Ideas and Writings
Articles Printed in 2012
Articles Printed in 2011
When All Else Fails, Follow a Hunch
Harvard Business Review | September 2011 | Download PDF
How willing are you to trust your intuition?
Articles Printed in 2010
Getting Beyond The Corporate Culture At Pfizer
Forbes.com | May 2010 | Download PDF
Sometimes a business needs not one but a variety of cultures. An interview with David Simmons, president of Established Products at Pfizer.
Leadership Means Picking The Right Fights
Forbes.com | February 2010 | Download PDF
It’s easy to overlook how crucial that is.
Strategy + Business | February 2010 | Download PDF
When the head of a division had an impossible target to meet, the only way forward was through a constructive battle between allies.
Why We All Need More Design Thinking
Forbes.com | January 2010 | Download PDF
A conversation with Tim Brown, CEO of the design and innovation firm IDEO.
Articles Printed in 2009
The Chamber Of Commerce’s Climate Change Mess
Forbes.com | November 2009 | Download PDF
They brought it on themselves. Here’s how.
How to Pick a Good Fight by Saj-nicole A. Joni and Damon Beyer
Harvard Business Review | November 2009 | Download PDF
Strong leaders create the kind of conflict that can spark creativity and innovation.
Today’s Measure Of Tomorrow’s Leaders
Forbes.com | October 2009 | Download PDF
There are three kinds of leaders in the new world we’re entering. Only one kind will succeed.
The Sotomayor Debate: What Every Business Leader Needs To Discern
Forbes.com | July 2009 | Download PDF
It’s wrong to object to her “wise Latina woman” remark. Here’s why.
Sustainability: Don't Even Wait For The Rest Of Management
Forbes.com | June 2009 | Download PDF
I sat down with Mark Tercek, CEO of the Nature Conservancy, to discuss the practicalities of pursuing sustainability in a difficult business environment.
New Leadership Qualities You Need In This New World
Forbes.com | March 2009 | Download PDF
This article discusses the new demands that a slow, halting recovery will place on leadership and suggests four steps you can take to ensure that you can meet the challenge.
Steve Jobs And Your Own Privacy As An Executive
Forbes.com | February 2009 | Download PDF
This article features a discussion about the critical issue of top executives’ health and its effect on their organizations. The piece was inspired by Steve Jobs’ developing health story, and goes on to discuss the implications for all key executives. How personal is your health? Can you hope to keep your health concerns private? And what responsibility do Boards have? It’s an increasingly urgent issue in this era of transparency.
Articles Printed in 2008
What Businesses Must Do To Succeed In 2009
Forbes.com | December 2008 | Download PDF
With the economic climate so precarious, 2009 will be a time when successful businesses have to redefine what they do and how they do it. Hunkering down to weather the storm and emerging the same as before when the economy begins to recover won’t cut it. Too much will have changed. But the opportunities will be extraordinary for business leaders who have the vision, skill and courage to move forward. What should you watch for? What are the opportunities and perils of the immediate future?
Forbes.com | November 2008 | Download PDF
This article reflects the many discussions I’ve had recently with top leaders around the world as they grapple with the financial crisis and the effects it has had on their businesses. Over and over again, I heard executives echo Rahm Emanuel’s recent comment: “Never waste a crisis.” I suggest three ways to move ahead despite the uncertainties. First, figure out how to survive. Second, ask yourself what you can do now that you couldn’t do before. And third, no whining!
Forbes.com | July 2008 | Download PDF
This article features a discussion with Warren Bennis, the noted organizational consultant, author and pioneering expert on leadership. Warren has defined the field of leadership studies and thoughtfully explored the major issues leaders face today. We talk together about what makes for good judgment in a leader, and Warren identifies some of the great leaders he has studied and known. He also shares his greatest personal leadership challenge.
When Mentors Fail To Go The Distance
Forbes.com | May 2008 | Download PDF
This article features a discussion on how to distance yourself gracefully from a mentor — a topic every leader struggles with at turning points in their journey.
Forbes.com | April 2008 | Download PDF
This article features my discussion with David Maister, author of Strategy and the Fat Smoker: Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy, Paul Laudicina, CEO of A.T. Kearney, and David Gensler, Executive Director of Gensler, a leading design firm. We talk together about making strategy real, and the tensions that exist in any organization between your goals and what you can actually achieve.
Business Finance Magazine | March 2008 | Download PDF
Within the past few years, there has been a clarion call for finance professionals to “step up” and play more expansive, transformational roles in business. The trouble is, finance leaders often lack the mix of organizational insight and intuition that such transformational endeavors demand.
