For insights into the ethics, values and competencies required of today’s global leaders, Knowledge@Wharton recently coordinated a Wharton Executive Education roundtable discussion with four fellows from The World Economic Forum’s Global Leadership Fellows Program. The program allows participants to work full-time at the World Economic Forum while developing leadership skills through training courses at top universities.

The four fellows at the Knowledge@Wharton roundtable included Ian Rogan, Ramya Krishnaswamy, Carl Björkman and Sandilya Vadapalli.

Rogan — project manager, corporate global citizenship, at the Forum — previously worked for the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics at Boston College and the John Kerry for President campaign. Krishnaswamy, who is involved with collaborative water initiatives, has also been employed by SSG Social Impact Advisors and McKinsey.

Björkman is community manager, Europe & Central Asia, at the Forum, and has worked for the European Commission, the United Nations, the Waterberry Development Organization and Bloomberg LP. Vadapalli, project manager, environmental initiatives, previously worked for Emerging Venture Solutions, British Petroleum and Satyam Computer Services.

An edited version of the conversation follows.

Knowledge@Wharton: How has the nature of leadership changed in recent years, and what are the new complexities that characterize leadership today?

Rogan: I don’t think the nature of leadership has changed, but the context in which leadership is exercised has become more complicated. We live in a time where there isn’t a news cycle; there is just a perpetual flow of information. To be able to manage that, particularly in a crisis, is much more challenging. As a leader, you need to be able to perform much more quickly but still in a manner that [allows] enough time to think through your decisions.

Krishnaswamy: One of the things we have seen changing recently in the last year or two is that [the definition of] a stakeholder has actually widened … from the traditional capitalist ideal of being responsible to shareholders … to how much of a role the government, consumers and society actually demand of a corporation. We’ve seen that in the way government has stepped in to bail out failed companies; we’ve seen that in the way consumers have put huge pressure on [companies and governments].

Because there are a lot more people that you are accountable to, the complexity of the way that a problem diffuses or spreads has changed as well. So the pace of tackling [problems] has increased, but the scale of the problems has also increased [due to] the large network of stakeholders.

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http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2569

How do Web startups raise money? The answer accounts for a huge corpus of tech and financial discussion, but it can be condensed into an eight-word statement: Someone somewhere thought he’d make his money back.

If you consider a few notable fundraising efforts from popular Web startups, you begin to see how this hypothetical “someone” might think his investment would be prudent and even profitable. Here are five popular Web startups we’ve seen raising large amounts of money since the 2008 downturn, and a quick look at how they were able to do so.

Groupon
Groupon offers daily discounts for local businesses; these coupons can be redeemed only when a significant number of people choose to use them. For example, Groupon recently partnered with Gap to offer shoppers $50 worth of clothing and accessories for $25.

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http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/31/groupon-zynga-twitter-technology-startups.html?boxes=Homepagechannels

In an ideal world, we’d all have full control of our professional destinies and be able to choose the work life we wanted. But that’s hardly always true these days, in a time of recession, layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs. Many of us are enduring far less than stellar arrangements at work.

Gretchen Rubin, author of a blog called The Happiness Project and a bestselling book with the same name, says we’re experiencing “happiness challenges” at work today. When we lack the power to freely choose what we do–for instance if we’ve taken a job at a lower level to maintain income and health insurance, or we’ve taken on more responsibility with no additional pay because our colleagues have been laid off–our morale can take a nosedive. “Moving backward is a happiness challenge,” she says.

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http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/27/workplace-happiness-job-leadership-careers-employment.html?boxes=Homepagechannels

“Big companies suck at being fun,” says Alex St. John.

When casual gaming was young, Alex St. John started a company to “run away with the audience.” Now that social gaming is hot, he wants to do the same thing again.

The former head multimedia marketing strategist at Microsoft is a brash and salty-tongued new president and chief technical officer of San Francisco’s hi5 Networks Inc., a struggling social network that sees salvation remaking itself into a gaming network.

