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The Chorus (2004)

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Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

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Outliers: The Story of Success [Gladwell, Malcolm] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Outliers: The Story of Success

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Noam Chomsky

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School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules

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School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules | Greta Thunberg | TEDxStockholm

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The Changing Role of Global Leaders

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In November 2010, to big fanfare at Unilever's London headquarters, chief executive Paul Polman boldly articulated a new strategy. The company would double the size of its business, he said, by channeling its efforts toward achieving eight ambitious goals by 2020 - among them, doubling the proportion of Unilever's portfolio that meets the highest nutritional standards, and halving the water associated with the consumer use of its products.

To most of us, this did not sound like typical corporate strategy, but Polman's reframing of what it means to succeed in business is not an isolated example. It is indicative of a new generation of leadership emerging at the top of many of the world's largest organizations.

Over the past few years, we've all become much more aware of the forces that will powerfully shape global society over the next decade. We see billions of people around the world striving to improve their quality of life, and ideas about what constitutes an improved quality of life shifting. (For many people it's about better access to food, water, and shelter and less vulnerability to disease, but for others it's about better governance, freedom from corruption and oppression, and respect for basic human rights, as we saw in the Arab Spring. For many more it's about healthier lifestyles, mental health, self-esteem and wellbeing, and better family and community relationships.)

At the same time, as material consumption in emerging economies rises, we also face the fact that, as of the end of 2011, the Earth now contains seven billion people; by 2050, that global population is projected to reach nine billion. Undeniably there is more pressure on the things we all depend on: finite resources like water, energy, food, certain metals and minerals, and ecosystems like fisheries and forests. And of course, more pressure on climate.

Unilever's strategy for 2020 is formulated in direct response to that quest for improved quality of life in a much more resource-constrained context. It recognizes this new reality will spell decline for some commercial activities, but growth for others who find better ways of operating.

So in one sense, Polman is only being a good businessman. But clearly, Polman's approach is also a dramatic departure from past practice-and he is not alone. Across the board we see the top executives of some of the world's largest organizations talking about, taking action on, and defining their success in terms of things that have conventionally been the realm of political leaders and NGO activists. The change has not gone unremarked by management's leading thinkers. Witness Chris Lazslo's work on sustainable value, and Michael Porter's theorizing about shared value.

In research led by Ashridge Business School and the International Business Leaders' Forum to be published later in 2012, we've been exploring this emerging new approach to leadership. We are engaging with executives who've sat at the top of globe-spanning organizations over the past decade - people like Neville Isdell, former Chairman & CEO of the Coca Cola Company; Paul Walsh, CEO of Diageo; John Brock, Chairman & CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises; Lord Browne, former CEO of BP; Sir Mark Moody Stuart, former Chairman of Shell and Anglo American; Frederick Chavalit Tsao, Chairman of IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group; and Mark Foster, former Group Chief Executive, Accenture.

From these explorations, a consistent theme has emerged: today's global business leaders have needed to adopt a different perspective on their role and purpose.

A generation ago, the prevailing attitude was that it was the role of political leaders to address the big societal issues of the day, and definitely not the role of business leaders. For them to take on such concerns would only be a distraction and source of cost.

Fast forward to today's generation of business leaders and you hear a very different attitude being expressed: that it is essential for senior executives both to have a nuanced understanding of the major societal forces shaping our world, and to know where and how to respond for the good of their organization and for society as a whole.

Thus we now hear about Andrew Witty's GSK transforming business models to grow by broadening access to medicines in developing countries, and Sam Palmisano's IBM seeking to grow through its Smarter Planet initiative. We saw BP, under John Browne's leadership, decide that to protect and grow value it should put climate change on the agenda for the oil industry and take the lead on establishing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (PDF). A sizeable cohort of business leaders - Wal-Mart's Lee Scott, GE's Jeff Immelt, Petrobras's José Gabrielli, the list goes on - now evidently believes that, far from being a source of cost, their efforts to understand and respond to the major forces shaping society are central to their creation and protection of value.

The other consistent theme to emerge from the research is that acting on this new perspective has required a certain set of competencies, many of which are not featured in traditional management education and leadership development experiences.

All of our interviewees spoke about the soft skills that come to the fore at this level of change leadership: having the courage to raise difficult issues in the face of vested interests; enabling leadership to emerge through convening dialogue; encouraging innovation and framing challenges that inspire it; using language and symbols effectively; creating appropriate metrics; and recognizing and rewarding positive new behaviors and outcomes.

But the leaders also identified an important change in the scope of their work. The new generation of business leaders, they emphasized, must be able to engage meaningfully with multiple constituencies and relate well with all kinds of different actors in society. They must be able to engage in public and political debate with a point of view. Not only has it become far more important to know how to engage with policymakers, but now they increasingly see it as their role to proactively energize government policy, industry competitors, and wider society, and get people pulling together. Here's how John Brock, Chairman of Coca Cola Enterprises, talked about the change:

I think the role of a business leader today is much more challenging because you've got so many other constituencies out there that you didn't have before. Certainly the hierarchical approach - let's just lead from the top and if other people don't like it, that's their problem - that does not work anymore. You've got to engage with these multiple constituencies and make decisions in a more consensual way. And that requires a real skill. As the leading drinks manufacturer in several countries, and as a major player in the industry itself, we believe we have an important leadership role to try to figure out how to bring government, NGOs, and industry all along. We as a company will invest a huge amount of time. And not just me, our whole leadership team.

In a previous study Ashridge conducted in partnership with the Academy of Business in Society - Developing the Global Leader of Tomorrow (PDF) - we found a high level of consensus on the capabilities required. Senior executives we surveyed told us that leaders at their level must be able to:

understand the business risks and opportunities of environmental and social trends - and how their sector and other stakeholders (regulators, customers, suppliers, investors, NGOs) are responding to them (82%)

align social and environmental objectives with financial goals (81%)

integrate social and environmental trends into strategic decision-making (70%)

identify key stakeholders that have an influence on the organization (73%)

understand how the organization has impact on these stakeholders, both positively and negatively (74%)

engage in effective dialogue (75%)

build partnerships with internal and external stakeholders (80%)

engage in and contribute to public policy (60%)

Of course, when the requirements of leadership change, so must the focus of leadership development. It is clear that new measures of success have begun to apply to the emerging generation of global leaders. How well do they understand the broader forces at play in the world? How do they conceive their role as business leaders? Do they have the capabilities to be effective?

