For technology companies embarking on the challenging journey of expanding into new markets, choosing the right early customers is critical. Expansion is more than entering new geographies or industries; it's a transformative step toward scaling up and meeting broader demand. However, many companies stumble by misjudging their first users, leading to stalled growth or retreat. Crucially, the decision to focus on familiar users (from the company's home market) or target-market users (from the new market) influences the clarity and applicability of feedback. Familiar users provide clearer, more interpretable feedback due to shared culture and language but may not represent the broader target market, especially if customer preferences differ widely across regions. In contrast, target-market users offer feedback directly relevant to the new market’s preferences but often come with communication challenges making interpretation tougher. Successful expansion hinges on assessing two factors: how similar customers’ preferences are between markets and how homogeneous the company's familiar market is. Companies in global, low-preference-fragmentation categories benefit from starting locally with familiar users, while those in fragmented, culturally diverse sectors should engage target-market users early on. Real-world cases like Canva demonstrate success by leveraging clear local insights in a homogenous market, whereas Grammarly navigated varied global preferences by starting with its target market. Executives should carefully define their target market, evaluate preference similarity and local homogeneity, then decide which early adopters to engage. Effective learning from these users accelerates product refinement and market scaling, turning early-adopter choices into a vital strategic advantage.

The study conducted by interviewing senior leaders across diverse sectors reveals key principles for effective crisis leadership. These leaders, including prime ministers, CEOs, and military officials, highlighted the importance of seven core capabilities—termed the 7C's—that organizations must develop to navigate crises successfully. Case studies like Southwest Airlines' failure during a winter storm and Microsoft's resilient outage response demonstrate the stark contrast in crisis management effectiveness. The 7C's—Contingency, Clarity, Coordination, Compassion, Confrontation, Control, and Continuity—serve as pillars, each maturing through five stages from reactive to strategic. Organizations must balance these capabilities, supported by a strong culture, with maturity giving leaders the confidence to manage crises effectively. The JPMorgan Chase example during the 2023 banking turmoil exemplifies how integrated crisis management, clear roles, and compassionate actions stabilize situations. Ultimately, resilience stems from preparation, culture, and continuous learning, not merely reactive responses.

AI offers managers tools to boost productivity by quickly synthesizing information, drafting documents, and summarizing feedback. However, relying too heavily on AI risks weakening human judgment, which is critical for nuanced decisions involving values, emotions, and relationships. Managers should use AI to handle routine, repeatable tasks — like data crunching or drafting presentations — while reserving decisions that involve trust and human context for their own careful consideration.

The most effective use of AI involves treating its outputs as starting points, not final answers. Managers must actively engage with AI-generated material, evaluate it critically, and make it their own. They should also challenge their own assumptions by asking AI to offer counterarguments to avoid confirmation bias. Building personal guardrails, such as scheduling regular "AI-free" reflection time and tracking decision-making processes, helps maintain sharp judgment and accountability.

Ultimately, success in the AI era comes from blending technology with distinctly human skills—using AI to extend, not replace, thoughtful leadership.

Aleksandar Savic

Morningstar has grown significantly over two decades, evolving from a mutual fund rating company into a global financial services leader with a tenfold increase in revenue and profits by 2025. CEO Kunal Kapoor attributes this success to a strong corporate culture centered on relentless execution. Through an analysis of employee feedback on Glassdoor, Morningstar stands out for its positive culture and commitment to core values. Kapoor emphasizes three key principles behind this execution:

1. Decentralizing decision-making to foster ownership by pushing accountability to business units, reinforcing this with performance-based compensation and organizational design.

2. Using transparent Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to create open communication about challenges and progress, enabling early course corrections and candid feedback.

3. Instilling urgency and ambitious goal-setting to prevent complacency, encouraging teams to move quickly and stretch toward challenging yet achievable long-term plans without fear of penalization for missed stretch targets.

Kapoor’s leadership style highlights disciplined follow-through and a culture that values ownership, transparency, and rapid execution to sustain Morningstar’s growth and innovation.

For years, HR leaders have sought to evolve their roles beyond compliance to strategic talent architects, yet progress has been slow. Now, AI is accelerating the need for change, spotlighting a divide between current HR functions and their untapped potential. Conversations with CHROs reveal two clear paths: one where HR diminishes as automation and tool-enabled business leaders take over core tasks, and another where HR transforms into a strategic force leading organizational change and managing AI workforce interactions. Technology has historically both aided and complicated HR, automating routine tasks but also overwhelming leaders with transactional demands. AI, unlike past tools, can analyze and generate content, automating more nuanced HR functions but also demanding new levels of strategic insight and human understanding. To thrive, HR must train for strategic thinking, embrace data-driven decision making, cut low-impact initiatives, harness AI thoughtfully, and focus on people-centric roles such as coaching and culture design. Organizations face a crossroads: let HR be sidelined into a compliance role or elevate it into a core driver of organizational effectiveness. Success requires rethinking HR’s structure, embracing AI to remove transactional burdens, and fostering collaboration with all business leaders to create measurable value and humane work environments. The choice will reshape the future of work and human capital management.

