Core Insights: Leading through COVID-19

Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Jeff Reuer, Distinguished Research Environment Professor at Warwick Business School and the Guggenheim Endowed Chair and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado. Professor Reuer explains how R&D partnerships are both necessary and can be done without either company exposing their trade secrets to each other. He has researched how knowledge leaks in these sort of partnerships and puts forward four ways in which companies can make sure any partnership they enter remains water tight.  Read more on the subject here and why companies partnering with their closest rival can actually work well here.

Companies have been falling victim to the competency trap for many years, most notably Kodak, which failed to anticipate the switch to digital cameras in time and disappeared from our lives. Jerker Denrell, Professor of Behavioural Science, explains to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes just what the competency trap is and how firms can avoid it,  detailing the mindset and steps needed. Read more on how to avoid the competency trap here.

Research by Sotirios Paroutis, Professor of Strategic Management, has found the much-derided PowerPoint is in fact a vital tool in the development of strategy, giving meaning and understanding to the abstract ideas contained in many company's vision. Professor Paroutis tells Core Insights host Trevor Barnes how his Visuals Strategy Framework can help those building a strategy to maximise their presentations with the right visuals and information to bring clarity and agreement.  Read more on the Visuals Strategy Framework here.

Strategy is moving out of the C-suite. More and more companies are involving not just their executives, but employees on the shopfloor and even stakeholders outside of the firm to devise their strategy. Christina Wawarta, Associate Fellow at Warwick Business School and Senior Manager Corporate Strategy at Europe's biggest home appliances manufacturer BSH, explains how open strategy works and its advantages. She also details the tools companies will need to carry out their own open strategy process to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes. For more on open strategy read 'Six lessons on open strategy from Wikimedia' and 'What tools do firms need for open strategy'.

Over nine years Sotirios Paroutis and Luciano Oviedo were able to go behind the scenes at Cisco and see how the company reacted to the emergence of Amazon Web Services' cloud platform that disrupted its established business model. Cisco was able to come back and Core Insights host Trevor Barnes interviews the pair to find out the five lessons they learned through their research that other companies can use to come back from a disruptive innovation. Read more on the research here.

Christian Stadler, Professor of Strategic Management, has spent many years studying Europe's century-old firms. Listen to this podcast with Core Insights host Trevor Barnes to discover what he learned about building enduring success and the common themes that has seen companies like Shell,  Allianz, Siemens and Legal & General prosper for so long. Professor Stadler details the four principles that can help companies lay the foundations for developing a sustainable competitive advantage. Read more about Professor Stadler's research on enduring success here. You can also read his book on the subject, plus, Professor Stadler reveals the five reads you need to build a strategy in uncertain times like the current global pandemic.

Does luck play a part in business? According to Chengwei Liu's research it plays a huge part, with good luck largely underestimated by managers and bad luck overestimated. Listen to the Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioural Science tell Core Insights host Trevor Barnes how luck and people's ignorance of it can be used to build a strategy to beat your rivals. Read more on how to use luck to your advantage by using Dr Liu's Analytical Behavioural Strategy here. You can also read an extract from Dr Liu's book Luck: A Key Idea for Business and Society here.

Named after the Roman God Janus, who could survey two or more directions simultaneously, in this episode Loizos Heracleous explains how Janus Strategy is the route to success for today's top companies. The Professor of Strategy explains to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes how Janus Strategy sees companies adopt two seemingly contradictory objectives to take a competitive advantage in their industry, with Apple being the prime example. Listen to hear how the Silicon Valley giant has done it and generated huge profit margins. And read more on Janus Strategy in this excerpt from Professor Heracleous' book here.

In 1999 Dow Chemical decided to embark on one of the most ambitious transformations in US corporate history. It decided to pivot from low-margin chemicals into high-margin speciality chemicals and embarked on the acquisition of 138 companies, enter 122 joint ventures and unravel 156 divestitures. Koen Heimeriks, Professor of Strategy, has studied the journey and reveals to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes the lessons learned and the tools needed for others to transform their business successfully. Read more on corporate transformation from Professor Heimeriks here.

Design thinking has become the de facto way to innovate for successful companies these days, but it is now moving further up the organisational hierarchy. Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Pietro Micheli, Professor of Business Performance and Innovation, on how organisations can use design thinking in building a strategy and why the concept is so helpful in today's climate of uncertainty. Read more on how design thinking can aid a company's strategy and the six factors involved in using it here. Further, find out how design thinking can help build a strategy from the bottom-up here.

Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Loizos Heracleous, Professor of Strategy, about agility.  Once the manifesto for software designers, agile has worked its way to the top of organisations as companies look to cope with an increasingly complex and uncertain world. Even before the global pandemic evidence suggested that volatility was increasing with more and more companies being disrupted by nimble start-ups as technology evolves at rapid rates in the fourth industrial revolution. But how do big companies incorporate agility into their strategy and structure? Professor Heracleous, co-editor of Agility.X - How organizations thrive in unpredictable times reveals the answers. 

Core Insights host Trevor Barnes interviews Hossam Zeitoun, Associate Professor of Behavioural Science & Strategy, on his latest research on which firms are able to withstand a recession. Dr Zeitoun analysed nearly 1,000 workplaces before and after the 2007-09 Great Recession to see why some thrived and others capitulated. As we enter the pandemic-induced global recession he reveals what the research revealed about those companies that came out of the recession intact. Read more about this research here.

