so they can [see WHAT result]. My [WHY choose me]...

Let’s break it down.• WHO: The industry that you serve.• WHAT (Problem): The # 1 problem

that you solve.• WHAT (Result): The # 1 result that

you create.• WHY: Why ideal clients should

choose you.

The purpose of this message is twofold.

One, it positions your expertise and your offer.

Two, it attracts the attention of your ideal clients.

The key with your Magnetic Message (and positioning) is specificity.

Saying “I help small businesses to grow so they can achieve more revenue” is not specific.

It’s too generic. It’s indicative of poor positioning. And it won’t attract the attention of an ideal client.

However, saying “I help medical nonprofit organizations raise more money so they can accomplish fundraising goals. Unlike my competitors, I’ve raised over $1 billion for organizations in Canada and the United States” will attract the attention of ideal clients.

Note the difference in specificity in terms of who they serve, what problem they solve, what results they can create, and how they are different from their competitors.

By using the Magnetic Messaging formula — and being specific — you’ll

Here’s an example from a marketing executive.

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write a message that positions your expertise and attracts the attention of your ideal client.

Case Study: Doug Nelson

Doug Nelson, President & Managing Director of The Discovery Group, is an example of a former executive who packaged and positioned his expertise to start a successful consulting business.

Before starting The Discovery Group, he was the President & CEO of BC Cancer Foundation.

Many of the areas of expertise and skills Doug has — and used in his previous role — he now uses in The Discovery Group.

For example, take a look at the services his firm offers (his packaging):

Doug has also positioned his expertise well using Magnetic Messaging:

Not only does he enjoy a higher income — but an improved lifestyle, greater impact, and true freedom.

You can read Doug’s full “executive to consultant” case study here.

Of course, there are more details than just packaging and positioning when it comes to becoming a successful independent consultant.

But by doing the simple exercises outlined in this article, you’ll package your expertise into an offer and market it to your ideal clients to start meaningful sales conversations.

Imperfect Action

Start by doing the exercises outlined in this article.• Packaging: Write down the problems

your clients might have, and the results you can create for them. Then, write down the actions or skills you can offer to solve those problems and create results. These actions and skills are the basis of your offer.

• Positioning: Fill out the Magnetic Messaging formula: WHO you serve, WHAT problem you solve, WHAT result you can create, and WHY clients should choose you. Then, send an email to everyone in your network with your message, and ask them if they know anyone who would benefit from your expertise.

• Remember: as an executive, you have the expertise, the skills, and the network to start a thriving consulting business.

Overcome the marketing and sales hurdle, and you’ll create a business where you’ll have more freedom, a greater income, and a higher level of impact.

The consulting opportunity is yours — if you want it.

These services — based on the skills and expertise he’s gained serving as an executive — solve problems and create results for his clients.

They are what he offers his clients as his consulting services.

Doug took what he excelled as a CEO and now offers it as a consulting business owner.

By using this packaging & positioning framework in our coaching program, he was able to grow his revenue by 5X.

“The Discovery Group helps boards and senior leaders-hip align their organization so they can accomplish what is most important. As a philanthropic sector executive, Doug has led or-ganizations in both Canada and the United States to new heights, raising nearly $1 billion. Awards for cultu-re, advocacy, governance, and innovative granting are a result of his focus on orga-nizational alignment.

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Innocent Habits You Must Break To Stay Safe In A COVID WorldThe two-year onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing with the rise of the Delta and Omicron variants, has taken center stage in every aspect of life, not the least of which is the consumer world.

W hile vaccinations have helped re-open the door to public interaction, the virus still spreads, deaths mount, and many customers are more concerned than ever about infection prevention, says Tricia Holderman, author of Germinator: The Germ Girl’s Guide To Simple Solutions In A Germ-Filled World.

As more people dine out, travel, fill sports venues and go to malls, Holderman says customers have higher expectations of businesses and venues in terms of sanitation and cleanliness – but at the same time, they play a bigger part in protecting themselves in the outside world.

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of disinfecting wipes and wipe down anything you can,” Holderman says. “Try to open the window near you for better air circulation.”

• Beware the bins at airport checkpoints. A trip can get off to a bad start, Holderman says, as early as the security checkpoint, where germs linger in a place people don’t think much about. “Do you want to know a really disgusting secret?” she says. “Those plastic bins where you put your valuables for inspection are never washed. If you want to keep germs off of those items, bring something protective to put them in. I bring a one-gallon zip-top food storage bag.”

• Check sanitation protocols and be watchful. “This means restaurants, stores, salons, spas and gyms in particular,” Holderman says. “Even if they pass, you have to be on alert. At all places, take your own wipes and hand sanitizer and don’t be afraid to use them. One of my least favorite things before the pandemic was the way restaurants cleaned their tables. Somebody would walk around the restaurant with a rag and a bucket of water and use that same rag and dirty water to wipe down every single table. The pandemic hopefully changed that everywhere.” She says if a drink is garnished with fruit or a vegetable, do not under any circumstance put it in your drink. “Why?” she says. “Most of these garnishes are not washed.”

• Be your own maid during your hotel stay. Once again, Holderman says hand sanitizer and wipes are your weapons.

Upon entering the hotel room, she says start by disinfecting the remote, toilet, and sink handles. Do not walk barefoot. “The hotel carpets are rarely cleaned,” she says. “And I always decline housekeeping. I have my own wipers and disinfectant, I know which areas I’m going to touch and I want to make sure those are as clean as they can be.”

“Unlike your home, you can’t control what happens in the outside world,” Holderman says. “It’s full of surfaces you can’t clean and air you can’t not breathe and people who maybe aren’t as obsessed with cleanliness as you are.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic got a lot of people thinking about germs, maybe for the first time ever,” says Holderman, also the CEO of Elite Facility Systems, a healthcare cleaning company specializing in infection prevention and control.

“One of the biggest impacts of COVID-19 is that our customer experience has changed. Safety is now the central theme of the customer journey. The question ‘Do I feel safe?’ is the first thing many people consider before going into a store or restaurant, attending an event, staying in a hotel or getting on an airplane.

“Pro and college sports, business leaders, airlines, the hospitality sector and public officials are taking many precautions to keep everyone safe. But what is sufficient? And what can you do to keep yourself safe when you’re out or traveling? There’s a lot people need to know about self-protection from germs in the outside world that they never considered before COVID.”

Holderman offers these tips to keep yourself – and others – safe when you’re out and about:

• Mind your stuff. Holderman says the simple things are vital, like not putting eye glasses on a table or other surface – and then back on your face after they may have picked up germs from the surface. “Keep a case handy,” she says. She advises keeping sanitizing wipes with you wherever you go, wiping down anything of yours that you or others may have touched, like credit cards.

• Be smart when using public transportation. “If you know you will be riding a bus or train, carry a travel-sized pack

Written by Tricia Holderman is the owner, president and CEO of Elite Fa-cility Systems and the author of Germinator: The Germ Girl’s Guide To Simple Solutions In A Germ-Filled World. With over four decades of experience as a national authority on in-fection prevention, Holderman has uniquely positioned herself to meet the demands of a germ-conscious society. A nationally rec-ognized speaker and consultant, she is on a mission to create safer offices, hospitals, homes and arenas.

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Why You Need a Business Playbook in a Post-Pandemic World

Written by Chris RonzioChris Ronzio is the Founder and

CEO of Trainual, a leading SaaS platform transforming the way

small businesses onboard, train, and scale teams. A two-time EY

Entrepreneur of the Year Mountain Desert Region Award finalist and

Phoenix Business Journal 40 Under 40 Awards recipient, Chris is on a mission to help business leaders

document and delegate so they have more time to focus on the

things they love. Serving business-es in over 170 countries, Trainual

has been recognized on Inc.’s 2021 Best Workplaces list and landed #1 on AZ Central’s inaugural top work-places list for 2021. Chris hosts The

Fastest Growing Companies and Organize Chaos podcasts.

When COVID-19 hit, most of us—most of the world—was taken by surprise. A global pandemic was the furthest thing from all of our minds. No business,

or business leader, could have been prepared. And yet, as shocking it was,

and as much as it impacted our lives and economies, some businesses fared far better than others. But why?

It’s a great question, and one that’s worth thinking about, because the businesses who figure out the answer will survive and thrive in the face of major obstacles and challenges. Those

who don’t will struggle to stay afloat when disaster strikes.

So, why were some businesses more prepared than others? Turns out, the better-prepared businesses had a business playbook—documented, company-approved policies and

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made it harder to quickly find answers if you have a question or a problem. After all, you can’t just slide your chair over and ask your coworker how to do something!

When you have a business playbook, though—one that’s easily accessible to remote workers as well as people physically in the office—this issue is avoided. The playbook shares who does what. It captures each person’s roles and responsibilities in one single, searchable place.

It doesn’t stop there. A good playbook also includes all the how-tos: the step-by-step processes that allow each task to be completed in an efficient, productive, successful way. With a business playbook, you don’t need to have your coworker right next to you to help you answer a question. The answer is in the playbook.

This is useful in a wide variety of situations (above and beyond what we saw during the pandemic). For example, if one of your employees is out sick or on vacation, the person filling in for them can use the playbook to guide them through how to perform all the necessary tasks. No matter what the situation is, having a playbook empowers people, lessens the learning curve, and reduces the time spent answering questions.

Keep People Up-to-Date on Policies

The last 18 months have been drenched in drama. We’ve seen mask mandates, office safety protocol, vaccine and booster requirements, and in some cases, we’ve even seen some companies taking a stance on social issues. To add to the chaos, policies seem to shift and change by the day, so it’s sometimes hard for people to know exactly what the current policies are.

Of course, COVID-19 isn’t the only thing that companies have policies about. Legal requirements, benefits, and cultural norms all require policies too. And, while these policies may not change as much as the ones around the pandemic, people still need to be made aware of them.

Again, that’s where your playbook comes in. It lays out, in no uncertain terms, where your company stands, what is and is not okay for people to do, and what people can expect in any given situation, whether that relates to claiming short-term disability or your office dress code.

Think about it: if you don’t draw clear boundaries for what you expect, how can you expect anything? As the pandemic showed, unexpected crises can come up at any time. Everyone on your team will be better off if you take the time to establish policies that support them before an urgent situation forces you to make things up on the fly.

Aim to Over-Communicate

At the end of the day, having a playbook is about over-communicating. It’s about giving employees everything they need to handle anything that comes their way, because as COVID-19 showed, there’s no way to predict what challenges we will face.

Using a playbook to proactively record and document who you are as a company, who does what, how you do what you do, and what guidelines your team should follow is crucial if you want to keep everyone on the same page and operating at the highest levels of productivity, efficiency, and morale. As the pandemic clearly illustrated, companies that do that have always been successful, but it’s more important now than ever.

processes that gave their teams a sense of confidence and security. And, if you want your company to be better prepared to face any future challenges, you should have a playbook too.

Set Remote Workers Up for Success

Before the pandemic, the vast majority of employees worked on-site, in the office. During COVID-19, though, that all changed. People were required to work from home, which meant many companies had to scramble to figure out how to maintain productivity when employees were off-site.

Even now, when most businesses have opened back up, many employees continue to work remotely. Virtual work appears to be here to stay: at our company, for example, 15 percent of our current workforce has never set foot in our office.

Given this new reality, it’s important that companies have a way to set their remote workers up to be happy and hyper-successful. And with a business playbook, companies can achieve exactly that.

A playbook gives each person a sense of what is expected of them. Just as importantly, it aligns people around your company culture and values. The bottom line is that the playbook lays a foundation for everyone to be on the same page and helps them see how they fit into the organization and the team—something that might otherwise be a challenge, especially with fully remote workers.

Help People Quickly Find Answers

With more and more people working remotely, more and more people are logging onto their work systems and computers virtually. In many ways, that’s made work more efficient, but it’s also

C-SUITE ADVISORY

You Are My Hero! An Ode to Inclusive Leadership

It’s all in the numbers, stories, and perspective: inclusive leadership is the key to unleashing the true potential of organizations

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Inclusive leadership: Beyond numbers

While the correlation between diversity and growth has been accepted and established over the digital decades & beyond, numbers also formulate a strong argument for inclusive leadership. Consider the following:

1. Inclusivity starts at the top: Organizations with gender-diverse teams at the executive level are seen likely to create more value than their less diverse counterparts.

2. Inclusivity beyond borders: That inclusive leadership drives greater growth is not specific to geography or culture - the correlation holds across geographies and countries.

3. Inclusivity broadens horizons: Inclusive leadership leads to inclusive organizations and work cultures, which are significantly more likely to capture new markets.

While numbers make a strong argument for inclusive leadership, there is a more direct argument supporting inclusive leadership - because every team member brings their own stories, and their identities are composed of varying approaches to nurturing and culture. In addition to endowing each individual with a unique set of traits that define their problem-solving capabilities and creative abilities, their diversity also manifests in their expression of their identity.

Without making each individual feel comfortable in their own skin, leaders cannot nurture their teams to their peak potentials - which is why inclusive leadership is ideally a must-have for

As organizations drive significant investments towards accelerating the charter of inclusivity and diversity within the cultural fabrics of their ecosystem – the leaders of tomorrow, are eulogized to lead from the front, which asks for the value recognitions across the layers and spectrum of organizational hierarchies.

While defining inclusive leadership seems like a business behaviour that displays a diversification in the aspects of multi-gender, cross-locations, varied-ethnicities, and the associated human traits; it asks for the leadership approaches that embraces a diverse workforce which can take an organization to new heights.

A paradox about inclusive leadership is also about the defining moments which turn the workplace into a more welcoming space where individual differences are embraced, authority to experiment and take risks are granted, and accountability and ownership is established. These characteristics of a workplace, whether physical, virtual, or hybrid - are even more important for organizations to create nurturing spaces where each employee can feel a sense of purpose and find meaning in their work.

So, what does inclusive leadership look like?

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3. Inclusivity calls for empathetic interactions: A number of teams conduct perspective-taking exercises. However, individuals feel included only when such exercises are conducted empathetically. This increases an individual’s feeling of being included by 33%.

When these numbers are viewed from a team member’s viewpoint, these characteristics emerge as self-evident: After all, inclusivity begins with truly connecting with a person’s viewpoint and understanding where they are coming from. As a result, inclusive leaders are curious about other people’s cultures and often inquire into their team members’ psychological well-being. In other words, inclusive leaders are great at connecting with people who are different from them in minor and major ways. This is a great point to segue towards the challenges of inclusive leadership in the virtual workspaces of today.

Inclusive leadership in today’s context

While the pandemic has left everyone across countries and cultures facing their own unique set of problems, it also created more space for empathy by uniting everyone with a common set of challenges and questions of psychological well-being. However, this was also a time of learning for leaders and show new horizons for building inclusivity in a virtual workplace, where everyone arrives from the point of social isolation. Inclusive leadership, therefore, became a necessity for individuals to feel more socially connected and individually empowered. Work created a space for finding meaning, and inclusive leaders leveraged this opportunity to build a sense of belonging and purpose.

In the virtual workspace, inclusive leadership took on new forms as online meetings opened a window into personal lives. Here are a few ways in which inclusive leaders made their team members feel welcome and united in purpose:

• They asked questions about the pets and family members that moved in the backgrounds of their team members’ video feeds.

• They were more tolerant of the home office’s restrictions on their team members’ working habits by creating more flexibility.

• They were inquisitive about their team members’ backgrounds as they joined meetings from their bedrooms, drawing rooms, or rooftops.

There is a connecting thread in these behaviors - inclusive leaders are inquisitive of the people they work with, without invading personal space. They recognize individual boundaries, but they also navigate such cultural and individual preferences while building emotional connections and empowering them to realize their potential - by discussing opportunities and bridging them by showing the steps towards growth. While the ability to nurture individual talent is a trait of all leaders, inclusive leaders can find that nurturing space with diverse groups too.

Future workspaces must be inclusive

Inclusivity is more important now than ever before - and it will be of even greater importance in the future. As organizations embrace hybrid

every organization that wants to foster a nurturing workplace for their workforce. In turn, this also helps the organization attract diverse talent, especially because a diverse set of individuals highly seek such work environments.

Inclusive leadership: Breaking it down

So, what does inclusive leadership look like? To begin with, inclusive leadership begins with a strong sense of self-awareness. To share thinking and working space with individuals with differences, leaders must first be aware that their pre-conceived notions regarding behaviour, self-expression and working might impede their ability to embrace difference in the first place. In turn, inclusive leaders learn to overcome their biases by learning behaviours, which are built on open-ended communication with their team members. Here are a few defining traits of inclusive leaders:

1. Inclusivity is in the words: What leaders say and do, determine whether an individual feels included under their leadership - by 70%. In addition, inclusive leaders tend to make an authentic commitment to embracing differences and diverse individuals while establishing accountability.

2. Inclusivity comes with humility: Inclusive leaders are not only aware of their biases, but they are also humble about the mistakes they make and ask for direct feedback - and this humility combined with cognizance of bias can increase the ability for individuals to feel included by 25%.

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work models, they will also open up to a more diverse, global workforce. Moreover, millennials and Gen-Z are bringing their values and cultural and individual differences to the workplace as employees and to the market as customers. Organizations need to be more than tolerant and accommodating of this diversity that is headed their way in the markets and within the talent pools alike - they need to be welcoming and recognize diversity as an asset. Inclusive leadership will be instrumental in helping them realize this vision, and this is precisely why such leaders like you will be the heroes of the growth stories of the coming decade.

As I welcome the new season of Year 2022 with all of you, here is my ode to all the inclusive and inspirational leaders like you, who are at the forefront

of industrial revolution and bringing a change of positive inclusion, like never-before. So, you are finally hereOozing with poise, breezing glareWhat in turn, you aspire from me in reverenceA breezing mist of patience and perseverance?Ok, I will not let you down – I make the vowHowever high your expectancy be, I will sowFor you to witness me, the unequivocal ImpresarioYou will be my best pal – you will be my Mario.Let me graciously confide, with élanIf you go in a stew and loose calmLook at me – “hang on a mo.”And the crowd will erupt, chanting - you are my Hero!

Written by Vijay VermaVijay Verma is an opinion columnist is Executive Vice President at HCL America, Inc. and currently heads the Retail and CPG business units for the North Americas. A global business leader with 25+ years of experience, Vijay has a proven track record of unleashing year-on-year profitable growth for his retail and CPG clients which include several F500 companies. Vijay specializes in creating business value for his clients through strategic transformation programs that increase effectiveness, efficiency, and customer delight.

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Technologies Every Business Needs to Succeed in the Future of Work.

Written by Vara Kumar is the Co-founder and CPTO at Whatfix. Vara co-found-ed Whatfix with Khadim Batti in 2014 with the vision of empowering individuals and organizations to work symbiotically with technology to maximize their potential. He is passionate about building technology that users love.

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Collaboration appsRemote and hybrid workplaces aren’t

going anywhere anytime soon. How do you keep employees on the same page when they’re not in the same office, same city or, even the same country? The right remote tools can bring employees together in both team, and one-on-one settings. Zoom has become the top choice for most organizations because of how it can be scaled to fit your needs for businesses with a dozen employees or over a thousand. Microsoft’s Teams app is another great choice because it is customizable. You can create chatrooms and channels for each of your teams and topics. And of course, since it integrates with Office 365, Teams will keep files and apps linked together on one platform.

Slack has proven to be one of the best messaging tools for employees because it connects entire teams. It puts conversations into a single application where users can organize conversations into channels created for individual projects and topics. Slack also integrates with cloud-based file management tools such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive along with some of your other favorite tools so you can access them directly in Slack.

Preparing for the Future Today

The future of work looks to be about easing the workload of teams that will no longer be in the same room. The technologies mentioned above will all play a role in that effort. DAPs can simplify training for employees who won’t have the people training them nearby. AI-based powered assistants will take repetitive work off everyone’s agendas, saving valuable time and money. Collaborative apps to keep everyone linked together. All of these tools will help businesses not only survive but thrive for years to come.

It is the time of year when we all start thinking about the future. What is ahead for 2022 and beyond? Business leaders are constantly looking to adapt and evolve with the challenges the

present brings while trying to anticipate what could be waiting down the road. It has now been nearly two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some companies thrived by being quick on their feet amid a rapidly changing business landscape. New challenges emerged in 2021 from managing a hybrid workforce long-term to retaining talent during The Great Resignation. Fortunately, there are more options than ever when it comes to technology geared toward helping business leaders tackle those challenges.

The vast number of options however lead to questions about what technology best sparks the most efficiency amongst employees. Which technologies will help you sustain the momentum of your business? Look to some of the following to tackle today’s needs and set up for success in the future.

Digital Adoption Platforms

Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) are one of the most useful tools in today’s workplace. They are transforming how employees perform their current duties and learn new skills. Digital adoption platforms drastically cut the amount of time it takes for new employees to get up to speed which in turn, reduces costs of training and support. At the same time, DAPs increase productivity by providing real-time training within the apps they will be using on a daily basis through contextual pop-up windows and prompts.

Instead of forcing employees to take part in long training sessions that can be overwhelming, DAPs present opportunities for “microlearning”. There

are now several companies that offer custom interactive walkthroughs that teach users what to do in real-time when they run into problems with a given app. DAPs also feature auto-updates so fresh training materials can be presented to employees when needed.

AI-Powered Assistants & Personalized Employee Training

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred most organizations to accelerate their adoption of Artificial Intelligence. More than half of companies sped up the process according to a survey by PwC. That same study says two of the top five reasons companies are turning to AI are to help employees make better decisions and automate routine tasks.

AI-powered assistants do both. They take on those repetitive jobs that could take up much of an employee’s time. AI can help collect sales data and customer habits and make that information available instantly. Now employees can get insights from the sales and customer data to create better sales strategies for the future.

AI also allows you to personalize training for each employee. In this age of the “Great Resignation”, companies are looking for ways to not only hire new talent, but also retain the ones they have. One of the best ways to do that is to make the onboarding process as smooth as possible. Training programs powered by AI track how employees’ interact with the applications they’re using every day and help create training materials designed specifically for each employee. Now each employee can have a custom training program that fits their learning style and caters to their specific problem areas.

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Managers create circles of power. Leaders create circles of influence

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discuss is the difference between being a manager and being a leader. Management consists of controlling a group of entities to accomplish a goal. However, leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute toward organizational success.

Richard Jaffe, a philanthropist, retired successful entrepreneur, and coauthor with his daughter Charly Jaffe of the book, Turning Crisis into Success: A Serial Entrepreneur’s Lessons on Overcoming Challenge While Keeping Your Sh*t Together discussed the differences between the two roles and he describes it in this way: “Managers get their authority from above and a leader gets their authority from below, their followers. If you want to know who the leaders are, just look at who people are following” (2019).

In simple terms: Managers have people who work for them. Leaders have people who follow them.

Managers create circles of power. Leaders create circles of influence.

How do you have influence? It comes down to relationships. Leadership is about relationships. Effective leaders are skilled practitioners of relationships. They know how to get people to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. They are able to deliberately create and challenge results by enlisting the help of others.

Forming, maintaining, and sustaining relationships and becoming a true leader is more often about the soft skills than the hard skills. We’re talking about your EQ (emotional quotient).

Leaders with a high EQ are more intrinsically self-aware. They listen

Have you ever heard the phrase, “he or she is a born leader?” I don’t believe that to be true. We are not born knowing how to be a leader. We learn how to lead from our culture,

environment, experiences, parents, teachers, and even books.

And, true leadership has nothing to do with titles or organizational charts. Nor does having the responsibilities of a leader necessarily make someone an effective leader. That became very apparent when the world was hit with the pandemic: COVID-19. We quickly learned who were the true leaders and who only held that title.

COVID-19 has been a critical stress test. It has challenged—and continues to challenge—every contingency plan and risk mitigation strategy every leader has had in place. How does one lead when you can’t see the road ahead?

