Leadership BLOG
Interesting facts about the art of leadership
As co-founders of the Future of Leadership Initiative (FLI), we bring together global thought leaders, experienced managers, and young talent to share leadership issues for the future. The world needs responsible, effective leadership to solve the complex problems of our time. Here you will find food for thought, new perspectives and scientific findings on the topic of leadership:

Why Donald Trump is a stronger leader than we might like
It’s the World Economic Forum in Davos – and once again, Donald Trump is ruling the headlines. As soon as he tweets something, the whole world gets worked up about it. And his fans rejoice. There is hardly a political actor who is as good at getting people to talk about him as the American president. How come?

THE VALUE OF NOT KNOWING
The Highlights of our Thought Leader Interview with Infineon CEO Dr. Reinhard Ploss on Leadership and the Rise of Intelligent Machines.

Are we all going to be Cyborgs?
Portrait of the first officially accepted cyborg in the world, Neil Harbisson. Do you know what a cyborg is? Cyborg is the short version for “cybernetic organism”

WHY AGILITY COUNTS FOR LEADERS
Strategic impulses on how to bring strategies into action. As I have been engaged in the topic of agile leadership for more than seven years,

Silicon Valley’s secret ingredients of success
What is it about Silicon Valley? And why does it attract so many great talents? Young serial entrepreneur Catalin Voss, who got to experience that
Interview with Joe Kaeser, CEO of SIEMENS, about Meaning at Work

The Birth of Cybertecture
Take a glimpse at how the renowned cyberarchitect James Law was able to grasp the hidden opportunities of tech, and to completely revolutionize the world

Exclusive interview with Dr. Frank Meyer (E.ON): Innovation vs. Invention
How do you distinguish innovation from invention? And how do you apply this knowledge to lead teams and companies? Dr. Frank Meyer, Head of B2C

Mythbusters reloaded: 7 more myths about AI
It has been over half a year since I published the article Mythbusters: 7 common myths about AI. On my quest to demystify AI, I have held

7 common myths about AI
Artificial Intelligence is one of the most hyped topics of recent years. Naturally, a lot of superficial knowledge has found its way into the press
Interview with Jimmy Wales, Co-founder of Wikipedia

2020: Cheerful Moments, True Goals and Serendipity
New Year’s Eve at midnight: colorful fireworks lightening the sky, popping champagne corks and smiling people wishing a “happy new year” to each other. What

CDTM – Educating the Innovators of Tomorrow
Did you know? The Munich Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM), a joint institution of the Technical University of Munich and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, was the

Small, but attractive — What attracts talent to startups?
If finding top talent is your top priority for this year, you’re not alone. 76% of the hiring decision makers list attracting quality candidates as

Leadership Quest: a workshop on self-leadership
On Saturday, August 11th we offered together with our partners at the Female Tech Leaders (FTL), a full day workshop. 26 participants met at 8 am

Roots of Innovation
We asked four experts whether there is a success formula to foster innovation: Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter (CEO Vodafone Germany), Dr. Antonella Mei-Pochtler (Senior Advisor BCG), Lin Kayser (Founder of

Giving in to courage & serendipity
“Courage is not the absence of fear… Courage is when you are scared shitless and you do it anyway” – serial entrepreneur Lin Kayser about

The Role of Leadership in the Digital Era
In Berlin, spring comes with re:publica. FLI spokesperson Laura Bechthold attended Europe’s most important conference on digital culture. Inspired by different sessions, here are some thoughts

How to create the innovation ecosystem of the future
At the FLI Conference 2018, we asked representatives of the corporate, startup, academic and social business world how to leverage cross-sectorial collaborations for co-creating the

Has the truth behind innovation been unveiled? Insights from the FLI Conference 2018
Let us present to you what we learned from a former Leader of IDEO Europe, a Cyberarchitect and a Harvard Professor during the first day

