Advice for CEOs

Millennials are the up and coming generation of employees. They tend to be better educated and more culturally diverse than earlier generations—also notorious for leaving jobs when they feel dissatisfaction with their work and the opportunities it offers. What should your company do to keep this new generation engaged and motivated?

Every business today has to constantly consider how to leverage technology to help them run more efficiently, reach their targeted market growth, and enhance what makes them unique. Technology typically acts as a facilitator of competitive advantage -- for example of an innovative business model that is a source of advantage -- rather than an advantage in itself. Sometimes companies feel that adopting the latest technology is “table stakes” to allow them to at least keep pace with what competitors are doing. What is it that enables some entrepreneurial companies to use technology for competitive advantage, while others struggle to establish a distinctive technology direction? Some of our expert partners weighed in on this question. Here are the factors they see playing the biggest role:

Nothing is more important for a company than having a clear value proposition that explains why customers should buy its products or services instead of buying them from a competitor or buying products and services in another category altogether. We asked some of our partners to weigh in on how they see companies focusing explicitly on their value propositions. Here’s what they had to say:

With Russia playing an ever more aggressive role in the Syrian conflict, Newport Partner Julie Rasmussen recently drew on her extensive business experience there to consider Russia’s geo political importance in Europe and Asia-- and its long term economic importance.

Employee diversity is a subject that has recently inspired considerable debate—and some controversy. A prominent line of business thinking says that, for their own self-interest, companies should aspire to build a work force that reflects the demographics of their markets and customers. We asked Newport partners what they see as to what extent employee diversity is a priority with their clients and other companies they know. Here are their responses.

Newport Board Group Partner Rick Williams, a member of the firm’s New England practice, will be the moderator of a business event on a topic that is important to all organizations. The event, in Burlington, VT on April 12, is titled From Gray Hair to Flip Flops, Leading a Multigenerational Workforce.