The pandemic feels like a marathon, not a sprint, and with no real “end date” in sight, more than likely, more changes are still forthcoming as leaders continue to adapt.

Over the course of my various career chapters—as a news anchor/reporter interviewing global leaders, heads of state, and now as an executive communications coach of many CEO’s and high level C-suite executives—I’ve witnessed the urgency that exists today in developing new leaders and empowering them so that companies stay relevant, retain great talent and continue to be successful in the future, however, the leadership and management needs of companies have changed, and it’s not only because of COVID-19.

Leadership now needs to occur at all levels of a company, not just at the top. And no matter what your leadership

skills and abilities are today, you can always learn to be a better, more effective leader.

Effective, successful leaders tend to have certain traits: they are competent. They have the skills to do the job well. They may not know how to do everything, but rather, they have the ability to know what to do and how to get it done.

They are trustworthy. Their words and actions are in sync. When trust is present, leaders are able to motivate and inspire others. They also know how to listen. Communication is key, in both directions.

Effective leaders also bring passion and authenticity to everything they do and that energy is contagious. And, great leaders bring vision.

Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981-2001 was famous for saying, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion” (2020).

It starts by being self-aware—self aware of what your strengths are and an honest assessment of where your weaknesses lie and the areas in which you need to grow. I refer to these as “development opportunities.”

Leadership is also about influence. Influence is not to be confused with power or control. It’s not about manipulating others to get your way. While one COULD call it “power”—and yes, the elements of leadership have been about taking charge—there is a subtle difference.

When presenting leadership workshops, one of the topics we

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and communicate clearly, encourage creativity and offer new challenges with ample support to achieve goals.

If we demonstrate more the principles of leadership, then no matter what role or position we hold, we can all be the leader within. But it requires true introspection and probing of what you believe in and why and from where this belief comes. This is your leadership philosophy.

It begins by discovering the themes and patterns of your life. These themes—common threads—run through our lives like rivers or patterns that repeat themselves. When you begin to recognize and acknowledge your unique themes and patterns, you will begin to discover your story. What is revealed is your leadership philosophy.

It gives me great pleasure to work with clients and guide them to not only discovering what their themes and patterns are, but how it leads to figuring out what their leadership philosophy is and how they arrived at that concept.

Discovering the themes and patterns of your life often takes some time, but when you make the effort to do so, you can become a better leader. It is a choice.

So, ask yourself: Do you really want to be a leader? Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone and stretch yourself to grow, be more authentic, even vulnerable?

If you are willing to stretch yourself, if you choose to lead, and can lead yourself, you can lead other people. The leader within you will rise.

Written by Liz Brunner Author, Executive Communications Coach, Motivational Speaker, Pod-cast Host, and Emmy award-winning journalist. Liz Brunner’s television career spanned 28 years and fea-tured many memorable highlights. Along with co-anchoring the #1 rated 6pm newscast at ABC-TV, WCVB NewsCenter 5 in Boston, she conducted exclusive one-on-one interviews with prominent figures ranging from professional athletes to global political leaders including President Barack Obama as well as cultural icons such as Oprah Winfrey.

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Getting Past the Hesitation of Hiring Off-Site Workers

Written by Nicole M. Sahin is CEO and founder of Globalization

Partners, recognized by Financial Times as one of the fastest-growing companies in America, and named

Employer of Record Industry Leader by analyst firm NelsonHall. Her non-profit

endeavors focus on eliminating ex-treme poverty through education and

economic development. Her new book is Global Talent Unleashed: An Execu-tive’s Guide to Conquering the World

(ACompass Printing, Nov. 11, 2021).

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4. Retain many employer/employee norms: No matter where your next hire resides, your recruitment, hiring, and onboarding process will likely remain the same. Just as with new hires on site, companies must have an effective onboarding process, along with strategies to allow new employees to become aware and feel part of the organization’s culture. Other essential measures to maintain employee engagement, such as providing team members with sufficient resources for their role and providing regular feedback to help them perform at their best, don’t change regardless of whether the employee is remote or not.

5. Improve employment opportunities globally: Employing remote workers can have beneficial societal implications. By spreading jobs out more evenly, both across the U.S. and beyond, workers can access higher paying jobs in places outside major cities. Such opportunities can benefit workers in smaller towns and cities that suffered when manufacturing jobs disappeared. Further, rising access to employment means less income inequality and, ultimately, a reduction in poverty globally.

With the advent of global remote work, modern telecommunications infrastructure, and the global Employer of Record industry, the barriers to everyone, everywhere being able to get a good job have been broken.

With remote work having gone mainstream, the concept of workers on the payroll who are completing tasks many miles away from the

home office is no longer suspect or concerning. Hiring the best talent, anywhere you can find it, has become commonplace.

Yet some companies remain uneasy. Issues of trust can be alleviated by gaging the work product and productivity of remote employees — some who may even exceed expectations without having to face onerous commutes or to adhere to 9-to-5 work hours.

Generational shifts in the workplace and the rising demand for more flexible work options continue to lend themselves to the expansion of remote work options.

When contemplating hiring off-site workers, consider these potential prospects:

1. Tap into talent worldwide: Rather than hiring employees within a certain radius of headquarters or offices, companies can hire from anywhere in the world they find talented people. Whether from little-known communities across the country, or from far-flung places beyond their national border, the recruitment reach has become boundless. What’s more, with a lack of qualified talent to fill key technology roles, such as the shortage of engineers in the U.S., recruitment efforts must push further afield.

2. Take advantage of technological advances: New software tools that enable remote communication, such as Zoom for videoconferencing and Slack and Trello for remote team project management, have reduced the feeling of disconnectedness and lack of work oversight managers have long feared. Digital learning tools provide efficiencies to onboarding and training. The culture shift triggered by the pandemic, as well as ever-increasing mastery of technology, have flung the doors to global remote work wide open.

3. Utilize an Employer of Record model: A new industry is emerging that allows companies to outsource their global employment infrastructure. Globalization Partners streamlines the process of hiring employees through its Global Employment Platform, allowing companies to quickly hire in another jurisdiction by tackling legal and regulatory barriers and ensuring that everything is compliant locally. The industry’s closest relation may be the temporary staffing agency, but Globalization Partners is the sole direct legal employer of its customers’ international staff. These entities hire and help onboard the employees, and take responsibility for payroll, taxes, and benefits. Globalization Partners is responsible for all of the employee management activities, is the employee’s direct supervisor and is in charge of work assignments.

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Growth in the new normal: CEO’s Looking past crisis for opportunities

Written by Alan Martinovich is a Partner in the Boston office of Arthur D. Little, where he heads the North American Strategy & Organization practice. He has over twenty years of experience advising management on issues related to corporate competitiveness, busi-ness strategy, strategic marketing, and new product development. He has served both in an external advi-sory role to C-level executives and as an operating member of senior management teams.

Executives have grown accustomed to operating in an ongoing environment of global crisis, with the daily challenge of unlocking growth and profitability while standing on uneven ground. That persistent uncertainty is unlikely to dissipate in the coming quarters.

Short term volatility will continue, however longer-term “mega-trends” are emerging that will empower CEOs to pursue new opportunities. Corporate leaders can better position their companies by considering the impact of next-generation globalization, the resurgence of economic stimulus and nationalistic policies, the growth of the green economy, and venture capital injections into innovation.

Globalization 3.0

The COVID-19 pandemic did not cause globalization to collapse. In fact, the DHL Global Connectedness Index 2021 Update signals that globalization is recovering from the pandemic

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reported by Scotiabank, and 168% in the first half of 2021, according to EV-Volumes. Tesla has seen valuations over $1 trillion, making Elon Musk the world’s richest man, 12 years after founding the company.

According to Allied Market Research, the market for global renewable energy derived from natural sources was valued at $881.7 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $1,977.6 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 8.4% from 2021 to 2030. A proliferation of government mandates around renewables and stronger climate agreements between major economies to limit emissions are likely to fuel stronger growth in the next few years.

Sustainable investments driven by the screening criteria of institutional investors and asset managers represent more than a third of the global total assets under management in 2020, as reported by Global Sustainable Investment Alliance.

NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business estimates that sustainability-marketed consumer packaged goods brands have grown seven times faster than conventional brands and have garnered a nearly 40% price premium over traditional competitors.

We believe that all management teams — even those outside of the energy industry — need a strategy for both customers and investors based on unambiguous objectives and measurable results. Sustainable business practices are becoming fundamental, and companies that lack clear plans will become more marginalized. Strategic plans should consider climate-related factors as a whole, including energy consumption and the transition to a low-/no-carbon economy.

setback. The proportions of trade, capital, information, and people flows crossing national borders have all increased significantly, on pace to match pre-pandemic global flows by 2022. Use of artificial intelligence and automation around the globe is hyper-fueling globalization, and will remain a fundamental cornerstone of the global economy for decades to come, making these tools essential issues for executives to manage successfully.

True global competition is diversifying. Previous emerging-market tech leaders came predominantly from China, but increased connectivity, investment, and growth in emerging markets is shifting the balance to other parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Around 30% of global unicorns are currently outside of China and the US, per CB Insights data. This means business leaders must look beyond traditional markets for new opportunities and prepare for competitive threats from a growing list of countries and geographies.

The resurgence of nationalistic policies and fiscal stimulus

Since March 2020, CNBC reports that $11 trillion has been deployed by G20 governments on fiscal stimulus packages, which equates to more than $2,200 of increased government spend for every man, woman, and child in these countries. According to a study by Rabobank, expansionary monetary policies injected an additional $8 trillion of cash into the money supply, bringing negative interest rates to several European countries for the first time in modern history.

The passage of the billion-dollar-plus infrastructure bill is the largest appropriation of its kind in the US since

the Eisenhower Congress gave America its interstate highways system in the 1950s. Several Western governments have declared industries such as semiconductors, energy storage, ICT technologies, and pharmaceutical ingredients as sectors of national interest and imposed trade restrictions on their supply chains.

The clearest benefit of government intervention has been the sheer speed of the economic recovery. The current COVID-19 recovery regained its pre-pandemic level of GDP in a year and a half.

The long-term impacts of these interventions are yet to be determined. We believe that more national policies will continue to create opportunities and challenges for companies. Thus, companies should take advantage of these fiscal changes and prepare for any negative impacts, such as the potential for rising inflation.

The growing green economy

We are in the midst of a growing climate crisis. According to Climate Central, the US has been experiencing an average of 17 climate disasters causing at least US $1 billion in damage per year since 2017.

While governments have enacted strict emissions standards and environmental regulations, consumers have acted with their wallets. As reported by CNBC, new car sales across the globe dropped 15% during 2020. The decline in new auto sales was especially severe early in the year; the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) reported that US auto sales in March 2020 were nearly 40% lower than March 2021. Global sales of electric vehicles, however, increased over 41% in 2020, as

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The preeminence of VC-fueled startups

Despite uncertainties created by the global pandemic, venture capital investment has continued to grow at an exponential rate. According to the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), by the end of 2020 over 10,000 startups had received venture funding, with close to 2,000 VC firms managing $548 billion in assets under management. These numbers do not begin to capture the full scale of venture investing, as groups like pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity, and even hedge funds are investing substantial capital in startups.

The growth in venture funding has had two profound influences on innovation: dramatically increasing the scope of technology development and accelerating the speed at which startups reach scale. There are more than 10 startups that have reached a $1 billion valuation in less than two years. In 2020, US venture-backed start-ups represented about 2.5 million employees, as reported by NVCA.

New ventures are progressing from startup to established market challenger and industry dominance at a startling pace. Companies that were considered unviable startups just a few years ago have made incredible gains in business model improvement, market share gains, and financial strength. A growing number of global tech startups are now serious competition for legacy companies.

Consider electric vehicle startup Rivian, which had one of the largest IPOs of the year with initial valuations beyond $100 billion (nearly the same as Volkswagen), achieving this while the company has delivered barely any vehicles.

VC funding is enabling an unprecedented number of new entrants to challenge nearly every global company and industry faster than ever before. The long-held strategy of waiting to see the winners and then acquiring them is no longer sufficient (or often possible).

How to prepare for the “new normal”

As economic growth stabilizes in 2022, the opportunities and threats created by these mega-trends will become more evident. The pandemic “new normal” will likely be a period of accelerated change, heightened competition, and business model disruption. To thrive, organizations must embrace the dual challenge of building future business platforms while delivering profitable growth in their core businesses. They must rapidly adopt new approaches to how they invest, grow, and operate.

Transformation often requires two distinct and separate strategies – sometimes even distinct management systems. Organizations that successfully navigate periods of transformative change apply a deliberate management discipline toward building future growth businesses. Business transformation also requires a CEO-driven strategic vision that clearly communicates the magnitude and pace of business change the organization will embrace.

The importance of pushing beyond the normal processes and routines of operating the core business to build future growth businesses cannot be overstated. It requires agile, fail-fast/fail-forward processes, and an open ecosystem approach to innovation supported by partnerships, ventures, and acquisitions.

A dramatic example of this approach was demonstrated by Pfizer in developing its COVID-19 vaccine. Under the stewardship of its CEO, Pfizer acted quickly and decisively to mobilize its resources and bet on an unproven mRNA technology, which promised faster time-to-market than live vaccines but had never before been clinically used. Merck, on the other hand, kept to its existing vaccine technologies and maintained a conservative development approach and timeline before discontinuing its efforts in January 2021.

CEOs are at a unique point in time: they have an urgent focus on navigating the COVID-19 economy, while still looking ahead to prepare for the mega-trends impacting every corner of the global marketplace. No longer is it sufficient to simply treat these as matters for another day. Industry winners and losers will be determined by the actions of CEOs to reorient their business to meet the challenges of these mega-trends.

CEO INSIDER

4 Translation Tips to Help You Elevate Your Brand Worldwide

There are more than 7.5 billion people on Earth, and most speak a native language other than English. Even in the United States, at least 350 languages are spoken. As a

brand marketer who hopes to engage these households — as well as international audiences — you’ll need to translate your messaging into the language your prospective customers prefer.

When it comes to written

content, translation is a relatively straightforward undertaking. Material that’s designed to be read doesn’t have to account for regional dialects and other linguistic nuances. Audio content, on the other hand, can easily lose its impact if it’s not developed with a deep understanding of local customs, cultural norms, and speech patterns that characterize the intended audience. Thus, your international marketing campaign must take these factors into account to be effective.

Communication as a Competitive Advantage

Not sure where to begin? Try updating your phone system recordings so you can serve international markets. You can also dub over your most popular video content to ensure you can quickly deploy your marketing assets. Outside of some minor editing, there are few additional production costs associated with dubbing. This makes it an affordable and appealing

Written by David Ciccarelli is the founder and CEO of Voices, the No.1 creative services marketplace with over 2 million registered users. David is responsible for setting the vision, executing the growth strategy, creating a vibrant culture, and managing the company on a day-to-day basis. He is frequently published in outlets such as The Globe and Mail, Forbes, CEOWORLD magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.

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and sports, while in Europe, websites like Dailymotion are popular. Podcasting is another great way to connect with diverse audiences. Storytelling or interview podcasts can be created in multiple languages and help your brand reach niche audiences. Given the trust many listeners place in the hosts of their favorite shows, podcast sponsorships can also be an effective way to introduce your brand to a new audience. According to Deloitte, the global podcasting market increased by 30% in 2020. And in 2021, listeners in places like India and South America continue to tune in with greater frequency, creating a growing demand for multilingual content.

4. Measure your results. As with any marketing initiative, you’ll want to track your success when it comes to expanding your geographic reach. Pay attention to awareness metrics first. Use Google Analytics to filter website visitors by location and language and see how many visits you’re generating from the countries you’re targeting. Then, look at how many leads come from those countries and how often they become customers.

If a large percentage of your visitors speak a language you haven’t considered yet, this might signal an opportunity for expansion. Ultimately, your goal is sustained, meaningful growth. Traffic might be negligible in the beginning, but over time, your multilingual content should lead to a steady influx of new customers.

distributing a short customer survey to understand your target audience’s linguistic preferences and to identify points of potential miscommunication that might arise. If your target audience is diverse, it’s much easier to translate your collateral into just one or two languages. Lean on your research to identify which languages you want to target first. Do most of your international customers speak French? Is it easier to start with Spanish? Focus on communicating with one demographic effectively. Once you can do that, you can consider expanding your translation efforts.

2. Prioritize existing content. You shouldn’t have to launch an entirely new marketing campaign to sell an existing offering in a new country or region. Instead, identify your top-performing assets and translate those into the preferred language of your target audience. These could include social media materials, owned media that exists on your website or other digital properties, or paid advertising efforts that can be easily translated.

3. Leverage the right channels. Upload your most popular videos with translations or dubs to YouTube or other platforms with a broad reach in the market you’re targeting. In Brazil, for example, consumers use platforms like Globo.com and UOL to consume content related to news

way to communicate your messaging to audiences.

Translated audio content (e.g., transcripts or captions) can also differentiate your brand in international markets. Even if you’re facing competition, translating audio content to align with regional linguistic preferences signals to prospective customers that you’re making a concerted effort to earn their business. Such an effort inspires confidence and trust and shows that you care about getting your communications right.

The best part is that dubbing and captioning content makes it accessible to audiences who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or visually impaired. In many countries, video captions or subtitles are required by law to ensure viewers are able to engage with content. Plus, research from Netflix shows that dubbed audio is generally more effective than subtitling in terms of holding viewer attention, although each one appeals to different audiences for different reasons.

Translation Tips for Developing an International Brand Presence

If you’re hoping to reach an international audience, you’ll need to create content that speaks their language. Only then will you be able to elevate your brand worldwide. Here are four translation tips to help you see success:

1. Start with research. Translating content into a new language or dialect will take work, so you’ll want to be sure it’s worth the effort before you get started. You might consider

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How Can Elite Performers Overcome Nonstop Criticism & Find Strength?

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actor and founder of Kinder Beauty Box, agrees that offering up your best performance and being met with dismissal can be disheartening.

“I wasn’t always very good at [coping with rejection]. When I was younger it was a lot harder and that showed up in various ways,” Monet explains. “My mental health wasn’t great. I struggled in school. I was young and I was being spread a little too thin. I cared about what I was doing and I wanted to win. So anytime a door closed on me, it hurt and I took it personally.”

Since I want my clients to thrive at the highest level, create their most authentic and profound work, and find lasting fulfillment, I urge them to acclimate to constant feedback. Performers will never exist in a vacuum, and learning to manage the input they inevitably receive—both positive and negative—is a hugely important coping mechanism. Even just accustoming themselves to being observed and seen is a skill worth cultivating.

“You get this crazy extra-perceptual thing based on the people that are watching you and how you’re performing,” says former extreme sports athlete Jeff Lavin. “Eventually you get into the state as an athlete where you see how other people see you.”

There’s no question that criticism, rejection, and never ending scrutiny take their toll. But performers are becoming increasingly savvy in stewarding their mental health in the face of these negative energies.

How they keep their sanity in-tact is a mystery to many … but not to me. As a coach who helps actors, musicians, and elite athletes navigate the challenges of life in the public eye, I’ve seen how performers learn to cope with negativity from casting directors, peers, producers, and the public. Not to mention themselves! And to illustrate how resilient these gifted individuals can be, I interviewed seven prominent artists and performers about their experiences with criticism—both internal and external—and how they’ve kept it from impacting their mental health. The insights they shared confirmed so much of what I already knew to be true.

Professionally vulnerable

Not only do performers operate in highly-demanding, highly-visible industries with unique pressures, they are often naturally empathetic, emotionally attuned individuals. This is what makes them so great at creating evocative art .. but it’s also what makes them vulnerable to the nonstop rejection and negativity that accompanies their vocation.

“We’re naturally more sensitive creatures, we artists,” says actress, dancer, and singer Emilia McCarthy. “So it’s interesting that we’re the people who put ourselves in the most vulnerable profession. Actors are asked to do the craziest things. I don’t think there’s another profession really, where you’re asked to be so vulnerable in front of an audience of people.”

McCarthy told me she’s seen colleagues whose depression and anxiety have been triggered relentlessly by the pressures of the acting industry, and that facing rejection can wear on their mental health. Daniella Monet,

W hen it comes to the ways we address issues of mental health and self-care, we’ve definitely come a long way … but much of that progress

centers on regular people. We know more about how stress and trauma impact doctors, office workers, and teachers, and have adjusted our reactions and language accordingly.

But we don’t often think about the unique challenges faced by actors, musicians, elite athletes, and other performers who live their entire lives in the spotlight. These people are rich, famous and supposedly have it all… but they may face crippling anxiety, stress, self-doubt, rejection, even self-sabotage. In fact, many performers grapple with a whole slew of mental health pressures uniquely associated with being at the top of their profession.

Consider this: many actors are required to excavate the murky depths of their own souls to bring authenticity to their roles … and may still be met with lukewarm or dismissive reviews. Athletes give their entire selves to their sports, but may face angry derision if their performance somehow falls short or teammates fail to rally. Dancers, singers, and other artists are constantly expected to pour their most vulnerable selves into their work, yet fans feel perfectly free to trash the resulting art across social media.

Top performers of all types walk a perilous tightrope between giving their all to their work and jeopardizing their mental health. They balance creating unforgettable art with maintaining their personal wellbeing. Being famous means being criticized. Being a performer means learning to live with rejection.

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Be yourself, protect yourself

Singer-songwriter Olivia King has had her fair share of critique and disappointment. From fan comments to canceled record contracts, she’s had to cope with the gamut of invalidation. But,

as she told me, she’s learned to ride the waves in her own way.

“I’ve gotten to where I hate showing people my music before I put it out because someone could hate it and someone could love it, and then I start doubting myself,” King explains. “So

I’ve started to just zone in, do my thing, and release it. If you like it, great. If you don’t, you don’t. People just have different opinions about it. It’s so subjective.”

It took a lot of self-reflection to realize that she didn’t need to share

Written by Cathy Spaas is a world-class coach to pro-

fessional performers, athletes, actors and artists. She supports highly sensitive and intuitive in-

dividuals to make breakthroughs so they can thrive at the highest

level, create their most profound work, and find lasting fulfillment.

Cathy has dedicated her life to guiding artists to navigate their

shifting lives and career changes.

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her new songs until they were released to the public, but now that she knows that, King has stepped fully into her confidence.

As a film and television actor, Bill Oberst Jr. may not have to contend with pre-release criticism of his work, but

he does have to wrestle with another tough opponent: social media. Oberst has worked hard to ground himself in self-acceptance and wisdom, but ten minutes on Twitter can erode that confidence.

“Suddenly, you are connected with 100,000 people who follow and wait for you to say things. Invariably, out of 100,000 people, you will have 2,000 who will comment negatively on what you say and pull it apart,” he says. “It makes you not want to say anything.”

He admits that he’s often tempted to overreact to online goading, but has found his personal key to managing the negativity: a combination of detachment and empathy.

“The easy familiarity with which we hurl insults virtually, it’s very human, but it can be very damaging if you don’t realize that ultimately, it’s not real!” Oberst says. “You realize that we’re all children, and this is just another sandbox.”

Actress Kelly Rutherford navigates rejection and criticism by redirecting her focus. Over time, she’s realized that dwelling in the negative just creates more negativity, but that the opposite can be true, too. Rutherford shapes her reality by elevating the positive in her life.

“Now I’m focusing on what I wanted to create, versus continually talking about and focusing on the problems,” she says. That was a huge shift.”

Dee Wallace, whose acting career spans multiple decades, agrees that the key to living with critique and scrutiny is mindfulness and authenticity. That

making choices around how you think and feel can completely transform your experience of the artistic professions.

“It’s so important that you choose to define yourself,” Wallace insists. “It’s not anything about what somebody else thinks about you. You have to say, ‘This is who I am.’”