Marianna Fotaki, Professor of Business Ethics, talks to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes about the importance of whistleblowers for organisations and society during the pandemic and in the new normal after it. She argues that instead of fearing and persecuting whistleblowers organisations should be putting in place 'speak-up' processes and rules so leaders hear of any mal-practice and can take swift action. For more on the role of whistleblowers and their importance during the pandemic read Professor Fotaki's article here.

Graham Loomes, Professor of Behavioural Science, reveals the trade-offs Governments are making between people's health and their livelihoods and argues they should be made transparent as leaders relax lockdown measures to get their economies moving again. Professor Loomes talks to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes about the difficult balancing act Governments are making in trying to save jobs and the economy and the increase risks it brings in spreading the virus. You can read Professor Loomes' argument here and more on the dilemmas involved for Governments in deciding how much money to spend on saving lives here.

Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Ayfer Ali, Assistant Professor of Strategy, on how repurposing already existing drugs provides our best route to treating Coronavirus. Dr Ali reveals how a drugs repurposing strategy can unearth dozens of compounds in the fight against the global pandemic. She discusses how the steroid dexamethasone, which a study showed could reduce the risk of death by a third among hospitalised patients requiring ventilation, could be one of many possible re-purposed drugs that may halt COVID-19's spread. Read more from Dr Ali on repurposing drugs here.

Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Keith Grint, Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick and one of the leading figures on leadership in academia. He talks about the different facets of leadership that are needed during a crisis from command-and-control to handling wicked problems. Professor of Grint, who was Professor of Public Leadership at Warwick Business School until 2018, has written numerous books on leadership including Leadership, Management & Command: Rethinking D-Day. You can read more from Professor Grint on leadership in a crisis here.

The lockdown across much of the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic has meant many people having to work from home, but how do you lead a team over the internet? Davide Nicolini, Professor of Organisation Studies and Director of the Knowledge & Innovation Network, reveals his research on the topic to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes. Professor Nicoloni explains the rules and pitfalls of managing a team exclusively online. For more read Professor Nicolini's article Four rules for leading a virtual team.

In this 'Leading through COVID-19' episode Pietro Micheli, Professor of Business Performance and Innovation, talks through how Design Thinking can help companies find new markets and products, even re-invent their business to cope with the economic impact of the lockdown. Professor Micheli talks to host Trevor Barnes about the process and mindset to see the lockdown as an opportunity to make your business fit for the 'new normal'. Read more on how to use Design Thinking to re-invent your business here.

Eivor Oborn, Professor of Healthcare Management, discusses the various coronavirus tracing apps that are being trialled with Core Insights host Trevor Barnes. Professor Oborn explains the disadvantages and advantages of the UK's NHSX app currently being tested on the Isle of Wight and how it differs to Google and Apple's version. To read more on how the app will work read Professor Oborn's article here.

With host Trevor Barnes this Core Insights episode sees Michael Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy, examine the impact of the global pandemic on the energy industry. Demand for oil has stalled in the economic lockdown with the US experiencing negative prices. Could it see governments around the world accelerate green policies and a move away from a dependence on oil and gas, or will things return to normal once the pandemic is over? Professor Bradshaw looks at the different scenarios that are likely to play out in a post-pandemic future. Read more on it from Professor Bradshaw here.

John Colley is Professor of Practice in Strategy, a former MD of a FTSE 100 company and has held non-executive director roles on a number of Private Equity boards. Here, Professor Colley talks to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes on what businesses need to do to survive the pandemic, who the winners and losers will be, and how it could be the end of the likes of Uber and WeWork. Read more on Professor Colley's analysis of the impact on business here.

Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Dimitrios Spyridonidis, Associate Professor of Leadership and Innovation, about what leaders should do when their organisation is plunged into a crisis, and for many companies there has been no bigger crisis than the current global pandemic. Dr Spyridonidis delves into the leadership literature to outline six principles that should guide leaders' actions and decisions during the crisis. For more on the six principles read Dr Spyridonidis' accompanying article here.

Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science, author of award-winning book The Mind is Flat and star of BBC Radio 4's The Human Zoo, about the biases and heuristics that leaders suffer in a time of crisis. Professor Chater also suggests the tactics leaders can use to resist these very understandable biases that we often fall prey to, but can lead to taking wrong turns or a false sense of security. Read more on these biases here and find out more about Professor Chater here.

Warwick Business School's Core Insights series is concentrating its academic expertise on how organisations and societies can navigate the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. In this episode host Trevor Barnes talks to Nick Powdthavee, Professor of Behavioural Science, whose briefing paper with Andrew Oswald, Professor of Behavioural Economics, details a way out of the very necessary lockdown that has put economies across the world in stasis. It is being actively considered by the UK Government and here Professor Powdthavee outlines the reasoning and affects this strategy would have. To read more on the briefing paper click here.

In Warwick Business School's special Core Insights podcast series on how organisations can survive the Coronavirus crisis, host Trevor Barnes interviews Hugh Wilson, Professor of Marketing, on how brands should market during the pandemic. Professor Wilson and his colleagues have analysed data produced by insights agency MESH Experience's tracking of consumers during the first weeks of the crisis to draw up four valuable lessons for brands. After listening to this WBS Core Insights podcast read Professor Wilson's article on it here.