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Corporate philanthropy is typically viewed as a mix of generosity and marketing – a way for a company to help their community while also promoting their brand. However, companies are increasingly seeing the wider role their philanthropic endeavors can play in overall strategy, including inventory management. By integrating philanthropy into stocking and product-mix choices, a company can get the best of both worlds – effective inventory control and meaningful altruism. Here are five ways:

Doug Ulman was recently featured at COE's Summit 2022 event. His session called "Leading Through Change: How to Pivot Personally & Professionally When the Unexpected Happens" was so popular that we asked him to address some of the unanswered questions. Here's a continuation of that session's discussion.

Membership in the Center for Operational Excellence means your company is committed to being part of a larger community of leaders with their sights set on working better, faster and smarter. COE offers many avenues for learning and connecting with the broader operational excellence community – including connecting with Fisher College of Business students poised to become tomorrow’s leaders.

The past two years have presented a fair amount of uncertainty about what the future holds. As a leader in a company that embraces evolution and change as part of our DNA, we’ve been on a journey to redefine our company going forward. What we’re doing in terms of our company’s structure and culture, to create a culture of servant leadership, can be applied to any industry.

I published my book, Office Optional: How To Build A Connected Culture With Virtual Teams right before the Covid-19 pandemic began. The timing was fortuitous. Seemingly the whole world switched to remote work; what I thought would happen 10 years out was rapidly taking place in a matter of weeks.

Bestselling author, attorney, and speaker Kwame Christian believes that the best things in life are on the other side of difficult conversations. Director of the American Negotiation Institute, Kwame Christian is a respected voice in the field of negotiation and conflict resolution and is dedicated to empowering professionals through the art and science of persuasion. And he's joining us as a keynote speaker at the 2022 COE Summit.

“If you had a magic wand, what is the first thing that you would fix in an organization you’re coaching?” Chris Burnham asked me this question when I recorded a guest spot on his Lean Leadership podcast. My answer was simple: If I could wave a magic wand, I would instantly develop the capabilities and the habits of all the leaders in the plant to Leverage the Positive by giving effective reinforcing feedback – or effective recognition feedback.

The most successful companies have a culture that supports and advances its key goals and strategies. Culture serves as the company’s foundation; it makes expectations clear, illustrates norms for interactions, and articulates language used between colleagues. In other words, it describes “the way we do things around here.” 

The 2022 COE Summit is a 2-day virtual event will bring together dozens of industry experts and leading researchers and hundreds of professionals to get in front of the latest best practices in leadership, problem-solving, and continuous improvement. If you've been on the fence about attending a virtual conference, here's why you should consider it: Learning and development is as important as ever.