As a former elite international showjumper myself, I’m no stranger to the spotlight and the unique pressures faced by those ascending to the upper echelons of their profession. But I was so grateful to these successful creatives for sharing their tactics and insights with me. Performers have a tendency to look inward when we feel distressed … but clearly, we can learn a lot from each other about how to protect our boundaries and access our confidence in the face of a tough and trying industry.

If you’re an artist or athlete and would like bespoke guidance, please reach out to me! Through my own lived experience in this space, I have become a world class-coach to professional performers, artists, actors, and creatives. My methods push far beyond mere performance coaching; I use the Claim Your Shine modality to help highly-sensitive artists seeking deep personal development to live a life of both massive professional impact AND lasting fulfillment.

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People Think Trading is About Trusting Your Gut. Trusting the Numbers is a Much Better StrategyMany traders get into trading because they view it as easy money they can make from home in their pajamas.

Written by Andrea UngerAndrea Unger is a full-time professional trader, President of The Unger Academy and author of The Unger Method. Andrea is the only Four-Time World Trading Champion (2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012), he’s an honorary member of SIAT (Italian Society of Technical Analysis, a branch of IFTA) and speaks throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia.

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a time, there is a huge advantage in using software to test as we can gain an overview on past behavior covering years in just some minutes.

3. Automated Trading Takes Human Emotion Out of the Equation. Human emotions are fragile and they are always changing based on what is going on in the world, what you had for breakfast, your mood on a particular day, and countless other outside influences. Trusting your emotions or your gut to guide you in your trade is a wildly unpredictable way to trade. Current data shows that roughly 76% of trading accounts are at a loss and 93% of traders quit after 5 years. You’ll need to find a method that’s more reliable than your emotions if you want to beat the odds. Your motivation to trade must come from an interest in the markets and a true desire to trade. If you are just doing it because of a dream to become rich, the highs and lows of trading are going to take a huge toll on you emotionally. Having the passion to study the markets and apply what you learn, will give you perseverance through the highs and lows.

I’ve found success in trading long-term because I know it comes down to more than talent. It comes down to the method. When you have a method that is numbers and data-based, even traders without a particular talent are able to manage their systems on the market once they have an understanding of the procedure. Trading is not for everyone, nor should it be. It is an activity that gives results when you are willing to put in the time to study, test, and apply a proven method.

With automated trading, a lot of work goes into studying the markets before you do any trading. So while it isn’t easy or a quick fix, it allows you to simulate different scenarios that could happen before you go live on the markets. Having the ability to test your strategies is a huge advantage over other traders who are basing their decisions on a feeling. If you automate your trade, you will also have a lot of freedom. Once you plan your trading, you have the ability to study it thoroughly with backtesting and analysis. Once everything is ready, all you have to do is monitor it. This allows having a lot of free time, which is, in my opinion, the greatest benefit of all. I truly encourage people to only start trading if they are passionate about it and enjoy it and not just all about making money.

2. You have the insight to find edges on the market. Traders who are able to find an edge experience much more profit in the long run, versus those who don’t. Even discovering a technique that will add a few points to the winning side is going to be profitable in the long run. Automated trading means using a computer to study the markets, develop strategies, and let them run 24/7. Having past data at disposal allows testing how markets react to specific events (volatility increase, sudden drop, superrally, choppy periods, and so on) by simply simulating trades in the occurrence of the above-mentioned situations. The results of these trades show whether there could be an edge there, getting consistently positive results means there is something worth further investigation. A computer is fast at maths and can run multiple tasks at

This really couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m a full-time professional trader and before I created my unique method for trading, I struggled to find consistent success in the markets.

Another huge myth is that trading is all about trusting your gut. Automated trading takes the guesswork and the human emotion out of trading. When you have the data and the numbers to backtest your trading decisions, you’re just going to be more successful, period.

Trading Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint

Day trading is something to take seriously. Everyone comes into trading with the goal of making money. But the truth is that you must be committed to learning as much as possible. And that dedication to learning doesn’t end when you start experiencing success, it just evolves. Part of being successful is continuing to stay abreast of market news and trends. Having the knowledge will make you more successful long term.

Trading is also not going to be an immediate solution to replace a lost salary and anyone who pretends this is doing it in bad faith. If you are new to the markets, you need to have an alternative source of income set up to safeguard your personal assets and financial responsibilities. Even if you find success quickly, it’s all about the long-term gains. It’s normal even among the most successful traders to go several months at a loss or to have gained for three months and in the fourth month, lose everything from the previous months. Trading can be fascinating, beautiful, profitable, and it can be a source of satisfaction, but it will never be a source of financial confidence.

Here are 3 Reasons Why Automated Trading Offers a Better Strategy Than Relying On Your Gut:1. You have the ability to test

everything BEFORE you trade.

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How Leaders Can Retain Employees During The Great Resignation

Written by John Mattone is the world’s top executive coach and the co-founder of Intelligent Leadership Executive Coaching (ILEC) Franchise. ILEC is a transformative, results-orient-ed leadership growth franchise whose coaches ignite, cultivate, and polish an individual’s heart, mind, and soul in support of creating an exceptional leadership and cultural capability in an organization. ILEC coaches are located nationwide and coach leaders around the globe.

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it. They’re not living it. They’re not embodying it. The key is you have to have senior leadership in an organization that has been proactive in recognizing the leading indicators that are predicting the next Great Resignation.

Discover Transformational Solutions and Beat the Great Resignation

There are organizations that are out in front of this Great Resignation and doing something about it. The key is to inspire teams and develop solutions to keep companies united toward a common goal. These solutions can bring powerful, dramatic, transformational opportunities to help organizations and leaders really raise the game with respect to bringing in a higher level of leadership, equipping leaders with the appropriate skills to tackle the challenges of the Great Resignation.

When looking for a coach across America, they should be committed to helping C-level executives to allow these highly capable executives to measure and calibrate how strong a culture is based on elements such as workplace communication, productivity, employee interactions and cohesiveness and several other intricacies that occur day-to-day. The system develops stronger leaders at all levels, accelerating the development of high potentials and emerging leaders and helping organizations build and sustain strong cultures.

Coaches should be able to put their finger on the pulse of a company’s culture and are able to help an organization’s leaders get accurate feedback through solutions, retreats, workshops and seminars. These are the ground-level building blocks that get back to the heart-and-soul of an organization that sustains long-term employees, long after the recession is over.

show my heart to people?” Taking a look inward and asking

these questions are the first steps. If working with an executive coach, the next step is to confirm that the leader wants to turn their company around. For example, we have a proven philosophy, process and tools to empower leaders and future leaders to unleash their potential. But our real asset is our coaches, all of whom have significant leadership experience.

Clients benefit from a high ROI that delivers authentic results, and executive coaches are able to help C-suite teams with real-life workplace issues, such as knowing how to bolster employee morale during the Great Resignation or understanding how to best lead through a national health crisis.

It may go without saying that leaders who are more transparent, kind and earnest with all employees will have the greatest likelihood of retaining them, regardless of a pandemic.

For leaders who were already implementing an “elevated-heart-and-soul” strategy in their organization pre-pandemic, the shock waves felt by the Great Resignation were, in most cases, something that could be dealt with in stride. For the organizations in which leaders weren’t in-tune, they are likely dealing with the heavy burden of a lack of workers who have left the workplace and don’t want to return.

There’s only so much business books, seminars and studies can do to help a failing business. The truth is, the cognitive aspect is important: A leader needs to be able to understand what needs to be done and have the courage and judgement to lead their teams through the toughest of ordeals and environments and also utilize the cohesive power of the team and all its attributes.

Many ILEC coaches are seeing organizations where leaders don’t understand this concept. They’re not internalizing it. They’re not embracing

The pandemic was the catalyst for a series of harsh and unpredictable changes in industries ranging from real estate to food service to child care, health, care and beyond.

And, one common denominator that has affected all these industries since 2020 is steeply declining employee retention.

ILEC was started at the height of the pandemic by Terry Powell and myself, in part to address exactly that issue. The thing about the pandemic and the subsequent Great Resignation is that people can either grow and adjust with the challenges and take a leadership approach that inspires employees or get sucked into the undertow as another statistic of poor employee morale and as a result of inadequate leadership.

ILEC is proof that people and businesses can grow and thrive (to 15 franchises so far, in our case) through the pandemic and Great Resignation by putting the heart and soul back into the workplace and employees.

Ignite a Connection, Keep Your People

A leader has to be able to meet employees on their level and figure out their goals, dreams and motivations. It’s also critical to maintain a vital workplace with a pulse. Igniting connections and inspiring people in the workplace creates an atmosphere people want to return to. It’s a leader’s job to take the time to foster this kind of work environment.

Right now, as more professionals turn toward remote work, this leader-employee interaction is too often absent. That workplace connection isn’t as strong, and turnover rate is increasing as a result. To retain employees, leaders must evaluate the heart and soul of their organization and ask the tough questions like, “How do I show concern and compassion? Do I truly care for the people here? Do I have the courage to

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Welcome to the age of transparency on corporate culture – Is your company prepared to handle it?

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actually two sides of the same coin. The top twenty companies delivered a 199% return between 2016 and 2020. That compares to 180% of Nasdaq, 83% of S&P500 and 75% of Dow Jones. Tech companies are at the forefront of those who understand the importance of corporate culture. 60% of the 2021 Soul Index are from that category with Adobe heading the ranking with Salesforce and Microsoft following suite.

The expected regulations may require companies to disclose information along the following metrics:

Attraction: Time to fill, time to fill critical positions, percentage of positions filled internally, percentage of critical positions filled internally.

Development: Total cost of training and development, percentage of employees who receive training in compliance and ethics, percentage of employees who receive any training, average hours of formal training per year, percentage of leaders who receive training, percentage of leaders who receive leadership development.

Retention: Turnover, turnover for critical positions.

Additional recommended metrics: Employee engagement score, leadership trust score, diversity by gender, age, disability, race or national origin, leadership diversity, pay equity, human capital ROI, total workforce cost, number of FTEs, contingent/contract and temporary workers.

According to Bruce Bolger, Founder of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance at TheEEA.org, a leader in helping organizations create human capital reporting, “Human capital is a business opportunity and a risk, not simply a compliance issue. When organizational

directors and departments who often are not taken as serious by CEOs as the quoted statement “Our employees are our biggest asset” suggests. But now, they have to take this really serious as their actions (or non-actions) will impact the performance of their stocks. This marks a new era in the age of corporate accountability.

SEC chief Gary Gensler´s tweets from last year signal an upcoming change that will shake up companies significantly when he “asked staff to propose recommendations for the Commission´s consideration on human capital disclosure”. Companies better get prepared to have clarity on key metrics. According to Gensler, those could include workforce turnover, skills and development training, compensation, benefits, workforce demographics including diversity, and health and safety.

The SEC messages come at a time when the public spotlight is on the largest employee walk-offs in history – 19 million individuals in the US since April 2020. Labor shortage has become a real issue and is keeping executives awake at night. McKinsey & Co. have published a study that shows clearly the disconnect between employers and employees. Employers need to recognize and accept that emotional criteria like “the organization values me”, “my manager values me” or “I feel a sense of belonging” are at the top of the list for employees. Employers believe that criteria like “inadequate compensation” or just “looking for a better job” are at the top of the list, but they are clearly not. If CEOs are serious about “their” human capital, they better take action and find a new balance between culture and success.

The Soul Index, a performance ranking of companies that do exactly that, shows that culture and success are

Expected new SEC requirements will have a lasting impact on corporate culture.

“Our employees are our biggest asset” – 18 years ago, the former CEO of Xerox, Anne M. Mulcahy, made this statement at the 2003 Life Management Conference. As we enter 2022, it might become real and CEOs and CFOs need to provide more than lip service. It is expected that the SEC will issue new rules on disclosing human capital data from publicly trading companies. This will have a significant impact on the way companies emphasize corporate culture. In the age of ESG, investors are increasingly focusing on the social aspect (“S”) in ESG. Money talks – and companies will have to take action.

A recent study from JUST Capital about the state of human capital reporting underlines the need to take action. The analysis of the human capital metrics of the 100 largest U.S. companies shows that currently disclosure on critical elements like compensation, training, demographics, and health is low across the board. According to the report, “no company has at least one disclosure within each theme, and no company has disclosure on every single metric”. There are six themes that JUST Capital refer to: Employment and Labor Type; Job Stability; Wages, Compensation, and Benefits; Workforce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Occupational Health and Safety and lastly Training and Education.

But information on these six themes is important and can make a difference. It is critical for investors who need to make informed decisions in the age of ESG. But even more importantly, it is critical to employees and workers as they take decisions about their careers. Undoubtedly, it will increase the importance of human resources

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leaders understand that human capital is an asset that can be managed to increase earnings and reduce risk, they recognize that having meaningful human capital management practices and metrics are a means to increase earnings, not simply satisfy regulators or investors.”

The ability of organizations to deliver these data is actually an indicator of the strength and importance of the current human resources organization. Are these data available already? HR will step up to the same level as the finance department since the data are no longer just a nice-to-have for a CSR or Sustainability Report. They are likely to become a critical element of what corporations need to file in their next K-10 statement.

As with previous SEC rules, the dynamics will rather sooner impact also not publicly traded companies. This will have a lasting effect on the quality of corporate culture across all industries. Imagine a time when employees start searching beyond the Glassdoor or Great Place to Work data about criteria such as diversity, pay equity, employee engagement or leadership trust. If their potential next employer does not share any data in those areas, guess what will happen? Employer branding will no longer be about nice slogans and perfect initiatives but about sustainable hard facts.

The entire C-suite has to deal with the impact of these regulations. Imagine the next roadshow where the CEO does not just bring the CFO but also the CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer) or CPO (Chief People Officer). Because investors will want to know how companies are dealing with their human capital. They will want a level of certainty, why that company will be successful in the future to fill the pipeline of qualified applications. The

accuracy of data will improve like never before. Corporations simply cannot afford to make a public retraction or apology for incorrect data. This will put a lot of pressures on human resources departments which in large parts will not be prepared for the task ahead already.

Anne M. Mulcahy´s statement “Our employees are our biggest asset” finally has a chance to become more than just a nice verbatim. It finally has a chance to become reality in the business world.

Written by Ralf Specht author of Building Corporate Soul. He is a visionary business leader, highly sought-after speaker, and creator of the Soul System™, a framework that aligns value-creat-ing employee action with broader corporate strategy through shared understanding & shared purpose.

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Unraveling the Mystery of the Great Resignation

EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS

As Derek Thompson recently pointed out in his excellent article “Three Myths of the Great Resignation” published in The Atlantic, the seeming exodus from the workplace is

really a function of three independent trends:

1) Job Switching, primarily by hospitality workers in restaurants and hotels switching to better, higher paying positions within the same industry;

2) Job Burnout, primarily by white-collar workers in finance, real estate, software, internet, professional and business services, who grew weary of their jobs during the pandemic, but nevertheless, for the most part, did NOT quit their jobs, and

3) Early Retirements, of employees over 65 years old, increasingly leaving the workplace because their jobs became more dangerous due to COVID and their assets had increased due to increased savings rates and the stock market going on a binge.

Of these three trends, it is the first—the massive changing of jobs to better paying jobs in the hospitality industry that has represented by far most of the labor movement, up to four times that of other industry sectors, and adding 2 million employees in 2021 alone.

Some experts feel this massive movement in the labor market is primarily due to “employees having leverage to demand higher wages, better benefits and/or more flexible working conditions from new or current employers.” I tend to disagree.

Money, Benefits and Better Working Conditions

While it’s tempting to want to find one simple explanation for the recent turmoil and turnover in the workplace, the reality of the situation is perhaps a little more complex. According to

classic motivation theory by Frederick Herzberg, money is a “hygiene” factor, that is, a necessary element (along with things like benefits and working conditions) in order for people to be able to work. If you aren’t paid competitively, that will be a demotivator for them and will cause them to be dissatisfied about their work, perhaps enough to quit their jobs. At the lower pay scales, such as with “essential workers” who have been forced to work through the pandemic for the greater public good (e.g., those in food distribution, healthcare, retail workers, etc.) not being paid enough for what became much more challenging jobs is a definite factor in people choosing to change jobs. The work suddenly became both a health risk and a hassle as dealing with the public and irate customers who took their frustrations out on frontline employees, changed the equilibrium of those jobs. The stakes became higher, but the compensation did not change. (True, some employers did enact COVID pay premiums, but those were typically short-term incentives that have mostly stopped.)

What motivates them has changed as they had 18+ months to reflect on their uprooted lives and decided it was time to do something different. For those in “essential” jobs that meant changing to something that hopefully was safer and pays better.

Intangibles Drive Greater Motivation

What tend to be the “motivators,” as Herzberg called them that cause people to be excited about their work and hence stay and excel in their jobs, are the more intangible factors about work and workplaces such as: recognition for a job well done, autonomy, respect, meaning, responsibility, flexibility,

career opportunity, etc. This, I believe, represents the greatest reason why employees are choosing to change jobs today in non-hospitality industries. COVID has caused them to rethink their work circumstances and what was acceptable prior to the pandemic has increasingly become unacceptable as the pandemic winds down.

For those in other positions, especially those able to work from home, it meant a new sense of possibilities and a reluctance to return to a time-wasting commute and the inefficiencies of work back in the office such as endless face-to-face meetings and office politics. Those workers are yearning for a new lease on life, which has to translate to a new lease on their work life in which they are no longer chained to having to live close to the office where they work. Yes, they may want to earn more money, too (who doesn’t?), but the greater drivers for them are to live better, more fulfilling lives with work they can be excited about. In that instance, being paid more becomes an added benefit for a better life, not the sole justification for a change in their lives.

Written by Bob Nelson, Ph.D. is considered the leading authority on employee recognition, rewards and engage-ment in the world and has sold 5 million books on those topics, including 1,001 Ways to Engage Employees. His latest book is Work Made Fun Gets Done! Easy Ways to Boost Energy, Morale, and Results.

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Three Tech Predictions for Office Space Analytics in 2022

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2022 is here and for companies the pandemic reality has continued.

Most back-to-the-workplace plans have been delayed more than once, having to evolve with the latest twists on the roller coaster we are collectively riding. And now with the Omicron variant, the ride continues.

The return to the office has been gradual, a dipped toe in the water for many, but the trend toward hybrid working models took center stage. A wholesale change of where, when and how we work is dramatic. I believe the transition from hypothesis to reality will begin in earnest in spring – but 2022 marks just the opening chapter of the office space’s long-term transformation.

Here are my three predictions for office space analytics as we move into 2022:

1. We are only at the initial stages of a long-term transformation of how we use the office. New vaccines brought hope and relief for many, but there is still the need is there to balance public health and safety while in-person work continues. Productivity, culture and retention play a demonstrable role in company experience, culture, values and service, so the desire to get back to the office in some capacity will continue. For 2022, it will be a game of two steps forward and one step back until the pandemic is truly behind us.

2. People’s behavior in a space will matter more than ever. Real estate and facilities teams will start to recognize the limits of understanding ‘how many’, and start to ask about ‘who, when, how, how often and where’. This is the year

when corporate real estate professionals must move beyond “people counting” alone to understand the needs of both operations and their employees. Early adopters of such ‘people counting’ systems will experience new challenges related to data fidelity and scale across larger facility footprints. They will realize that counting bodies doesn’t provide enough insight about the real behavior of the various teams that share their office space, and the cost to deploy dense sensor infrastructures to get better data resolution is prohibitive. Data that can provide insight into the nuances of different team behaviors will become an imperative in a hybrid model. Without it, companies will have to treat the entire employee base as one monolithic average. This lack of resolution in the data will limit how their investments in resources and real estate map back to growth plans, and impact the insights that may help stem the tide of the great resignation, the great reshuffle – however top talent chooses to realign their careers.

3. Companies will turn to tech to fill productivity gaps

For those of us who have already returned to the office in some capacity, it’s clear that the “new normal” is still being defined. With flexible schedules and many employees only returning a few days a week, office requirements change daily with every combination of people within it. Dynamic offices are the expectation now, and needed to boost productivity and guide companies out of the fog. Leaders must turn an office space into a service – one that gives employees frictionless access to technology and resources, provides hubs for collaboration, and includes technology for staff to schedule their time, book resources and rooms, find answers to urgent questions quickly, and more.

Of course, health and safety will continue to be paramount as we move through this latest variant of concern and whatever else is to come. If employees don’t feel safe or supported they won’t be productive. This includes mental health: as employees determine new boundaries, we will see increased priority placed on redefining performance management to help employees maximize their motivation, efficiency and choices.

Written by James Wu James Wu is the CEO and Founder of Inner-Space, a space utilization and analytics platform that uses proprietary technology and advanced data science to provide location intelligence that goes well beyond people counting. InnerSpace enables its large enterprise clients to optimize for their two most valuable resources: people and property.

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Bringing work from home closer to Finance

Using technology to keep track of finance & tax when “working-from-anywhere”

There have been drastic changes in the workplace environment and the ways in which companies have tried to retain talent and drive productivity. With the impact of the Great Resignation,

coupled with the accelerated adoption of “working-from-home” or even “working-from-anywhere,” companies find themselves in the challenging position of trying to attract and keep top employees.

One certainty for the professional workforce is that going to the office Monday through Friday, once a standard

practice, is now considered an outdated view on employee performance monitoring, which has transferred to the hybrid work models we see today. This major change not only requires companies to build and facilitate two functional workplaces per employee, but also requires a change in approach and processes from nearly every department in an organization to support this hybrid

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working model efficiently—HR, Finance, Operations, IT, Marketing, Sales, and the leadership team.

While it is relatively easy to satisfy the day-to-day needs of employees working in hybrid situations, the challenges of managing the finance and tax aspects of such work environments are often underestimated or even overlooked. Using technology to analyze data and combine different data sources may significantly keep the extra workload manageable and processes controlled.

How to drive the required change from a finance and tax perspective

Obviously, it isn’t only about allocating budget or putting in place the required IT tools, every department has to evaluate this major change and deploy the required adjustments across business processes and infrastructure.

Looking at the financial and tax arena, we can recognize several major changes stemming from the hybrid working model.

1. Decentralized purchasing initiated by individual employees is becoming a larger and more important purchasing stream.

2. Employee-driven individual spend streams are less controlled and data is more unstructured than the regular P2P AP streams.

3. Employee expenses are processed more and more, almost fully automatically, to improve the employee experience. Yet, these expense systems are well designed from an employee expense reimbursement perspective and not from a financial and tax compliance perspective, where hybrid working is adding even more to the tax complexity of the

expenses processed. 4. Current tax implication validations

on employee-reimbursed expenses are heavily relying on what the employee declared within the possibilities the expense system allows as qualifications (e.g., expense types) for the expenses. Yet, these qualifications are usually too high-level for a proper wage tax qualification.

5. Current travel expense solutions and manual sample check-based audit reviews will only look at a fraction of the actual invoice images to validate these and ensure they are aligned with the claimed expenses and system expense qualifiers used.

6. In many countries, authorities are receiving an increasingly detailed level of transactional data due to SAF-T alike and statutory e-invoicing processes. This level of detail is in many cases not used by the employers to analyze data for employee benefits, yet the authorities can perform these audits even without the involvement of the employer.

7. The employee’s remote working location (whether it is a different state or even a different country) may impact the employer’s wage tax liabilities, although the exact work location may not even be known to the employer.

8. Current manual (sampling) processes are confronted with an increase of new relevant expenses to audit, and more statutory requirements may need to be considered. And in times of headcount efficiencies, the workforce may no longer even be available to perform this task.

9. Taxation rules and government policies are changing due to special circumstances such as COVID-19, but also to support climate initiatives, better parental

leave programs, lifetime employee education and development, part-time working, early retirement, internships, empowering a disabled workforce, state budget deficits, inflation, jurisprudence, audit efficiency and many other factors. Keeping those responsible for being aware of these changes as their geographical locations expand is not only hard to manage but may be cost prohibitive and a process risk in times of high staff turnover.