Forbes.com | January 2008 | Download PDF
This article features my interview with Betsy Myers, the COO of Senator Barack Obama‘s historic campaign. Together, we discuss the question of whether or not the campaign can truly reflect the candidate‘s desire to change the way politics is run.
Doing Business In The Cellophane Era
Forbes.com | January 2008 | Download PDF
2008 will be the year of transparency. You’d better get in the game — or risk having your secrets appropriated by someone else.
Articles Printed in 2007
Forbes.com | December 2007 | Download PDF
Accelerating global demand for power, national needs for secure, steady fuel supplies and widespread concern about environmental impact are changing everything about the energy business. Paul Hanrahan, AES CEO, is at the helm of a global power company that is redefining the energy business. AES has an impressive growth trajectory: It’s one of the top five independent producers of electricity, with plans to effectively double earnings by 2011. But for Hanrahan, numbers are the byproduct of a unique culture and profound commitment to the future. He”s all about answering the questions: What does it take to create new and reliable sources of energy? Methods of power generation? Alternative fuel supplies? The global talent who can make it happen?
Making Rady A ‘Hub of Networks’
Forbes.com | October 2007 | Download PDF
With surging application numbers and an ever-increasing demand for top management talent, American business schools are enjoying a period of unprecedented success. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), recently joined the B-school ranks with its new Rady School of Management, graduating their first M.B.A. class this past summer. In an environment already crowded with management education, the Rady School is defining itself as a haven for high-tech and life science leadership studies. This groundbreaking course has been set by founding Dean Robert Sullivan.
Forbes.com | August 2007 | Download PDF
In an increasingly digital society that seems to read less and less, HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman believes the publishing business is in great shape. While the overall health of the industry might be debatable, Friedman’s success is not. During her 10-year tenure, HarperCollins’ annual revenues have increased from $737 million to more than $1.3 billion. With greater expansion into online sales, digital warehousing and large-print editions, the company appears well-positioned for the future.
Forbes.com | June 2007 | Download PDF
How does someone move from administrative assistant to vice president of programming at ABC, or from running a soap opera magazine to head of Fox Studios? The answer: Find a massive dose of talent and guts and mix it with Patricia Fili-Krushel, executive vice president at Time Warner. Big breaks — meeting the right person, being in the right place at the right time — are unexpected and high-trajectory career moves. They rarely appear in exactly the form that one might prefer, and it often requires a healthy dose of courage to forge ahead into uncharted waters.
Articles Printed in 2006
Forbes.com | December 2006 | Download PDF
The increasing power of networks will continue to create new leadership challenges, opportunities and winners. These networks yield unprecedented individual productivity and will drive the rise and ubiquity of virtual work, flex-time and unimpeded access to the top. Savvy executives now communicate directly, down, up and sideways — and their words and actions are not mitigated by the middle.
Forbes.com | December 2006 | Download PDF
The stunningly one-sided results of the recent U.S. elections speak loudly to leaders everywhere: Even against considerable odds, free and educated people can and will align around the bedrock of purpose, intent and consistency of word and deed. The importance and galvanizing strength of purpose, played out in the political arena, applies equally well to leaders in executive suites across the globe.
Chairman Rx: The Need for Perspective
Forbes.com | October 2006 | Download PDF
Leadership is a human act, fraught with mistakes and errors of judgment. But when grave mistakes in judgment seem embarrassingly obvious in hindsight, how do we explain them? For the recently dismissed chairman of Hewlett-Packard’s board of directors — and all the people affected by her failures — this question is more than academic.
Forbes.com | September 2006 | Download PDF
Internet start-up billionaire Mark Cuban is a fixture at Dallas Mavericks basketball games. He purchased a majority share of the NBA team in 2000 and has managed its operations ever since with the raw enthusiasm of a fan. As leader of the franchise, Cuban has always been, in a word, himself. His blunt comments about officials, other teams and even his own players have cost him more than $1.6 million in fines from the league. While fans and admirers enjoy the spectacle of his uncensored, “be yourself” transparency, its impact on his business is another matter.
Lincoln On Business Leadership
Forbes.com | May 2006 | Download PDF
History’s greatest political, social and business leaders share common traits that drive their success. In her recent book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Simon & Schuster 2005), historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin gives new insight into Lincoln’s extraordinary leadership, both in the personal dimension and in his ability to marshal a highly complex and contentious team of rivals and prevail — becoming not only one of the nation’s best presidents but one of history’s greatest leaders.
