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Friday links, March 26

Michele Zanini

Mar 26, 2021 • 4 min read

Note: during the course of my research--and, tbh, time-wasting on Twitter--I come across a variety of sources that are interesting to me. This post is an experiment to see whether you might also find them useful as well. If so, I'll make this a regular feature. Please drop me a note and let me know what you think... - MZ

Are automotive incumbents finally getting their s**t together? I wouldn't call action after 10+ years of denial and half-hearted attempts as "catching up fast," but I guess better late than never:

Crowdfunding is a powerful tool for large organizations, yet it remains a rarity (one exception is Haier which uses it widely). My hunch is that like prediction markets and other means to democratize corporate decision making, crowdfunding isn't readily embraced because it challenges existing managerial prerogatives.

Can agile transform budgeting? If we ever needed proof that top-down, calendar-driven budgeting is outdated, COVID-19 provided that in spades. The question is, can we finally rid ourselves of such an outdated way to allocate resources? Great piece by Bjarte Bosgnes, one of the world's leading authorities when it comes to creating more dynamic and flexible resource allocation and performance management.

It's hard to collaborate virtually. Before the pandemic, U.S. workers spent an average of 43% of their workweeks collaborating either virtually or in person. That number fell to 27% for workers who worked from home in 2020, according to Diane Hoskins of Gensler:

Worker Representation on Corporate Boards doesn't seem to live up to the hype

"Conditional on the firm’s size and unionization rate, we find that worker representation has little, if any, effect [on wages and earnings risk]. We therefore conclude that, despite the wide-spread enthusiasm, mandating worker representation is unlikely to benefit workers." Aside from unions and works councils, there are several other ways to increase employee voice and improve compensation (see, for instance, Nucor).

The outsting of Danone's Chief has little to do with purpose, and a lot more to do with mediocre performance.

The supreme irony of Faber's recent dismissal as Danone CEO is that activist investors were clamoring for more investment in innovation & marketing. A the same time, the company cut 2,000 people based on a plan the board didn't support.