Valeur Absolue: Values-based entrepreneurship

Explore how generative AI tools reshape power dynamics in organizations, amplifying individual influence and collaboration. Essential for career growth and lead

Howard Yu, LEGO® Professor of Management and Innovation at IMD, recommends six books that will inspire you and help maximize your talent.

Four tips to market to women more effectively and reach, engage and convert female consumers who make 80% to 85% of all purchasing decisions.

A deeper understanding of expertise has the potential to transform how you define, assess, and develop the talent your organization needs to excel.

The note outlines the transformative benefits of mindful leadership, including enhanced decision making, the cultivation of a powerful leadership presence, the development of emotional intelligence and improved stress management. It explains how mindfulness practices can lead to more objective decision making, foster creativity and improve the quality of interactions with team members. Practical implementation strategies are provided, addressing concerns about incorporating mindfulness into busy schedules. The note suggests starting a meditation practice using guided sessions, breathwork and body scans. It also introduces the concept of “micro-presence” practices that can be integrated into daily routines, such as brief breathing exercises, sensory check-ins and gratitude practices. The journey of becoming a mindful leader is described as a process of continuous growth and practice. The note emphasizes the importance of consistency over perfection and highlights how the benefits of mindful leadership can create a positive ripple effect throughout an organization. The goal is to provide leaders with the knowledge and tools to enhance their leadership effectiveness through mindfulness, offering a pathway to more focused, resilient and emotionally intelligent leadership in today’s challenging business landscape.

“Prudence in a maze of metaphors” follows a fictional day in the life of a woman to explore a variety of challenges individuals commonly face in their professional environments. Prudence’s story uses metaphors such as Sticky Floor, Glass Ceiling, Double Bind and Motherhood Penalty to illustrate her experiences. Although these metaphors are associated with gender-related barriers, the case could also be extended beyond gender to address broader systemic challenges related to race, socioeconomic background, disability and other factors that influence professional life. Prudence’s journey could become a representation of the invisible barriers faced by various groups, including issues of privilege, societal expectations and structural inequalities. We hope that this compelling compact case and teaching note will support instructors in navigating and unpacking powerful discussions about diversity and inclusion issues – a must-have conversation. The case provides a comprehensive framework for exploring complex topics, facilitates peer learning through shared experiences and encourages self-reflection on personal biases and structural barriers. Instructors have multiple options to navigate the “maze” of issues involved in creating inclusive cultures, which enables them to adapt the content to their own audiences. Crucially, this approach allows executives to develop and practice the skills needed to navigate difficult conversations constructively. The case also provides space to explore and address the perception some men may have of feeling “stuck” or challenged in advancing their careers, offering a chance to discuss how different groups experience and interpret barriers in the workplace. The insights gained from this discussion underscore the nuanced ways that gender dynamics affect both men and women, revealing how workplace barriers are experienced differently yet still have overlapping challenges that can be addressed through inclusive strategies.

Move over, AI. The real bubble brewing isn’t in artificial intelligence—it’s in weight loss. Wall Street has been hyperventilating over Nvidia and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But another titan has started to inflate. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s talk about E...

IMD Professor of Strategy and Innovation Patrick Reinmoeller shares his strategies for leaders to preserve vital social capital connections during times of chan

The ways popular frameworks are used fall short in today’s rapidly changing environment. Here is a new way to make better-informed strategic choices.

Bossard, a Swiss company founded in 1731, has successfully transitioned from a product-centric approach to one that offers services and solutions. It has achieved significant revenue growth despite economic challenges. Its brand promise, “proven productivity,” guides its actions, including its early adoption of AI. From 2010 to 2022, the firm's net revenue grew from CHF 475 million to CHF 1.154 billion (7.7% CAGR), despite a massive currency appreciation, a global pandemic and a supply chain crisis. “Proven productivity” permeates all levels and activities of the company and serves as a guiding principle in everyday decisions: How do you increase the productivity of customers? According to public records, Bossard’s customers were original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as Tesla, John Deere and Thermoplan. Bossard did not serve the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market, nor did it sell through do-it-yourself (DIY) chains like Home Depot, Lowe’s, Adeo, Kingfisher, Bunnings, OBI and Bauhaus. Bossard already employs machine learning to anticipate demand trends across various products. The company's leadership is optimistic about leveraging generative AI for customer interactions. This could include an AI chatbot drawing on Bossard's extensive knowledge base to provide technical advice to customers, or AI-assisted tools to support Bossard’s own specialists in responding to enquiries. With a governance structure that promotes collaboration between the executive and non-executive boards, including AI expert Petra Ehmann, Bossard aims to democratize AI knowledge across the organization. It is also leveraging AI tools like Microsoft Copilot during its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system rollout. This strategic focus on AI aligns with Bossard’s dedication to enhancing customer productivity while embracing technological advancements to evolve its business. Balancing ongoing operations with strategic AI integration is a key challenge, but Bossard is confident in its ability to leverage AI to strengthen its brand and maintain its growth trajectory.