Business article

Leadership Lessons from Outer Space

Terry Virts has been promoted to various influential positions, his latest position is currently commander of the international space station. He states that one must adapt their leader ship styles to the situations in which he is found in the moment. Terry addresses an audience in Spangler Auditorium at HBS through space via satellite feed teaching leadership lessons. Professor Gupta led an interview with Terry in a questions and answer session. An astronaut career does not fit properly the corporate mold; however, Gupta made questions related to his previous experiences that positioned him to be part in such an important job position in outer space. Virts said a list of requirements to become a team leader, the following requirements are: possess the right character and attitude, ability to work with others cultures, eager and able to work with different types of people of other countries. Some of the audience questions were less related to leadership. Gupta adjusted a question and asked whether space debris is an actual threat. Virts responded that it was a relative issue depending the size of the debris. At the end of the interview, his mother appeared as a special guest to greet proudly his son in the outer space station he is working.

Secrets to a successful social media strategy

Mijola Jan Piskorski wrote a book title “A Social Strategy: How we profit from social media”, in which explains the success of social media and who companies take advantage of the benefits of it. He states in his book that some offline norms when interacting with people do not apply or are bend in the online world (some behaviors are acceptable in the online world and not in the real world). LinkedIn alleviates the offline normative restriction by giving us plausible deniability. He also found that companies adopt to different approaches when they sell products and services online. First approach, Digital strategy on social platform uses social media to broadcast commercial messages and seek customer feedback. The second is Social strategy on social platform steers clear direct broadcasting in favor of helping costumers create and strength relationships with each other. He also explains in the book. The trick to create a strategy that simultaneously benefits both the company and the costumer’s social interactions.

What is Management’s role in innovation?

Innovation can be managed with the call for a new kind of leadership according to the suggestions of a colloquium in Harvard Business School. The colloquium is titled “Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Organization of the Future”. Joe Violette, reminded that innovation is carried out teams and the leadership role is to provide a work environment of openness built on trust without fear of ridicule or reprisal. Other stated that management must integrate a diversity of people and ideas. Most importantly, involve people of all levels in the path innovation. Each member of the panel of executives in the colloquium built strong, consistent questions pertinent to how can innovation and creativity can be accomplished in different scenarios (diverse perspective, circumstances, aspects to consider in the world of business). The general question to the professionals present in the colloquium were...Can management contribute to innovation and creativity? If not, what changes can be done? Is it better to provide incentives to the innovators by facilitating the market of resources between investors and innovators? All of these questions and more from the panel were cautiously gathered to let the group of assembled researchers and practitioners of innovation and creativity to find out viable solutions or adjustments that needs the traditional management to stay up with the modernized and technological society.