Go To Harvard Business School Professor, former Medtronic CEO
Published on January 18, 2019
For the past decade, the technology giants—Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Uber—have dominated the business world. Just last year, their stock prices appeared to be on an endless upward trajectory. No longer. The past year presented the major technology companies with multiple difficulties, and 2019 promises to be even more challenging. Expect extensive news coverage of how Russian…
Published on January 15, 2019
At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, these four corporate leaders stepped forward—and changed how we think of leadership forever, says Bill George. Four titans who defined a new era in business during the past decade recently concluded their terms: PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi, Unilever’s Paul Polman, Mayo Clinic’s John Noseworthy, and US Bancorp’s Richard Davis….
Published on January 2, 2019
A look at philanthropic efforts by corporate givers. Jacquie Berglund Jacquie Berglund is founder and CEO of Finnegans Brew Co., which donates all of its profits to hunger relief in the markets where its craft beer is sold. Last year, Berglund opened the Finnegans Brewery & Taproom in Minneapolis. The Elliot Park complex includes the…
Published on December 20, 2018
GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and General Electric all made key announcements Wednesday signaling that health-care companies are shifting to focus their businesses on their greatest strengths and abandoning the diversification strategies that have characterized health care for the past two decades. First, a quick summary of their moves: GSK and Pfizer announced that they are merging their consumer businesses into a…
Published on December 17, 2018
Reuters published a story Friday charging that J&J knew back in 1971 that “its iconic baby power sometimes contained asbestos and failed to alert authorities.” The story and stock drop seem like an overreaction. I feel confident J&J will put the interests of its customers first and maintain its reputation for the highest integrity. On…
Published on November 5, 2018
Bakken was always two decades ahead of his time, causing many people to doubt his ideas, but he never wavered, Bill George writes. Earl Bakken’s death on Oct. 21 at his beloved Hawaii home sent reverberations back to Minnesota. He leaves behind a powerful legacy that will impact Minnesotans for generations to come. Having known…
Published on October 26, 2018
“Earl Bakken was a man and a legend.” So wrote integrative medicine philanthropist Penny George in a e-note following news that the founder of the now $27-billion Medtronic had died at 94 in his home on his beloved island of Hawaii. “Earl is also a testament to integrative care. He accumulated a number of serious health problems with which…
Published on September 17, 2018
Bill Takes Aim at Directors, Corporate Governance Companies in the United States and their directors are fixated on one thing, according to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.): maximizing shareholder returns to the detriment of other stakeholders in the company. To address this, Warren recently introduced a bill that would require directors to consider all major stakeholders, not just…
Published on September 12, 2018
Following Your True North through Real-World Challenges My New eBook – Published September 12, 2018 Lead True, my new eBook, is now available for FREE download. To get your copy, follow the link at the end of this article. I decided to make it free so more leaders like you will read it. My only…
Published on September 4, 2018
For any leader at any level in any organization, clarity of purpose is a critical ingredient of success. In other words, you must know where you’re headed and why you’re headed there. A compass provides the ideal metaphor. Just as a compass points toward a magnetic field, your personal “true north” directs your path and…