Business

True goodwill is cultivated over time through building customer relationships, fostering employee bonds, and nurturing ties with the community. But trying to pin a numerical value on goodwill, expecting it to annually increase or decrease on a balance sheet, is where the essence gets lost.

Founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation, cloud computing company

When you choose not to raise funds... think of it in terms of stages or ladders. These years give you knowledge capital, valuable relationships both within and outside the company, and other vital assets. From there, think of bootstrapping like a multi-stage booster rocket, where each stage propels and prepares you for the next, and the momentum continues building.

Founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation, cloud computing company

With a dedicated salesforce, stellar customer support, and solid products, you could capture a staggering 70% market share. The core philosophy? Deliver tangible outcomes for your customers.

Former CEO of Cisco Systems, led company through internet boom era

While many were focused on selling routers and switches, I envisioned a more transformative goal: changing the way the world works, learns, lives, and plays via the internet... we must sell outcomes, driven by technology, rather than just selling products.

Former CEO of Cisco Systems, led company through internet boom era

When it comes to acquisitions, many people jump straight to analyzing the financial returns. I approach it differently. I start by asking: How will our customers benefit from this acquisition?

Former CEO of Cisco Systems, led company through internet boom era

Growing up in West Virginia, we were at the forefront economically— the chemical and coal mining center of the world. However, due to an inability to adapt to changing market dynamics and transitions, our position plummeted to the bottom ranks among the US states... I firmly advocate the idea of reinventing oneself every 5 years.

Former CEO of Cisco Systems, led company through internet boom era

We use these tools to do things quicker – but that never help us get on top of everything because they systematically increase the size of the 'everything' – It's a rigged game!

Guardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness

An example of this successful approach was our first enterprise private 5G launch, which we achieved remarkably fast – from ideation to market-ready delivery in just six weeks. This achievement highlights the effectiveness of our strategy in driving innovation at speed.

A principle that I hold personally important is radical transparency in communication. This transparency extends from the shareholders to every level within the organization. It's vital that everyone is aware of what is working, what isn't, and the actions required for improvement.

Firstly, it's crucial to adopt a bold mindset right from the start. I advocate for setting almost unrealistic targets. This approach might seem counterintuitive, but it's essential for enabling substantial change. If we only aim for realistic targets, our efforts will be limited to minor tweaks rather than significant transformations.

Perhaps the most critical element is the cultural integration. The distinct cultures of the two companies present a significant challenge, consuming 80-90% of our efforts. Our goal is to forge a unified team culture, permeating from senior leadership to the deepest levels of the organization.

A crucial realization for me is that the management styles of the West and East are not mutually exclusive. In fact, blending the best elements of each can be highly effective. Western management, particularly in Silicon Valley, is often seen as a triumph of capitalism, primarily focused on maximizing shareholder value. Contrastingly, my experience with NTT revealed a different approach, one that prioritizes stakeholders, sometimes even more than shareholders.

In my role, I assess new investments and innovations not just through financial lenses but also considering their societal and environmental impacts. This broader perspective is a key difference from the shareholder-centric approach. Another notable distinction is the focus in Silicon Valley on technological superiority, whereas in Japan, there's an intense emphasis on delivery quality and the customer and employee experience.

In the realm of experts, intuition, anchored in a substantial reservoir of experience and knowledge, becomes an invaluable asset. It's essentially a dialogue with your unconscious. However, for it to be constructive, your unconscious necessitates a good measure of education. An uneducated unconscious is a perilous entity.

Author of "The Tipping Point" & Popular Cultural Theorist

Projects often don't just go wrong; they start wrong. The seeds of failure are often sown right at the beginning, leading to problems later on. Recognising this, successful project leaders invest in thorough planning and simulation upfront, understanding that a project's success is largely determined by how it starts.

Leading researcher on megaprojects, planning, and governance expert

The greatest risk often lies in people's biased perceptions of risk itself. These biases, both psychological and political, tend to lead to a dangerous underestimation of risk. Our advice, backed by data and methodologies we've developed, is focused on debiasing risk.

Leading researcher on megaprojects, planning, and governance expert