Niko describes the need for more powerful methods to help business leaders achieve their strategic objectives in the current economic environment.

Getting the formal and informal organizations to work together is the key to driving performance in the face of today's recessionary challenges.

To survive tough times, leaders have to pay as much attention to addressing the emotional challenge as they do cutting costs. "Master motivators" can help employees stay emotionally connected to their work throughout the recession.

Jon Katzenbach describes how successful managers motivate their employees by establishing personal connections, which drive pride in their work and improved performance.

Finding and developing breakthrough innovators is a major challenge for growth-oriented companies, but all too often, companies smother the creative spark rather than cultivating talent.

Companies that include the workforce in the process of cost cutting are much more likely to achieve sustainable results.

Fortune Magazine profiles Niko Canner in its article on “the next generation of management experts who are changing the way business gets done.”

Traci Entel describes how many entrepreneurs are expanding their business without increasing staff size. By forging partnerships, leveraging outsourcing opportunities, and relying on technology, lean companies can increase profits, but stay small in size.

When business is down, compensation and promotions cannot be the only sources of motivation. Instead, as Jon Katzenbach describes, boosting organizational morale depends on having employees who feel drawn to the substance of their work.

As companies facing the 2008 current economic downturn launch cost reduction initiatives, the prudent ones will make cuts in a way that works with their company’s culture, rather than against it.

Facing pressure from investors, banks and other financial institutions are looking for financial experts to fill board seats

In an interactive case study on BusinessWeek.com, Traci Entel discusses how Expedia took bold steps to introduce empathy into its relationship with its suppliers, through both philosophical and organizational changes.

The latest report from CHINA 2024 describes the shortage of Chinese MBAs and what Chinese and multinational companies can do to retain top-tier talent.

Niko describes how organizations in the public sector and increasing their demand for people with business backgrounds.

Traci Entel and Jenny Machida, authors of "The Empathy Engine: Achieving Breakthroughs In Patient Service," write about how healthcare organizations can improve care and raise their bottom line by providing personal touches.

This article in BNET looks at how leaders keep up morale and performance during difficult times. Paul Bromfield comments on how to keep employees motivated and use their insight to identify where to cut costs and how.

Leaders all too often rush into cost cutting without properly considering how it will impact employee morale. As Paul Bromfield describes, cost reduction requires a careful process, that includes keeping employees informed at critical moments to provide clarity and transparency.

Most cost reductions fail because leaders try to mandate change, rather than motivating their organization to cut costs effectively.

Jenny Machida describes how healthcare organizations can improve care and create a competitive advantage by providing empathetic customer service.

This article by The New York Times describes how some executives are kept in the dark about setbacks because employees are too afraid to be the bearers of bad news. Niko Canner describes his tactics for ensuring that bad news gets delivered quickly and consistently.

Cost-cutting efforts could be a reality for some time to come. One dimension of cost-cutting is often disregarded—the critical need to ensure cost cuts occur in ways that obtain positive emotional commitment within the context of the culture.

This article describes how businesses and non-profit entities are influencing one another as they become increasingly interconnected. Niko Canner comments on the opportunities this creates for people who work in both worlds.

Empathetic customer service can increase the performance of healthcare companies and have a postive impact on patient heatlh outcomes.

A BusinessWeek blogger writes about "The Young and Restless in China," a documentary about Katzenbach's CHINA 2024 effort set to air on PBS in June.

Americans demand healthcare service and will switch providers to find better care. Poor service can drive patients out of the system and hurt healthcare organizations. To improve service, providers must do more than talk about care: they must become "empathy engines."

Leading organizations use holistic diversity strategies to achieve a measurable return on investment.

Tension is an essential component of the architecture of high-performing organizations. Using tension productively, so that employees are neither complacent nor overwhelmed, requires 3 key skills: picking the right fights, leveraging informal networks, and developing proactive leadership skills.

Tim Galpin lays out the hard truths and key things to get right when managing - or repairing - a merger.

Traci Entel, author of "The Empathy Engine," writes about the importance of delivering locally tailored service, and what companies such as Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, and Macy's are doing to provide it.