Tom Spencer

MARCH 28, 2025

And its transforming how businesses operate. From summarizing lengthy documents to drafting emails and generating reports, LLMs can reduce operating costs by streamlining workflows and reducing manual effort. AI isnt coming, its already here. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, understanding LLMs is essential.

Productivity 88

Productivity McKinsey Data Training 88

Consulting Matters

APRIL 22, 2021

When I was an organizational development consultant for Disney, I worked with the Imagineers and Operators. The Operators viewed Imagineers as people who had their heads in the sky, and Imagineers viewed Operators as so focused on day to day that they couldn't see the big picture. Be clear about who you are trying to develop.

Development 156

Development How To Talent Organizational Development 156

Harvard Business

AUGUST 15, 2017

This isn’t surprising given that this is the primary focus of educational institutions, training programs, and leadership development courses. In the world of scalable efficiency, the focus was on documenting in great detail the actions that should be taken in addressing specific situations. Skills versus capabilities.

Emotional Intelligence 145

Emotional Intelligence Efficiency Operations Development 145

Tom Spencer

APRIL 12, 2024

Whether you are in consulting, strategy, operations, or product management, the ability to manage meetings effectively is a crucial skill that can significantly impact the success of your endeavors. During the meeting, document action items and assign them to specific team members. Establish deadlines and expectations for completion.

Meeting 143

Meeting Productivity Management How To 143

Organizational Talent Consulting

MAY 8, 2023

Have you ever wondered what servant leadership is? Maybe you already understand the basic concepts but have questions about how servant leadership differs from other leadership styles or if a servant leadership approach is appropriate for your team. For example, consider two employees walking down a hall.

Leadership 66

Leadership Journal Pharmaceuticals Study 66

Effective Managers

JULY 26, 2024

The Essence of Agile Methodology Agile methodology is underpinned by the Agile Manifesto, which emphasizes individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working solutions over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan.

Methodologies 146

Methodologies Agile Productivity Training 146

Harvard Business

AUGUST 11, 2017

In phase 3, successful portfolio transformations require financial discipline that is not an event, but a pattern; strategic clarity that is not a direction, but a commitment; operational excellence that is not a tool, but a mindset. Evaluating leadership capital has always been a critical component of due diligence for deal teams.

Leadership 73

Leadership Talent Culture Turnaround 73

Asamby Consulting

JANUARY 13, 2022

Why you need a COO or Operations Manager. Either their operations have grown quite a bit or they are in the midst of growing. Many founders and CEOs ask us this question: Do I need an operations manager? But there are a few questions: Why is it necessary to hire an operations person? We answer with a resounding yes.

Operations 52

Operations Management Methodologies Report 52

Harvard Business

MARCH 26, 2018

How working women are kept from positions of influence and power is by now well-documented by scientists and journalists alike. ” Famously, in 2013, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and a billionaire, published a book in which her advice for working women was to tell them to “lean in.”

Talent 138

Talent Benchmarking Research Study 138

Harvard Business

JULY 5, 2017

All of these issues rushed back to mind recently when the political leadership at the current U.S. Department of Labor retracted a guidance document regarding the definition of employees versus independent contractors that had been issued under my watch (you can find a copy here , however). These distinctions matter.

Case Interview 136

Case Interview Government Insurance Insurance 136

LSA Global

APRIL 3, 2025

High levels of organizational coordination and integration create operational leverage; low levels can cause unnecessary friction, dysfunction, and misalignment. Lead by Example Leadership must visibly and consistently model cultural values in their actions and decisions. Is there enough alignment of goals across levels?

Culture 41

Culture Ethics Policies Research 41

Effective Managers

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Ensuring that your team understands how to operate within their new working conditions is a key part of creating a culture of accountability. As quarantine begins to ease, and businesses are starting to operate as normal again, organizations must take advantage of the changes they have made and assess which ones they want to keep.

Culture 130

Culture Operations ROI Tools 130

Harvard Business

OCTOBER 2, 2018

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is known to expect unwavering discipline from his workers, personifies this leadership style. Employees operate within a hierarchy and are well aware of the guidelines that dictate their behavior. Managers could operate their stores with autonomy and tailor products to customer preferences.