At Ashridge, we are now studying fascinating leadership development initiatives at IBM, HSBC, IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group, Ernst & Young, Sky Broadcasting, InterfaceFLOR and Lend Lease. All are actively experimenting with how to build greater leadership capacity for this way of thinking, as well as the skills to act on it. We look forward to sharing their case studies in a third research study, to be published later this year. In the meantime, in your own organization, the way to start is by asking the same question these firms did of their leadership development programs: As global leadership is increasingly held to a new standard, are we developing leaders who can meet it?
This post is part of the HBR Insight Center The Next Generation of Global Leaders.

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In November 2010, to big fanfare at Unilever's London headquarters, chief executive Paul Polman boldly articulated a new strategy. The company would double the size of its business, he said, by channeling its efforts toward achieving eight ambitious goals by 2020 - among them, doubling the proportion of Unilever's portfolio that meets the highest nutritional [...]

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Events that changed the world.

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These are ten events from the twentieth and twenty-first century that changed the world in a very significant way. It includes the sparks which started major wars and revolutions - affecting the lives of millions of people across the globe.

Major events that changed the world

Start of World War I - June 1914.

Russian Revolution - October 1917

Start of World War II - September 1939

Pearl Harbour - and entry of the US into WWII - Dec. 1941

Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Aug 1945

Indian Independence - Aug 1947

Establishment of Maoist China, 1949

The assassination of John F Kennedy, 1963

Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989.

9/11 September attacks

Covid-19 Pandemic, March 2020

The assassination of Archduke F. Ferdinand and Outbreak of World War I - June 28, 1914

In 1914, Europe was a tinderbox of tension and military rivalry. The spark for war could have been many incidents; but, as it happened the assassination of an Austrian Archduke - Franz Ferdinand by a Serb provoked widespread declarations of war and the fulfilment of treaties which led to the horrendous conflict of the First World War.

The war was to last four years and cost the lives of millions of men and women from all corners of the world. The First World War also led to profound social change. After the First World War, there was increased recognition for the role of women in society, with many countries giving women the vote. There was also greater emphasis placed on the role of the working class, who had fought and died in the war, and now wanted a better peace. In 1918/19 there was global flu pandemic which killed nearly 50 million people (many young adults) but such was the carnage of the First World War, it had only a limited effect on changing the world as many governments downplayed its impact.

Russian Revolution 1917
25 October 1917 - Start of October Uprising by Bolsheviks
Since the publication of Marx's Communist Manifesto, there had been sporadic Communist revolutions in European countries, but nothing had really succeeded. But in October 1917, the Bolshevik revolution, led by Lenin, brought about a radical new form of government with worldwide implications. Lenin was a fervent Marxist and wasted little time in implementing his version of a 'dictatorship of the Proletariat'. Communist Russia divided the world. It was seen by some as an alternative to the inequities of Capitalism and by others as an embodiment of totalitarianism and lack of freedom. The Soviet Union transformed the lives of Russian people - it led to economic growth, but also increased political repression. The ideology of the Soviet Union also led to a prolonged 'Cold War' - with an ideological divide between western democracy and Soviet Communism.

Treaty of Versailles 1919
After the First World War, American President Woodrow Wilson promoted an idealistic 14 points and creation of a new "League of Nations" to help prevent war. However, the American Senate voted against joining the League of Nations and France and Britain sought 'reparations' from Germany and the defeated powers. Germany was occupied by French troops until the mid 1920s and the German army severely limited. These restrictions were considered 'humiliating' by many German army officers and this sense of 'betrayal' would be exploited by Hitler in the coming years. French general Ferdinand Foch stated. "This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years." The Treaty of Versailles and other similar treaties arbitrarily re-drew the map of the world - creating new countries, such as Czechoslovakia, Finland, Poland, Latvia, and Yugoslavia out of ethnically mixed populations, which would prove problematic many years later.
Just 20 years later, Hitler would plunge the continent into conflict for a second time in an effort to restore lost pride.

Stock Market Crash 1929
In October 1929, after the long economic and stock market boom of the 1920s, in October 1929, shares on Wall Street dropped sharply. This led to a prolonged fall in share [roce and precipitated the global great depression. Unemployment rose to 25% in US with output and trade falling around the world. The widespread poverty and sense of alienation led to the growth of political extremes across the world. Japan and Germany both turned to far-right nationalist movements, which led to military expansionism and the Second World War. In America, the Great Depression led to the election of FDR and a great expansion in the size of the Federal government as people wanted the government to intervene in dealing with the depression.
German Invasion of Poland - 1939

On 1st September 1939, Hitler's Nazi Germany invaded Poland, ostensibly for 'lebensraum' and to redress the imbalances of the Treaty of Versailles. The invasion of a sovereign nation finally convinced the allies - Great Britain and France of Hitler's wider intentions for the occupation of Europe. After appeasing Hitler over Austria and Czechoslovakia, Poland proved the final straw and on September 3rd, 1939, Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. The Second World War was to last until May 1945, costing the lives of approximately 50 million people. Less well known is that under a secret Nazi-Soviet pact the Soviet Union also occupied parts of Poland at the same time as Germany's invasion.
1st September 1939
Battle of Britain - June-September 1940

In 1941, Hitler's German army seemed unstoppable having conquered all of western Europe. A key moment in world history was in May 1940, when there was a debate in the British government whether to seek a deal with Hitler or continue to fight. Winston Churchill was adamant Britain should never surrender and refused to consider signing a deal. From June 1940, the German airforce attacked British airbases as a prelude to invasion. Although the number of combatants was small, the German airforce suffered sufficient losses to discourage the invasion plan and Hitler withdrew from imminent invasion.

Operation Barbarossa - 1941
On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launched a blistering attack on the Soviet Union. Stalin was shocked as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had signed a non-aggression pact in 1939. The invasion was initially successfully coming close to Moscow at the end of 1941. The invasion brought the Soviet Union into the global conflict and was a turning point in the fortunes of Germany as they struggled to fight on two fronts. Millions died both armed forces and civilians in the bitterest fighting of the Second World War. The invasion changed the Soviet Union, turning it into a major power and giving it a reason to 'liberate' eastern Europe before Stalin decided to install Communist regimes in Eastern Europe at the end of the war.
Pearl Harbour 1941

"A day that will live in infamy" - President Franklin D. Roosevelt

In 1941, the axis powers held a supremacy over Europe and parts of Asia. Great Britain stood undefeated, but, without the strength to win against an overpowering enemy. The bombing of Pearl Harbour led to the escalation of the world war into the Pacific arena and also brought American into war with both Japan and Germany. Three years later, it was American troops who provided the majority of the manpower in the liberation of occupied Europe.
December 7, 1941
Atomic Bomb Hiroshima

The US atomic bombs of 1945, devastated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The devastation finally brought the Japanese to surrender, bringing to an end a fierce and costly Pacific war. The surrender of Japan had at one time seen unthinkable. But, the atomic bomb hastened the Japanese surrender. The atomic bomb had implications beyond just the end of the Second World War. It showed the world the potential devastation a third world war could cause. Even now the legacy of Hiroshima and the threat of nuclear war hangs over the world.

