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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

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Here are five choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms to start off your work week. I'm pointing you to articles about C.K. Prahalad, stopping the "most talented" brain drain, managing managers, the complicated lives of today's leaders, and Volkswagen's acquisition of Porsche.

From Strategy + Business: The Life’s Work of a Thought Leader
"In interviews conducted before his untimely death, C.K. Prahalad — the sage of core competencies and the bottom of the pyramid — looked back on his career and talked about the way ideas evolve."

Wally's Comment: I've always thought that C.K. Prahalad was a thinker for other thinkers, more than a thinker whose ideas could be picked up by working managers and translated into action. He spent his time tackling the problems that "you cannot explain with the current prevailing theory." That planted the seeds for many others to take the ideas he conceptualized, develop them, and sort out the implications

From Fortune: How big companies can stop the brain drain
"Across all industries, the best and brightest are striking out on their own to escape corporate bureaucracy. That need not be the case. Here's how big institutions can re-imagine themselves as centers of innovation."

Wally's Comment: The "brain drain" mentioned in the title is not the dreaded "Boomer Brain Drain." The article is about top talent who may leave your company for greener pastures elsewhere. The big plus of this article is that the authors, John Hagel and John Seely Brown are also the authors of The Power of Pull. They incorporated their view of the future into the piece. When Google faced this issue, it turned to algorithms for help

The fact is that if you're suddenly concerned about re-imagining your company as a center of innovation, the horse has already left the barn and is well into the next county.

From Inc: How to Manage Managers
"Your company's managers are smart, committed, and passionate. How can you make sure they perform to their potential?"

Wally's Comment: This article is purportedly about "managing managers" but you'll find good advice for dealing with anyone who works for you.

From Wharton: The Complicated Lives of Today's Leaders: Why Being at the Top Is Harder Than Ever
"How has the nature of leadership changed in recent years, and what are the new complexities that characterize leadership today?"

Wally's Comment: This is a panel discussion from the Wharton Executive Education roundtable. Reading the article is a good way to get a range of opinions about how the work of business leaders is changing. There are comments on the changing context, changing definition of "stakeholder" and increasing (and sometimes disabling) complexity.

This article is about the future for top executives. For a different perspective, read "A Look at the Managers of the Future." And read Gary Hamel's "What does the future of management look like to you."

From the NY Times: Can Porsche Shine at Volkswagen?
"For most of the last 60 years, Porsche and Volkswagen have been like a couple who never quite moved in together. Porsche supplied engineering expertise to Volkswagen and bought components and manufacturing capacity, but it carefully guarded its identity and independence — a formula that delivered some of the best profit margins in the business. Now, with Volkswagen poised to acquire Porsche — in a deal announced a year ago that values Porsche at 12.4 billion euros ($15.6 billion) — many in the auto industry wonder whether they can make a marriage work. The risk, they say, is that VW bureaucracy could smother Porsche’s individuality, or that plans to offer less costly models could blur Porsche’s image as the ultimate in German auto engineering."

Wally's Comment: Too many mergers make great sense in the head of a strategist and fail in execution. The reason is often culture. As Lou Gerstner put it: "I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game."

When Tom Hall and I put together the chapter on acquisitions strategies in Ruthless Focus, we found that there was basically two successful ways to acquire a company. Holding companies, like Berkshire-Hathaway acquire a company and, essentially, leave it alone to continue doing the things that made it worth acquiring. That's what Theo Albrecht did when his Aldi Nord acquired Trader Joe's.

Culture is not an issue in that situation. But companies that acquire others and intend to integrate them ignore culture at their peril. As we said about successful acquirers in Ruthless Focus: "They recognize that people and relationships are keys to business success. They assess cultural fit early and make it a priority."

Which course will Volkswagen take?

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to check back on Wednesday when I select five excellent posts from the week's independent business blogs. Last week I highlighted posts on leadership as a performing art, improving engagement, clear expectations, the seven deadly sins of leadership, and leadership across the ages.

Last week's most-read post was "Management for a New Age." The post "Simple Leadership Basics" got the most comments.

And be sure to find out more about my latest book, Ruthless Focus: How to use key core strategies to grow your business or just jump right over to Amazon and buy a few.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.