Culture 132

Culture Operations Efficiency Guidelines 132

Harvard Business

AUGUST 29, 2016

Like many other Western companies, Yahoo began building major operations in China. Then, in 2005, a dissident journalist named Shi Tao used his Yahoo email account to send a document to Western reporters that described Chinese government restrictions on media coverage of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. Mark Bonchek.

Exercises 124

Exercises Media Guidelines Company 124

Harvard Business

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

To fully enable a new vision of the future, organizations must make changes in five key business areas: Planning and Budgeting If organizations have easy access to—and indeed rely on—external talent, they can tackle new opportunities, experiment more nimbly, and operate in new areas.

Talent 123

Talent How To Benchmarking Operations 123

Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

In larger and more sophisticated data operations, more fine-grained roles are necessary. Here are five key areas that contribute to data science operations. In larger operations, each may be a team unto itself. In small organizations, one person will do several of these things. e.g. running Kafka and a Hadoop cluster.

Data 132

Data Engineering Software Operations 132

Harvard Business

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

Grading the importance of various initiatives in an environment of finite resources is a primary test of leadership. For example, it might be critical that a company wins a new order (which will be awarded on a given date) from a major customer, or gets a factory fully operational by a certain day.

Resources 135

Resources Travel Software Examples 135

Tom Spencer

JUNE 21, 2021

As much as people claim to like detailed documents, they dislike confusion and delay even more. People are used to jumping to conclusions and become impatient when they can’t find the main point of the document. Optimize your reader’s time and manage their expectations up front. Group and summarise your supporting arguments.

McKinsey 88

McKinsey Construction Trends Industry 88

Harvard Business

JANUARY 4, 2017

Successful change requires strong leadership, working in lockstep with good people to move the rest of the organization in the right direction. There are critical government services that should not fail, such as processing taxes, military operations, or counting votes. Slack made bureau communications open and transparent.

Government 129

Government Tools Culture Groups 129

Asamby Consulting

JULY 25, 2022

Leadership has developed a strategy, sometimes over months, and knows it in and out. This sounds obvious, yet is critical to understand: Just because you develop an ambitious strategy doesn't mean you change the way your organization operates. Are my processes documented? People The most important asset you have.

Strategy& 98

Strategy& Strategy Strategy Tools 98

Harvard Business

MAY 23, 2018

Plenty of research has documented manipulative misuses of emotional intelligence — the intentionally subtle regulating of one’s emotions to engineer responses from others that might not be in their best interest. I saw this play out when debriefing with the Chief Operating Officer of a $20 billion global company.

Emotional Intelligence 157

Emotional Intelligence Report Engineering Interviews 157

Harvard Business

APRIL 2, 2018

Nearly every major company today operates a broad set of social and environmental activities that parallel its commercial value chain. Employees at every level can see and take pride in the way their company’s new products, strategies, and operational choices advance a clear social purpose. Nike is about fitness.

Company 127

Company Advertising Report Sales 127

Harvard Business

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

Successfully identifying, developing, and retaining leadership talent is critical for any organization’s long-term success. These talent management people create processes for assessing leadership capabilities and set the strategy for upgrading leadership talent over time. On paper, this approach makes perfect sense.

Talent 70

Talent Management Leadership Development 70

Consulting Matters

DECEMBER 16, 2022

One thing I have learned over my almost 30-plus years of consulting – while there are executive unicorns who will share your idealistic visions of a balanced approach to leadership, like Mark Johnson (in episode 42) or former Disney COO Jim MacPhee (in episode 40), the majority won't. A good doctor knows human anatomy.

Consulting 156

Consulting System Sales Meeting 156

Rick Conlow

JUNE 19, 2023

Bottom-line, companies with people-first culture led by Servant Leadership principles outperform their competitors. They need to adapt their leadership styles, communication strategies, and performance evaluation methods to accommodate remote work. Ensure employees have reliable access to these tools and provide training if needed.