Foundation of United Nations - 1945
August 6, 1945
On 24 October 1945, the United Nations officially began. Its aim was to prevent war and co-ordinate humanitarian efforts to reduce poverty, uphold international law and protect the environment. Although the UN has often lacked the power to stop aggression, it is still an important international forum with the charter of the United Nations upholding basic universal rights and freedoms without distinction or discrimination. It also established the first international Court of Justice at the Hague. The UN has played a role in global humanitarian efforts and UN bodies such as the Global smallpox eradication programme.

Indian Independence 1947

India had stood as the crowning jewel in the crown of the British Empire. It was the second-most populous nation in the world. After many years denying Indian calls for independence, Britain finally agreed to full Indian independence in 1947. Indian independence was accompanied by a painful separation and the birth of a new nation - Pakistan. The separation led to painful incidences of sectarian violence and killing; it led to the migration of many millions of people who found themselves on the wrong side of the border. The independence of India also created a newly independent nation which claimed allegiance to neither the US or the Soviet Union - but a third way as Nehru called it. With economic development, India has the potential to become a new superpower in the coming century.
15 August 1947
The Establishment of Maoist China

In the aftermath of the Second World War, China was involved in a bitter civil war between the Communists led by Mao Tse Tung, and the Nationalists by Chiang Kai-shek. On October 1st, 1949, the triumphant Communist Party established the People's Republic of China. This created another powerful Communist State in the most populated country in the world. The Communist hold on power profoundly influenced the lives of the Chinese who suffered under the great famine of the 1960s and Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s. Even now, the Chinese Communist Party retains strong political power - even if it has adapted its economic policies.

Assassination of John F Kennedy
October 1, 1949 November 22, 1963
One of the most shocking and unexpected moments of world history. John F Kennedy had been President since his election in 1960. He was young, liberal and Catholic and had inspired many with his positive vision of the world.

"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you - ask what can you do for your country."

(JFK from Inauguration speech Jan 1961)

After his assassination, Lyndon Johnson became President and American involvement in Vietnam grew, leading to a bitter conflict that came to divide America. Although Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, evidence points to a wider conspiracy and the involvement of more than one lone gunmen.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

For decades, the Berlin wall had stood as a symbol of the 'Iron Curtain' splitting West and Eastern Europe. On the one side Communist authoritarian states, on the other side liberal democracies. The wall had been built to prevent East Germans escaping into West Germany, and indeed many had been shot trying to escape. But, more than anything else its presence was symbolic. The fall of the Berlin wall was an iconic moment when the Soviet Union gave up its grip on Eastern Europe. In the 50s and 60s, the Soviet Union had sent tanks to quell independence movements in Hungary and then Czechoslovakia. But, this time, Mikhail Gorbachev, the proponent of Perestroika and Glasnost approved the request for freedom.
November 9, 1989
9/11 Terrorist attacks

The US had experienced sporadic terrorist attacks before. But, the sheer audacity and scale of these terrorist attacks shocked the US and the world. The loss of life was estimated at just under 3,000. The event changed American foreign policy. It was a motivating factor behind the controversial invasion of Iraq and led to a 'war on terror' symbolised by Guantanamo Bay and a debate over the justification of torture.

Covid-19 Pandemic 2020

In late 2019/early 2020, China experienced an outbreak of a new virus, Covid-19. The virus had a fatality rate of between 1-4% but spread with alarming speed. In March 2020 Italy became the first country in the western world to implement a lockdown to try and stop the rapid escalation of the virus. There soon followed widespread global 'lockdowns' with people confined to their homes and business shut down.

Despite travel bans, the virus spread to all countries around the world. This lockdown had a profound adverse effect on the global economy with a sharp rise in unemployment and a fall in output. It also challenged long-held view of invulnerability amongst western developed countries. The long-term impact of the pandemic is uncertain, but it will lead to structural changes in the economy and the balance of the world. China is both seen as the source of the virus, but also - as the world's dominant manufacturer - is a key player in the efforts to manufacture equipment to deal with the crisis.

Other major events which changed the world

Dunkirk and the escape of the British army (1940).

Partition Plan for Palestine and creation of State of Israel (1947)

Iranian Revolution (1979) replacement of US supporting Shah and replaced with Ayatollah Khomeini - an authoritarian Islamist with anti-western theocracy

Ending of apartheid in South Africa. Freedom of Nelson Mandela from jail in South Africa. (1990)

11th September 2001

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan "Events that Changed the World", Oxford, www.biographyonline.net. Published 11th April 2012. Updated 6 April 2020.

History's Greatest Events

TIME History's Greatest Events: 100 Turning Points That Changed the World: An Illustrated Journey at Amazon

Great Events in American History - A list of some of the great moments in the history of the United States, by chronological order - from the arrival of Columbus to landing a man on the moon and the end of the Cold War.

. Important books which influenced and change society and the world. Including The Republic, The Iliad, The Communist Manifesto and The King James Bible.

Inventions that changed the world - Famous inventions that made a great difference to the progress of the world, including aluminium, the telephone and the printing press.
Related pages

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Events that changed the world - including Russian revolution, outbreak of WW2, fall of Berlin Wall, Indian independence, Covid-19.

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Speak like a leader

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The Big Idea: The Wise Leader

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In an era when discontinuity is the only constant, the ability to lead wisely has nearly vanished. All the knowledge in the world did not prevent the collapse of the global financial system three years ago or stop institutions like Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual from failing.

No one could slow down the recession as it sped across the world, or ensure that market leaders like General Motors and Circuit City didn't go bankrupt. No one realized that despite enormous government stimuli, the road to recovery would be torturous, with so few jobs created in the U.S. and Japan. Never did we expect more of leadership-and never have we been so disappointed.

It isn't uncertainty alone that has paralyzed CEOs today. Many find it difficult to reinvent their corporations rapidly enough to cope with new technologies, demographic shifts, and consumption trends. They're unable to develop truly global organizations that can operate effortlessly across borders. Above all, leaders find it tough to ensure that their people adhere to values and ethics. The prevailing principles in business make employees ask, "What's in it for me?" Missing are those that would make them think, "What's good, right, and just for everyone?" The purpose of business, executives still believe, is business, and greed is good so long as the SEC doesn't find out.

