Based on “Why Detailed Data Is As Important As Big Data” by Sam Ransbotham (MIT Sloan Management Review, April 2012); “Make Data Work Throughout Your Organization” by Thomas C. Redman (Harvard Business Review, January 2012); “Six Provocations for Big Data” by Danah Boyd and Kate Crawford (Oxford Internet Institute, September 2011); “In Defense of Small Datas” by Caribou Honig (Forbes, March 2012); “The Deciding Factor: Big Data & Decision-Making” (Capgemini survey, June 2012); and “Big Data: Driving Adoption Across Europe” (IDC survey, June 2012).

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage,” explains Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. Among the various skills development and knowledge management methods that companies use, mentoring is one of the most effective in terms of rapid, direct, and lasting knowledge transfer. Based on “Why mentoring matters in a hypercompetitive world” by Thomas J. DeLong, John J. Gabarro, and Robert J. Lees (Harvard Business Review, January 2008), “The difference between mentoring and coaching” by Valerie Pelan (Talent Management, February 2012), “Demystifying mentoring” by Amy Gallo (Harvard Business Review, February 2011), and Critical strategies of modern mentoring programs by Scot Lake (BrandonHall Group, December 2011).

How can you cut prices without sacrificing quality? This is the challenge that Siemens’ 2005 SMART initiative was designed to overcome. The idea to meet the needs of consumers in emerging countries by designing products that are simple to use, easy to repair, and inexpensive.

How can the impressive do-it-yourself cultures of emerging countries give Western firms new inspiration? In environments characterized by resource constraints, Jugaad leads to greater creativity and translates into quicker to-market times and more effective responses to customer needs.Based on Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja (Jossey-Bass, May 2012), and the interview with Armin Bruck, CEO Siemens India, April 2012.

It is not a coincidence that that many companies in developing countries rely on frugal innovation to minimize their ecological footprint. Indeed, consumers in emerging countries like China and India are generally more sensitive to environmental protection than their Western counterparts. Based on “Emerging markets willing to pay more for ‘green’ products” by Sumner Lemon (InfoWorld, January 2010), “Ghana: Bamboo bikes in high demand” by Kofi Adu Domfeh (Africa News, March 2011), “Striving for Positive Water Impact” by PepsiCo & The Nature Conservancy, 2011, “Doing green business with emerging markets” from the 11th European Forum on Eco-Innovation (European Commission Environment, October 2011).

Flexible environments that encourage individual initiative produce the most promising projects. Companies that have developed such strong intrepreneurial cultures encourage staff to act as intrepreneurs, who combine company resources with an eye for market opportunities! Based on Corporate Entrepreneurship: How to Create a Thriving Entrepreneurial Spirit Throughout Your Company by Robert D. Hisrich and Claudine Kearnay (McGraw-Hill, September 2011), and the interview with Olivier Leclerc, director of entrepreneurial initiatives, Alcatel-Lucent, January 2012.

"When we fast-forward to our working lives in 2025 and even out to 2050, we can only do so by knowing something about how technologies will develop in the near term--and by taking a guess at the possibilities for the long term," explains Lynda Gratton. What advances will be the most significant in the coming years?

A search for meaning, financial constraints, a thirst for autonomy among employees, and hyperconnectivity are the four forces that will profoundly affect business in the coming months. These trends will push leaders to rethink radically both their strategy and daily management practices. A synthesis of several publications, accompanied by interviews with Indra Nooyi (Pepsi), Paul Polman (Unilever), Franck Riboud (Danone), Vineet Nayar (HCL Technologies) et Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and the book The Shift, by Lynda Gratton, HarperCollins Publishers, May 2011.

How would nature organize the company, lead talent management, or design formaldehyde-free glue? These are the questions recently asked at Coca-Cola, P&G, and SC Johnsons. Goal: Rather than reinvent the wheel, use the good ideas that nature took 3.8 billion years to develop. Based on “Vu d’en haut – Pascal Picq,” (Le Nouvel Economiste, October 2011); “Biomimicry Challenge: IDEO Taps Octopi and Flamingos to Reorganize the USGBC,” by Alissa Walker (Fast Company, May 2010); “Biomimicry explained: a conversation with Janine Benyus” (Center for Biologically Inspired Design, October 2011).