If you want to understand global work in 2025, start where very few people actually look: the chips. Stephen Witt’s book, The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip, which I just finished reading, is part biography, part business history, part supply-chain thriller. It traces how Nvidia—founded in 1993, reportedly brainstormed […]
The Economics of Global Work
In today’s world, doing global work is getting harder. The geopolitical landscape—fractured alliances, renewed nationalism, sanctions, airspace restrictions, and unpredictable regulation—combined with macro-economic headwinds like inflation, energy costs, and supply chain stress, have made everything from travel to deployment of talent more expensive and time-consuming. For anyone working across borders, these changes are no longer […]
When Growth Trumps Culture: A Global Leadership Lesson from Facebook
I recently read Sarah Wynn-Williams’ fascinating book about her role as Director of Public Policy for Facebook. Upon its publication, Careless People gained further publicity given that Facebook promised to take legal action—so I was very curious what would await me. Clearly, there is always subjectivity in how a single employee perceives a firm and […]
Why Europe Must Lead Together: Collaborative Global Leadership in an Age of Disruption
We are living through a period of profound disruption. From war in Ukraine and tensions in the Middle East to climate emergencies, rising authoritarianism, and the disruptive promise—and peril—of AI, today’s global challenges are not only multiplying, they are becoming more interconnected and complex. At the same time, the return of Trump-era politics and the […]
When Putin’s War Meets Zelensky’s Leadership
Some time ago, when the Covid crisis unfolded, I wrote about global leadership lessons, as such instances of global disruptions have the capacity to reveal how leaders operate and who they really are. Currently, we are into the fourth month of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Zooming out from the real suffering and emotional burden of […]
Ted Lasso: An Example of a Global Leader Who Wins Over People
Do you remember the TV series The Office? The American series aired in 2005, ran a total of 201 episodes, won several awards, and surely made it to the list of favourites for many viewers. Probably echoing the perceptions of many, I would argue that the series was indeed quite entertaining and funny, especially because […]
Global Leadership Succession: Is Merkel Irreplaceable?
On September 26th Germany voted for a new government—and a new leader! As the election results in Germany unravelled, the whole of Europe and the world watched carefully. Indeed, Angela Merkel’s departure is significant and marks an end of an era. Merkel is the first German chancellor, who has served a record four terms in […]
Let’s ReThink the Notion of a Confident Leader
In uncertain and volatile times, we need strong and confident leadership, don’t we?! The answer might be more complicated than a simple Yes or No. As a psychologist might wittily remark, it all depends… How do we define and see such confidence? Is a confident leader the one, who has all the answers to difficult […]
On Global Leadership, Humility, Biden and Hopes for the Next Years
About four years ago my first blog post of the year 2017 was about Trump’s inauguration. Back then I wrote about the feelings of uncertainty and anticipation of an era of protectionism and populism. Four years forward, we are all quite familiar with how his ‘America first’ philosophy turned out, and each of us can hold their own […]
Covid-19 and the Unfolding of Global Leadership
As Covid-19 unfolded, it became quite clear that leaders in all countries had to face and cope with a globally interconnected health crisis. This global crisis demands committed global leadership, which however has greatly varied in approaches, styles and actions, as all of us could experience and witness. Driven by our curiosity of what we […]
Leadership Talent: How to Spot It if It Is Hidden?
I haven’t written about talent for a while here, yet this is not an indication of reduced importance of the topic in any way. Indeed, the Talent Shortage Survey by ManpowerGroup indicates that in 2016 employers globally reported the highest talent shortage since 2007. Based on the survey data it seems that employers struggle foremost […]
Latest Research: The Role of Global Leadership
The most recent DHL Global Connectedness Index, analyzing the state of globalization around the world, suggests that we don’t quite live in a ‘flat’ world. Indeed, in spite of visible global interconnectedness, the actual numbers related to international flows of products and services, capital, information, and people, show that globalization is much more limited than […]
Working in a Cross-cultural Environment: Where to Look for Cultural Gaps?
Multicultural, multinational, and multilingual teams are part and parcel of global organizations of today. This highlights the importance of cultural competencies, cross-cultural cooperation, and leadership of multinational teams. Indeed, the main question for many is how to do business and effectively manage in such a culturally diverse environment? Cultural competence: too broad to grasp? Well […]
Empathic Listening: Listening or Simply Hearing?
As long as four decades ago American psychologist Paul Ekman boosted the study of human emotions and came up with what we know today as six basic and universally recognized emotions. According to Ekman’s and much of the following research, people universally show and are able to recognize the facial expressions of such emotions as […]
Global Leadership: Inner Talent or Learned Skill?
When I recently looked into publications on global leadership and talent management, my attention was caught by two different articles, which surely would make for a heated discussion if put together. On one hand is a recent blog entry by David Livermore, who emphasizes that global leadership is not based on natural qualities or dispositions, […]
Gender Diversity on a Global Scale: Different Perspectives
Gender diversity in organizations and female underrepresentation in management teams has been a widely discussed topic in global business. While I have already reviewed it in several of my previous blog posts, there are more recent publications that are very relevant and worth discussing. So, why are women still underrepresented in leadership positions? Is it […]