The gulf between the theory and practice of ethics exists in business for several reasons: There is a big difference between what top management preaches and what frontline people do. There's a philosophical tendency in the West, following Plato, to conclude that if a theory isn't working, there must be something wrong with reality. People behave less ethically when they are part of organizations or groups. Individuals who may do the right thing in normal situations behave differently under stress. And common rationalizations, such as that you are acting in the company's best interest, or justifications, such as that you will never be found out, lead to misconduct.

Hit by fraud, deceit, and greed, people are angry about the visible lack of values and ethics in business. There's something wrong with the way B-schools, companies, and leaders are developing managers. As Bent Flyvbjerg pointed out in Making Social Science Matter (Cambridge, 2001), instead of trying to emulate the natural sciences, we should have ensured that management asked questions such as "Where are we going?" "Who gains, who loses, and by which mechanisms of power?" "Is this development desirable?" "What should we do about it?"

For leaders to cope with these myriad pressures, knowledge is more critical than ever before. Sixteen years ago we published The Knowledge-Creating Company. Since then executives have come to recognize that knowledge can yield sustainable competitive advantage. Companies have learned to capture, store, and distribute knowledge, so it continually catalyzes innovation. However, as we have seen, leading a knowledge-creating company is difficult.

Why doesn't knowledge result in wise leadership? The problem, we find, is twofold. Many leaders use knowledge improperly, and most don't cultivate the right kinds. The types of knowledge we discussed in our book are now well known: explicit and tacit. Managers tend to rely on explicit knowledge, because it can be codified, measured, and generalized. Wall Street firms thought they could manage greater risk by using numbers, data, and scientific formulas instead of making judgments about loans one at a time. The same holds for the U.S. automobile industry, which relies on offering financial incentives rather than understanding customer needs.

Dependence only on explicit knowledge prevents leaders from coping with change. The scientific, deductive, theory-first approach assumes a world independent of context and seeks answers that are universal and predictive. However, all social phenomena-including business-are context dependent, and analyzing them is meaningless unless you consider people's goals, values, and interests along with the power relationships among them. Yet executives fail to do just that.

Leaders will continue to rely on new scientific discoveries to deal with the environmental, energy, and biodiversity issues facing the globe and on technological advances to develop smarter systems. Creating the future, however, must extend beyond the company; it must be about pursuing the common good. CEOs need to ask if decisions are good for society as well as for their companies; management must serve a higher purpose. Companies will then start thinking of themselves as social entities charged with a mission to create lasting benefits for society. Unless companies create social as well as economic value, they will not survive in the long run.

In addition, the world needs leaders who will make judgments knowing that everything is contextual, make decisions knowing that everything is changing, and take actions knowing that everything depends on doing so in a timely fashion. They will have to see what is good, right, and just for society while being grounded in the details of the ever-changing front line. Thus they must pair micromanagement with big-picture aspirations about the future.

Over the past two decades we have been studying leadership in different kinds of organizations; teaching business leaders, especially in Japan; and interviewing generations of leaders in some of the best companies in the world. Our goal has been to identify how leaders can systematically make decisions that will allow companies to live in harmony with society rather than clash with it. Our studies show that the use of explicit and tacit knowledge isn't enough; CEOs must also draw on a third, often forgotten kind of knowledge, called practical wisdom. Practical wisdom is tacit knowledge acquired from experience that enables people to make prudent judgments and take actions based on the actual situation, guided by values and morals. When leaders cultivate such knowledge throughout the organization, they will be able not only to create fresh knowledge but also to make enlightened decisions.

From Knowledge to Wisdom

The origin of practical wisdom lies in the concept of phronesis, one of the three forms of knowledge that Aristotle identified. In Nicomachean Ethics VI.6, he wrote that phronesis is "a true and reasoned state of capacity to act with regard to the things that are good or bad for man." He identified two types of wisdom: esoteric or metaphysical wisdom, and practical wisdom, which Samuel Coleridge later wryly interpreted as "common sense in an uncommon degree."

Practical wisdom, according to our studies, is experiential knowledge that enables people to make ethically sound judgments. It is similar to the Japanese concept of toku -a virtue that leads a person to pursue the common good and moral excellence as a way of life. It is also akin to the Indian concept of yukta, which connotes "just right" or "appropriate." For instance, executives who believe that the purpose of a business-and even of making profits-is to serve people and enhance society's well-being observe yukta and shy away from excess and greed.

Aristotle also identified episteme, or universally valid scientific knowledge, and techne, or skill-based technical know-how. If episteme is know-why and techne is know-how, phronesis is know-what-should-be-done. For instance, because no universal notion of a good car exists, episteme cannot answer the question "What is a good car?" That will depend on who is using the car and why, and it will change over time. Techne is knowing how to make a car well; phronesis is knowing both what a good car is and how to build it. Thus phronesis enables managers to determine what is good in specific times and situations and to undertake the best actions at those times to serve the common good.

To make the right decisions, managers need to understand why a company exists-its raison d'être. Companies often behave as though they're willing to do anything to survive, even if that means destroying the world in which they operate. They would do better to pursue the common good-not because it's right or fashionable but to ensure their sustainability. No company will survive over the long run if it doesn't offer value to customers, create a future that rivals can't, and maintain the common good.

We have observed the use of phronesis most often in Japan, although it isn't specific to any country or culture. Governments in Japan may have come under fire for the mistakes they have made, but people still respect Japanese companies even though they haven't proved to be world-beaters in recent times. Before the devastating earthquake and tsunami, there was no crisis of confidence in Japan's corporate world as there is in America's, partly because what happened on Wall Street did not happen in Japan. Japanese companies have often been criticized for not being sufficiently capitalistic-that is, not returning enough capital to investors, not maximizing shareholder value in the short term, not moving quickly with offshoring, not laying off employees to reduce costs, not paying compensation that will incentivize top management. But the flip side is a continuing belief that the best Japanese companies live in harmony with society, have a social purpose in earning profits, pursue the common good as a way of life, have a moral purpose in running a business, and practice distributed phronesis.

These beliefs will influence tomorrow's management theory and practice. Indeed, they are the very essence of what Gary Hamel described in his article "Moon Shots for Management" (HBR February 2009). In contrast to the old notion of capitalism, which pitted business and society against each other, the best Japanese companies, we believe, can become the exemplars of a new, communitarian approach to capitalism, as long as their leaders continue to imbue it with a social purpose.

Wise leaders make decisions only after they figure out what is good for the organization and society.

They can quickly grasp the essence of any situation or problem and intuitively fathom the nature and meaning of people, things, and events.

