The millwright was also a poet
Herman Miller has been an iconic furniture company for over a century. Its creations—the Eames lounge chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, and Aeron chair—are cultural artefacts. More than 40 museums display their work, and over 100 pieces are part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. The modern office “cubicle” also…
What Drucker got right about leadership that many get wrong
Among the early giants we absorbed in management thinking, Drucker stood apart. There were Alfred Chandler, Michael Porter, Alfred P. Sloan, and Philip Kotler—but Drucker operated in a league of his own. I admired him not just as a thinker, but as a polymath; he evoked my respect even more. Early 20th-century Vienna was a…
The long game: Making decisions that outlast you
How does a leader commit resources to decisions whose outcomes will play out over years, not months? It’s one of the hardest parts of leadership. And oddly, there’s very little written about it—probably because the thinking behind such decisions is rarely made public. But some patterns do stand out. In large companies, the board plays…
The Boeing Lesson: Why Leaders Must Learn to Apologise
The Boeing Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad was one of the most devastating tragedies in aviation history. Air India, which operated the aircraft, is a Tata company—valued for its image of trust and care. In situations both relatively minor and deeply grave like this, leaders owe apologies. Etymologically, the word “apology” in Greek means a speech…
The Missing Link: Why Most Change Initiatives Fail
Managing change in an organization is one of the hardest things to do. While we often get the basics right—like communicating a vision, setting milestones, and tracking progress—we also tend to miss a few crucial elements. First, even scientific revolutions only happen when paradigms shift. Culture—or prevailing paradigms—ultimately determine what can change and what won’t.…