10. Companies’ priorities on systems and tool deployment have to be revisited since the level of audit, control and risk are changing as well.

Why employee expenses and its benefits tax are increasingly relevant for the tax and finance processes

As social-economic conditions change and the younger workforce prioritizes a work-life balance, the way the entire workforce is directly and indirectly remunerated is also impacted. Because indirect remunerations are taking a greater stake in the total remuneration package of the employee, inevitably Taxable Employee Benefits (TEB), otherwise known as fringe benefits, come into play.

While laws and legislation have become more complex and dynamic to cater more to an individual-focused society, the challenge for globally operating companies is to, firstly, understand the differences between all these jurisdictions and, secondly, keep track of legal changes.

Further, authorities are facing an aging workforce and an increasing number of retirements. While competing with the labor market for new tax

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inspectors, budgetary constraints force them to work more efficiently and collect the same or even more tax income for the State. In addition to using technology, authorities are moving towards cooperative compliance models in which taxpayers who can show that they have implemented well-controlled tax processes will benefit from a more cooperative working relationship with the authorities rather than being taken by surprise thorough tax audits. To be able to benefit from this cooperative approach, companies will need to improve their internal processes and controls. Whether that is as part of a tax control framework or during a regular tax audit, a more basic sample-driven audit process is simply not enough anymore.

Compliance is a complicated endeavor

The challenge, as always, starts from the data. Running a sufficient TEB recognition and calculation requires complete and validated transactional data including a level of contextual meaning. Since employee-driven-spend data entry is done by non-financial people, (i.e., the employee reporting their expenses as quickly as they can with limited attention to the data entry), the available data is often missing pieces such as vendor information, subcategories, labeling, keywords, and other attributes required for a proper benefit validation for tax purposes. Without collecting and validating these mandatory transactional data and putting the meaning into context, having proper tax rules running on incomplete or partial data will generate the wrong output.

Since being able to ask employees to complete the missing information may not be realistic, or the expense system may not even allow for it, finance teams will have to deal with this challenge

using internal sources, technology, or outsource it to service providers.

As taxable employee benefits are further complicated by rules changing from year to year and country to country, the rules may also differ by the nature of the business. On top of that, for calculating the actual taxable benefit, in some cases one needs to apply a statutory monetary threshold, a percentage, a specific allowance ceiling, or reliefs such as disaster reliefs; or one must come up with an acceptable and defendable calculation to split business usage from personal usage.

Why a technology-first approach is best

Handling the initial but mandatory challenge of loading a massive number of transactions into a data validation and integrity process while each transaction holds a relatively low value makes a manual audit process financially unrealistic. Yet the benefits of a technological solution still must be assessed to understand whether it will bring both the required efficiency to the process as well as the aimed-for level of tax compliance to ensure the company is not unnecessarily exposed.

One of the key controls to warrant this is that the tax decisions that are made based on the data rely on consistent and up-to-date taxation rules. Having a manual workforce performing the audit always leaves a gap in ensuring that everyone is applying the tax rules correctly and to the latest changes.

Technology allows for the implementation of a centrally controlled and managed process that assesses every transaction on its own merits, yet still objectively. This does not mean your current audit workforce will be made completely redundant; instead,

you can have them perform a much more sophisticated job by putting their time and knowledge into following up on transactions flagged by the system and fine-tuning the audit rules to your business needs. In the current process, a large amount of time is lost on reviewing transactions that are not relevant for taxation.

8 key questions to ask when reviewing your TEB audit process for employee-driven spend

When assessing your current audit process for spend incurred by employees, which is reimbursed through the expense platform, or looking for a technology or other type of outsourced solution, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are we ready for a full-scale mode?2. Is it up to date with the latest legal

changes?3. Is it validating all transactions or

only a sample set of data?4. Is it looking at all invoice images

available or only a sample set of invoices?

5. Am I leveraging the comparative advantages of my financial team today or are they spending time searching, finding and auditing items that in the end are not relevant? Thus, could I use their capabilities better?

6. Will my current process pass the test of having a controlled process for cooperative compliance with the authorities or fit to a Tax Control Framework at the level my business size demands?

7. Can I ensure that there is an acceptable level of “I don’t know what I don’t know”?

8. Do we leverage technology today to address these new challenges?

is the founder and CEO of Blue dot. Prior to Blue dot, Mr. Saft was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of KCS, a company providing an innovative solution for internal audit and SOX risk management and FDA compliance. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv.

Written by Isaac Saft

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A Balanced Approach to Performance Assessment

The performance management process — and conducting performance reviews in particular — is often a source of frustration for leaders. And in a hybrid working environment,

where it’s more challenging for leaders to directly observe their employees’ working habits and team interactions, the issue of how best to set and assess

performance has taken on a new degree of urgency.

Most organisations believe a rigorous performance management system—whether via balanced scorecard of KPIs or the more recent “OKR”* approach, allows leaders to:

• measure an employee’s performance against the goals they set

• provide feedback on what they’re doing well and where to improve

• determine rewards — bonuses, salary increases, promotions, etc.

• communicate rewards in a way that the employee will accept as fair.

In practice, both leaders and employees often find these processes time consuming, overly bureaucratic,

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and unsatisfying in the way they support development conversations and link performance and reward.

What follows is an approach I developed through trial and error over the years that works well in addressing these concerns.

The keys to this approach are to:

1. Set a small number of objective and subjective goals.

2. Have the employee conduct their own initial self-assessment.

3. Separate the rating and remuneration discussions.

1. Set A Small Number of Objective and Subjective Goals The right number of goals for each role depends on both its scope and the current business situation. In a steady-state, well-performing business, a narrow role in sales, service or operations might have three to four key performance areas, with two to three component metrics in each. Example measures could include: # sales: specific revenue or volume growth across 2 to 3 major products # service: customer satisfaction and retention scores # financial: cost reduction and cash flow metrics # operational: processing volume and quality/error rates # project delivery: milestone completion and cost/benefit achievement # people management: health and safety, staff turnover, engagement scores. These measures should be clear and quantifiable, and ideally distinguish between “good” and “great” performance.

“Good” performance is the level that allows the team to meet its overall targets and is consistent with reasonable expectations for an employee at this level. “Great” performance is best identified by the employee themselves, along the lines of “what goal, if you achieved it, would make you immensely proud?” I find that this formulation helps fire up intrinsic motivation, and taps into the subconscious to find creative ways to lift performance. More senior or large people leadership roles will typically be measured across a broader range of five to six categories. In addition to macro-level measures in the categories just listed (e.g., overall profitability or customer ‘Net Promoter Scores’), such roles might be measured against more subjective areas such as: # strategic change: e.g., development of new business strategies; merger/acquisitions/partnership development; business reengineering and restructuring; new product development; technology investments # people leadership: e.g., talent acquisition/retention; training and development; industrial relations outcomes; staff engagement strategies; communication and whistleblowing system effectiveness; diversity and inclusion; employee wellbeing # risk management: e.g., improvement in risk/compliance outcomes; reduction in high risk/low return activities;

reduced inventory shrinkage; contingency and business continuity planning # community engagement: e.g., reputation-building activities and partnerships; environmental performance; political/regulatory relationship management; sponsorship and brand effectiveness. Where possible, these areas should seek to include quantifiable outcomes — new products launched, safety scores achieved, audit ratings improvements, etc. At a minimum, however, leaders should clearly articulate the desired target state for both ‘good’ and ‘great’ performance.

2. Objective versus subjective measurement To my mind, the measure of a good performance scorecard is that it is clear enough that the individual can largely perform their own review. The exception is the inclusion of a few subjective ratings that the leader determines. For example, each of my direct reports invariably has a people leadership goal that reads ‘Improve management bench strength’ — with the specific target described as ‘Leader to assess’. Another such measure is ‘Demonstrate improved use of data-driven decision making’. To assess these, I would ask the individual to explain to me what specific steps they had taken and show what outcomes had been achieved. Based on this explanation and evidence, I would then make a

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judgement as to whether this reflected ‘expected’, ‘high’ or ‘below-par’ performance in the circumstances. The same approach applies to the behavior assessment: each employee’s behavior is rated against each of the organization’s values on an A (‘role model’), B (‘lives the values’), or C (‘issues to discuss’) scale. In short, don’t be afraid to explicitly embed judgement in your performance assessments. Judgement is always present when leaders think about employee performance — calling it out explicitly forces us to think carefully about the judgements we make, and articulating that judgement helps employees develop and grow Have the employee conduct their own initial self-assessment From a development perspective, I believe it’s important to have the employee complete their own draft performance assessment. This is because it helps them take ownership of their results — whether good, great or below par — and helps boost their self-awareness as they consider how their boss will assess the judgmental components of their review. On page one, this should be relatively straightforward as they simply mark or circle the actual performance result against each target (assuming the data is available). For judgmental areas, they need to

identify what evidence they can provide to justify their rating. On page two, I ask employees to rate themselves A (‘role model’), B (‘lives the values’), or C (‘issues to discuss’) against each of the organization’s values, and to note examples to justify their rating. While some people find it challenging to assess themselves as either ‘role models’ or having ‘issues’, the process forces them to think about their behavior and what examples they — and their leader — can use to justify their assessment. For both the performance and the behavior pages, this process of self-evaluation against relatively objective standards helps reinforce self-awareness and puts the employee in a better frame of mind for the subsequent performance discussions with their leader.

3. Separate the rating and remuneration discussions Having two separate conversations — one to discuss performance against the agreed standards, and the second to discuss remuneration outcomes — is critical to making both conversations constructive. When the two conversations are the same — ‘Here’s your performance rating, and here’s the bonus/raise you’re getting as a result’ — the employee’s focus naturally tends to be on the second part of the conversation, and they’ll feel relatively good or bad depending on the result. In addition, combining the two conversation means that leaders often feel the need to reverse-engineer the performance rating in order to justify the financial

outcomes that the employee is going to receive. This can often lead to the conversation devolving into arguments about specific targets and whether or not the remuneration outcomes are ‘fair’ given what was achieved against the targets. In my approach, the first conversation — what I call the ‘rating’ conversation — focuses exclusively on performance against the goals and standards that were set at the start of the period. You may want to start the rating discussion with behavior, since this helps reinforce that values and behavior are taken seriously — values are made manifest by behavior, and focusing on this page shows that you expect your leaders to be role models for the values.

Regarding performance, the discussion is along the lines of ‘I asked you to do X, and you achieved it’. You acknowledge and praise the employee for what was achieved against the targets and provide your perspective on areas where the employee fell short or needs to improve. This helps the employee feel acknowledged and proud of what they’ve achieved, and to be more open-minded and accepting of constructive feedback.

For judgmental areas, I will typically ask the employee to explain what rating they think they should get, and then use differences between their assessment and my judgement as the basis for a constructive development conversation. It’s important that this is a two-way conversation, and the employee’s perspectives on what they did well and where they could have done better is important input to an ultimate judgement on pay and promotions.

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In the second conversation, the task is to explain remuneration outcomes in the context of relative performance. In this framework, the performance rating is an input, but the ultimate outcome needs to be adjusted based on the leader’s judgement about:• degree of difficulty in hitting the

targets• relative performance of others in the

team• relative value of the individual’s

contribution to the overall result• changes in market conditions during

the period (i.e., headwinds and tailwinds)

• changes in business priorities during the period

• incremental value delivered beyond the scope of the performance document

• appropriate consequences for negative behavior, risk or compliance incidents.

This conversation is typically along the lines of:

“In our last conversation we talked about how your performance rating was strong versus the targets that we set. In thinking about the right pay outcomes this year, I have recognized that you

were without half your team for three months but also that the drop in our supply prices gave your division a big head start on margins. Plus, the middle market division had a particularly strong six months. Also, in my judgement you haven’t done as much as you promised you would do to fix the relationship issues between your team and operations. So, on balance your outcome is a bit lower than it otherwise would have been . . .”

While the employee may still not be satisfied with the outcome, being explicit about how they performed against their targets, and the various factors that play into your judgement on pay and promotions, helps people save face and appreciate the fairness with which you are approaching the issue.

If you find performance reviews frustrating, I highly recommend trying this two-step approach: it turns the performance conversation from an adversarial one into a more constructive, development-oriented conversation, thereby reinforcing your commitment to them and their personal growth.

Written by Brian Hartzer former CEO of Westpac Banking Group and author of THE LEADERSHIP STAR: A Practical Guide To Building Engagement. He is an experienced executive and leadership mentor who served as CEO of the Westpac Banking Group from 2015 to 2019. Earlier, he spent 15 years in senior executive roles at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and ANZ Banking Group. Hartzer has also worked as a financial services strategy consultant at First Manhattan Consulting Group in New York, San Francisco, and Melbourne. He is currently an advisor and investor to several Sydney-based startups, including Quan-tium, a data-science company. Hartzer, who graduated from Princeton University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst, holds dual U.S. and Australian citizenship. He resides in Sydney, Australia.

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Fight to keep your Corporate Explorers

Written by Andrew Binns is director of Change Logic, a Bos-

ton-based strategic innovation advisory firm. He is co-author of a new book,

Corporate Explorer, published by Wiley in February 2022.

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Many leaving corporations as part of the ‘Great Resignation’ go on to set up their own business. Though some are making a lifestyle choice, it also

represents the enduring appeal of the entrepreneur. Wharton Professor Jacqueline Kirtley says that many of the managers resigning their jobs are going straight into entrepreneurship attracted by the ‘hero stories’ of great entrepreneurs like Jobs and Bezos. They want the freedom to create something new and put their stamp on the world.

How can employers compete? It seems like an unfair fight for corporates who cannot match the freedom, opportunity, and reward of a startup. However, that need not be so, and a new breed of Corporate Explorers are building successful new ventures from inside existing corporations. These are leaders like Yoky Matsuoka at electronics giant Panasonic, Kevin Carlin at tech firm Analog Devices, and Jim Peck at LexisNexis. Each of these leaders won support for their idea from senior managers and scaled it into a fully-fledged business, sometimes turning them into multi-billion-dollar units.

If they can do it, why can’t others replicate this success and do more to retain top talent that are fleeing for the entrepreneurial promised land? There is no way to compete with the potential financial payoff of owning a slice of a billion-dollar-valuation unicorn company. However, very few startups get to be unicorns (that’s the point of the term) and it is unclear that money alone is the initial driver for becoming an entrepreneur. Most find that setting up a new company involves begging family and friends for seed funding, only to later fail. What wannabe entrepreneurs want is freedom. The opportunity to realize an idea and test their own business building capabilities.

Can corporations match startups for autonomy? Not entirely, but they can do enough to enable Corporate Explorers to succeed.

Here are five things that any company can do to nurture managers with the entrepreneurial gene and encourage them to set up a venture inside, rather than doing it outside.

1. Set a growth ambition One of the reasons explorers leave their employers is that they think there is no interest in innovation and growth. They interpret caution about high-risk investments as disinterest. Let them know you are serious by setting a bold ambition. Former Mastercard CEO, Ajay Banga set an ambition to ‘wage a war on cash’ and ‘convert some of the 85% of cash transactions to digital’. This was a game changer for Mastercard and triggered a surge of innovation across the company which underpinned a decade of growth under his leadership. Your ambition needs to say something about what you want to achieve and where (e.g., digital payment solutions that replace cash) and create some excitement (e.g., waging a war).

2. Invite Corporate Explorer’s to emerge What is most notable about successful Corporate Explorers is that very few are ‘given’ the opportunity to create a new venture, most ‘take’ it. Jim Peck at LexisNexis took the brand of an established company, as well as its people, and data assets, then combined that with selected acquisitions to create a business that is now larger than the original. He went on

to be CEO of TransUnion and now leads NielsenIQ. Many other Corporate Explorers follow a similar trajectory. Like a classic entrepreneur, they see something wrong in the world and want to fix it. What’s different is that they then build support inside the organization to pursue the opportunity, rather than raising venture capital to do it on their own. They see that the assets of the existing business can help them go faster than a startup. You can create opportunities for your Corporate Explorers to emerge by sparking their curiosity about unsolved customer problems. Get managers thinking about what it is that nobody is doing for customers today. Fired up by a mission to fix these problems, they will soon generate some potential breakthrough ideas.

3. Learn to experiment Having an idea is just step one. A common failure amongst established firms is to think that you need to move quickly to making an investment in a new idea. They invest too quickly in an unproven concept. The internet browser firm Mozilla was guilty of this with the Firefox phone, sinking $400 million into a product that nobody wanted. Intel famously did the same when they invested in video conferencing in the early 2000s. The smarter approach is to move slowly testing each aspect of the new business idea. Do customers want it? What are they willing to pay? How will they use it? Executives used to business a P&L with relatively predictable returns can find this level of uncertainty

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intimidating. Running well designed experiments can help de-risk the new venture, thus making it possible to commit in increments. That way when you fail – and you will – the financial hole is not so deep that you are discouraged to never try again.

4. Give autonomy to a few You cannot run experiments for all the brilliant new ideas managers have, so culling the least promising early on is key to success. The few that remain need autonomy to operate. Running an experiment to test a new business concept has a completely different rhythm to managing an operational business. One is managing a known business, the other uncertainty. It is best to separate them from one another organizationally. Do not leave a new venture reporting to a manager responsible for driving an existing business in the same area. In any conflict between the two, the old will always beat the new. If you are serious about keeping the most innovative, entrepreneurially minded managers inside the company you have to give them space to succeed or fail. That means managers need space to run experiments without having to report on progress or justify their existence. One company asked us to examine why all their innovation projects failed. What we found was that they were spending over fifty percent of their time preparing presentations for the Board and senior managers. Your performance expectations should still be high, but you measure success differently. You are not trying to sell to

customers, you want them to teach you what works. Use metrics that tell you how much a Corporate Explorer is learning, not whether they are driving to revenue.

5. Build a path to scale Turning successful experiments into a revenue generating business is what innovation is all about. This is the payoff. You have a new source of revenue and a leader that has grown exponentially in confidence and capability. However, many ventures do not go to scale. What they lack is an aspiration for the venture and a path to get there. The first Corporate Explorer I worked with was Carol Kovac at IBM Life Sciences in 2000. Carol and team set the audacious goal of building a $1 billion business in 3 years. This set the scale for all their decisions and stopped them from being merely incremental in their decision-making. Having the aspiration, successful Corporate Explorers build a path to assemble the customers, capabilities, and capacity to scale. The best ones see that the assets of the existing business, combined with ones they build or buy, can help them go faster than a startup. Jim Peck at LexisNexis took the brand of an established company, as well as its people, and data assets, then combined that with selected acquisitions to create a business that is now larger than the original. Krisztian Kurtisz proposed a radical new offering while running the Hungarian unit of European insurer UNIQA. He used the firm’s insurance license, brand, and resources to build an entirely new digital

insurance offering. The two most popular answers are culture and senior leadership. Our culture does not support innovation. Our leaders are too risk averse. Guilty as charged! These are real problems. Successful firms dislike uncertainty. It is hard for leaders of established businesses to place a bet on an unproven venture.

It is easy to say that established businesses cannot innovate. The culture is too slow and the leaders too risk averse. Guilty as charged! However, there is nothing miraculous about the companies from which Corporate Explorers emerge. They have the same challenges as any other large, successful business. What sets them apart is a willingness to give a few managers the freedom to pursue innovations outside the corporate structures. This was always important to do. Today, it is critical if corporations are to avoid a drain of the very talent on which their future most depends.

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What Naturally Follows the Great Resignation? A Reskilling & Upskilling Revolution

Written by Michael Veale CEO & President of ETU. As CEO, Michael Veale drives the vision and growth of ETU, the mar-ket-leading provider of immersive learning. His strong track record in growing technology-based businesses has prepared him to lead ETU to new levels of innovation. Michael enables ETU's mission of empowering organizations with immersive simulation learning that upskills employees at scale, delivering the verifiable data to maximize return on talent.

CRITICAL THINKING

With Covid-19 throwing a wrench into almost all organizations’ plans, it’s to no one’s surprise that a lot of the way we go about business has changed.

Along with the “Great Resignation,” company leadership has faced new challenges, but none more so than retaining valuable staff. It is more important than ever that employees who have stayed on not only feel like they are capable of taking on the new responsibilities that are now expected of them, but that they are valued and respected.

Many successful leaders are turning the Great Resignation on its head and thinking of it, instead, as the Great Retention — and retention starts with a reskilling and upskilling revolution.

How to Retain Employees in a Hybrid World

We all know that employees were allowed to work from home at the peak of the pandemic. Some left. Some stayed. Some had no trouble adapting to this new digital age, while others struggled.

Many organizations fell short in supporting their workforce, and didn’t offer any upskilling or reskilling opportunities. When restrictions were loosened, a frustrated workforce resulted.

Another part of the cause of the Great Resignation is that not many employees wanted to go back to the office and wanted to keep working remotely. This has resulted in many businesses adopting a hybrid model, and new skill sets are again necessary to adapt to the demands of the current corporate environment.

Training and development are nothing new for the business world, but for the first time, we are utilizing them in ways to appeal to a mass of remote and hybrid workers in the wake of one of the most significant cultural shifts in our lifetime.

Retaining the workforce comes down to engagement, and reskilling and upskilling is one such way to do this.

Addressing a Skills Gap

All leadership is aware that a partially skilled and trained employee is better than an untrained new hire. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost to hire an employee is $4,129, with around 42 days to fill a position. It is even more costly and time-consuming to replace someone instead of filling a new job, which can cost 50-60% of the employee’s annual salary.

So, why aren’t more businesses addressing the problem of retention sooner?

An employee may be 70 percent of the way ready for a more prominent role in the company, but just needs some extra training. Identifying and addressing the skill gaps in an

organization can reduce churn and increase employee satisfaction, supporting the long-term financial goals of the business and the individual.

Figure 1: Human skills reign supreme

Reskilling and Upskilling for Retention

Employees genuinely see upskilling as hugely positive. By offering skill-building programs, it changes the perception not only of talent management but also how employees perceive the company.

Upskilling at scale also provides a common experience for all employees. For example, one global professional services organization introduced an upskilling initiative for all employees based on agile methods and digital fluency. Employees who participated developed a new common language in the area, which has now permeated the organization. People proudly display the badges achieved in these programs to others. The program not only enhanced skills, but it also created a sense of culture and camaraderie among team members.

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So how, exactly, can businesses utilize reskilling and upskilling for engagement, job satisfaction, and, ultimately, retention?

Where leadership needs to start is to recognize that people develop skills through experience and practice. It has to be in the right context. CEOs also need to ask for measurement of the impact of the L&D programs. This goes beyond how people rate training programs, but through accurate, usable data.

This is why situational-based immersive simulations are the only type of training that uniquely delivers the ability to practice in context, scales the initiative, and delivers real-time usable data.

Figure 2: Upskilling at scale example - new skills across the enterprise

A Revolution Beyond eLearning

There has been a lot of focus on eLearning; however, what leadership needs to get right is whether this digital training addresses skill gaps, works in practice, and can be measured — even better, if it builds culture and sense of community.

Immersive simulations have had thus far the most impactful results when it comes to upskilling employees in the hybrid workforce. It’s effective, works remotely and is cost-efficient. You may

upskill your employees 15x faster with learning materials rated 85% effective, and it yields up to a 66% reduction in learner seat time.

Educating workers to lead through change, being digitally fluent, collaborating better remotely, and bringing to the forefront emotional intelligence through these simulations will better cater to the varying needs of employees during this digital transformation and the Great Retention

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The Great Rehiring: How businesses and executives can rise to the challenge

Written by Carolyn Betts FlemingCEO and founder of Betts. Carolyn Betts Fleming is the founder and CEO of Betts, a leading nation-wide recruiting technology and services firm for revenue-gener-ating (sales, customer success, and marketing) roles. Her knack for spotting top talent and pairing them with an ideal company has led to developing a trusted marketplace in the SaaS space, ensuring that every partner, both talent and client, who comes to Betts succeeds.