They constantly create informal as well as formal shared contexts for senior executives and employees to construct new meaning through their interactions.

They know how to use metaphors and stories to convert the essence of their actual experiences into tacit knowledge for individuals and groups.

They exercise political power to bring together people with conflicting goals and spur them to action.

They encourage the development of practical wisdom in others, especially employees on the front lines, through apprenticeship and mentoring.

The Six Abilities of Phronetic Leaders

It isn't easy to lead with practical wisdom. A phronetic leader must make judgments and take actions amid constant flux. And he or she must do so while taking a higher point of view-what's good for society-even though that view stems from individual values and principles. Our research over the past decade shows that to lead in this fashion, six abilities are essential. We will describe them in the following pages and offer suggestions on how to develop those skills.

1. Wise Leaders Can Judge Goodness

Phronetic leaders practice moral discernment about what's good and act on it in every situation. Don't get us wrong-maximizing shareholder wealth can lead to goodness, as can making a profit. But these leaders set their sights higher: They believe that their actions should have a moral purpose akin to what Max Weber had in mind when he linked Protestantism to capitalism.

According to Akio Matsubara, the former head of human resources at Toyota, Eiji Toyoda, the company's former president, always said, "To do what you believe is right. To do what you believe is good. Doing the right things, when required, is a calling from on high. Do it boldly, do as you believe, do as you are."

Judgments must be guided by the individual's values and ethics. Without a foundation of values, executives can't decide what is good or bad. His values spur Shoei Utsuda, the chairman of Mitsui & Co., to ask before making any decision, "Is what I am attempting to do good quality work ( yoi shigoto) for the company and society?" Values have to be one's own; they can't be borrowed. That's why the question most frequently asked at Honda is "What do you think?" It encourages employees to reflect deeply about their own values in relation to those of Honda and society.

Managers must make judgments for the common good, not for profits or competitive advantage. Says Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Fast Retailing, which owns Japan's fastest-growing apparel brand, Uniqlo, "Not only does a company have to live in harmony with society, but to be accepted, it must contribute to society. The majority of companies that have failed did not maintain that balance. Everyone is, first, a member of society before one of the company. Thinking only about the company will undoubtedly result in failure."

There are four ways of cultivating the ability to make judgments about goodness. One is experience, particularly that gained by facing adversity or failure. Yanai constantly reminds himself and others of the challenges he overcame-operating a single store way out in the country, being refused a bank loan, being pushed around by powerful wholesalers, facing near bankruptcy on numerous occasions. Yanai is so proud of having made mistakes that he called his first book One Win, Nine Losses.

Another way is to write down principles drawn from life experiences and share them. Over the years, Yanai has developed 23 principles, which he calls the "soul" of his company. "Without a soul, a company or a person is nothing more than an empty shell," he says. Several of his canons address goodness head-on: Put good ideas into practice, move the world, change society, and contribute to society. Reward good conduct and punish evildoing. Demand the highest level of ethics in your business and work.

A third method is the relentless pursuit of excellence. That helps CEOs realize what's worthwhile-what's worth desiring and striving for-in a specific situation. Utsuda told us that he once served as an assistant to Mitsui's former president Tatsuzo Mizukami, who revived the company after World War II: "He had already turned 80 when I worked for him. I was amazed at the standards of excellence he pursued. Never once did he cut corners."

Finally, judgment can be cultivated by becoming well versed in the liberal arts, such as philosophy, history, literature, and the fine arts. Management is a liberal art, as Peter Drucker said; liberal because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom, and leadership; art because it is also about practice and application. To follow through on what we preach, a few years ago we launched a senior executive program in Tokyo (see the sidebar "Teaching Integrity in the Classroom") whose core curriculum consists of Aristotle, Machiavelli, Heidegger, and other classics.

Since 2008 we have been developing a program to help create leaders who apply practical wisdom in Japanese companies. The Knowledge Forum, as we call it, takes place primarily at Hitotsubashi University's downtown Tokyo campus and is essentially a ba ("shared context") where executives can build character and integrity.

The program kicks off by assembling 30 senior executives at Mt. Takao, a 90-minute drive from central Tokyo, for a day of physical exercises intended to build teamwork. During the intense 15-month program, executives share their most compelling life experiences and defining moments of failure and success, both on and off the job. That helps them empathize with one another.

Executives share their most compelling life experiences and defining moments of failure and success.

The CEOs interact with scholars of philosophy, history, literature, political science, military strategy, and economics to deepen their understanding of the liberal arts. They discuss the work of Peter Drucker and meet 12 B-school faculty members at weekly coaching sessions. The Knowledge Forum requires a substantial time commitment from executives as well as from the faculty.

Over the next nine months participants meet frequently to discuss issues and to socialize over drinks, golf, and karaoke. Full-day sessions, held once a month, end in a publike atmosphere to stimulate more discussion. The executives also come together in a formal ba for three days to kick off a project that involves writing an article, ostensibly for Harvard Business Review, on a Japanese management practice that has global impact.

There are other such programs in Japan. Twenty years ago Yotaro Kobayashi, the former CEO of Fuji Xerox, started Camp Nidom, which is held at Fuji Xerox's center in Karuizawa, Nagano. An annual gathering of 20 or so influential Japanese CEOs and their spouses, it combines the study of business and the liberal arts. For the past 20 years we have both taught at Camp Nidom.

2. Wise Leaders Can Grasp the Essence

Before making judgment calls, wise leaders quickly sense what lies behind a situation, project a vision of the future or the consequences, and decide on the action needed to realize that vision. Practical wisdom enables them to see the essence and intuitively fathom the nature and meaning of people, things, and events.

A telling example of how Soichiro Honda, the founder of the company that bears his name, did that is visible in a photograph hanging at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan. It shows him at a motorcycle-racing track, crouching down low to put himself at eye level with a rider passing at full speed. Honda has his hands on the ground to feel the vibration and his ears cocked to absorb the sound of the engine. That's how he captured the essence of the motorcycle. "When I look at a motorcycle, I see many things," he used to tell his successors. "I see I should do such and such to maneuver past the curve. I think about the next-generation machine. I think, if I do this, it will have more speed. I move naturally into the next process." Grasping the essence requires attention to detail and persistence. "If you are going to do something, you must do it relentlessly," Yanai says. "Do what is 100% right, concentrate on small things, and continue going back to basics. Unless you do that, you cannot move to the next stage. The secret to success is doing the basics day in and day out."

