Welcome to Bihar flood relief 2008: Most Popular Editorials: The C.E.O. Who Promised There Would Be No Layoffs

The C.E.O. Who Promised There Would Be No Layoffs

In 10 years running Mastercard, Ajay Banga has favored a forward-looking approach.

When the pandemic hit, Mastercard\'s chief executive, Ajay Banga, made a promise to the company\'s 19,000 employees: There would be no layoffs as a result of the economic destruction wrought by the virus. It was a decision he could afford to make. During his 10 years as chief executive, Mr. Banga vastly expanded the company\'s reach. Revenues roughly tripled, and profits quadrupled. Mr. Banga says he didn\'t achieve these results simply by managing for the short term. When he took over in 2010, he told investors that he would not be giving quarterly earnings guidance. Instead, he offered investors a rolling forecast of where Mastercard would be in three years, and set to work striking new partnerships around the globe. The strategy worked. Mastercard stock has soared by more than 1,000 percent during his tenure, outperforming competitors Visa and American Express.

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The Weird Strategy Dr. Seuss Used to Create His Greatest Work

In 1960, two men made a bet. There was only $50 on the line, but millions of people would feel the impact of this little wager. The first man, Bennett Cerf, was the founder of the publishing firm, Random House. The second man was named Theo Geisel, but you probably know him as Dr. Seuss. Cerf proposed the bet and challenged that Dr. Seuss would not be able to write an entertaining children\'s book using only 50 different words. Dr. Seuss took the bet and won. The result was a little book called Green Eggs and Ham. Since publication, Green Eggs and Ham has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the most popular of Seuss\'s works and one of the best-selling children\'s books in history.

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Get 1% Better Every Day: The Kaizen Way to Self-Improvement

It\'s happened to all of us. You have a "come to Jesus" moment and decide you need to make changes in your life. Maybe you need to drop a few pounds (or more), want to pay off some debt, or desperately long to quit wasting time on the internet. So you start planning and scheming. You take to your journal and write out a bold strategy on how you\'re going to tackle your quest for self-improvement. You set big, hairy SMART goals with firm deadlines. You download the apps and buy the gear that will help you reach your objectives. You feel that telltale rush that comes with believing you\'re turning over a new leaf, and indeed, the first few days go great. "This time," you tell yourself, "this time is different." But then ...

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Tapping into the power of humble narcissism

No, "humble narcissism" is not an oxymoron; it's a combination of qualities that the best leaders and companies have. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant explains why. Who would you rather work for: a narcissistic leader or a humble leader? The answer is more complicated than you think. In a Fortune 100 company, researchers studied whether customer service employees were more productive under narcissistic or humble leaders. The least effective bosses were narcissists - their employees were more likely to spend time surfing the Internet and taking long breaks. Employees with humble bosses were a bit more productive: they fielded more customer service calls and took fewer breaks. But the best leaders weren't humble or narcissistic. They were humble narcissists. How can you be narcissistic and humble at the same time? The two qualities sound like opposites, but they can go hand in hand. Narcissists believe they're special and superior; humble leaders know they're fallible and flawed. Humble narcissists bring the best of both worlds: they have bold visions, but they're also willing to acknowledge their weaknesses and learn from their mistakes.

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Here's how a smart field-to-fork network could revolutionise our food system

In May the EU revealed its new Field to Fork strategy, a comprehensive plan to overhaul food production at every stage to make it more resilient and environmentally friendly. Its success would make the EU a global leader in sustainability, helping to protect its food supply from threats such as climate change and pandemics. For that to happen, however, we need to see an even more fundamental change: a conversion of the current, fragmented tangle of food supply chains into a coherent and traceable supply network. The Field to Fork strategy sets out a number of targets that it wants to achieve by 2030 - notably, to cut the use of pesticides by 50%, fertilisers by 20% and antimicrobials in farmed animals by 50%. On top of this, it wants organic farming to account for a quarter of farmed land within its borders and is calling on member states to cut, monitor and report on food wastage levels across the supply chain. This would ensure good quality food reaches more people at fair prices and in a more efficient way.