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The Great Rehiring is the result of several forces at work. It is essentially the effect of the collective pause that businesses and employees took at the start of the pandemic. Because of

the changing nature of the workforce, companies were able to reevaluate what qualities they desired in their team members, while employees reevaluated what they wanted out of their personal and professional lives.

According to the Betts “Great Rehiring Report,” 66% of employees surveyed would seek new opportunities if their current job required them to go back full-time to the office. However, 74% would not take a pay cut to work remotely full time. While employees demand more flexibility, they are not willing to sacrifice their compensation.

Most companies were also forced to implement a hiring freeze and lay off employees as a result of decreased work, company budgets, and so on to stay afloat. At the height of the pandemic in June 2020, it was estimated that approximately 30 million people were laid off. In some cases, these efforts weren’t enough, and businesses, both big and small, were unable to weather the storm and were forced to close permanently, leaving their employees without work and income.

We are seeing people from across all job sectors participate in a parallel movement known as The Great Resignation, in which employees leave their current positions in search of a new job that will allow them to achieve a better work-life balance. According to the Labor Department, more than 4.5 million people voluntarily left their jobs in November 2021, resulting in the highest resignation rates in the U.S. in the last 20 years. As a result, businesses are doubling their hiring efforts to fill these recently vacated positions. All of these factors have resulted in an influx of job candidates flooding the market and the rehiring movement known as The Great Rehiring.

So, how can companies and

executives rise to meet The Great Rehiring challenge? The answer is simple: pivot hiring and retention strategies to be talent-forward while continuing to innovate. Below are a few suggestions on how to accomplish both these goals.1. Focus on what new talent is

looking for out of their next position. We’ve discovered that the vast majority of job talent want a competitive salary commensurate with education and experience, as well as the flexibility of working from home or in a hybrid workplace. The recent “Great Rehiring Report”, also shows that there has been a shift from in-market hiring to more out-of-market and work-from-home alternatives. Sixty-seven percent of people surveyed favor a combination of in-office and remote work, and 30% would like to work remotely full time. Businesses have the option of catering to these demands, or talent (both new and existing) will seek positions with companies that provide these benefits and more.

2. Prioritize listening to the needs of current employees, including optimizing employees’ mental health and well-being, rather than just attracting new top talent. We’re seeing a lot more attrition among our partner companies that are looking to hire and retain top talent. Employers should accept responsibility for assisting employees in managing the separation between home and work environments, as it’s essential to business productivity and employee well-being. We see this being accomplished in a variety of ways that can be replicated by other businesses. To avoid fatigue, companies can encourage teams to take breaks throughout the day and hold “no Zoom” meeting days, or perhaps prioritize Wellness Wednesday, which allows employees to get out

and exercise to take care of their physical health, as well as providing a flexible time-off policy and health and wellness and vacation stipends that encourage people to recharge and create that separation from work and home. Overall, employees need to hear from their employers that it is acceptable to take breaks and disconnect in order to take care of themselves.

3. Maintain workplace evaluations and consult with current employees about company changes they would like to see. If they make sense, implement them to increase employee retention. Essentially, make talent requirements a top priority.

4. Constantly innovate in-house strategies. Don’t rely on what got you there in the first place; instead, focus on what will get you there in the future. Keeping up to date on the most recent and cutting-edge recruiting and workplace technologies will improve recruitment and retention, ensuring the longevity of the company and the quality of talent on the team.

As a recruiting professional and someone who hires regularly for my company, I see this shift to a talent-forward strategy as an advantage for businesses as well, not a problem. This new working style and talent-forward approach also benefits companies looking to hire by exposing them to a whole new pool of talent that they would not have access to otherwise.Companies are able to search for candidates within their target markets as well as those with the necessary skills who are open to working remotely from other markets, providing them with a much larger talent pool to select the best hire from.

Overall, The Great Rehiring is something that shouldn’t be feared, but rather embraced, as this shift brings positive opportunities for both talent looking for their next position and companies looking to welcome new team members on board.

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Relationships Are the New Currency

Written by Dr. Shirley Davis.Dr. Shirley Davis is a sought-after global work-force expert, a three-time Chief Diversity Officer for global organizations, and President and CEO of SDS Global Enterprises, a strategic develop-ment solutions firm that specializes in human resources strategy; talent management; lead-ership effectiveness; culture transformation; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her work has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, NBC’s Today show, USA Today, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, Fast Company, HR Magazine, the CEOWORLD magazine and many others.

How to Leverage Your Networks/Contacts for Career Success.

It’s been said, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, and this couldn’t be truer about relationships if you want to be successful in your career, your business, and in every area of your life. Having the right relationships can bring you greater fulfillment, open new doors, and expand your knowledge and perspective.

I consider myself a master connector and I have people in my network from all walks of life who come from various ethnicities, genders, cultures, ages, beliefs, personalities, experiences, skill sets, and thinking styles. I began building this kind of broad network early in my career because I didn’t see many people who looked like me at the top of many organizations and I knew that I would need the support of others. My network and contacts taught me how to navigate inside of an organization as a minority, a woman, a young professional, how to position myself as a leader, and how to communicate my value.

I also leveraged my relationships for increasing knowledge and skills, learning more about the industries I worked in, and getting access to resources. As a result, I worked my way up to senior leadership and executive

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roles and enjoyed tremendous success later in my career. And now as a business owner of a global workforce solutions firm, having those broad relationships has been critical to my success and to the many opportunities that have come my way via referrals and recommendations.

Several of my contacts even turned into contracts. For more than 10 years I enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with a colleague whom I met at work named Grace. She was a well-respected consultant and speaker and was passionate about her work in Leadership, Change Management, and Diversity. When we first met in 2005, we became fast friends as well as professional colleagues. She and I spoke at conferences together, served on committees, referred business to each other, and collaborated on books, white papers, and training programs. One year she landed a multi-year contract with a large bank in the Northeast part of the United States. She was ecstatic and they loved her work.

A few years into the contract, she suffered a stroke and lost her ability to speak clearly and to walk or stand for long periods of time, among other things. It was devastating news because it was unexpected, and it took away one of her main sources of income and something she was gifted in—speaking and singing. She had a voice like an angel, and I remember her opening up a conference that I hosted with a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace.

After weeks of being in the hospital, she reached out to me and requested that I take on her client work while she rehabilitated. She indicated that she trusted me with her business and with her client and knew that they would receive me well. I agreed and immediately began delivering coaching and training for them with another

colleague that she also reached out to. For the next year, she continued to develop new training courses for the client and work behind the scenes to support us in delivering. As I usually did when servicing her client, I reached out to get last minute updates and to let her know that I had arrived at the hotel safely and was all set for the next day of training. We spoke and she was thrilled to know that everything was good. But she wasn’t feeling well that evening and let me know that she had been in the hospital a few days that week.

The next day I reached out and left her a message that the sessions were well received again, and the client was satisfied. I didn’t hear back from her, but I figured that she was resting and recuperating. Two days later I received the message that she had passed away the day that I left her the message. I was devastated! It was unbelievable news.

Later that afternoon I called the client to ask if they knew of her passing and they had not heard. They too were devastated. A week later, the client called me and wanted to talk about next steps with the contract. She said, “Because she trusted you with us, we trust you with us.” And the contract was transferred over to me for another year. While the story is quite sad, it really is a story about the power of relationship. Over the years we had nurtured a trusting, respectful, and mutually beneficial relationship that turned into a business opportunity for both of us. I was able to step in and partner with her in her darkest hour and in her last days, and she trusted me enough to serve her client. As a result, her client trusted me because she trusted me. This is what I mean by, “relationships are the new currency.”

Maintaining a broad network and an extensive list of contacts has additional benefits. It has been instrumental

in my ability to overcome personal, organizational, and societal barriers and limitations. When I started my career in Human Resources I joined several organizations, read a lot of books, and subscribed to a number of online platforms. But it wasn’t until I made the human connections with professionals that possessed various expertise, skills, and backgrounds in HR that I began to grow new skills. They shared best practices and pitfalls, and offered resources, and learning opportunities that gave me an edge up and it cut my learning curve in half. Also, by leveraging my relationships I obtained new job opportunities. When the time came for me to move to new roles, my network referred me to their companies, or to other jobs that they were aware of, and offered to be references. They also recommended me to recruiters and to job sites that expanded my search. As a result, I was often able to secure a new opportunity.

Receiving feedback and coaching has been one of the most significant benefits of having a broad array of relationships. I learn so many perspectives, ideas, and solutions from people with varying experiences and backgrounds that I wouldn’t otherwise. And I can’t tell you how obtaining new referrals and recommendations has accelerated my business success. More than 95% of new business is driven by referrals, repeat business, and my connections on social media. And lastly, leveraging my relationships has enhanced my health/well-being by providing encouragement, support, and advice during challenging times.

Learning the art of building beneficial relationships, as well as knowing how to leverage those relationships in a way that helps you to learn, grow, and become better is a critical ingredient to achieving success in your personal life and your career.

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Amazon after Lina Khan: Building Back Better

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It’s pretty clear that Amazon - like the other Big Tech titans – is squarely in Lina Khan’s sights. She has been a long term critic (especially of Amazon) and was part of the team that produced

Rep. David Cicilline’s report excoriating these companies. Now Khan is FTC chair

and is gunning for Big Tech. So in what shape will Kahn’s term leave Amazon?

Let’s begin with Amazon’s potential antitrust vulnerabilities. There are plenty:

• Self-dealing on the Amazon marketplace. Amazon favors its own products on the marketplace, from tweaks to the search algorithm to product placement on the page and XXX.

• Private labels. Plenty of sellers – like Jason Boyce – complain that Amazon steals their best ideas, undercuts them on price, and eventually drives them out of business.

• Underpricing. An analysis of Amazon financial reports shows that Amazon’s own retail business runs at a massive loss, and is cross subsidized by profits from the third-party Marketplace, AWS, and Amazon’s large and rapidly growing advertising business.

• Counterfeits and fake goods. By encouraging direct sales from Chinese manufacturers in particular, Amazon has opened the doors to counterfeits and fake goods. It’s taken significant actions, but both remain a major problem for the platform.

• AWS. AWS remains the dominant provider of cloud infrastructure, so some antitrust alarm bells are ringing:

• AWS is moving up the stack (in IT-speak) to provide more industry-specific services, in the financial sector and health care for example. Amazon may be leveraging its dominance in cloud infrastructure

to build out industry-specific services.

• Amazon – like the other cloud providers – tries to be both easy to enter and hard to leave. Both could generate antitrust problems.

• Amazon’s reputation in the software industry is mixed at best. It’s been criticized for exploiting but not sufficiently supporting open source software, while software startups have complained that Amazon strung them along and then replicated key functionality before discarding them.

• Logistics. Amazon has built the best ecommerce logistics system in America, and offers that system to its Marketplace sellers (for a price). Amazon is making it harder for those sellers to use other delivery networks.

• Amazon Advertising sells vendors unique access to individual customers as they seek a specific product. Amazon’s front page is now filled with ads, and sellers must buy ads to get good placement. That adds a toll to seller costs.

• New markets. Amazon is pushing into health care, logistics, pharmacy, groceries, and home security, while exploring innumerable niche markets like manufacturing sensors or construction parts. Often it enters as the low price seller, sometimes apparently below cost.

This is a long list. So is Amazon just a cluster of vulnerabilities waiting to be attacked by a newly energized FTC? No. It’s not.

CEO of Incumetrics and a visiting scholar at George Washington University Institute for Public Policy. e is the author of Behemoth, Amazon Rising: Power and Seduction in the Age of Amazon.

Written by Robin Gaster Ph.D

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Let’s begin with the obvious: The FTC has limited staff and resources, so it must prioritize. Amazon is not even the top Big Tech target, so where can the FTC find some wins?

Easy outs. Detailed investigations could generate public wins for the FTC against self-dealing/private labels, underpricing, and counterfeits/fake goods, and so does some behavior by AWS. Wins here could force Amazon to make significant changes.

Tough outs. Other areas are much more difficult. New markets are especially challenging – who doesn’t want Amazon to disrupt healthcare or Big Finance (except healthcare and Big Finance companies)? Moreover, AWS and Amazon Logistics and Alexa are all organic outgrowths of Amazon’s core business, and hence difficult to sever from Amazon. It’s also hard to see address Amazon Ads when Google and Facebook dominate digital advertising more widely. In all these areas the effort/reward ratio is too low for the FTC.

But will any of the easy outs move the needle? Will they fundamentally divert Amazon from its apparent crusade to dominate every part of consumers’ lives (and of course B2B as well)?

The Venn diagram overlap between easy outs and mission-critical activities is very small. Amazon private labels are a tiny part of its retail business and wouldn’t be missed if they were shut down altogether (except by Amazon’s customers). Amazon is already easing out of its retail business, so an FTC win would just accelerate the inevitable, while giving Amazon valuable PR cover to explain a decline in retail revenues. Counterfeits, fakes, and bad actors are big problems, but likely solutions would

just require Amazon to spend more against them – which would only help Amazon in the long run.

Underpricing is the last remaining big ticket easy out. A focused FTC investigation could embarrass Amazon, showing that some of its own retail operations are deep in the red. The FTC could demand and possibly get ongoing access to pricing data, which would limit cross-subsidies. In essence, the FTC and the courts could perhaps outlaw Amazon’s new business model, where retail is not the simple exchange of goods for cash from the customer, but a complex system that exchanges goods for cash from customers plus advertising revenues, fees from marketplace sellers, and logistics revenues. I wouldn’t bet on that outcome, but it’s possible.

Its own retail is still Amazon’s biggest business. It accounted for about 35% of Amazon’s total revenues in 2020. So forced cutbacks would be a big deal for Amazon. However, Amazon Marketplace is already gaining share from Amazon Retail at about 2% annually. If the FTC accelerates that to 3%, by 2028 Marketplace would have around 75% of total platform revenues. Unprofitable lines in Amazon Retail would be forced to close, and its growth path would be sharply disrupted.

That sounds terrible for Amazon, but it’s not.

The net result would be lower Amazon Retail revenues and higher Marketplace revenues – along with much higher overall retail platform profits. Amazon would be forced to fix the red ink leaking out of Retail.

That would let Amazon accelerate its push into new markets. Revenues

from healthcare, finance, logistics, and Alexa-related home security, health and wellness, and even shopping would grow rapidly.

Elsewhere, the Amazon/AWS link won’t be broken. It won’t even be disrupted, although AWS may have to curb some its more pernicious habits, and its acquisitions will be heavily scrutinized or blocked. But the broad strategic push up the stack may even accelerate. And AWS will continue throwing off buckets of cash.

Amazon Logistics will still offer Marketplace sellers decent value. It will pull more parcel deliveries inhouse and away from USPS and UPS, and it may fully launch a third-party logistics service especially for businesses (serving non-Amazon needs). Breaking Logistic apart from Amazon will be a non-starter.

Amazon may still be bleeding red ink as its tries to scale its grocery business, but those losses would be more affordable as Amazon Retail heals. More likely, Amazon will transition into specialized grocery niches, and will increasingly focus on providing technology. Still, either way, the FTC will play little part.

Conclusions?

After eight years of aggressive action, the FTC will force Amazon to do some things it should do anyway; it will stop egregious behaviors that Amazon should have already addressed; and it will leave most of Amazon to the discipline of the market. In short, FTC actions under Khan will create a stronger, more disciplined, and much more profitable Amazon, one perhaps spreading even faster across a rapidly growing portion of the US economy.

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Your Guide To Open Innovation

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Simply put, innovation is the creation of a viable offering. Its value construct requires identifying the problems that matter and moving through them systematically to deliver

elegant solutions. Innovation is seen and felt not only at the product or services level but in the firm’s supply chain, processes, and its ability to promote learning and transfer of knowledge. The increasingly global nature of business forces, ultimately facilitates innovation providing that firms can sense, adapt, reconfigure and transform in a timely manner.

At its core, innovation occurs within three broad areas:

• At the “Configuration” level which are focused on business delivery, structures, profit model network and internal processes

• At the “Offering” level, focused primarily on its product system and product performance

• At the “Experience” level, focused on customer engagements, channels, brand and personalisation.

For instance, when innovation takes place at a process level, it usually contains tacitness and complexity (in other words, a fair amount of causal ambiguity) then, the simple attempt to imitate it externally is usually futile.

Innovation is the backbone of the modern world. Beyond a new product, service, or idea, innovation, as we know it today, is a lifestyle. From a business perspective, innovation helps a firm stand out from its competitors. This enables them to thrive in the business world.

Open innovation takes this a step further. It combines internal and external ideas as well as internal and

external paths to market, to advance the development of new technologies. Research from the Stockholm school of Economics found that the largest firms implement organizational modes of open innovation on average 1.5 times more than the medium-sized and the smallest ones.

Certain vehicles such as corporate venture capital, talent on-demand, incubators and accelerators are more conducive to open innovation than others. This living concept solves problems by developing solutions following a deep analysis of the state of a company.

Open innovation involves knowledge ecosystems, business ecosystems and bilateral collaboration. To succeed innovatively, there are elements that merit the consideration of major decision-makers:

• The evolution company’s goals and ambitions.

• What type of existing problems need to be solved?

• What are the gaps that need to be filled, from a staffing or capabilities’ perspective?

• Whether external input, such as executive leadership, is necessary indefinitely or on an as-needed basis.

Furthermore, open innovation could be the medium through which companies reach their end goals. Through it, they combine internal and external sources. Successful companies that prioritize strategic open innovation in their operations include Samsung, Facebook, Lego, Philips, and many more.

Inbound vs Outbound Innovation

Inbound and outbound innovation are both facets of open innovation. The former refers to acquiring expertise from outside sources. The latter indicates repurposing innovation that is not in use within an organization. This is achieved by promoting an outbound flow of information and resources, such as by means of a joint venture.

Jennifer Van der Meer describes Dutch firms as reluctant to take part in the use of exporting mechanisms (i.e. outbound practices), with only 54% highly innovative companies using them vs. 74% adopting importing mechanisms (i.e. inbound practices). Further research found that, generally, open innovation seems to be a complement to internal R&D but that an increased use of inbound activities is employed as a substitute for internal R&D. Hence, inbound open innovation activities can reduce the R&D intensity of a company.

The Shift From Closed Innovation to Open Innovation. Mutually exclusive?

Many consider closed innovation as an antiquated way of doing business. In effect, it is a system that is insistent upon one way of achieving objectives. Generally speaking, the consensus was that a business should hoard the best staff and resources. Backed by their own research and development efforts, they would have the key to success.

The traditional mindset fostered by closed innovation practices is intended on protecting crucial information and

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intellectual property solely for securing an advantage over competitors.

On the contrary, open innovation invites outside sources to join in research and development initiatives. In this model, there is a trade of expertise and collaboration for mutual benefit.

But are these two models, or principles, mutually exclusive? Of course not.

Open innovation should be the preferred vehicle to competitive advantage but not in isolation. Closed innovation has its place, especially when technologies are closely linked and integrated at the product level (Apple) or when closed innovation produces a clear and fundamental advantage over competitors.

Research from the University of Oxford by D. Gann argues that it is not true that “the more openness, the better” since it can be costly and it is not always easy to have a high degree of openness. Indeed, the approach chosen by companies should depend on its coherence with the strategic, organizational and managerial contexts and on an acceptable balance between the benefits and costs.

Open innovation is not a replacement for closed innovation but should rather be regarded as complementary. Businesses that combine these two principles, and have the internal structures to support such moves, are better positioned to deliver outcomes in a rapidly changing environment.

Open Innovation and Experts

The outlook on freelancers has

shifted substantially from viewing them as inexpensive labour to highly sought-after professionals in their craft. Organisations need specialists in their field. Masters that can bring fresh perspectives and solutions to the table.

Consulting marketplaces such as Cognisium connect businesses with independent freelancers and even provides a preview of the skills they offer before registration. These experts in open innovation offer corporate experience, mastery of financial concepts, exceptional project management skills, and technological dexterity.

Successfully Implement a Blended Workforce Strategy

Merging existing teams with new players brought on to aid the development of a firm can be a challenge. It is crucial to reassure the current staff that the addition of fractional staff is not a reflection of lack of meaningful contribution.

The introduction of such freelance associates should not be used to threaten or discourage existing staff. In this way, freelance experts, whether executives, creatives, analysts, or others, remain a part of existing ongoing projects and continue to contribute meaningfully.

A firm’s personnel should feel that they are being invited to take part in tapping into a prime resource. The full time employee value proposition needs to change. Here, the leadership’s role in explaining a) the new competitive landscape and b) what is expected from the employee of the future, are both crucial.

The core employee value proposition will entail a re-envisioning of their role in the company. They will become enablers of specialised work, and connectors of work packages and initiatives to deliver more scalable and profitable results. As a result, a cultural shift will also need to take place so that the incoming on-demand experts be viewed not as a threat but as part of a blended workforce strategy geared for optimum quality and delivery.

Written by Dr. Dorel IosifDr. Dorel Iosif is a Board Director and CEO with Cognisium, a tech executive market-place headquartered in Australia. He held senior executive roles with KBR, WorleyPar-sons, PwC and Advisian Management Con-sulting. Dr Iosif started his career in Israel with the Technion Institute of Technology and continued in Australia with BHPBilliton and the University of Melbourne. He holds a Ph.D in applied mathematics from the University of Melbourne and studied Corpo-rate Level Strategy - Executive Program at Harvard Business School.

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Is empathy the great resignation’s secret solution?

There’s a lot being said right now about the “great resignation.” And rightly so. According to Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index, two in five workers (41%) worldwide are likely to consider

leaving their current employer within the next year. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor has spent several months reporting record-breaking numbers of US workers voluntarily quitting their jobs.

Yet if the magnitude of the issue is clear, the causes are less so. In some cases, the forced reset of COVID-19 has

led people to re-evaluate their views on life, work and how to balance them. For some, it prompted them to pivot their career to make remote working a bigger part of their job in the future. Others, fresh from spending more time at home during lockdown, may have decided now is the moment to bring forward retirement plans or shift their focus to family life.

Remote impossibilities

Whatever the reasons behind their workers’ itchy feet, the retention of

talent is perhaps the greatest crisis organizations currently face. And for the leaders tasked with navigating this state of flux, the challenges are considerable.

Chief among them is finding effective ways to protect employees’ well-being and productivity from the other end of a laptop. Fostering a cohesive culture that people can shape and buy into is also far more taxing when they are rarely in the same workplace together, while a higher number of job vacancies means an increased workload and heightened risk of burnout for those who do choose to stay.

Written by Marcelo Bartholo EY Americas Deputy Vice Chair – Consult-ing. Marcelo Bartholo currently serves as the Americas Deputy Vice Chair (DVC) for Consulting at Ernst & Young. In this role, Marcelo is responsible for all strategic and operational aspects of our Consulting busi-ness in the Americas, the largest Area for the firm with more than 23,000 consultants across 10 business units in the US, Canada, Latin America and Israel.

BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

This time it’s personalBuilding an empathetic culture

should therefore be a key and immediate priority for any organization looking to recruit and retain top talent. Yet the beautiful thing is that the impact reaches beyond that; there are also tangible business benefits for organizations that do so. According to the survey, nearly 9 out of 10 (87%) workers feel that mutual empathy between them and their leaders increases their efficiency. The same number (87%) report it boosts creativity, 86% believe it enhances innovation, and 81% think it increases company revenue.

However, to reap these rewards, leaders must walk the walk not just talk the talk. Nearly half (46%) of the employees surveyed feel their company’s efforts to be empathetic toward them are dishonest, while two in five (42%) claim their organization doesn’t follow through on its promises. Marrying authenticity with action is therefore paramount, especially with the coming generation of Gen Z workers who are even more laser-focused on finding employers that share their values and allow them to be true to themselves at work.