In this episode of the Me, Myself, and AI podcast, Sam Ransbotham interviews Taylor Stockton, chief innovation officer at the U.S. Department of Labor, about the widespread impact of AI on the labor market. Taylor highlights that AI is reshaping nearly every job across the economy rather than affecting just specific roles or sectors. He emphasizes the need for workers and businesses to adapt by prioritizing AI literacy as a core skill, alongside traditional soft skills like relationship building. Taylor calls for a shift in the public conversation from fear to optimism, focusing on how AI can expand opportunities, promote mobility, and create more meaningful work. The Department of Labor is launching initiatives like the AI Workforce Hub to track AI's effects and support workforce readiness through policy innovation and research. Taylor also discusses the evolving role of entrepreneurship enabled by AI and the lasting importance of human trust and relationships in business.

Many leadership advice pieces focus on presentation skills like clarity and storytelling, but the real test of leadership communication happens in high-stakes meetings—where tough issues are debated and decisions made. Even skilled leaders sometimes find that despite thorough preparation and sound ideas, the room goes silent, alignment fractures, and decisions stall. This often occurs because under pressure, leaders unconsciously amplify their preferred thinking styles in ways that make it harder for others to engage and respond.

Leaders employ different thinking processes: some prepare meticulously before meetings, others think aloud during discussions, some rely on teams for analysis, and others explore ideas collaboratively in real time. Each process is a strength but can become a liability under pressure—tight preparation may signal "your input isn’t welcome," taking control can feel like decisions are predetermined, delegation can create confusion about who decides, and exploration can seem chaotic. These misalignments often go unnoticed by leaders who focus on the correctness of their message rather than how accessible it feels to others.

Effective leaders adjust by anticipating where their style might disorient others. They build in moments to confirm understanding, create pauses before finalizing decisions to invite input, clarify who shapes outcomes, and openly signal when thinking is exploratory. Such adjustments may seem inefficient initially but ultimately reduce confusion, build trust, and promote shared decision-making. Recognizing how one’s thinking style shifts under pressure—and how that affects others—is key to maintaining influence and keeping the team aligned in crucial moments.

With the workforce now spanning five generations, millennials and Gen Z make up the majority, yet leadership remains dominated by older generations. The average CEO age in S&P 1500 companies has risen to nearly 59, while only a small fraction of younger directors are present on major boards. This imbalance risks stagnation as business environments evolve rapidly. Age-diverse leadership teams bring a dynamic blend of experience and fresh perspectives, fostering innovation and resilience. Younger leaders boost curiosity and challenge norms, while seasoned leaders provide valuable expertise, crucial for sustainable growth and adaptation. Organizations can foster this balance through three key strategies: consultation, decision rights, and building intergenerational leadership pipelines. Examples include reverse mentoring, shadow boards like Gucci’s, and integrating younger executives in decision-making roles as seen at Telstra and Ford. Embedding these approaches facilitates ongoing generational collaboration, driving innovation, inclusion, and long-term competitive advantage.

At the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Schneider Electric was awarded twice by the WEF’s MINDS program for its impactful AI-driven solutions in energy management, distinguishing it uniquely. CEO Olivier Blum underscored the inseparable future of AI and energy, emphasizing the need for enhanced energy intelligence. Under the leadership of Chief AI Officer Philippe Rambach, the firm has implemented nearly 100 AI applications, evenly divided between customer-focused solutions and internal operational enhancements, from manufacturing to customer service.

Schneider Electric advances AI by embedding it directly into existing platforms and workflows instead of standalone products. This approach includes AI enhancements in sales tools and agentic AI systems that improve sales productivity despite their developmental stage. Training programs are tailored to different employee roles to facilitate AI integration and culture.

The company’s AI deployment model bypasses prolonged pilot testing, focusing instead on scalable implementations verified through strict stage-gate processes and comprehensive business cases, ensuring immediate and significant impact. Value measurement strategies vary between customer-facing and internal uses, emphasizing adoption and performance metrics, allowing Schneider Electric to lead in practical, large-scale AI adoption while balancing analytical and generative AI methods.

Lessons from Schneider Electric highlight the importance of business-driven AI initiatives, front-line employee involvement, embedded AI in workflows, scalability from the outset, specialized training, and a balanced AI technology portfolio—offering a robust template for successful AI integration across enterprises.

In professional service firms, leadership was once defined by quiet excellence—partners earned influence through expertise, loyalty, and discretion. But in today’s transparent world, where every meeting can be replayed and every comment evaluated, competence alone no longer guarantees trust. Visibility has become essential. Leaders are judged not only on their achievements but on how clearly their impact can be communicated and understood. Whether through LinkedIn posts, client feedback, or internal dashboards, making one’s contributions visible is critical for credibility.

This shift is not about ego or self-promotion but about legitimacy. Transparency now influences how authority is granted, relying on clear communication, consistent behavior, and a unified digital presence. Leaders who master this "visible legitimacy" become trusted guides within their organizations.

Based on interviews with 19 senior partners in global consulting firms, a Visibility-Legitimacy Model emerges. It centers on three key levers: internal recognition, external reputation, and digital trust. Internal recognition involves showcasing contributions beyond one’s immediate role, building influence through visible collaboration and problem-solving. External reputation grows when leaders represent their firms in public forums with authenticity and alignment to company values. Digital trust is built through consistent and transparent online behavior matching offline actions.

Leaders are encouraged to make their work legible, serve visibly across the organization, and maintain a coherent presence across all channels. For organizations, fostering visible integrity through talent evaluation and rewarding stewardship rather than self-promotion sustains a culture of trust.

In an era where what is seen shapes what is believed, visibility has become the new currency of trust. Leaders who use transparency as a tool of service and accountability will empower their organizations and thrive in today’s economy of trust.