Rotman Management

LEADERSHIP TODAY is permeated by paradoxes: leaders must hold and share power; generate short term and long-term results; provide stability and display adaptability; optimize data and use hard-earned intuition — to name a few. The zoom buttons on our digital devices provide an apt metaphor for the mindset required to achieve this balancing act: on some days you need to look at things close up (your employees, customers and other stakeholders); while on others, you need to step back and view things (implications, outcomes, societal issues) from afar. Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts has summarized the skillset required by today’s leaders as “meta, macro and micro all at once”. In this issue we attempt to move between these three levels to touch on some of the concepts and topics leaders need…

IN THE MIDST OF THE WORST INFLATION seen in 40 years, not all prices are rising. In the 1970s, the cost of taking a kilogram of water to space was $20,000 in today’s dollars. Now, it is more like $2,000 — a tenfold reduction, and as SpaceX’s Starship has $20/kg in its sights, there is a real possibility of another hundred-fold reduction in the cost of space access. If this happens, access to space will open up like never before, creating a flood of new business opportunities. The space industry includes a wide range of markets: space hardware (e.g. satellite manufacturers and modules), launch services, flight and delivery, space tugs, satellite operators (remote sensing, connectivity), drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, ground terminals, security and storage, data platforms, location and mapping and…

You have spent three-plus decades on Wall Street. Describe how leadership has changed in that timeframe. As an investment banker, I’ve had a front-row seat to observe the changes. I’ve executed hundreds of deals and had the opportunity to work closely with countless CEOs from a wide range of industries. During the 1980s and 90s — and frankly, for the 30 years before that — it was an organization’s leaders who defined its agenda. They called the shots and decided what needed to happen and when. For a long time, this ‘my way or the highway’ leadership mindset was considered effective. There was no war for talent in this period, and production and volume were valued over innovation and convenience. Today’s environment is very different. Innovation has become the dominant competitive parameter…

IMAGINE YOU ARE IN A ROOM with the leaders of the G20: the president of the United States, the prime ministers of Canada and India, the chancellor of Germany, the president of China, the king of Saudi Arabia and the leaders of the other 14 largest economies in the world. You ask them: What indicators do you follow most closely? All leaders use indicators to measure progress. If you asked CEOs this question, they would probably say ‘revenue growth’ or ‘share price.’ With world leaders, it’s harder to know. Would they say GDP? Unemployment? The poverty rate? Maybe the Saudi king would say oil prices? I am not sure what their answer would be, but I do know what they would not say: none of them would mention happiness. As a result,…

BY NOW, MOST PEOPLE ARE AWARE that women earn less money relative to men for the same work. What some may not know is that this gender pay gap is a pervasive pattern worldwide. One recent estimate suggests that comparing differences in average annual pay globally, women earn 57 per cent of what men make. This gender pay gap exists even at the highest levels of business as well: Female executives at S&P 1500 firms earn on average 45 per cent less than their male counterparts. Researchers have explored several explanatory factors as to why the pay gap exists, ranging from ‘likelihood to negotiate,’ to ‘divisions of labour within a family,’ to a ‘lower likelihood of promotion.’ While there has been a longer-term trend towards reducing the pay gap in the…

TUCKED BETWEEN the Old Town Bar and ABC Kitchen in New York’s Flatiron District is a nondescript white door marked with the number 37. When you ring the bell, the door buzzes open, and a waiting elevator takes you up to the fourth floor. You’re now inside the Hive — a stunning loft space with soaring ceilings, soothing pastel colours, dozens of plants, and roughly a hundred humans buzzing around, ranging in age from 22 to 62. Some employees clack away at their computers. Others laugh and chat loudly — the Hive can get pretty noisy. Just outside the kitchen, a few people attend to a huge jigsaw puzzle. And beside the floor-to-ceiling windows, still other members of the Hive perch at one of the drafting tables surrounded by stacks of…