It’s also important that organizations balance programmatic ways of driving empathy with more individual ones. Indeed, the very essence of empathy is that it looks and feels different to everyone depending on their unique circumstances in the workplace and at home. Leaders should thus concentrate on building strong one-on-one relationships with their teams to boost connectivity, drive trust and allow them to take genuine, personalized steps to improve each individual’s well-being, productivity and job satisfaction.

Quality control

There are also some distinct qualities that US workers associate

with empathetic leaders. Foremost among them is transparency in their decision-making, closely followed by fairness and a willingness to back up their promises and commitments with actions. Encouraging others to share their opinions and being trusted to handle difficult conversations make up the top five.

This is good news. First, because it provides a clear road map for senior executives looking to build empathy into the way they lead and oversee their organization. And second, because all are characteristics that anyone can develop, implement and control on a daily basis.

Right now, many of us will be looking forward to the holiday season, especially after the disruption and enforced separation of the previous 18 months. Yet this is also a period when the challenges of work and family life can overlap more closely and when time and financial pressures may lead to increased stress and anxiety. It’s therefore the perfect moment for leaders to take stock and consider how they can display more empathy in their role.

That’s of course not to say empathetic leadership is merely a seasonal requirement — far from it. But the holidays can and should remind all of us to put ourselves in our people’s shoes, listen to their points of view and take steps at both a programmatic and individual level to truly address their personal and professional needs.

Leaders who do so can begin building a culture in which every employee feels comfortable in bringing their full self to work, is confident in raising concerns and trusts that their voice will be heard: a culture that people want to remain part of and thrive in rather than escape for greener pastures elsewhere. That is empathetic leadership. And it may well be the great resignation’s secret solution.

Likewise, more worker movement means more new starters, each of whom has to be embedded in the organization’s systems, processes and culture. Again, this onboarding process must increasingly happen remotely over Wi-Fi rather than in person over coffee, which at best takes longer and at worst can become impossible.

Silver linings

Yet within this seemingly dark cloud is also a silver lining — because a solution may be waiting in the wings. A recent EY study revealed that 9 out of 10 (90%) US workers believe empathetic leadership leads to higher job satisfaction, 88% feel it generates loyalty among staff toward their bosses, and 85% think it boosts worker productivity. Crucially, more than three-quarters (79%) agree it decreases employee turnover. In other words, the study found a direct correlation between the vital issue of retention and the perceived level of empathy in the workplace.

But what does empathy actually mean? For workers, it ultimately comes down to whether or not they feel their needs — both personal and professional — are being listened to, understood and accommodated by their organization’s leadership. In many ways, this is nothing new; employees have long wanted to have their voices heard and desires met. But the pandemic has supercharged those expectations, especially around issues such as mental well-being, flexible hours and hybrid working.

Tellingly, it’s also made them more willing to abandon employers that fail to deliver: to the point that over half (54%) of US workers say they have left a previous job because their boss wasn’t empathetic to their struggles at work. A similar number (49%) quit due to a lack of appreciation of pressures in their home life.

FROM GREENPEACE TO BLACKROCK: How the pressure on CEOs is changing colour

Written by Andy LastCEO at MullenLowe salt, is the author of Business on a Mission: How to Build a Sustainable Brand, published by Routledge, 20th January 2022.

social impacts represent too risky an investment.

In my book, Business on a Mission, I interviewed Paul Polman, then Unilever CEO, about his fight to persuade investors that putting purpose and sustainability at the heart of the Unilever model was the right approach for the business. He said in that book (published in 2016) that: “I have always believed that the purpose of business is to serve, not take from, society. It needs to address some of the challenges out there positively to gain its legitimacy. Not being less bad or CSR, but truly making a positive contribution. Shareholder primacy has become the driving force for many. If we put serving society squarely back in the middle, we will create better longer-term sustainable business models and the shareholder will ultimately be rewarded as well.”

He famously said to investors, not long after his appointment as CEO in 2009, ‘If you buy into this long-term value-creation model, which is equitable, which is shared, which is sustainable, then come and invest with us. If you don’t buy into this, I respect you as a human being, but don’t put your money in our company.’

That ultimatum captured the situation at the time: some singular businesses making the case for purpose and sustainability to investors. The direction pointed out by Larry Fink and others turns this on its head. The investment community is now demanding improved ESG performance from companies who want their money.

For the second edition of the book, published in January 2022, I interviewed Frank Cooper III, who sits on the Executive Board at BlackRock as Chief Marketing Officer. His message to businesses was clear.

“What I’ve seen in the past five years is an evolution from CSR to putting the question of how a business contributes to society in a positive way into the operation of the business. In the past, businesses could proceed under this idea of benevolence on the side, but not making it part of the corporation. But what we’ve seen in the past several years - and accelerated in the last two years - is a greater pressure against businesses directly and a greater awareness among the general public about the role of corporations in society. There’s been a kind of awakening around the belief that corporations need to play a positive role and that there’s no guarantee that any corporation has a licence to operate.”

Instead of certain businesses having to make the case for sustainability to investors, businesses in general are now having to demonstrate to investors what they are doing.

Previously, the biggest worries most CEOs had about sustainability were that activists might create noise around some aspect of their business, or that politicians might threaten to regulate and raise costs. Just occasionally, customers might ask awkward questions.

Now the tricky purpose and sustainability questions are being raised by investors. While these questions could have been delegated in the past to the PR department or corporate affairs, the CEO must now be Chief Purpose and Sustainability Officer too. Of course, investors quite rightly still demand strong performance and financial returns, but the board agenda now has to do this in the context of an approach that understands the company’s relationship with society and acts on it and has a serious plan in place to address environmental impacts. And today it’s BlackRock rather than Greenpeace that’s colouring that approach.

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with some $9.5 trillion (that’s nine and a half million million dollars) assets under management at latest count. It may well hold

a stake in your company. It more than likely manages assets for your pension scheme.

CEOs and CFOs of companies in which BlackRock was invested used to have a pretty clear idea of what was expected of them: to deliver shareholder returns. But that’s been changing. In 2018, Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO, said in his annual letter to the companies they invest in that, ‘Without a sense of purpose, no company, either public or private, can achieve its full potential. It will ultimately lose the licence to operate from key stakeholders.’ Stakeholders, note, not shareholders.

The New York Times described this as, ‘a watershed moment on Wall Street, one that raises all sorts of questions about the very nature of capitalism.’

BlackRock’s turn to purpose is underpinned by their own forecast that ESG funds (where environmental, social and governance factors are integrated into the investment process, measuring how sustainable any company in that fund is according to ESG criteria) will account for almost 60% of mutual fund assets by 2025.

BlackRock aren’t the only investors adding new questions to the board agenda. Investors everywhere are pressuring companies to improve their social and environmental performance because they have analysed and interrogated performance – with more resources than any protestor, regulator or activist citizen could ever muster - and come to the conclusion that companies who are not acting on their material environmental and

Harvard Business School takes the prestigious title of the world’s business school for 2021, that’s according to the CEOWORLD magazine. Whar-ton School earned itself a

respectable second place, with MIT Sloan School of Management is ranked third. The 2021 rankings placed London Business School in fourth ahead of INSEAD Business School into fifth; while Said Business School ranked sixth and Columbia Business School seventh.

Overall, among the top 10 business schools, the eighth, ninth, and tenth positions are held by Haas School of

Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and IESE Business School. International Institute for Management Development (IMD) took the No. 11 spot, followed by Yale School of Man-agement and Cambridge Judge Business School (No.13). Meanwhile, Alliance Manchester Business School ranked No. 14 in the CEOWORLD magazine’s ranking of the best business schools in the world for 2021. HEC Paris came in fifteenth place, followed by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (sixteenth), Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University (seventeenth), Duke University Fuqua

School of Business (eighteenth), and Leonard N. Stern School of Business ranked nineteenth. Out of the 100 best business schools in the world for 2021, ESADE Business School ranked No. 20th. A number of parameters are used to compile the ranking, which is based on the satisfaction levels of individ-ual students, industry professionals, and corporate recruiters. So, if you are thinking about boosting your prospects with a postgraduate-level degree in business, we have got just the thing for you; here are the best international business schools that can help advance your career…

Best Business Schools In The World For 2021

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Rank Institution Campus Country Score Rating

1 Harvard Business School Boston, MA US 99.81 AAA

2 Wharton School Philadelphia US 98.38 AAA

3 MIT Sloan School of Management Cambridge, MA US 95.95 AAA

4 London Business School London UK 95.56 AAA

5 INSEAD Business School Fontainebleau France 95.3 AAA

6 Said Business School Oxford UK 95.19 AAA

7 Columbia Business School New York US 94.98 AAA

8 Haas School of Business Berkeley, CA US 94.73 AAA

9 Stanford Graduate School of Business Stanford, CA US 94.71 AAA

10 IESE Business School Barcelona Spain 94.54 AAA

11 International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

Lausanne Switzerland 94.42 AAA

12 Yale School of Management New Haven, CT US 94.21 AAA

13 Cambridge Judge Business School Cambridge UK 93.9 AA

14 Alliance Manchester Business School Manchester UK 93.57 AA

15 HEC Paris Paris France 93.56 AA

16 University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Chicago US 93.52 AA

17 Kellogg School of Management North-western University

Evanston, IL US 93.18 AA

18 Duke University Fuqua School of Business

Durham, North Carolina

US 92.96 AA

19 Leonard N. Stern School of Business New York US 92.86 AA

20 ESADE Business School Barcelona Spain 92.37 AA

21 UNC Kenan Flagler Business SchoolChapel Hill, North

CarolinaUS 92 AA

22 Tuck School of BusinessHanover, New Hamp-

shireUS 91.9 AA

23 Stephen M. Ross School of Business Ann Arbor, Michigan US 91.85 AA

24 HKUST Business School Hong Kong Hong Kong 91.37 AA

25 UCLA Anderson School of Manage-ment

Los Angeles, Cali-fornia

US 90.97 A

26 Cornell SC Johnson College of Busi-ness

New York US 90.82 A

27 Darden School of Business at the Uni-versity of Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

US 90.8 A

28 McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

Washington D.C. US 90.31 A

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

29 Indian Institute of Management Cal-cutta

Kolkata India 90.3 A

30 IESE Business School Madrid Spain 90.27 A

31 Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad India 90.16 A

32 National University of Singapore (NUS Business School)

Singapore Singapore 89.92 A

33 Olin Business School St. Louis, Missouri US 89.92 A

34 Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University

East Lansing, Mich-igan

US 89.83 A

35 Mannheim Business School (MBS) Mannheim Germany 89.72 A

36 USC Marshall School of BusinessLos Angeles, Cali-

forniaUS 89.51 A

37 Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Seattle, Washington US 89.45 A

38 Rotman School of Management Toronto, Ontario Canada 89.34 A

39 Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsyl-vania

US 88.89 A

40 Purdue University Krannert School of Management

West Lafayette, Indiana

US 88.88 A

41 ESMT Berlin Berlin Germany 88.88 A

42 Penn State Smeal College of Business University Park, Pennsylvania

US 88.62 A

43 Warwick Business School Coventry, England UK 88.58 A

44 WHU Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management

Dusseldorf Germany 88.57 A

45 Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University

Rotterdam Netherlands 88.5 A

46 Melbourne Business School Melbourne Australia 88.4 A

47 George Washington University - GW School of Business

Washington D.C. US 88.21 A

48 Gies College of Business at the Univer-sity of Illinois

Champaign,Illinois US 88.19 A

49 Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

College Park, Mary-land

US 87.73 A

50 China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)

Shanghai China 87.7 A

51 Faculty of Management Studies at University of Delhi

New Delhi India 87.64 A

52 SAIT School of Business Calgary, Alberta Canada 87.44 A

53 HKU Business School Hong Kong Hong Kong 87.12 A

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

54 Emory University’s Goizueta Business School

Atlanta, Georgia US 87.07 A

55 Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University

Singapore Singapore 86.67 A

56 CUHK Business Schools Hong Kong Hong Kong 86.62 A

57 Geneva Business School Geneva Switzerland 86.1 A

58 Munster School of Business and Eco-nomics

Munster Germany 85.9 BBB

59 Cranfield School of Management Cranfield, England UK 85.8 BBB

60 Mendoza College of Business, Univer-sity of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, Indiana US 85.72 BBB

61 UCI Paul Merage School of Business, University of California

Irvine, California US 85.54 BBB

62 Graduate School of Business, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)

Seoul South Korea 85.17 BBB

63 Frankfurt School of Finance and Man-agement

Frankfurt Germany 85.08 BBB

64 Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management

Nashville, Tennessee US 84.6 BBB

65Indian Institute of Management Ban-

galoreBangalore India 84.58 BBB

66 University of Cologne Business School Koln Germany 84.23 BBB

67Indiana University - Kelley School of

BusinessBloomington,

Indiana us 84.22 BBB

68 Vlerick Business School Ghent Belgium 84.08 BBB

69HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Man-

agementLeipzig Germany 83.97 BBB

70EUROPEAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSI-

TY (EIU - PARIS)Paris France 83.69 BBB

71Fisher College of Business, Ohio State

UniversityColumbus, Ohio US 83.49 BBB

72 Durham University Business School Durham UK 83.11 BBB

73USD School of Business, University of

San DiegoSan Diego, California US 82.97 BBB

74Indian Institute of Management Luc-

knowLucknow India 82.89 BBB

75 Fashion Design Institut Dusseldorf Germany 82.84 BBB

76Boston University Questrom School of

BusinessBoston, Massachu-

settsUS 82.78 BBB

77W. P. Carey School of Business at

Arizona State UniversityTempe, Arizona US 82.75 BBB

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

78Indian Institute of Management Kozhi-

kodeKozhikode India 82.72 BBB

79EIDM - Ecole Internationale de Mode

et LuxeParis France 82.56 BBB

80Nova School of Business and Econom-

icsLisbon Portugal 82.38 BBB

81 IFM Business school - IFM University Geneva Switzerland 82.32 BBB

82 Indian Institute of Management Indore Indore India 81.63 BBB

83 Carlson School of ManagementMinneapolis, Min-

nesotaUS 81.46 BBB

84Scheller College of Business, Georgia

Institute of TechnologyAtlanta, Georgia US 81.4 BBB

85 Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) Jamshedpur India 81.32 BBB

86Antai College of Economics & Manage-

ment, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai China 81.31 BBB

87 Macquarie Business School Sydney Australia 80.6 BB

88 Tippie College of Business Iowa City, IA United States 80.53 BB

89 Vlerick Business School Leuven Belgium 79.77 BB

90SDA Bocconi School of Management

RomeRome Italy 78.85 BB

91Indian Institute of Management Shil-

longShillong India 77.82 BB

92 Strathclyde Business School GlasgowUnited King-

dom77.69 BB

93School of Management (SoM) at the

University of St.GallenSt. Gallen Switzerland 77.59 BB

94Desautels Faculty of Management,

McGill UniversityMontreal, Quebec Canada 76.51 BB

95 Cox School of Business Dallas, Texas United States 76.29 BB

96Athens University of Economics and

BusinessAthens Greece 76.27 BB

97University of Bath School of Manage-

mentBath, England

United King-dom

75.61 BB

98 TIAS School for Business and Society Tilburg Netherlands 74.62 BB

99 Indian Institute of Management Rohtak Rohtak India 74.16 BB

100UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Busi-

ness SchoolDublin Ireland 74.07 BB

101 Babson College Babson Park, MA United States 73.58 BB

102 UBC Sauder School of Business Vancouver Canada 72.75 BB

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

103Boston College Carroll School of

ManagementNewton, Massachu-

settsUnited States 72.72 BB

104University of Edinburgh Business

SchoolEdinburgh

United King-dom

71.45 BB

105 Vlerick Business School Brussels Belgium 70.74 BB

106Darden School of Business at the Uni-

versity of VirginiaShanghai China 68.65 BB

107 Indian Institute of Management Ranchi Ranchi India 68.27 BB

108School of Management at Fudan

UniversityShanghai China 67.5 BB

109 UNSW Business School Sydney Australia 67.33 BB

110 Alberta School of Business Edmonton Canada 67.1 BB

111 Birmingham Business School BirminghamUnited King-

dom66.67 BB

112 Southampton Business School SouthamptonUnited King-

dom65.57 B

113Smith School of Business Queen’s

UniversityKingston, Ontario Canada 65.34 B

114 Rady School of Management San Diego United States 65.29 B

115University of Queensland Business

SchoolQueensland Australia 64.63 B

116 TIAS School for Business Utrecht Netherlands 64.15 B

117 Ivey School of Business Ontario Canada 63.8 B

118 Indian Institute of Management Raipur Raipur India 63.78 B

119School of Economics and Business -

Universidad de NavarraPamplona Spain 62.59 B

120 Emlyon Business School Paris France 62.29 B

121Darden School of Business at the Uni-

versity of VirginiaSan Francisco United States 61 B

122Indian Institute of Management

TiruchirappalliTiruchirappalli India 60.53 B

123Sydney Business School, University of

WollongongSydney Australia 59.76 B

124 ESSEC Business School Cergy France 59.76 B

125Darla Moore School of Business, Uni-

versity of South CarolinaColumbia, South

CarolinaUnited States 57.77 B

126China Europe International Business

School (CEIBS)Shenzhen China 57.65 B

KashipurKashipur India 57.38 B

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

128 Emlyon Business School Bhubaneswar India 56.31 B

129Coller School of Management at Tel

Aviv UniversityTel Aviv Israel 56.29 B

130Indian Institute of Management Udai-

purUdaipur India 56.2 B

131 TIAS School for Business Eindhoven Netherlands 55.98 B

NagpurNagpur India 55.89 B

133 Emlyon Business School Casablanca Morocco 55.73 B

134 TIAS School for Business Taipei Taiwan 55.46 B

135Indian Institute of Management Am-

ritsarAmritsar India 55.37 B

136Indian Institute of Management Bodh

GayaBodh Gaya India 55.31 B

SirmaurSirmaur India 55.19 B

138The College of Business and Econom-

ics at Qatar UniversityDoha Qatar 54.95 B

139 University of Dubai DubaiUnited Arab

Emirates54.92 B

140 TIAS School for Business Beijing China 54.69 B

School (CEIBS)Zurich Switzerland 54.63 B

142Indian Institute of Management Vi-

sakhapatnamVisakhapatnam India 53.99 B

143 Emlyon Business School Shanghai China 53.74 B

144 EAE Business School Barcelona Spain 53.59 B

145College of Business Administration at

Kuwait UniversityKuwait City Kuwait 53.55 B

146 Monash Business School Melbourne Australia 53.41 B

147 United Arab Emirates University Abu DhabiUnited Arab

Emirates53.28 B

148Indian Institute of Management Sam-

balpurSambalpur India 53.25 B

149 IAE Business School Buenos Aires Argentina 53.13 B

150 EGADE Business SchoolSan Pedro Garza

Garc?aMexico 53 B

151 Adelaide Business SchoolAdelaide, South

AustraliaAustralia 52.83 B

152Lancaster University Management

SchoolLancaster

United King-dom

52.52 B

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

153 TIAS School for Business Shanghai China 52.5 B

154 Indian Institute of Management Jammu Jammu India 52.4 B

155Graduate School of Business, Universi-

ty of Cape TownCape Town South Africa 52.35 B

156GIBS Business School, University of

PretoriaPretoria South Africa 52.24 B

School (CEIBS)Accra Ghana 51.85 B

158The American University in Cairo

School of BusinessCairo Egypt 51.8 B

159 Keio Business School, Keio University Tokyo Japan 51.7 B

160IPADE business school of Universidad

PanamericanaMexico City Mexico 51.61 B

161Waseda Business School at Waseda

UniversityTokyo Japan 51.41 B

162 Imperial College Business School LondonUnited King-

dom51.34 B

163Graduate School of Business Adminis-

tration at Kobe UniversityKobe Japan 50.88 CCC

164 ESAN Graduate School of Business Lima Peru 50.73 CCC

165Nagoya University of Commerce &

Business (NUCB)Nagoya Japan 50.59 CCC

166 La Trobe Business School Melbourne Australia 50.39 CCC

167Tokyo University of Science School of

ManagementTokyo Japan 50.28 CCC

168 American University of Beirut Beirut Lebanon 50.13 CCC

169Catolica Lisbon School of Business &

EconomicsLisbon Portugal 50.04 CCC

170Schulich School of Business at York

UniversityOntario Canada 49.97 CC

171Sprott School of Business at Carleton

UniversityOntario Canada 49.9 CC

172Gordon S. Lang School of Business and

Economics at the University of GuelphOntario Canada 49.87 CC

173 Lakehead University Ontario Canada 49.64 CC

Harvard Medical School earned itself a respectable second place, with Perelman School of Medicine at th University of Pennsylvania is ranked third. The 2021 rankings placed NYU

Grossman School of Medicine in fourth ahead of Stanford University School of Medicine into fifth; while Columbia Uni-versity Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons ranked sixth, and Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine seventh.

Overall, among the top 10 best med-ical schools, the eighth, ninth, and tenth positions are held by David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM),

UCSF School of Medicine, and Wash-ington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine took the No. 11 spot, followed by Weill Cornell Gradu-ate School of Medical Sciences and Yale School of Medicine (No.13). Meanwhile, ANorthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine ranked No. 14 in the CEOWORLD magazine’s ranking of the best medical schools in the world for 2021. Vanderbilt University School of Medicine came in fifteenth place, followed by Duke University School of Medicine (sixteenth), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (seventeenth),

the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (eighteenth), and the University of Michigan Medical School Ann Arbor, ranked nineteenth.

Out of the 100 best medical schools in the world for 2021, the University of Washington School of Medicine ranked No. 20th. Only fully accredited degree programs or schools in good standing during the study period are ranked. So, if you are thinking about boosting your prospects with an accredited degree in medicine, we have got just the thing for you; here are 100 outstanding inter-national medical schools that can help advance your career.

Best Medical Schools In The World For 2021Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine takes the prestigious title of the world’s medical school for 2021, that’s according to the CEOWORLD magazine.

