Leadership
Making sudden, surprising shifts in direction has been something of a hallmark for Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN, Inc.
While in college, Grossman recalls, “I woke up one morning and realized I was living someone else’s life.” She then promptly dropped out of school, broke off her engagement, and...
After nearly 30 years of experience at global enterprises including Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Citicorp, Ajay Banga landed the top job at MasterCard in 2010. Five years later, MasterCard’s stock has more than tripled to $70 a share, while net income increased from $5.5 billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion in...
Lorenzo Zambrano, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, made his mark by transforming the regional Mexican cement company Cemex — started by his grandfather in 1906 — into a multinational powerhouse, with operations in 50 countries and 2013 revenues of $15.2 billion. Zambrano obtained an MBA from...
The woman whose name is synonymous with daytime talk shows, Oprah Winfrey, came to Stanford Graduate School of Business recently to discuss leadership, philanthropy, and the secret to her phenomenal popularity. The following are excerpts from her talk, which was part of the student-led View From...
Oprah Winfrey was so young when she started working as the late-night anchor on WLAC-TV in Nashville, Tenn., she still had an 11 p.m. curfew at home. Yet she was so successful at reciting the news on camera at age 19 that she quickly received an offer from a television station in Atlanta that...
Has the banking system been made sufficiently safe and healthy in the years since Lehman Brothers collapsed? To Stanford finance professor Anat Admati, the answer is an unequivocal no.
She started scrutinizing the question four years ago, dismayed by what she and colleagues referred in a paper to...
Can introducing controlled chaos into an organization prompt fresh ideas to emerge? Ori Brafman thinks so. For two years, he worked with an organization that thrives on structure and hierarchy: the U.S. Army. His experience in bringing chaos theory into the Army’s decision-making process is...
In 2003, Gen. Stanley McChrystal took command of the United States’ Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), an association of elite forces such as the Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, and Delta Force. His mission: to defeat al-Qaida in Iraq.
JSOC had superior technology, skills, and resources. They were...