Leadership 101

Leadership Training Training Productivity 101

Epicflow

DECEMBER 14, 2023

Basically, the domain is looking for ways to address current economic issues, improve operations, and optimize costs. AIA Contract Documents. So, in 2024, construction firms will continue taking measures to protect themselves against these uncertainties and minimize related risks. The Hartford. Pearcey, Linn.

Construction 157

Construction Trends Industry Energy 157

Harvard Business

AUGUST 8, 2018

But how well schools meet this goal, and to what extent their teaching influences their students’ leadership, is an open question. Future research may document how, now that business schools including HBS are moving on from agency theory, the next generation of CEOs manages differently.

Research 132

Research Education Pharmaceuticals Finance 132

Harvard Business

MAY 8, 2018

What’s more, communication with the board comes in the form of a short, online memo that allows directors to ask questions and comment within the document. Executives can amend the text and answer questions in what is essentially a living document. Governance by Walking About. Governance by Walking About.

Meeting 76

Meeting Analysis Government Exercises 76

Management Consulted

JULY 15, 2015

Today we highlight tremendous business analyst and post-consulting leadership jobs at Virgin Group. The group’s travel-related operations, led by 51%-owned Virgin Atlantic Airways, are among its largest cash generators. Virgin Group also operates rail franchises in the UK and sells tour packages. .

Groups 100

Groups Culture Interviews Travel 100

Harvard Business

JULY 19, 2017

Many companies are attempting a radical — and often rapid — shift from hierarchical structures to more agile environments, in order to operate at the speed required by today’s competitive marketplace. Senior leadership teams that embrace agile do a few things differently. This takes time. Systematic Inc.,

Agile 73

Agile How To Enterprise Leadership 73

PM Alliance

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Among the milestones on the path to a successful move is site selection—where will people and/or operations go? Be prepared to document your findings and recommendations Post-visit reports are often detailed , multi-layered, and complex. Facility relocation projects can be long and complex efforts.

Productivity 83

Productivity Engineering Report Groups 83

Harvard Business

JUNE 21, 2017

But I suggest that the problem at Uber goes beyond a culture created by toxic leadership. Indeed, employees at every turn faced personal and professional risks in defying the law; two European executives were indicted and arrested for operating without required permits. ” Respect for the law barely merits a footnote.

Transportation 73

Transportation Intellectual Property Culture Software 73

Harvard Business

AUGUST 16, 2017

How can you make core business operations more sustainable? And what type of leadership will take us there? If you believe that businesses can be a force for good and have a social responsibility for improving the communities where they operate, then there are few causes more important than fighting climate change.

Energy 73

Energy Chemicals Case Study Case Studies 73

Management Consulted

SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Buck Consultants now operates out of multiple offices globally with a clientele that includes 45% of Fortune 100 companies. Then, in 2010, Xerox acquired ACS for $6.4B, making Buck a Xerox company and a global leader in HR solutions. BUCK CONSULTANTS ORGANIZATION. Practice Areas. Communication. Compensation. HR technology. Administration.

Consulting 100

Consulting Case Interview Interviews Healthcare 100

Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 30, 2016

Prior research in healthcare and other industries makes clear the importance of team stability for team performance in general, yet stable teams are not always possible with chaotic 24/7 operations and heterogeneous work schedules. The doctors and nurses were co-located, making it easy to know who was on the team.

Healthcare 70

Healthcare Operations Training Training 70

Harvard Business

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Consider that in India in 2016, nearly seven in 10 citizens reported paying a bribe to access basic public services such as public schools, public clinics or hospitals, access to official documents, and utilities, according to Transparency International.

Company 70

Company Ethics Tools Operations 70

Tom Spencer

DECEMBER 10, 2021

The approach values individuals over process, early delivery over comprehensive documentation, collaborative development over contract negotiation, and a flexible response to changing circumstances over pedantically following a preordained roadmap. Training the client’s staff requires strong leadership, mentoring, and communication skills.

Software 88

Software Consulting Accenture Agile 88