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Rank Institution Campus Country Score

1 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, Maryland US 99.06

2 Harvard Medical School Boston, MA US 98.13

3 Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsyl-vania

US 96.75

4 NYU Grossman School of Medicine New York City, New York US 96.53

5 Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford, California US 96.15

6 Columbia University Vagelos College of Physi-cians and Surgeons

New York City, New York US 94.4

7 Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine Rochester, Minnesota US 93.69

8 David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DG-SOM)

Los Angeles, CA US 92.08

9 UCSF School of Medicine San Francisco, California US 91.26

10 Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

St. Louis, MO US 91.23

11 University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania US 90.68

12 Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences New York City, New York US 90.3

13 Yale School of Medicine New Haven, Connecticut US 89.67

14 Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, Illinois US 89.11

15 Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Nashville, Tennessee US 88.73

16 Duke University School of Medicine Durham, North Carolina US 88.52

17 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York City, New York US 88.23

18 University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine Chicago, Illinois US 87.76

19 University of Michigan Medical School Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI US 87.64

20 University of Washington School of Medicine Seattle, Washington US 87.62

21 University of North Carolina School of Medicine Chapel Hill, North Car-olina

US 86.85

22 UC San Diego School of Medicine San Diego, California US 86.6

23 All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi India 86.38

24 Oxford University Medical School Oxford, England UK 86.02

25 University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Cincinnati, O US 85.08

26 University of Cambridge School of Clinical Med-icine

Cambridge, England UK 84.96

27 Boston University School of Medicine Boston, MA US 84.75

28 Karolinska Institute Solna Sweden 84.64

29 Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis, Indiana US 84.43

30 UCL Medical School London, England UK 83.79

31 Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Texas US 83.39

32 University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine Toronto Canada 83.39

33 Melbourne Medical School Melbourne Australia 83.26

34 Armed Forces Medical College Pune India 83.04

35 University of Virginia School of Medicine Charlottesville, VA US 82.95

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

36 Faculty of Medicine Imperial College London London, England UK 82.87

37 University of Sydney School of Medicine Camperdown Australia 82.8

38 GKT School of Medical Education London, England UK 82.69

39 Case Western Reserve School of Medicine Cleveland, Ohio US 82.48

40 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London, England UK 82.38

41 NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine SingaporeSinga-

pore82.34

42 University of Massachusetts Medical SchoolWorcester, Massachu-

settsUS 82.24

43 McGill University - Faculty of Medicine Montreal Canada 82.06

44 Seoul National University College of Medicine SeoulSouth

Korea81.93

45 Medical Faculty - Heidelberg University Heidelberg Germany 81.82

46 Emory School of Medicine Atlanta, Georgia US 81.46

47 Faculty of Medicine - The University of Tokyo Tokyo Japan 81.08

48 UBC Faculty of Medicine Vancouver Canada 80.96

49 Christian Medical College Vellore India 80.83

50 University of California, Irvine School of Medicine Irvine, California US 80.78

51 Faculty of Medicine - University of Amsterdam AmsterdamNether-

lands80.68

52 Monash School of Medicine Melbourne Australia 80.11

53 UT Southwestern Medical School Dallas, Texas US 79.69

54 University of Manchester Manchester, England UK 79.54

55 Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed)

Hong KongHong

Kong79.46

56 Georgetown University School-Medicine Washington D.C. US 79.39

57 Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen

Copenhagen Denmark 79.08

58 Erasmus MC | Erasmus University Rotterdam RotterdamNether-

lands78.86

59 JIPMER Pondicherry India 78.86

60 School of Medicine and Public Health at UW-Mad-ison

Madison, Wisconsin US 78.77

61 Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong KongHong

Kong78.72

62 McMaster University Medical School Hamilton Canada 78.49

63 University of Minnesota Medical School Minneapolis, Minnesota US 77.95

64 Madras Medical College Chennai India 77.94

65 Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design

Kiev Ukraine 77.75

66 School of Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University

Portland, OR US 77.55

67 Medicine at LMU Munich - Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Munich Germany 77.42

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

68 Faculty of Medicine - Sorbonne Universite Paris France 77.35

69 National Taiwan University School of Medicine Taipei Taiwan 77.28

70 University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Medicine (UAB)

Birmingham, Alabama US 77.22

71 Faculty of Medicine - KU Leuven Leuven Belgium 77.16

72 Institute of Medical Sciences BHU Varanasi India 76.77

73 University of Colorado School of Medicine Aurora, Colorado US 76.77

74 Graduate School of Medicine Kyoto University Kyoto Japan 76.76

75 Peking University Health Science Center Beijing China 76.56

76 Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California US 76.46

77 SKKU School of Medicine SeoulSouth

Korea76.46

78 Faculty of Medicine - University of Zurich ZurichSwitzer-

land76.32

79 University of Florida College of Medicine Gainesville, Florida US 75.66

80 Faculty of Medicine - Universiteit Utrecht UtrechtNether-

lands75.52

81 Medicine - Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona Spain 75.49

82 UC Davis School of Medicine Sacramento, CA US 75.45

83 Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences - Maastricht University

MaastrichtNether-

lands75.11

84 TUM School of Medicine (TUM MED) Munich Germany 74.89

85 Albert Einstein College of Medicine New York City, New York US 74.8

86 ETH Zurich ZurichSwitzer-

land74.79

87 Leiden University Medical Center LeidenNether-

lands74.13

88 University of Utah School of Medicine Salt Lake City, Utah US 74.11

89 Faculty of Medicine - Lund University Lund Sweden 73.66

90 International Medical School, University of Milan Milan Italy 73.59

91 Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University Providence, Rhode Island US 73.21

92 School of Medicine at National and Kapodistrian University

Athens Greece 73.16

93 University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

Rochester, New York US 73.08

94 Medicine - University of Groningen GroningenNether-

lands73.05

95 University of Maryland School of Medicine Baltimore, Maryland US 72.95

96 University of Crete Medical School Crete Greece 72.74

97 Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine Iowa City, Iowa US 72.57

98 Ohio State University College of Medicine Columbus, Ohio US 72.33

99 School of Medicine at Aristotle University Thessaloniki Greece 72.03

100 Medical University of Vienna Vienna Austria 72.03

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Also making the cut was the prestigious School of Arts, De-sign and Architecture – Aalto University (No. 4) as well as Central Saint Martins (No. 5); Parsons School of Design (No.

6); and Istituto Marangoni International – Milan (No. 7). Overall, among the top 10 best fashion schools in the world, the 8th, 9th, and 10th positions are held by Bunka Fashion College, National Institute of Fashion Technology -New Delhi, and Savannah College of Art and Design.

Best Fashion Schools In The World For 2021Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has been named the best fashion school in the world for 2021 by the CEOWORLD magazine, while London College of Fashion and Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University, respectively.

School of Design at Royal College of Art took the No. 11 spot, followed by Fashion Design Institut (No. 12) and Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (No. 13). Meanwhile, Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art ranked No. 14 in the CEOWORLD magazine’s ranking of the best fashion schools in the world for 2021.

Polimoda Florence came in 15th place, followed by the University of Westminster (16th), ESMOD Paris (17th), the University for the Creative Arts (UCA Rochester) (18th), and ArtEZ Institute of the Art Arnhem, ranked 19th. Out of 100 best fashion institutes in the world for 2021, Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri ranked No. twentieth.

Fashion: It’s as intimate as personal style and as global as the vast, multitril-lion-dollar garment indu-stry.

ART AND CULTURE

1 Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) New York US 98.09

2 London College of Fashion London, England UK 94.29

3Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University

Philadelphia, Penn-sylvania

US 94.11

4School of Arts, Design and Architecture - Aalto Univer-sity

Espoo Finland 93.62

5 Central Saint Martins London, England UK 92.36

6 Parsons School of Design New York US 92.23

7 Istituto Marangoni International - Milan Milan Italy 90.62

8 Bunka Fashion College Tokyo Japan 90.15

9 National Institute of Fashion Technology New Delhi India 89.07

10 Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, Georgia US 88.37

11 School of Design at Royal College of Art London, England UK 86.15

12 Fashion Design Institut Dusseldorf Germany 85.66

13 Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp Antwerp Belgium 84.29

14 Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art Tel Aviv Israel 83.98

15 Polimoda Florence Italy 83.88

16 University of Westminster London, England UK 83.66

17 ESMOD Paris Paris France 82.18

18 University for the Creative Arts (UCA Rochester)Rochester, Kent,

EnglandUK 81.93

19 ArtEZ Institute of the Art, Arnhem ArnhemNether-

lands81.55

20 Stephens College Columbia, Missouri US 80.63

21 Marist College - PoughkeepsiePoughkeepsie, New

YorkUS 80.28

22 Pratt Institute, New York New York US 79.96

23 Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen Denmark 79.16

24 Bath School of Art & Design Bath, England UK 79

25 Ryerson University School of Fashion Toronto, Ontario Canada 78.9

26 Miami International University of Art & Design Miami, Florida US 77.89

27 Istituto Marangoni International - Florence Florence Italy 77.43

28 Geneva University of Art and Design GenevaSwitzer-

land 77.37

29 IED Istituto Europeo di Design Milan Italy 77.3

30 Academy of Art UniversitySan Francisco,

CaliforniaUS 76.6

31 Manchester School of ArtManchester, En-

gland UK 75.95

32 Institut Francais de la Mode Paris France 75.79

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

33 Nottingham Trent UniversityNottingham, En-

glandUK 75.63

34 Thomas Jefferson UniversityPhiladelphia, Penn-

sylvaniaUS 75.33

35 California College of the ArtsSan Francisco,

CaliforniaUS 74.72

36 Rhode Island School of Design Rhode Island US 74.27

37 Art Institute of Tampa Tampa, Florida US 73.22

38 Istituto Marangoni International - Paris Paris France 73.02

39 AMFI Amsterdam Fashion Institute AmsterdamNether-

lands72.41

40 Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication London, England UK 72.08

41 University of Brighton Brighton, England UK 72

42 Swedish School of Textiles Boras Sweden 71.34

43Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts (VCUarts)

Richmond, Virginia US 71.04

44 Design School Kolding Kolding Denmark 70.36

45Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building (DAB) at University of Technology Sydney

Sydney Australia 70.05

46Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Poly-technic University

Hong KongHong

Kong69.5

47 University for the Creative Arts (UCA Epsom) Epsom, England UK 69.47

48 Art Institute of Atlanta Atlanta, Georgia US 69.34

49 Domus Academy Milan Italy 69.33

50 RMIT University Melbourne Australia 68.83

51 Istituto Marangoni International - London London UK 68.68

52 School of the Art Institute Chicago Chicago, Illinois US 67.91

53 Moore College of Art & DesignPhiladelphia, Penn-

sylvaniaUS 67.5

54 Otis College of Art and DesignLos Angeles, Cali-

forniaUS 66.59

55 Middlesex University London, England UK 66.32

56 George Brown College Toronto, Ontario Canada 66.25

57 Art Institute of Austin Austin, Texas US 66.06

58Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, Cali-fornia

US 65.84

59 La Cambre Brussels Belgium 65.44

60 Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design Kiev Ukraine 65.2

61 LIM College New York US 65.18

62 Fashion Design School at Otago Polytechnic DunedinNew

Zealand64.99

63 University of Applied Arts Vienna Vienna Austria 64.89

64 Ullman School of Design at University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio US 64.84

ART AND CULTURE

65 Art Institute of Dallas Dallas, Texas US 64.79

66 Columbus College of Art & Design Columbus, Ohio US 64.01

67 University of North Texas Denton, Texas US 63.81

68 Accademia Costume e Moda Rome Italy 63.79

69 Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milan Italy 63.71

70 Istituto Marangoni International - Mumbai Mumbai India 63.34

71 University of Central Lancashire Lancashire, England UK 63.22

72 School of Design at Edinburgh College of ArtEdinburgh, Scot-

landUK 63.13

73 Marist College - Florence Florence Italy 63.12

74 Art Institute of Houston Houston, Texas US 63.09

75 Istituto Marangoni International - Shanghai Shanghai China 62.87

76 Paris College of Art Paris France 62.81

77 Istituto Marangoni International - Miami Miami US 62.78

78 Northumbria University Newcastle, England UK 62.53

79 WdKA Willem de Kooning Academy RotterdamNether-

lands62.27

80Salford School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at University of Salford

Salford, England UK 61.7

81 National Institute of DesignAhmedabad,

GujaratIndia 61.67

82 University of NorthamptonNorthampton,

EnglandUK 61.65

83 Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Rome Italy 61.61

84 Marist College - NYC New York US 61.56

85 Istituto Marangoni International - Shenzhen Shenzhen China 61.31

86 Art Institute of San Antonio San Antonio, Texas US 61.31

87 Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) Poole, England UK 61.12

88 Oslo National College of Art and Design Oslo Norway 61.07

89 University of East London London, England UK 60.56

90 Glasgow School of Art Glasgow, Scotland UK 60.46

91 AMD Akademie Mode & Design Hamburg Germany 59.32

92 Greater Brighton Metropolitan College Brighton, England UK 59.1

93 De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester, England UK 58.85

94 Limerick Institute of Technology Limerick Ireland 58.84

95 Jannette Klein Universidad Mexico City Mexico 58.63

96 IED Barcelona - Istituto Europeo di Design Barcelona Spain 58.62

97 Koefia Academy Rome Italy 58.52

98 LaSalle College Montreal, Quebec Canada 58.42

99 Art Institute of Virginia BeachVirginia Beach,

Virginia US 58.29

100 Fashion Design Studio - TAFE NSW Sydney Australia 58.24

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) once again ranked No. 1 on the list of the best hospitality and hotel management schools in the world for 2021, according to a new study out by the CEOWORLD

magazine, the School of Hotel Adminis-tration at Cornell University placed sec-ond on the list, followed by the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Nevada at No. 3.

The 2021 rankings placed the School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University in fourth ahead of the Rosen College of Hospitality Man-agement at the University of Central Florida into fifth; while College of Hospitality at Johnson & Wales Univer-sity ranked sixth; and Oxford School of Hospitality Management seventh.

Overall, among the top 10 best hos-pitality and hotel management schools

in the world for 2021, the eighth, ninth, and tenth positions are held by the International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Fairleigh Dick-inson University, School of Hospitality Management at The Pennsylvania State University, and the School of Hospitali-ty Business Management at Washington State University.

Best Hospitality And Hotel Management Schools In The World For 2021

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

1 Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne Lausanne Switzerland 98.53

2 School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University New York US 98.39

3William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Nevada

Las Vegas US 98.28

4 School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan US 95.71

5Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida

Orlando, Florida US 95.26

6 College of Hospitality at Johnson & Wales UniversityCharlotte, North Car-olina

US 94.87

7 Oxford School of Hospitality Management Oxford UK 93.85

8International School of Hospitality and Tourism Manage-ment at Fairleigh Dickinson University

New Jersey US 91.58

9School of Hospitality Management at The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, Penn-sylvania

US 90.95

10The School of Hospitality Business Management at Wash-ington State University

Pullman, Washington US 90.86

11Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management at the University of Denver

Denver, Colorado US 89.96

12Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Blacksburg, Virginia US 89.43

13 UW-Stout’s School of Hospitality Leadership (SHL) Menomonie, Wisconsin US 88.38

14School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) at Temple University

US 87.35

15Collins College of Hospitality Management, Cal Poly Pomo-na

Pomona, California US 87.08

16Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Manage-ment

Houston, Texas US 87

17Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition

Chennai, Tamil Nadu India 86.49

18School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at Northern Arizona University

Flagstaff, Arizona US 85.32

19 SAIT’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Calgary, Alberta Canada 84.27

20 Les Roches - Crans-Montana Crans-Montana Switzerland 83.8

21Kendall College of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Manage-ment at National Louis University

Chicago, Illinois US 83.69

22Boston University School of Hospitality Administration (SHA)

Boston, Massachusetts US 83.66

23Culinary Arts and Hospitality Administration Division at University of Alaska Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska US 82.71

24School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Oklaho-ma State University

Stillwater, Oklahoma US 81.52

25Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality Administration at Georgia State University

Atlanta, Georgia US 81.27

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

26 Isenberg School of Management at UMass AmherstAmherst, Massachu-setts

US 81.01

27School of Hotel & Tourism Management at Hong Kong Poly-technic University

Hong Kong Hong Kong 79.16

28 Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality New York US 78.99

29School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) at the University of Surrey

Surrey UK 78.83

30College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism at the University of North Texas

Denton, Texas US 78.79

31College of Human Environmental Sciences at The University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama US 78.74

32Center for Hospitality and Sport Management at the Drexel University

US 78.66

33 Hotel Institute Montreux Montreux Switzerland 78.27

34 Culinary Institute of America New York US 78.16

35 Rochester Institute of Technology New York US 77.74

36 Barcelona School of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy Barcelona Spain 77.53

37 College of Hospitality at Johnson & Wales UniversityProvidence, Rhode Island

US 76.74

38 EHL Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality Passugg Switzerland 76.6

39 Les Roches - Marbella Marbella Spain 76.41

40 Glion Institute of Higher Education - Glion Glion sur Montreux Switzerland 76.38

41 Lubin School of Business at Pace University New York US 75.32

42 Culinary Institute of New York at Monroe CollegeNew Rochelle, New York

US 75.02

43 State University of New York Plattsburgh Plattsburgh, New York US 74.21

44 Glion Institute of Higher Education -Bulle Bulle Switzerland 73.07

45 Les Roches - Shanghai Shanghai China 72.44

46 IHTTI School of Hotel Management Caux Switzerland 72.2

47 American College of Greece Athens Greece 71.98

48 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) Singapore Singapore 71.75

49 Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou China 71.62

50 Sejong University Seoul South Korea 71.15

51 School of Tourism & Hospitality at Mediterranean College Athens Greece 70.94

52 Ecole Hoteliere de Geneve - EHG Hotel Management School Geneva Switzerland 70.82

53 Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management Dubai UAE 70.8

54 IHTTI School of Hotel Management Leysin Switzerland 70.28

55 Glion Institute of Higher Education - London London UK 69.88

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Global Passport Ranking, 2022

It’s not or British or American. The United Arab Emirates’ passport is now the world’s most powerful, according to CEOWORLD magazine’s Global Passport Ranking for 2022. This was followed by FINLAND, ITALY, GERMANY, SWEDEN, DENMARK, AUSTRIA, LUXEMBOURG, SWITZERLAND, and SOUTH KOREA. The United Arab Emirates passport was deemed ‘world’s most powerful for 2022. The UAE passport holders can now enter 160 destinations around the world visa-free, according to the index, which ranks the strength of 199 passports.

Even though the United States is further down the ranking, the American passport still yields considerable power. U.S. passport holders can travel to 149 countries without major restrictions. And the worst?

Afghanistan finished the bottom of the Global Passport Ranking, with just 34 countries granting Afghans entry without obtaining an advance visa, according to the research findings. Passports have different colours, designs and shades but there is a lot more to a passport than that. Not all passports have the same power around the world. Every passport has a different status. Some passports afford their bearers more freedom than others.

So powerful passports mean that the countries are ranked in one order and they accept visa-free or visa on arrival. Let’s now get a quick look at some of the most powerful passports in the world:

These are the world’s most and least powerful passports, 2022

CEOWORLD Rankings

RANK COUNTRY MOBILITY SCORE VISA-FREE + eTA VISA ON ARRIVAL VISA REQUIRED

1 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 160 105 55 38

2 FINLAND 153 112 41 45

3 ITALY 153 112 41 45

4 GERMANY 152 113 40 46

5 SWEDEN 152 112 40 46

6 DENMARK 152 112 40 46

7 AUSTRIA 152 111 41 46

8 LUXEMBOURG 152 111 41 46

9 SWITZERLAND 152 108 44 46

10 SOUTH KOREA 152 107 45 46

11 NEW ZEALAND 152 102 50 46

12 NETHERLANDS 151 111 40 47

13 BELGIUM 151 111 40 47

14 PORTUGAL 151 111 40 47

15 SPAIN 151 110 41 47

16 AUSTRALIA 151 101 50 47

17 FRANCE 150 111 39 48

18 CZECH REPUBLIC 150 109 41 48

19 MALTA 150 109 41 48

20 NORWAY 150 108 42 48

21 POLAND 150 108 42 48

22 HUNGARY 150 108 42 48

23 GREECE 149 108 41 49

24 SLOVAKIA 149 106 43 49

25 IRELAND 149 105 44 49

26 UNITED KINGDOM 149 105 44 49

27 UNITED STATES 149 103 46 49

28 ESTONIA 148 107 41 50

29 LITHUANIA 148 107 41 50

30 LATVIA 148 107 41 50

31 ICELAND 148 106 42 50

32 SLOVENIA 148 106 42 50

33 CANADA 148 104 44 50

34 LIECHTENSTEIN 147 104 43 51

35 JAPAN 147 104 43 51

36 CROATIA 146 104 41 52

37 SINGAPORE 145 105 33 53

38 CYPRUS 145 112 38 53

39 ROMANIA 145 107 42 53

40 BULGARIA 144 103 43 54

41 MONACO 144 101 44 54

42 CHILE 138 100 44 60

CEOWORLD Rankings

43 ARGENTINA 138 94 44 60

44 SAN MARINO 137 97 40 61

45 ANDORRA 136 90 46 62

46 HONG KONG 133 101 32 65

47 MALAYSIA 133 93 40 65

48 ISRAEL 131 93 38 67

49 BRAZIL 131 88 43 67

50 VATICAN CITY 129 88 41 69

51 URUGUAY 127 84 43 71

52 UKRAINE 127 82 45 71

53 MEXICO 126 80 46 72

54 BARBADOS 123 89 34 75

55 BRUNEI 123 80 45 75

56 PERU 123 78 36 75

57 BAHAMAS 119 83 36 79

58 MACAO 119 81 38 79

59 TAIWAN 118 72 46 80

60 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 117 83 34 81

61 COLOMBIA 117 75 42 81

62 PANAMA 116 74 42 82

63 COSTA RICA 116 73 43 82

64ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

115 80 35 83

65 SERBIA 115 73 42 83

66 SEYCHELLES 113 81 32 85

67ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

113 80 33 85

68 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 112 78 34 86

69 NORTH MACEDONIA 112 68 44 86

70 PARAGUAY 111 65 46 87

71 EL SALVADOR 109 68 41 89

72 GEORGIA 109 65 44 89

73 MAURITIUS 108 76 32 90

74 GRENADA 108 74 34 90

75 RUSSIA 108 69 39 90

76 MONTENEGRO 108 63 45 90

77 SAINT LUCIA 107 72 35 91

78 VENEZUELA 107 60 47 91

79 MOLDOVA 106 63 43 92

80 DOMINICA 105 70 35 93

81 VANUATU 105 67 38 93

82 TURKEY 105 62 43 93

CEOWORLD Rankings

83 SOLOMON ISLANDS 103 66 37 95

84 HONDURAS 102 61 41 96

85 ALBANIA 102 60 42 96

86 TONGA 101 63 38 97

87 SAMOA 101 62 39 97

88 TUVALU 99 63 36 99

89 GUATEMALA 99 58 41 99

90 NICARAGUA 99 56 43 99

91BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

97 56 41 101

92 KIRIBATI 96 58 38 102

93 MARSHALL ISLANDS 94 53 41 104

94 QATAR 93 54 39 105

95 SOUTH AFRICA 91 54 37 107

96 MICRONESIA 90 49 41 108

97 PALAU 89 46 43 109

98 KUWAIT 87 46 41 111

99 ECUADOR 86 41 45 112

100 BELIZE 85 53 32 113

101 JAMAICA 83 48 35 115

102 MALDIVES 81 43 38 117

103 FIJI 81 42 39 117

104 GUYANA 81 40 41 117

105 BELARUS 81 38 43 117

106 BAHRAIN 80 38 42 118

107 TIMOR-LESTE 79 39 40 119

108 KAZAKHSTAN 79 33 46 119

109 SAUDI ARABIA 77 36 41 121

110 OMAN 77 32 45 121

111 BOLIVIA 76 32 44 122

112 NAURU 74 35 39 124

113 SURINAME 73 29 44 125

114 BOTSWANA 72 40 32 126

115 AZERBAIJAN 72 30 42 126

116 THAILAND 72 25 47 126

117 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 71 30 41 127

118 ARMENIA 71 30 41 127

119 LESOTHO 70 37 33 128

120 INDONESIA 70 29 41 128

121 CHINA 70 26 44 128

122 MALAWI 69 36 33 129

123 TUNISIA 69 30 39 129

CEOWORLD Rankings

124 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 69 25 44 129

125 CUBA 68 28 40 130

126 ESWATINI 66 36 30 132

127 TANZANIA 66 35 31 132

128 NAMIBIA 66 33 33 132

129 KENYA 65 32 33 133

130 ZAMBIA 65 32 33 133

131 MOROCCO 64 27 37 134

132 KYRGYZSTAN 64 23 41 134

133 GAMBIA 63 37 26 135

134 CAPE VERDE 63 29 34 135

135 MONGOLIA 63 23 40 135

136 UZBEKISTAN 63 22 41 135

137SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE

63 20 43 135

138 GHANA 62 33 29 136

139 RWANDA 62 24 38 136

140 UGANDA 61 28 33 137

141 TAJIKISTAN 61 21 40 137

142 SIERRA LEONE 60 35 25 138

143 ZIMBABWE 60 30 30 139

144 SENEGAL 59 27 32 139

145 BURKINA FASO 59 26 33 139

146 PHILIPPINES 59 22 37 140

147 BENIN 58 25 33 140

148 INDIA 58 20 38 140

149 JORDAN 58 18 40 141

150COTE D IVOIRE (IVORY COAST)

57 23 34 141

151 MADAGASCAR 57 20 37 141

152 MOZAMBIQUE 57 20 37 141

153 GABON 57 18 39 141

154 ALGERIA 57 16 41 141

155 BHUTAN 57 13 44 141

156 TURKMENISTAN 56 14 42 143

157 NIGER 55 25 30 143

158 MAURITANIA 55 21 34 143

159 EQUATORIAL GUINEA 55 15 40 144

160 GUINEA BISSAU 54 22 32 144

161 GUINEA 54 22 32 144

162 ANGOLA 54 20 34 144

163 TOGO 54 20 34 144

CEOWORLD Rankings

164 EGYPT 54 14 40 144

165 CAMBODIA 54 11 43 144

166 MALI 53 25 28 145

167 BURUNDI 53 16 37 145

168 COMOROS 53 13 40 145

169 VIETNAM 53 12 41 147

170 LIBERIA 51 21 30 147

171 CHAD 51 17 34 147

172 CAMEROON 51 14 37 147

173 HAITI 51 10 41 147

174CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

50 14 36 148

175 LEBANON 50 12 38 148

176 DJIBOUTI 50 11 39 148

177 KOSOVO 49 14 35 149

178 LAOS 49 11 38 149

179 NIGERIA 48 20 28 150

180 CONGO (DEM. REP.) 47 12 35 151

181 CONGO 47 11 36 151

182 SOUTH SUDAN 46 13 33 152

183 LIBYA 46 11 35 152

184 ETHIOPIA 46 10 36 152

185 SUDAN 46 9 37 152

186 BANGLADESH 45 15 30 153

187 SRI LANKA 45 11 34 153

188 NEPAL 44 9 35 154

189 ERITREA 44 8 36 154

190 NORTH KOREA 44 8 36 154

191PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

43 10 33 155

192 IRAN 43 8 35 155

193 MYANMAR [BURMA] 43 6 37 155

194 YEMEN 39 8 31 159

195 SOMALIA 38 8 30 160

196 PAKISTAN 38 6 32 160

197 SYRIA 35 5 30 163

198 IRAQ 34 4 30 164

199 AFGHANISTAN 34 4 30 164

CEOWORLD Rankings

Best CEOs In the World Of 2022

CEOWORLD magazine has revealed its annual list of the most influential CEOs and Business Executives in the world. The issue features CEOs and top business executives, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Tech honchos like Apple CEO Tim Cook, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Unsurprisingly, Tim Cook came first in the CEOWORLD magazine’s global ranking of the world’s best chief executives across all industries for 2022.