“I thought this was a very exciting opportunity because obviously gaming works in social networking, and very, very few people understand why or how,” said St. John, who joined hi5 in November after stepping aside as CEO of WildTangent, a large, 12-year-old gaming sales and advertising network he co-founded in Seattle.

“Companies entering the area are naive,” he said. “I know how to advance the state of the art in business models in social gaming by 10 years into the future in one jump.”

Read more:

http://www.portfolio.com/industry-news/social-media/2010/08/20/hi5-remaking-social-networking-company-into-online-gaming-network

Jack Abraham, Founder of Milo.com

The San Francisco start-up Milo.com tracks 2.8 million products across 50,000 retail stores. “Amazon and eBay are Web 1.0,” scoffs founder Jack Abraham.

Jack Abraham’s ambition is really very simple: He wants Milo.com to track every product on every shelf of every (physical) store in real time. Making that happen is an entirely different story, of course. Or maybe not. Abraham has the pedigree for the job: he’s the son of comScore founder Magid Abraham and was helping his father write code for the site before he was old enough to shave. Now, Abraham is charting his own path at Milo.com, with a staff of 14 and his pooch (cute alert) Milo, a Jack Russell Terrier. “We’re helping people fetch a lot of information, so having a dog as a mascot made sense,” says Abraham.

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http://www.inc.com/30under30/2010/profile-jack-abraham-milo.html

I’ve been thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, because I’ve taken the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to play tennis nearly every day. My game has gotten progressively stronger. I’ve had a number of rapturous moments during which I’ve played like the player I long to be.

And almost certainly could be, even though I’m 58 years old. Until recently, I never believed that was possible. For most of my adult life, I’ve accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance.

During the past year, I’ve read no fewer than five books — and a raft of scientific research — which powerfully challenge that assumption (see below for a list). I’ve also written one, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, which lays out a guide, grounded in the science of high performance, to systematically building your capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

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http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/08/six_keys_to.html

“My problem is not how to be innovative. My team often comes up with interesting ideas. But when we introduce them to top executives, they always turn them down. How can I convince my boss to invest in our ideas?” The question—asked at the end of a seminar on innovation at a major IT firm—did not surprise me.

One of the hardest challenges for creative people—especially those working in units such as R&D, design, or marketing—is how to win top management’s support for their ideas. Many feel that their proposals are killed not because they have poor potential but because their boss simply does not understand them or does not even listen to the presentation. They feel frustrated and dream of working with CEOs like Steve Jobs or Alberto Alessi, who often invest in breakthroughs.

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http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/aug2010/ca20100831_867890.htm

The Austin-based company, which offers free and subscription-based versions of its application, is facing a decision on how to differentiate itself from competitors and accelerate growth without massive amounts of venture capital.

Founder and CEO Steve Testone said the company has converted 3 to 4 percent of its users to paying customers of a more sophisticated “pro” model. But the website-development market is still fragmented with smaller players, and he wants to capitalize on an existing user base to become a more established—if not dominant—player in the market.
Read more:

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/entrepreneurship/2010/09/02/startup-snap-pages-faces-complex-choice-about-money

Every consumer internet company needs:

#1 A Mobile Strategy — Explain clearly how your product will work on Apple’s Iphone or the Google Android.

#2 Social Media Marketing Strategy — Search Engine Optimization is passe. You need to understand and clearly articulate how you’ll leverage your brand through the social media marketing channels, i.e. Twitter, Facebook and the rapidly proliferating companion sites.

Simple rules. But important ones to remember when you’re hunting for funding from any early-stage investor.

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http://blogs.forbes.com/maureenfarrell/2010/08/30/two-new-rules-for-raising-early-stage-capital/?boxes=Homepagechannels

Viewers wouldn’t notice, but that clip also makes an important point about modern advertising — YouTube is an increasingly fruitful place for advertisers.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/technology/03youtube.html?_r=1&hpw