It's also important that leaders grasp universal truths from the particulars and the details. Expanding particulars into universals requires continual interaction between subjective intuition and objective knowledge. Ratan Tata, the chairman of the Tata Group, conceived the idea of a $2,500 car in this way. In the now famous story, he noticed an entire family-father, mother, and children-on a scooter, snaking dangerously around cars on a rainy day in Mumbai. He knew that the cheapest car cost five times as much as a scooter did and that families near the bottom of the income pyramid couldn't afford one. Tata realized, right there and then, that those people would buy cars if his company produced them at a price they could afford.

To cultivate their ability to grasp the essence of a problem, executives should practice three mind-stretching routines. The first is relentlessly asking what the basis of a problem or a situation is. At Toyota employees ask "Why?" five times to get to the root cause. At Honda they ask the "A, A0, and A00" questions. A questions are about specifications-such as "What should the horsepower of this engine be?" A0 questions are about concepts-such as "What is the idea behind this engine?" A00 questions are about the essential goals of the project-such as "What is this engine for?"

The second routine is learning to see the trees and the forest at the same time. In the words of Toshifumi Suzuki, Seven-Eleven Japan's chairman, "It isn't good if you just see a tree, not the forest. Many wrongly think that single-item management means managing a single item. But it's necessary to place the item in the store as a whole." God may live in the details, but leaders should never forget the big picture.

The third entails constructing and testing hypotheses. For example, the employees in every Seven-Eleven Japan store-including high school students and homemakers who work part-time-decide what merchandise to order. Because each store caters to different customers and faces different situations at different times, employees cannot rely on rules set by headquarters. Nor can they mechanically fill shelves by ordering the same amounts of the same things each day. Every time a staff member places an order, she is encouraged to build a hypothesis about what customers want. When ordering beverages, for example, she must rely on her knowledge of local customers' needs and also take into account factors such as the weather, school schedules, local festivals, power shutdowns, and so on.

3. Wise Leaders Create Shared Contexts

Phronetic leaders constantly create opportunities for senior executives and employees to learn from one another. In Japan a ba (place, space, or field) refers to the context in which relationships are forged and interactions occur. Those participating in a ba share information, build short-term relationships, and try to create new meaning. For example, an informal ba may take place at a bar or a pub, where strangers talk casually about their immediate concerns or problems, sometimes triggering insights or solutions.

In a more formal or organizational setting, a ba permits participants with a shared sense of purpose to interact closely. Each member sees himself in relation to others and tries to understand their views and values subjectively. Membership is voluntary. In that sense, a ba is a shared context in motion, with participants coming and going, relationships changing, and contexts shifting over time.

Honda's waigaya (short for the onomatopoeic waiwai-gayagaya, which imitates the hum created by people's voices when they meet) is also a ba. As many as 30 members of a project team will get together for three days and nights at a hotel or ryokan (inn) with a hot springs. In the evenings they drink sake and visit the communal bath. Although there is no agenda, people typically begin by bad-mouthing their bosses and sharing frustrations. As the members start spilling their guts over sake, it isn't unusual for fights, verbal or even physical, to break out. On the second day, barriers start to melt as people begin to understand one another's motivations and feelings. They become more willing to listen and empathize. By the third day, they've often made an inductive leap, overcoming their personal issues and arriving at a team-based view about how to solve a problem.

Companies can set up a ba in any number of ways: in project meetings, training programs, ad hoc study groups, informal hobby groups, conferences, company-sponsored family or sports events, smoking rooms, cafés and canteens, virtual meetings, intranet systems, and blogs. A ba can be top-down or bottom-up. The CEO should initiate the former kind. Five months after Utsuda became Mitsui's president, in 2002, he started a kurumaza (sitting in a circle) meeting that took place once or twice a month during lunch or after work. It was open to any employee who registered on the company intranet and wanted to discuss the meaning of good-quality work for employees, the company, and society. Over six years, 117 meetings involving 2,000 employees took place. The participants reviewed Mitsui's past business practices-some of which were controversial, owing to compliance issues in foreign countries-and future aspirations.

A bottom-up ba, which companies outside Japan may find easier to use, gives employees firsthand experience of how consumers use products and services. Eisai, known for having developed medicines to treat dementia, sends all its researchers to take care of patients. The employees learn how patients behave, take medicines, bathe, and communicate with caregivers. They gain a deeper understanding of the needs of patients and their families-and of the company's mission of human health care as articulated by Haruo Naito, Eisai's president. One employee told us, "I was completely focused on the development of medicines, but at the hospital, the focus was not on medicines. Drugs are only useful in certain situations. The training gave me fresh awareness of the purpose of drugs and how we should develop them."

4. Wise Leaders Communicate the Essence

Phronetic leaders must be able to communicate in a way that everyone can understand. The essence of a situation is often hard to express, so they must use stories, metaphors, and other figurative language. That allows individuals grounded in different contexts and with different experiences to grasp things intuitively.

A metaphor provides a way of understanding one thing by envisioning another. Yanai is fond of using sports metaphors and analogies to get his point across. One of his favorites is "In baseball, teams with a large number of stolen bases have a high number of attempted steals. You can't run if you're thinking only about not being tagged. The same could be said of management." Metaphors also convey messages in ways that capture the imagination. For example, Toyota likens the automobile industry-and, by extension, the company itself-to a green tomato, incomplete and growing.

A story can help us gain self-knowledge through the experiences of the protagonist or the antagonist. It can also explain the historical context ("How has this come to be?") and communicate future scenarios ("What is it going to look like?"). At Mitsui, storytelling became an important part of the review process under Utsuda. In 2002 he changed the corporate performance criteria, putting much more emphasis (80%) on qualitative than on quantitative results. The process for achieving results thus became more important than revenues or profits. Utsuda encouraged all employees to tell a story at their annual review about why a goal was important to them and the company, how it aligned with their values as well as the company's, and what good it would do them and the company in the future. The process of creating, telling, and sharing stories was instrumental in changing Mitsui's culture. It led employees to sell their ideas more persuasively and made them think about the quality of the work they would do before calculating the profits.

Fujio Mitarai, Canon's chairman, has institutionalized a similar process. He asks everyone to submit an annual business plan with a story. He kicks off the process by writing a story about how the company can achieve the numerical goals he has established. That trickles down through senior managers and middle managers to all employees. Everyone at Canon has to back up the numbers with a narrative. "That's how skills are cultivated and our people grow," Mitarai explains. "It forms the foundation of Canon's strength."

To use metaphors and stories effectively, leaders must learn to see the relationship between one thing and another, between themselves and someone else, or between the present and either the past or the future. The best way to do that is to read as many novels as possible in all genres, including romance, satire, comedy, and tragedy, and to attend the theater.