Upping Your Complexity Quotient
Forbes.com | March 2006
All of us have moments when we feel overwhelmed by complexity. Whether it’s fast-paced market opportunities, ever-changing technologies or geopolitics, a multitude of matters vie for attention and simultaneously represent opportunities, threats or both.
Gambling on Breakthrough Growth
Forbes.com | February 2006 | Download PDF
There’s been a shift in expectations for leaders. The message behind CEO shakeups, proxy battles (Icahn and Time Warner (nyse: TWX — news — people) for one) and the breakup of conglomerates such as Cendant (nyse: CD — news — people) is loud and clear. Markets, investors and boards are looking for top management to deliver growth that drives performance and increases long-term competitive advantage.
Articles Printed in 2005
Forbes.com | December 2005 | Download PDF
Growth and innovation will occupy center stage in the executive suite for 2006. With the markets moving forward, top leadership now must be about growth and innovation. Profit delivered solely by improving margins and focusing on operational excellence just isn’t going to cut it.
Creating Healthy Tensions at the Top
Forbes.com | December 2005 | Download PDF
A great deal has been written about the need for top leadership to create unity and alignment. But the opposite is equally true: It’s also their job to invite conflict and create tension. Few executives would admit that they spend time reflecting on aligning and fostering tensions and conflict. Yet when the truth is told, this is something all great leaders are called upon to do.
Executive Re-Charge: Sustaining Great Leaders
Forbes.com | July 2005
The secret is out: developing multiple interests and passionate hobbies ’ once thought of as a sign of not being “serious” — turns out to be a predictor of success.
Get a Third Opinion
American Way Magazine | May 2005 | Download PDF
To diagnose and treat your company’s problems, you can’t stop with a second opinion. Third opinion advisers, are those indispensable, yet often unknown advisors who tell the hard truths and give executives their reality check. For top-level managers this kind of advice is paramount — because as they advance, executives become increasingly isolated and find themselves less and less able to get objective input inside their companies.
Corralling Business Communications
Forbes.com | May 2005
Forbes.com‘s CEO Network gathered some of business’s best minds for a live panel to debate the shift in business communications. The participants were MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte; Cambridge International Group President and CEO Saj-nicole Joni, Ph.D.; Institutional Investor Services President and CEO John Connolly; Bradley Jack, who is a member of the Office of the Chairman at Lehman Brothers; and Spencer Stuart Senior Director James Citrin.
Law Firm Inc
March/April 2005 | Download Word Document
A pattern of strategic mergers, acquisitions and brand integrations has been reshaping the legal industry, and notably the workplace within many firms. For partners this brings many new challenges, and put pressure on the fundamental assumptions about the responsibilities, stature, and privileges that comprise their professional sense of self. All partners need to understand the three aspects of trusts that co-exist within any company, partnership or corporate entity: Personal Trust, Expertise Trust and Structural Trust.
Winning with Complexity: Navigating Complexity for Results and Superior Performance
March 2005 | Download PDF
Dr. Saj-nicole Joni, a faculty member of Duke Corporate Education’s Global Learning Resource Network, discusses an essential ‘map’ leaders need in order to track and mobilize the kinds of thinking, relationships, and habits it takes to succeed in the 21st century.
A Conversation with Peter Senge and Saj-nicole Joni
Reflections: The SoL Journal on Knowledge, Learning and Change, Vol 6 No 1. | March 2005 | Download PDF
In a recent conversation, Peter Senge, founding chairperson of SoL, and Saj-nicole Joni talked about ways to support leaders engaged in collaborative decision making. Together, they explore the limits of traditional coaching and consulting, the need to balance public and private inquiry for successful leadership, and the role of inquiry in accelerated learning and improved decision making.
Articles Printed in 2004
Harvard Business Review | March 2004
Leaders who rely forever on the same internal advisors run the risk of being sold short and possibly betrayed. Alternatively, lone-wolf leaders may make enormous, yet preventable, mistakes when trying to sort through difficult decisions. A sophisticated understanding of trust can protect leaders from both fates. During the past decade, author and consultant Saj-nicole Joni studied leadership in more than 150 European and North American companies. Her research reveals three fundamental types of trust: personal trust, expertise trust, and structural trust.
Home | About | Working with Saj-nicole | Ideas and Writings | Speeches | Contact
Website by Public Words
Copyright © 2008-2010 Cambridge International Group Ltd. All Rights Reserved.