Korn Ferry Institute

"I have some difficult news." How top corporate players deliver difficult news to employees could be the difference between courageous leadership and going viral in all the wrong ways. With four in ten firms planning layoffs this year and over half of CEOs expecting economic gloom, we take a deep dive into how to get this critical communication just right.

Don't trust salespeople? Turns out you’re not alone—our data shows only 21% of corporate buyers engage sellers early in the selling process. That's a potential problem for companies—especially as high-level buyers tighten budgets. We speak to a sales team whisperer to learn what today's top corporate sellers are doing to win deals.

With new regulations requiring companies to post salaries ranges, firms are facing a lot of awkward conversations from workers who feel underpaid. Yet many companies still don't seem ready for this. In this Briefings podcast episode, a leading pay expert discusses what steps smart leaders can take.

The holiday season is upon us but the recent wave of retail crime in big cities has made shoppers and employees more jittery than jolly. Three retail experts tell us how retail leaders are addressing a peak season dilemma.

Does anybody understand this job market? Despite low unemployment, nearly half of Americans say the current job outlook is “bad.” But fear not! In this episode of Briefings podcast, we chat with two top experts on how to land a gig in the best and worst of times—and ask for more money.

Does Gen Z have what it takes to make it in the workplace? Three in four leaders say this new generation is “difficult” to work with—so much so that almost half of firms are offering them so-called “etiquette” classes. But is there something leaders are missing out about this group? We speak to a leadership expert on how to bridge a crucial generation gap.

When did office parties become such major snooze fests? Company social events are crucial for culture, but a recent poll found that 35% of employees can’t stand them. We chat with one of America’s top corporate event hosts and a Korn Ferry culture expert to learn what firms can do to bring back the fun.

By last count, there were almost 58,000 AI firms globally—enough to fill a football stadium. Each has some amazing tools that do everything from creating avatars for leaders to concocting entire marketing plans. But how does a company know which tool they can trust? We chat with a pair of AI experts on this mounting dilemma. For more information, check out www.kornferry.com/briefings-podcast  Follow us on www.instagram.com/kornferry/ 

What happens when a company is hacked? Turns out a little-known network of small firms quietly negotiates with the bad guys to get the data back for the company. We take a rare, behind-the-scenes look at ransomware, which one survey found is now the number one concern for the C-suite.   For more information, check out www.kornferry.com/briefings-podcast  Follow us on www.instagram.com/kornferry/ 

In the first half of this year, CEO turnover hit a new high—and it’s not yet showing signs of slowing down. It’s a potentially massive disruption to firms, but few can really explain it. Join us as we get to the bottom of this CEO mystery. Watch this episode https://krnfy.bz/3RQmkOl  For more information, check out www.kornferry.com/briefings-podcast  Follow us on www.instagram.com/kornferry/ 

The latest science says people’s ability to think continuously on one topic (i.e., pay attention) has fallen sharply—almost 70% in two decades. That’s a real threat both to day-to-day operations and innovations that come from the deep thinking that companies thrive on. We explore what can be done to bring focus back into the workplace.   Watch this episode https://krnfy.bz/3RKLaPB  For more information, check out www.kornferry.com/briefings-podcast  Follow us on www.instagram.com/kornferry/ 

The problem won’t go away. Bosses are saying come back to the office and workers are saying… "We’ll pass".   With one survey showing 73% of organizations struggling to get employees back into cubicles, we examine how leaders can take a fresh approach to resolving this ongoing tug-of-war.   Watch this episode https://krnfy.bz/45nmfEB For more information, check out www.kornferry.com/briefings-podcast 

Are workers really losing a measurable amount of brain power -  the kind leaders rely on to innovate? Are CEOs really turning to a secretive world of underground negotiators to pay off millions of dollars to hackers? And what's the real reason people won't return to work?  We know everyone has a podcast on leadership. But when we say a "new deep dive" into leadership, we mean it. Every two weeks, our Emmy-award winning host Jill Wiltfong heads up an informative - and entertaining - episode that is part interview, part scenario creation, and we hope 100% fun!  It's brought to you by Korn Ferry and the company's thought leadership magazine, Briefings.   Watch this episode https://krnfy.bz/3RKLaPB For more information, check out www.kornferry.com/briefings-podcast  Follow us on www.instagram.com/kornferry/ 

In a change to the usual format John Palumbo and Cynthia Stuckey catch up with a Goliath already taking a leaf from David’s playbook. Amy Benzinger head of projects at Cisco Hyper Innovation Living Labs (CHILL) talks about bringing start-up culture to the 70,000+ Cisco team. Discussing why championing agility, innovation and adaptability is key and how “shut up and build it” is what makes their 48-hour rapid prototyping model such a success. 

This week John and Cynthia meet Elad Wallach from Aidoc, an innovative healthcare AI start-up and one of Time Magazine's 50 Genius Companies. Elad discusses how he sees his company’s culture as its Operating System the foundation for everything they want to achieve. But he’s not afraid of failure. Only by accepting failure as part of the day-to-day can businesses empower people and help them grow within an organization, no matter their size.

Inventor, CEO and equality innovator Sarah Collins is best known as the creator of the Wonderbag, a globally conscious 1-for-1 social enterprise. Over the past 11 years over 1.5million Wonderbags have been activated in the Developed and Developing (majority) world. Sarah’s extreme dedication, resilience and determination has earned her Fortune Magazine’s Top 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Oprah’s African Heroines, Fair Lady’s prestigious Woman of the Future Award and in 2019 she graced the front cover of Forbes Africa Women Magazine as one of Africa’s top six wealth creators on the continent. Her most recent achievement was being awarded the 21st Century Icon Award for the Ardent Techie category in London.

Top-down hierarchies suck the fun and creativity out of organizations and a quick, bad decision is often better than a slow, good one. That’s the belief of Jason Trost the Founder and CEO of Smarkets, one of the world’s largest betting exchanges. He talks to John and Cynthia about the value of political capital, the necessity of risk, and how teaching people to teach themselves is at the core of his start-up’s culture.

Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures has made it her mission to invest in other exceptional founders. She not only believes the best and most successful companies grow out of pain points but that creativity thrives with constraints–“If you're not out of your comfort zone you're not growing." She gives John and Cynthia the low down on cognitive diversity and how partnering with external innovation shops can help larger organizations adopt some entrepreneurial DNA.

Hosts John Palumbo and Cynthia Stuckey talk to Dave Balter managing partner at Flipside Crypto about his management approach. The importance of creating a culture of openness, being each other’s clients, the challenges of maintaining that start-up energy as you grow, and why he hired an artist in residence.

They’re nimble. Move quickly. Collaborate freely. And are committed to their mission… These are just some of the things that give Davids (those small, emerging businesses and start-ups) an edge over larger companies. And this made us wonder – how do they do it? And what can we learn from them? So we created “Goliath, Meet David” – a podcast series that features leading figures from the start-up world sharing their personal stories and perspectives. Tune in and discover what makes small businesses more than the sum of their parts, and learn the approaches and strategies they use, which can be applied to your own business to become leaner, faster, and more entrepreneurial.