Rhetoric counts, because effective communicators touch people's hearts and minds. Think of speeches that have done both, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and Steve Jobs's "Stay hungry, stay foolish" commencement address at Stanford University in 2005. Both were based on personal experience; had a beginning, a middle, and an end; and repeated the key message several times. King said "I have a dream" eight times and "Let freedom ring" 10 times in the last five minutes of his 17-minute speech. Jobs repeated the phrase "Stay hungry, stay foolish" three times in the last 20 seconds of his 15-minute address.

Wise leaders engage in conversation with as many people as possible and display a high degree of commitment to communication. Yanai articulated his "dream" for 2020 on January 1, 2009: to become the world's number one apparel retailer in terms of sales and profitability, surpassing Gap, Zara, and H&M. Over the next three months he engaged in a weekly 90-minute dialogue with half a dozen of his top executives in Tokyo to discuss the people, organization, and systems needed to realize that dream. He spent the same amount of time in similar meetings with another group of top executives from Shanghai, Seoul, Paris, London, and New York. He plans to carry on these dialogues with 200 of his future leaders, meeting them face-to-face all over the world in the next three years. Communication is critical to bringing dreams to life.

5. Wise Leaders Exercise Political Power

It isn't enough to identify the essence or communicate it; phronetic leaders must bring people together and spur them to act, combining and synthesizing everyone's knowledge and efforts in the single-minded pursuit of their goals. To mobilize people, executives must utilize all the means-including Machiavellian ones-suited to the situation. Shrewdness and stubbornness are often necessary to create something new and good.

Wise leaders exercise political judgment by understanding the viewpoints and emotions of others, gleaned through everyday verbal and nonverbal communication. They carefully consider timing-when to make a move or to discuss issues. No one we know exercises these qualities with more passion than Toshiba's chairman, Atsutoshi Nishida, who is a scholar of intersubjectivity-a field of phenomenology pioneered by Edmund Husserl. Nishida firmly believes that people are by nature both logical and emotional, so he stresses the importance of empathizing with others to develop genuine dialogues with them. It isn't unusual for him to engage in discussions with his colleagues that run twice the allotted time.

Phronetic leaders also strive to understand all the contradictions in human nature-good and bad, civility and incivility, optimism and pessimism, diligence and laziness-and synthesize them as situations arise. Rather than seeking an optimal balance between contradictions, they engage in dialectical thinking, which enables them to deal with contradictions, opposites, and paradoxes by moving to a higher level. Some use the German word aufheben to describe this process. By thinking in terms of "both and" rather than "either or," phronetic leaders can make the decision best suited to a situation without losing sight of the goodness to be achieved. As F. Scott Fitzgerald pointed out, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." In this age of discontinuity, these qualities matter more than ever.

Imagination and vision are key to rising to a higher level. For instance, Yanai has announced that Fast Retailing will need 200 next-generation leaders to bring about his vision for the company. He has used dialectics to identify the starting point-namely, the composition of the leadership pool. Half the future leaders will be Japanese, half will come from current employees, half will be geniuses (and the other half will be ordinary folks). Yanai wants them to transcend all the dichotomies and turn into globally minded business owners. His leaders must be both asura (demon) and Buddha: They must become tyrannical perfectionists who understand both the bad and the good in human nature.

Interestingly, demoting leaders can help them understand other viewpoints and emotions. This technique works especially well in Japan, and nobody uses it more than Fast Retailing. More than half the company's senior executives have been demoted, which involves a 25% pay cut and sends a clear message that a particular judgment, decision, or action didn't work. The executives are given another chance to excel. One of them, who has experienced two demotions, says, "Sure, it hurts both economically and psychologically. But the demotions made me tougher. I now have the stomach to give my subordinates the kind of feedback I received."

Forgetting success is also effective in spurring people to do better. Yanai recently warned his team that doing the same thing year after year is synonymous with falling behind. The title of a book he wrote in 2009, Throw Away Your Success in One Day, shows how quickly he thinks companies must reinvent themselves.

6. Wise Leaders Foster Practical Wisdom in Others

Practical wisdom should never be treated as if it were the preserve of the company's chief executive or top management team. It must be distributed as much as possible through the organization, and employees at all levels can be trained in its use. Fostering distributed leadership is therefore one of the wise leader's biggest responsibilities. For instance, in the 1970s Soichiro Honda gained some practical wisdom from his subordinates when Honda was developing a low-emissions automobile engine. He declared that the new engine would put the company in a position to beat the "Big Three" automakers in the United States, who were then opposing the Clean Air Act. Honda's engineers objected, saying that they were developing the engine in order to fulfill social responsibilities. They were doing it for their children, they said. The story goes that Honda was so ashamed of himself when he heard this that he decided it was time to retire.

Fostering distributed phronesis will enable organizations to respond flexibly and creatively to any situation. One structural option is to use the "scrum" approach (see our article "The New New Product Development Game," HBR January-February 1986) to stay agile. The rugby metaphor, first used in the manufacturing industry, is today the official name of the agile software development process. Although individual teams are usually limited to seven members, the number of teams rises as the scope of the project grows. The development process stops at two-week intervals, when members form a scrum (a "huddle" in American football) to make judgments on how to complete unfinished tasks. It's possible to have hundreds of scrum masters and thousands of members working, learning, and making wise decisions concurrently.

Even part-time workers should be able to use phronesis, according to Seven-Eleven Japan's Suzuki. "I have only two eyes and one mind," he argues. "There are several thousand part-time workers in our stores. If everyone can make a judgment on his or her own, we will have quite a few more eyes and minds."

People can often learn about practical wisdom by observing an exemplar's behavior. At Honda the company's founder is still the dominant exemplar. Takeo Fukui, a former company president, told us, "It is important for Honda to create many Soichiro Hondas." That doesn't mean Honda workers should imitate the founder; the situations they face are often different from those he faced when he was alive. Rather, it means that when a judgment call is necessary, a worker should ask himself or herself: "If I were Soichiro Honda, what would I do?"

Exemplars can frequently be found among middle managers. Consider Honda's large-project leaders, who undertake work of strategic importance but have no hierarchical authority or personnel selection power. They work with as many as 200 of their colleagues at a time in design, engineering, testing, marketing, and other fields. Those colleagues all volunteer mainly because of the leader's character. An exemplar enables ordinary people to perform in extraordinary ways.

Another method of fostering practical wisdom is to use a formal system of apprenticeship, which allows mentors to share experiences, contexts, and time. At Fast Retailing, for instance, Yanai serves as the mentor for 200 apprentices all over the world. He assigns them projects in three areas-product development, store operations, and administration (finance, human resources, IT, and legal)-and asks them to implement ideas that will change the status quo. Each project lasts about six months; apprentices work for 18 months on these jet-set projects, as employees call them, while maintaining their regular jobs. Yanai must personally evaluate the results of 600 change projects in a timely fashion, and in the process he helps create the next generation of wise leaders for the company.