He is followed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, who is the CEO of Alphabet (Google). The 2022 rankings placed Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy in 4th spot ahead of Tesla’s Elon Musk into 5th, Meta (Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg ranked sixth; while Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway ranked seventh, and Dr. C.C. Wei of TSMC Taiwan eighth. Overall, among the top 10 best CEOs and business executives in the world for 2022, the ninth and tenth positions are held by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Visa Inc. chief executive Alfred F Kelly Jr.

The World’s Most Influential CEOs And Business Executives Of 2022

Rank Chief Executive Officer Company Country

1 Tim Cook Apple US

2 Satya Nadella Microsoft US

3 Sundar Pichai Alphabet (Google) US

4 Andy Jassy Amazon US

CEOWORLD Rankings

5 Elon Musk Tesla US

6 Mark Zuckerberg Meta (Facebook) US

7 Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway US

8 Dr. C.C. Wei TSMC Taiwan

9 Jensen Huang Nvidia US

10 Alfred F Kelly Jr Visa Inc. US

11 Jamie Dimon JPMorgan Chase US

12 Alex Gorsky Johnson & Johnson US

13 Doug McMillon Walmart US

14 Bernard Arnault LVMH France

15 Brian Moynihan Bank of America US

16 Ulf Mark Schneider Nestle Switzerland

17 Michael Miebach Mastercard US

18 David S. Taylor Procter & Gamble US

19 Andrew Witty UnitedHealth Group US

20 Amin H. Nasser Saudi Aramco Saudi Arabia

21 Ma Huateng Tencent China

22 Craig Menear Home Depot US

23 Daniel Zhang Alibaba China

24 Severin Schwan Roche Switzerland

25 Darren Woods Exxon Mobil US

26 Albert Bourla Pfizer US

27 Peter Wennink ASML Holding Netherlands

28 Akio Toyoda Toyota Japan

29 James Quincey Coca-Cola US

30 Bob Chapek Walt Disney US

31 Shantanu Narayen Adobe US

32 Michael Wirth Chevron Corporation US

33 Ramon Laguarta Pepsi US

34 Chuck Robbins Cisco Systems US

35 Richard A. Gonzalez AbbVie US

36 John Donahoe Nike US

37 David A. Ricks Eli Lilly US

38 Brian L. Roberts Comcast Corporation US

39 Marc N. Casper Thermo Fisher Scientific US

40 Tan Hock Eng Broadcom US

41 Hans Vestberg Verizon Communications US

42 Nicolas Hieronimus LOreal France

43 Safra Catz Oracle US

44 Marc Benioff Salesforce US

45 Robert Ford Abbott Laboratories US

46 Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen Novo Nordisk Denmark

CEOWORLD Rankings

47 Walter Craig Jelinek Costco US

48 Mukesh Ambani Reliance India

49 Julie Sweet Accenture Ireland

50 Patrick P. Gelsinger Intel Corporation US

51 Charles W. Scharf Wells Fargo US

52 Robert M. Davis Merck US

53 Rainer M. Blair Danaher Corporation US

54 Cristiano Amon Qualcomm US

55 Rajesh Gopinathan Tata Consultancy Services India

56 Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan Novartis Switzerland

57 Dan Schulman PayPal US

58Christopher John

KempczinskiMcDonald US

59 John T. Stankey AT&T US

60 Ben van Beurden Shell Netherlands

61 Carol B. Tome United Parcel Service US

62 Pascal Soriot AstraZeneca UK

63 Bob van Dijk Prosus Netherlands

64 James P. Gorman Morgan Stanley US

65Reed Hastings/Ted

SarandosNetflix US

66 Walter W Bettinger II Charles Schwab US

67 Mike Henry BHP Australia

68 Rich Templeton Texas Instruments US

69 David I. McKay Royal Bank of Canada Canada

70 Steve Angel Linde plc Ireland

71 James L Robo NextEra Energy US

72 Christian Klein SAP Germany

73 Lance M. Fritz Union Pacific Railroad US

74 Marvin Ellison Lowes US

75 Jacek Olczak Philip Morris US

76 Axel Dumas Hermes France

77 Sasan K. Goodarzi Intuit US

78 Patrick Pouyanne TotalEnergies France

79 Bharat Masrani Toronto-Dominion Bank Canada

80 Geoffrey S. Martha Medtronic Ireland

81 Darius Adamczyk Honeywell US

82 Lisa Su Advanced Micro Devices US

83 Noel Paul Quinn HSBC Holdings UK

84 Kenichiro Yoshida Sony Group Japan

85 Alan Jope Unilever PLC UK

86 Giovanni Caforio Bristol Myers Squibb US

CEOWORLD Rankings

87 Karen S. Lynch CVS Health US

88 Michael Sievert T-Mobile US US

89 Pietro Beccari Dior France

90 Gregory J. Hayes Raytheon US

91 Roland Busch Siemens Germany

92 Paul Hudson Sanofi France

93 Robert A. Bradway Amgen US

94 Sashidhar Jagdishan HDFC Bank India

95 Jane Fraser Citigroup US

96 Gary E. Dickerson Applied Materials US

97 Stephen Squeri American Express US

98 Herbert Diess Volkswagen Germany

99 Jakob Stausholm Rio Tinto UK

100 Dave Calhoun Boeing US

101 Larry Fink BlackRock US

102 Matt Comyn Commonwealth Bank Australia

103 Tobias Lutke Shopify Canada

104 Ivan Menezes Diageo UK

105 Jim Umpleby Caterpillar US

106 Arvind Krishna IBM US

107 Kevin Johnson Starbucks US

108 David M. Solomon Goldman Sachs US

109 Michel Doukeris Anheuser-Busch InBe Belgium

110 Hamid Moghadam Prologis US

111 Tom Bartlett American Tower US

112 John C. May John Deere US

113 Emma Walmsley GlaxoSmithKline UK

114 Ryan Lance ConocoPhillips US

115 Fabrizio Freda Estee Lauder US

116 H. Lawrence Culp Jr. General Electric US

117 Brian Cornell Target US

118 Bill McDermott ServiceNow US

119 Shemara Wikramanayake Macquarie Australia

120 Tom Rutledge Charter Communications US

121 Jim Taiclet Lockheed Martin US

122 Oliver Bate Allianz Germany

123 Bernard Looney BP UK

124 Scott Charlton Transurban Australia

125 Douglas L. Peterson S&P Global US

126 Jack Bowles British American Tobacco UK

127 Yousef Al-Benyan SABIC Saudi Arabia

128 Mike Roman 3M Company US

CEOWORLD Rankings

129 Salil Parekh Infosys India

130 Pablo Isla Inditex Spain

131 Gary S Guthart Intuitive Surgical US

132 Guillaume Faury Airbus Netherlands

133 Waleed A. Al-Mogbel Al Rajhi Bank Saudi Arabia

134 Jean-Pascal Tricoire Schneider Electric France

135 Kevin A. Lobo Stryker Corporation US

136 Kristin C. Peck Zoetis US

137 Thomas H. McInnerney Mondelez US

138 Brian Chesky Airbnb US

139 Belen Garijo Merck Group Germany

140 Sanjay Mehrotra Micron Technology US

141 Carlos A. Rodriguez Automatic Data Processing US

142 Billy Gifford Altria Group US

143 Anders Opedal Equinor Norway

144 Francois-Henri Pinault Kering France

145 Alexey Miller PJSC Gazprom Russia

146 Paul Perreault CSL Limited Australia

147 Timotheus Hottges Deutsche Telekom Germany

148 Timothy Archer Lam Research US

149 Brian J. Porter Scotiabank Canada

150 Daniel O’Day Gilead Sciences US

151 William S. Demchak PNC Financial Services US

152 Jean-Laurent Bonnafe BNP Paribas France

153 Frank Slootman Snowflake US

154 Vincent Roche Analog Devices US

155 Faisal Omar al-Sakkaf Saudi National Bank Saudi Arabia

156 Bruce Flatt Brookfield Asset Management Canada

157 Evan G. Greenberg Chubb Limited Switzerland

158 Andrew Cecere U.S. Bancorp US

159 Francesco Milleri EssilorLuxottica France

160 Kelly S. King Truist Financial US

161 Ola Kallenius Daimler Germany

162 Joaquim Silva e Luna Petrobras Brazil

163 Ernie Herrman TJX Companies US

164 Al Monaco Enbridge Canada

165 Jim Farley Ford Motor US

166 Benoit Potier Air Liquide France

167 Terrence A. Duffy CME Group US

168 Daniel S. Glaser Marsh McLennan US

169 Francesco Starace Enel Italy

170 Jay A. Brown Crown Castle US

CEOWORLD Rankings

171 Jerome Lambert Compagnie Richemont Switzerland

172 Lynn Good Duke Energy US

173 Masayoshi Son SoftBank Japan

174 David Cordani Cigna US

175 John G. Morikis Sherwin-Williams US

176 Stephen A. Schwarzman Blackstone Inc US

177 Mary Barra General Motors US

178 James M. Foote CSX Corporation US

179 Samuel N. Hazen HCA Healthcare US

180 Sandeep Bakhshi ICICI Bank India

181 Ernest Scott Santi Illinois Tool Work US

182 Bernd Montag Siemens Healthineers Germany

183 Thomas Polen Becton, Dickinson and Company US

184 Thomas Buberl Axa S.A. France

185 Darryl White Bank of Montreal Canada

186 Mats Rahmstrom Atlas Copco Sweden

187 Sanjiv Mehta Hindustan Unilever India

188 Bjorn Rosengren ABB Switzerland

189 Jeffrey C. Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange US

190 Noel R. Wallace Colgate-Palmolive US

191 Jose Ignacio Sanchez Galan Iberdrola Spain

192 Dara Khosrowshahi Uber US

193 Gary Nagle Glencore Switzerland

194 Mario Greco Zurich Insurance Group Switzerland

195 Frank Bisignano Fiserv US

196 Oliver Zipse BMW Germany

197 Piyush Gupta DBS Bank Singapore

198 Leonard Schleifer Regeneron Pharmaceuticals US

199 Martin Brudermuller BASF SE Germany

200 Charles J. Meyers Equinix US

CEOWORLD Rankings

STATS GATE

The World’s Richest People (Top 100 Billionaires, 2022)

As of January 22, 2022, Elon Musk had a net worth valued at $243 billion, making him the richest man in the world, followed by Amazon’s founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos (net worth: $168 billion). Musk is the CEO of Tesla and the founder and CEO of SpaceX. The 10 richest individuals in the world are all worth more than $100 billion, according to the CEOWORLD magazine Billionaires Index.

LVMH’s Chairman and CEO, Bernard Arnault, is the 3rd-richest person in the world, with approximately $167 billion in current real-time total net worth. Microsoft mogul Bill Gates ranked 4th with a personal wealth of $129 billion, followed by Larry Page with $117 billion. Bernard Arnault is the wealthiest European on the list. The Frenchman oversees the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton empire of more than 70 brands, including Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon and TAG Heuer. Here we look at the top 100 richest people in the world:

The World’s Richest People (Top 100 Billionaires, 2022)

RANK NAME TOTAL NET WORTH COUNTRY INDUSTRY

1 Elon Musk $243 billion United States Technology

2 Jeff Bezos $168 billion United States Technology

STATS GATE

3 Bernard Arnault $167 billion France Consumer

4 Bill Gates $129 billion United States Technology

5 Larry Page $117 billion United States Technology

6 Mark Zuckerberg $113 billion United States Technology

7 Sergey Brin $112 billion United States Technology

8 Warren Buffett $111 billion United States Diversified

9 Steve Ballmer $106 billion United States Technology

10 Larry Ellison $101 billion United States Technology

11 Mukesh Ambani $94.4 billion India Energy

12 Gautam Adani $88.9 billion India Industrial

13 Francoise Bettencourt Meyers $84.5 billion France Consumer

14 Changpeng Zhao $75.0 billion Canada Finance

15 Zhong Shanshan $74.6 billion China Diversified

16 Michael Bloomberg $70.0 billion United States Media

17 Carlos Slim $69.8 billion Mexico Diversified

18 Amancio Ortega $66.4 billion Spain Retail

19 Jim Walton $63.1 billion United States Retail

20 Rob Walton $62.6 billion United States Retail

21 Alice Walton $61.2 billion United States Retail

22 Charles Koch $59.8 billion United States Industrial

23 Julia Flesher Koch $59.8 billion United States Industrial

24 Michael Dell $55.8 billion United States Technology

25 Phil Knight $54.9 billion United States Consumer

26 Zeng Yuqun $51.6 billion Hong Kong Industrial

27 Jacqueline Badger Mars $51.3 billion United States Food and Beverage

28 John Mars $51.3 billion United States Food and Beverage

29 Francois Pinault $49.8 billion France Consumer

30 Ma Huateng $48.6 billion China Technology

31 MacKenzie Scott $47.9 billion United States Technology

32 Zhang Yiming $44.5 billion China Technology

33 Jack Ma $38.9 billion China Technology

34 Len Blavatnik $38.8 billion United States Diversified

35 Klaus-Michael Kuehne $38.2 billion Germany Industrial

36 Azim Premji $35.9 billion India Technology

37 Giovanni Ferrero $35.7 billion Italy Food and Beverage

38 Pallonji Mistry $34.9 billion Ireland Industrial

39 Stephen Schwarzman $33.1 billion United States Finance

40 He Xiangjian $32.8 billion China Consumer

41 Leonardo Del Vecchio $32.2 billion Italy Consumer

42 William Ding $31.3 billion China Technology

43 Leonard Lauder $31.2 billion United States Consumer

STATS GATE

44 Leonid Mikhelson $30.9 billion Russia Energy

45 Tadashi Yanai $30.9 billion Japan Retail

46 Li Ka-shing $30.6 billion Hong Kong Real Estate

47 Takemitsu Takizaki $30.4 billion Japan Technology

48 Alain Wertheimer $30.3 billion France Consumer

49 Gerard Wertheimer $30.3 billion France Consumer

50 Dieter Schwarz $30.0 billion Germany Retail

51 Vladimir Potanin $29.7 billion Russia Commodities

52 Shiv Nadar $29.4 billion India Technology

53 Miriam Adelson $29.1 billion United States Entertainment

54 Alexey Mordashov $27.2 billion Russia Industrial

55 Ken Griffin $27.0 billion United States Finance

56 Vladimir Lisin $26.6 billion Russia Industrial

57 German Larrea $25.9 billion Mexico Commodities

58 Eric Schmidt $25.2 billion United States Technology

59 James Simons $25.1 billion United States Finance

60 Dan Gilbert $24.9 billion United States Real Estate

61 Li Shu Fu $24.3 billion China Industrial

62 Lee Shau Kee $23.9 billion Hong Kong Real Estate

63 Yang Huiyan $23.9 billion China Real Estate

64 Susanne Klatten $23.7 billion Germany Industrial

65 Henry Cheng $23.4 billion Hong Kong Retail

66 Pang Kang $22.8 billion China Food and Beverage

67 Wang Wei $22.8 billion China Services

68 Radhakishan Damani $22.7 billion India Retail

69 Carl Icahn $22.7 billion United States Diversified

70 Jorge Paulo Lemann $22.6 billion Brazil Food and Beverage

71 Stefan Quandt $22.4 billion Germany Industrial

72 Iris Fontbona $22.3 billion Chile Commodities

73 Huang Shilin $22.0 billion China Industrial

74 Colin Huang $22.0 billion China Technology

75 Abigail Johnson $21.8 billion United States Finance

76 John Menard $21.8 billion United States Retail

77 Thomas Peterffy $21.8 billion United States Finance

78 Lukas Walton $21.6 billion United States Retail

79 Vagit Alekperov $21.6 billion Russia Energy

80 Jensen Huang $21.6 billion United States Technology

81 Thomas Frist $21.5 billion United States Health Care

82 Andrew Forrest $21.4 billion Australia Commodities

83 Qin Yinglin $21.3 billion China Food and Beverage

84 Gina Rinehart $21.3 billion Australia Commodities

85 Wang Chuan-Fu $21.2 billion China Consumer

STATS GATE

86 Masayoshi Son $21.1 billion Japan Technology

87 Alisher Usmanov $21.0 billion Russia Diversified

88 Lakshmi Mittal $21.0 billion India Commodities

89 Ernesto Bertarelli $20.8 billion Switzerland Diversified

90 Zhang Zhidong $20.6 billion China Technology

91 Elaine Marshall $20.5 billion United States Industrial

92 Dustin Moskovitz $20.5 billion United States Technology

93 James Dyson $20.5 billion United Kingdom Consumer

94 Aliko Dangote $20.4 billion Nigeria Industrial

95 Stefan Persson $20.0 billion Sweden Retail

96 Gennady Timchenko $19.7 billion Russia Diversified

97 Peter Woo $19.7 billion Hong Kong Real Estate

98 Budi Hartono $19.7 billion Indonesia Diversified

99 Guillaume Pousaz $19.4 billion Switzerland Technology

100 Li Xiting $19.3 billion Singapore Health Care

STATS GATE

Top Citizenship and Residence by Investment Programs

Citizenship and Residency by Investment Programs have become quite popular since the last decade. There are many countries, especially in Europe and the Americas that offer several such programs as part of their goals to boost the economy and attract foreign investments. Essentially, these programs require the applicants to invest a certain amount in certain areas in exchange for which they are extended permanent residence and ultimately citizenship (if applied for).

TOP Citizenship by Investment Programs

Country Minimum Investment Key benefit Time

Antigua and Barbuda $100,000The right of free movement to Antigua and Barbuda, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, the UK, and Europe’s Schengen Area, among others

3/4 months

Malta €690,000 Visa free 182 countries 14 months

Bulgaria €512,000 Visa free 169 countries 2 years

Montenegro €350,000 Visa free 122 countries 3 months

STATS GATE

Grenada $150,000 Visa free 131 countries 4 months

Dominica $100,000 Visa free 137 countries 3 months

Saint Kitts & Nevis $150,000 Visa free 152 countries 2 months

Vanuatu $130,000 Visa free 132 countries 1 months

Saint Lucia US$100,000 Visa free 115 countries 4 months

Turkey US$250,000 Visa free 110 countries 2 months

Montenegro €250,000The right of free movement to Montenegro, the countries in Europe’s Schengen Area, Russia, and Turkey, among others

5 months

TOP Residence by Investment Programs

Greece €250,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Malta €175,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 6 months

Portugal €350,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 6 months

Spain €500,000Europe’s Schengen Area. apply for Spanish citizen-ship after 10 years

2 months

Ireland €500,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Monaco €300,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 6 months

Austria €40,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 3 months

Italy €250,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 4 months

Latvia €50,000

The right to live, work, study, and undertake business in Latvia. Residence valid for a five-year period. Ability to apply for permanent residence after five years. Ability to apply for citizenship after five years of holding permanent residence.

3 months

Turkey $250,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Australia €1,500,000 5 years to citizenship 12 months

New Zealand €1,800,000 Eligibility for citizenship after 5 years of residence 6 months

Canada €1,000,000 3 years to citizenship 2 years

Jersey €1,000,000 UK visa-free travel 2 months

Mauritius €326,925 The right to live, work, and retire in Mauritius 6 months

Malaysia €70,000 10-year multiple-entry visa 6 months

United States €500,000 Citizenship after 5 years of legal residenceVarying processing time

United Kingdom €2,500,000The right to live, work, and study anywhere in the United Kingdom 1 months

Thailand €68,000Long-term, privilege multiple-entry permit as well as luxury, VIP treatment 3 months

South Korea €300,000 The right to live, work, and study in South Korea 2 months

STATS GATE

Singapore SGD 2.5 MILLIONEligibility for citizenship after 2 years of permanent residence

12 months

Monaco €500,000The right to live, work, and undertake business in Monaco. Eligible for citizenship after 10 years of continuous residence in Monaco

2-4 MONTHS

Switzerland CHF 250,000

The right to live and study in Switzerland. Eligible to apply for permanent residency (C permit) after 10 years. C permit holders may apply for Swiss citizenship.

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CEOWORLD magazine

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CEOWORLD magazine

Top Citizenship and Residence by Investment Programs

Immigrant investor programs are programs that allow individuals to obtain residence or citizenship of a country in return for making qualifying investments. Citizenship by investment programs are the most effective way to secure an alternative citizenship and passport with all its benefits, in exchange of a dedicated investment. Whether it is for business transactions, the perks of becoming a Global Citizen, or simply have a ‘Plan B’, there is a program that will suit your needs. A multitude of countries host Citizenship by Investment Programs (CIPs) through which high net worth individuals can become citizens of those countries by investing in their economies.

Residency by investment programs often provide the option to physically relocate with the right to live, work, study, as well as access to healthcare, in a given country in exchange for a dedicated investment.

Citizenship by InvestmentCountry Minimum Investment Key benefit Time

Malta €1,150,000 Visa free 182 countries 14 months

Bulgaria €512,000 Visa free 169 countries 2 years

Montenegro €350,000 Visa free 122 countries 3 months

Grenada $150,000 Visa free 131 countries 3-4 months

Dominica $100,000 Visa free 137 countries 2-3 months

Saint Kitts & Nevis $150,000 Visa free 152 countries 2 months

Vanuatu $130,000 Visa free 125 countries 1 months

Saint Lucia $100,000 Visa free 132 countries 3-4 months

Turkey $250,000 Visa free 115 countries 2 months

Residence by InvestmentCountry Minimum Investment Key benefit Time

Greece €250,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Malta €330,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 4 months

Ireland €500,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Spain €500,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Jersey €1,400,000 UK visa-free travel 2 months

Monaco €1,000,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 6 months

Cyprus €300,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Portugal €280,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 3 months

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