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How Perfectionists Can Get Out of Their Own Way

Like any extreme trait, perfectionism can be a double-edged sword. Having high standards and being hardworking can help someone stand out in a crowded field, and their tenacity can help them improve their skills over time. And, to an extent, being very conscientious can help avoid errors. The benefits I\'ve mentioned, and a fear that any flaw will result in catastrophe, can keep people hooked on their perfectionist mindset. However, there are also significant downsides to attempting mistake-free performance. If you\'re struggling to let go of some of your perfectionistic tendencies, or managing someone who is, it can be helpful to remember the ways perfectionists can self-sabotage in the workplace. I\'ll discuss five below. You\'ll notice a general theme of the person losing sight of the big picture.

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An Economist's Guide to the World in 2050

Largely driven by the rise of China and India, the emerging-market share of global GDP is also soaring. In 2000, emerging markets accounted for about a fifth of global output. In 2042, they\'re set to overtake advanced economies as the biggest contributors to global GDP - and by 2050, they will contribute almost 60% of the total. More viscerally felt will be the shift in relative power between countries. In 2033, according to our projections, India will overtake an age-hobbled Japan to become the world\'s third biggest economy. In 2035, China will outstrip the U.S. to become the biggest. By 2050, Indonesia may have moved into the big league. Three of the world\'s biggest economies will be Asian emerging markets.

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How Startups Benefit From Collaborating With Large Corporations

Innovation is no longer something that companies should strive for but something that\'s become necessary for survival. That said, it\'s long been difficult for big businesses to keep pace with the innovation of smaller businesses and more nimble startups. As a result, corporations are fiercely working to find ways to encourage innovation, for example through innovation labs, building disruptive cultures, or hiring chief innovation officers. While these shifts have helped and have enabled big companies to establish cultures of innovation, there\'s one increasingly popular way that many companies have found to encourage innovation: collaborations with startups. When done correctly, these collaborations can be mutually beneficial and can help both parties develop, gain a competitive advantage, and ensure long-term success.

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The Great Covid-Driven Teamwork Divide

For most teams, the pandemic either brought colleagues closer or drove them increasingly apart. There are three key reasons why.What makes a team more than the sum of its parts? Its cohesion or connectedness, which allows for pooling of individual members\' strengths and compensates for their weaknesses. Accordingly, Google\'s landmark Project Aristotle study found that the single most important driver of team performance was not the skills, intelligence or personality of a team\'s members, but rather the quality of the team\'s interactions and whether members felt psychologically safe. The Covid-19 pandemic is perhaps the greatest threat to team connectedness we have ever seen. Colleagues who were mostly co-located - often literally within arm\'s reach of one another - have been forced to disperse across cities, even countries. As we saw this occurring, we fretted for the future of these teams. Would close working relationships built up over months if not years simply be scattered to the four winds? To capture the effects in real time, we launched a survey back in June about how teams were being impacted by Covid. More than 500 professionals around the world responded. The findings surprised us.

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S16

Entrepreneurship Frameworks That Work

The romantic ideal of the entrepreneur as either the kid with the lemonade stand or the college dropout working from a Silicon Valley garage is real, but that's not the whole story. Entrepreneurs are also mums puzzling through how to pay the bills, and dads working to feed their kids. What all forms of entrepreneurship have in common is a tonne of hard work. Using a proven framework is a great way to take your first steps towards becoming an entrepreneur. In my new book Survive & Thrive: Entrepreneurship Frameworks That Work, I lay out 12 frameworks for at least 16 entrepreneurial paths, including social ventures, science and technology, corporate, government and more. These frameworks are interrelated yet distinct. You might start down one path and realise that there is more to what you want or can do.

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