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NEWSLETTER
ON LEADERSHIP
January 2025
Welcome to 2025!
We wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best for a fantastic 2025.
We've had lots of exciting activities since our last update and we are ready to embarque on new adventures in 2025!
Read on to learn about the brand new Think Tank report on Leadership for the Future, catch up on event highlights, and more!
We are also delighted to welcome new colleagues, so stay until the end to get to know the new members of the CBS Leadership Centre team!
Join our community and follow us on LinkedIn!
LEADERSHIP FOR THE FUTURE - Think Tank Launch Event
Over the past year, we convened a unique and diverse group of 50 esteemed leaders and scholars to explore the nature of leadership in an world marked by high complexity, uncertainty, accelerating pace, and increased expectations for leaders to 'step up.'
The insights from our Think Tank discussions are compiled in an extensive report, rich with articles, interviews with members, and keynote summaries.
In the report, we reveal a new vocabulary for future leadership:
- Orchestrating Speed and Rhythm
- Sustaining Moral Compass
- Enabling the Organisation
- Bridging Diversities
These are four critical sets of leadership capabilities essential for leaders and organizations to navigate and thrive in the new dynamics.
Additionally, the report highlights key organizational drivers which, connected through culture and carefully balanced, support businesses and other organizations in their development and contribution to a sustainable futures.
In September, we celebrated the launch of the CBS Leadership Think Tank report.
At the event, a total of 6 panels with members of the Think Tank helped us unfold the new leadership context and skill sets. The Think Tank members generously shared their interpretetion of the leadership skill sets with concrete examples from both personal and professional experience.
Learn more on some of the key takeaways here.
The report is FREE and ready for download, so be inspired and dive into the many insights and reflections from peers!
Download the report here!
'Leadership for the Future'
is turning into an education program!
The Leadership for the Future report has generated numerous requests for masterclasses and training in future leadership capabilities. We're pleased that our colleagues at CBS Executive Fonden will launch a new leadership program that builds on the work of the CBS Leadership Think Tank.
'Leadership for the Future' is an intensive program designed to equip senior leaders to navigate in a rapidly changing and complex world. The program not only provides the necessary leadership skills to tackle future challenges but also fosters a deeper understanding of leading with purpose, courage, and continuity.
The program features a faculty of esteemed researchers from CBS and acknowledged members of the CBS Leadership Think Tank.
For more information, visit: Leadership for the future - an executive programme
Startup Leadership Summit 2024
Early November, we had the pleasure of connecting with the startup community at the Startup Leadership Summit 2024. In collaboration with Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship and the Founder to Leader program, we put a spotlight on critical leadership challenges and opportunities for founders, and delved into the latest research from Copenhagen Business School.
- Affiliation-Based Hiring (ABH): Associate Professor Vera Rocha presented her research on how founders hire people they know and the impact on startup performance. Her findings on ABH, recently published in the Strategic Management Journal, reveal that hiring former coworkers benefits the startup differently compared to hiring former schoolmates. Read more about her research on ABH here.
- Gender Diversity: Vera Rocha also discussed how these hiring practices can reduce demographic diversity, affecting the attraction of female employees. More research here.
- Entrepreneurial Stress: Assistant Professor Pernille Steen Pedersen shared insights on the stress that is experienced by many entrepreneurs and the capabilities needed for a healthy transition from being a founder to a leader.
At the event, we also engaged with founder leaders and their closest colleagues. On stage was Nadia Jun, (Duffbeauty), Frederik Hedelund (Temply) and Frederikke Antonie Schmidt (Roccamore) who shared their experiences on managing leadership roles while staying true to themselves. Gustav Frederik Thybo (Flyhjælp), Martin Glesner and Brian Brorsbøl (Apoteka) discussed the challenges and successes of transitioning leadership from the founder to a new managing director.
High command, leadership and the role of the
professional soldier today
1. What is this war? What kind of conflict are we entering?
2. Why this war? Why do we choose to take up the fight?
3. How this war? How are we going to fight this war?
These questions were highlighted in October when we explored the essence of leadership in modern military command - an area with undisputed high relevance in today's unstable world.
General Knud Bartels, former Chair of the NATO Military Committee and Chief of the Danish Defence, shared his perspectives on the evolving demands on military leadership, emphasizing the critical balance between strategic acumen and political-military challenges. His discussion highlighted the importance of adaptability, resilience, and visionary thinking in navigating the complexities of modern military command.
The event was co-hosted with our colleagues at Department of Organization, and Knud Bartels was joined by two other guests; Professor Paul du Gay and Associate Professor Anne Roelsgaard Obling (Royal Danish Defence College).