Today's knowledge-creating company, we believe, must metamorphose into the wisdom-practicing company of tomorrow. That demands a new kind of leader-a CEO who is many things at the same time:

a philosopher who grasps the essence of a problem and draws general conclusions from random observations;

a master craftsman who understands the key issues of the moment and acts on them immediately;

an idealist who will do what he or she believes is right and good for the company and society;

a politician who can spur people to action;

a novelist who uses metaphors, stories, and rhetoric;

a teacher with good values and strong principles, from whom others want to learn.

That's too idealistic or too much to expect, you may say. Perhaps. But companies have to create new futures in order to survive. Those futures can no longer be extensions of the past; they must be leaps of faith into tomorrow. CEOs cannot be content to analyze situations using empirical data and deductive reasoning; they must also make inductive jumps according to their ideals and dreams. If they aren't idealistic, they simply can't create new futures.

Being idealistic isn't enough, though. Leaders must also be pragmatic-looking reality in the eye, grasping the essence of a situation, and envisioning how it relates to the larger context-if they are to judge what they must do right then and there to achieve the common good. CEOs have to become idealistic pragmatists, which is why they must turn the dual quest for knowledge and practical wisdom into a way of life.

A version of this article appeared in the May 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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In an era when discontinuity is the only constant, the ability to lead wisely has nearly vanished. All the knowledge in the world did not prevent the collapse of the global financial system three years ago or stop institutions like Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual from failing.

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Why Leaders Should Learn Geography

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Kirk Goldsberry mentioned in " The Importance of Spatial Thinking " that "Harvard eradicated its Geography Department in the 1940's, and many universities followed suit". Indeed, not only has geography never been part of business programs, it gradually vanished from education fields that matter in prestigious schools, with no major revival since the 1940's.

Today, it is still suffering from an inaccurate split between a "physical" and a "human" branch, themselves sub-divided into multiple precarious sub-fields that makes everybody, including geographers themselves, feel embarrassed and confused about their own disciplinary. Having so much trouble defining what geography is played a big role in its disappearance from the business and management programs.

That lack of interest for geography as a field of study has also to do with the fact that it is still perceived as the "art" of exploring and mapping the world with a telescope from an old sailboat, counting rocks and drawing exotic landscapes with a nib while sipping some exotic cocktails. Not only geography is (still) seen as some sort of poetic leisure by the business world, it is now reduced to location devices and mapping gadgets since technology progress put GPS and Google Earth on every smartphones.

Well, we got it wrong. Geography is not the science that tries to naïvely explain the world by describing its very surface anymore, and it has nothing to do with naming all the capital cities of central America, nor with the ability to use the location feature on Pinterest.

Today's geography is an angle to look at the world, embrace its complexity, a way to get a sense of human flows, behaviour trends, cultural influences, market evolutions, balance of powers between institutions, companies, governments, from a global to a very local perspective. It is a way of thinking that crosses time and space at any possible scale to see and understand what is happening. It connects the dimensions of the world - societies, environment, economy, politics, finance, psychology... - by offering unique key concepts and theoretical tools.

As big data is becoming one of the biggest economic challenge of our time, being able to connect several layers of thematic information, to cross it with multiple time & space scales, to process complexity to end up with several prioritized solutions is not an optional skill for leaders. Decision makers need to know about wide general process such as globalisation, cultural preferences and religious beliefs in the world, demographic trends, but also about regional consumption habits, local specificities, small groups social psychology and behaviour.

Having a good knowledge of regional culture and place-related specificities is also definitely an asset, with employees as well as partners and customers. Being aware of the importance of place and people uniqueness, admitting other ways of thinking and other people-territory relationships will definitely make a difference in the way one will inspire others, no matter what the product is.

Geography provides an essential basic knowledge of global mechanisms that matter in the world every people making decisions on a daily basis should know about, from how nationalism shape consumer habits to why beach vacation became the biggest sector of the tourism industry since being tanned became a sign of wealth sixty years ago.

Like other sciences, geography provides analytical skills, precision, the ability to collect and process important amounts of quantitative and qualitative data, to synthesize and communicate results, both verbally and visually. More than other sciences, geography also provides spatial data visualisation skills (mapping and sketching), emphasis the capacity to read and communicate multiple dimensions of a problem to a range of partners, develops design and creativity skills as well as decision-making and good understanding of group and individual psychologies.

On top of that, leaders can gain a unique ability from geography by developing the three following skills:

The sense of scale: having good abilities to assess distances (physical distances, but also symbolic ones between cultures, people, products, times), to estimate accurately market size and accessibility, the feasibility of one project, its scalability, the capacity to discern what falls under global trends (long-term) versus what is a specific localized (short-term) phenomena make a great difference in the success of one enterprise.

Spatial thinking: not to confuse with "making all big decisions looking at a map instead of charts". Spatial thinking simply means: not to forget that data are always coming from somewhere, which basically means they have to be considered in a cultural, political and economical place-related context, relatively to other surrounding contexts (what happened in the past, what happened elsewhere, what happened in other dimensions than the financial or industrial one).

The sense of place: you always sell more than a product. You sell a story, a dream, a hope, a discourse. What makes the difference between a fair success and an exceptional product people will wait for is the deep and unwavering belief that they need this product to be the person they want to be. You sell meaning, you sell identity and image. Well, places (from the country to the house) are not just interchangeable empty containers for people. They are deeply associated with affective memories, life stories, key moments of people lives. Just like things.

If "power is information", knowing what is where in the world, and why, how it used to be and how it is likely to be in the future is essential for anyone aspiring to open a path for the others to get inspired and follow it.

Oh, also, learning geography will help not to look like a fool by confusing Irak with Afghanistan or ignoring what the capital city of Canada is.

Anne-Laure is a passionate geographer who has been working and traveling in France, New Zealand and Canada. After exploring the business school world, the academic universe and experimenting what it's like to work in a travel start-up, she now works on her geography blog: geo-pickmeup.com and contributes to the geoawesome project

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Why Leaders Should Learn Geography - Geoawesomeness

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Email Tweet Share Share on Facebook Pin Pocket WhatsApp Telegram Kirk Goldsberry mentioned in "The Importance of Spatial Thinking" that "Harvard eradicated its Geography Department in the 1940's, and many universities followed suit". Indeed, not only has geography never been part of business programs, it gradually vanished from education fields that matter in prestigious schools, ...