CBS leadership research in Børsen Ledelse
During 2024, a total of 19 leadership researchers from CBS have provided Børsen readers with a research-based perspective on current leadership challenges. The columns have covered everything from the personal leadership role to leading for sustainability, for distant futures and much more.
Pick your topic and dive into the columns here below!
Life as a leader is full of challenges, and sometimes, a fresh perspective can make all the difference. Tune into new episodes of the podcast 'Lederens Dilemma'. In this podcast, CBS researchers are invited to join leadership practitioners to discuss a wide range of leadership dilemmas. Each episode offers insights and practical advice on various leadership challenges.
You can listen to the podcast on your usual platforms and on Børsen here.
Happy listening! 🎧
Research discussions on leadership
At the Leadership Centre, we aim to nurture a vibrant community focused on knowledge sharing. The Leadership Paper Series is an initiative dedicated to fostering dialogue among scholars about research that is in the making.
We invite scholars to present their research and join discussions with colleagues outside their own cohort to build on alternative perspectives from peers.
In 2024, we have hosted three seminars with contributions from nine out of eleven departments at CBS - mission accomplished on research diversity;-)
NEXT is 27. January 2025 - stay tuned for the invite!
New faces
Thomas Ritter will join CBS Leadership Centre as Academic Co-Director
We are very pleased to announce that Professor Thomas Ritter, Professor of strategy and business development at CBS, will be academic co-director starting 1 January 2025.
Known for models like Alignment Squared, CUBEical Segmentation and 4 Types of Managers, Thomas is a well-published and frequently cited expert in strategy, business model development and customer insight. Most recently, he has developed the CBS Leadership Dilemma Index that helps organizations and leadership teams to discuss strategic dilemmas and strategic alignment.
Thomas is teaching at CBS on MBD and EMBA programs and he is associated with the CBS Board Education Programs and other leadership programs at the CBS Executive Fonden.
Thomas Ritter is taking over the role from Professor Louise Mors, who will now be affiliated to the Center as Academic Affiliate. Louise has been with the Centre since the very start and has been instrumental in the development of the Centre as a community of practitioners and scholars across CBS.
We would like to thank Louise for her support and efforts🙏!
A warm welcome to Professor Laura Empson!
Laura Empson, is newly appointed Professor of Leadership and Organization at Copenhagen Business School and a new colleague at the CBS Leadership Centre!
Laura is renowned for her pioneering work on collective leadership in the context of professional organizations and her dedication to bridging the gap between academic research and practical application. With over 30 years of experience in leadership and professional organizations, Laura brings a wealth of knowledge to our community.
Her recent article, How to Lead When the Future Feels Unpredictable co-authored with Jennifer Howard-Greenville, has topped the Harvard Business Review's “hotlist.”
Besides her affiliation to CBS, Laura Empson is Professor in the Management of Professional Service Firms at Bayes Business School, University of London. She also holds Research Fellowships at Harvard Law School and Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Alongside her academic work, Laura acts as an advisor to the leaders of many of the world’s leading professional organizations.
Christian Bason is our very
first Leader in Residence!
From 1 November 2024, Christian Bason is Leader in Residence at the CBS Leadership Centre. Our Leaders in Residence program is targeted high profile guests that work on a co-created project with members of CBS Leadership Centre.
Christian will be a key player in our efforts on Collaborative Leadership. His research interest is how leaders can navigate complex societal challenges to develop impactful businesses. During his residency, he will explore the need for leaders to rethink their roles and positions, moving from a focus on hierarchical control to fostering collaboration and innovation inside and across organizations and within wider ecosystems.
Christian has a diverse background in innovation, strategic design and leadership and is the author of numerous books in those fields. He is co-founder of Transition Collective and the former CEO of the Danish Design Center. He holds an M.Sc. in political science from Aarhus University and a Ph.D. from CBS.
Dan Kärreman in a new role
From 2025, Proessor Dan Kärreman will be the key driver of the The Leadership Paper Series which is an initiative dedicated to stimulate cross departmental discussions on leadership research that is in the making.
Dan is a leading researcher in the field of critical management studies and is also known for his research on knowledge work, organizational control, organization culture and leadership in organizations. He developed the metaphor of the leader as a bully for the book “Metaphors we lead by” and has also published extensively on critical perspectives on management and leadership, including a frequently cited critique of transformative leadership (Alvesson & Kärreman, 2016).
Among others, Dan teaches leadership of change and digital management in various programs at CBS.
Meet Casper Nicolas Friis Bruun, our new Student Assistant
Casper holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and organizational communication from CBS and is currently pursuing a master's degree in the same field. At CBS Leadership Centre, he contributes to website development, organizing and executing events, as well as various communication tasks.
Let's keep in touch!
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