5 Steps You Can Take To Innovate The Future – By former CTO of HP Phil McKinney
How can you innovate the future? Phil McKinney, former CTO of HP and FLI Thought Leader 2017, shares with you 5 actionable steps to become more

Disrupting the automotive industry – Interview with Founder & CEO of Drivy
How to establish Europe’s biggest car rental marketplace in Europe while redefining urban mobility, and accomplishing innovative leadership? Learn how the French founder and CEO

The 4 Levels of Innovation Culture
In our interviews with thought leaders about innovation, one aspect keeps coming up: culture. But what are we talking about when we invoke an “Innovation

How a start-up aims to disrupt the e-mobility market
In preparation of FLI’s next event, the Future Lab, we have talked to the CEO of the startup MotionWerk GmbH about their first product Share&Charge,

How to give a purpose to your company?
Do you want to make business or great business? At the FLI Conference 2016 Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens, revealed four steps for meaningful business.

Small is beautiful
In 2015, the FLI held an interview with the financial risk analyst and bestseller author Nassim Taleb, on “Achieving True Progress”. Mr. Taleb, you are a mathematician,

The co-founder of Wikipedia on how to achieve true progress
How does Wikipedia contribute to true progress in the world? Jimmy Wales, Co-founder of Wikipedia, on his vision of the world and the impact of

The next steps into the Future of Leadership
This is what will make FLI 2017 year’s edition special The Leadership Excellence Circle took place on June 28th in the “Maker Space” of the TUM Technical

Building the future of transportation – the story of the finalists of Elon Musk’s competition
Learn how a student’s team from Munich became finalists in the innovation competition initiated by Elon Musk to co-create a new super-fast mode of transportation!

When Big Data saves lives – and other inspiring stories
Juliana Rotich, Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011, reveals how everyone can leverage the power and impact of technological tools, and how to achieve

How to convey objectives & achieve results
Precious leadership advice from Thought Leaders we talked to in our Future of Leadership Initiative 2014. Source: Research from the Future of Leadership Initiative 2014

The FLI edition 2017 is kicking off in June 28th!
The kick-off event of this year’s Future of Leadership Initiative (FLI) edition is coming. Are you ready to find out what will make this year’s

Three personal leadership lessons by Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens
Are you interested in some personal advice of the leader of 350.000 employees worldwide? Then read here about Joe Kaeser’s input at the FLI Conference

When nature becomes an innovation tool
Biomimicry, the art to imitate nature and learn from it, can help us come up with amazing solutions, technologies and innovations. Like dreamstorming (see our

Change initiatives can fail even before they start – here’s why
Change initiatives are challenging, therefore it´s absolutely necessary that they start correctly. Not all leaders are aware of it, but change initiatives can fail even

5 leadership lessons from an orchestra conductor
What does leading an orchestra have to do with leading a company? More than you think. How can a conductor possibly teach business executives

The beauty of moving knowledge
In 2015, we talked to Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, on how to achieve true progress. Find out more about his understanding of progress –

How to be more creative in an unusual yet simple way
As you may have experienced yourself, achieving lateral thinking is difficult. Yet it is much needed. We reveal to you an unusual yet simple technique

How can businesses foster innovation?
The Editor-in-chief of WIRED UK David Rowan has the answer… Last year, one of the speakers at the FLI Conference was David Rowan. In his current position, he travels

4 major sources of meaning at work
In a meta-study Brent D. Rosso et al (Michigan University) found out 4 major sources of meaning and fulfillment at work. Find out what is essential

Can we find meaning at work?
Plato described humans as “beings in search of meaning” – and cognitive science confirms that. During centuries however, the social origin determined the work of

3 ways to make people embrace change and innovation despite all odds
An expert on psychological decision-making revealed to us some simple psychological ways of making people more open to change and innovation. Just recently we had

The hidden pattern of inventions
What if there were a common thread between all kinds of inventions and innovations who have shaped our lives? We talked to an expert about

Investigating the truth behind innovation
Currently, there is a lot of hype about that topic, but who knows exactly “The Truth Behind Innovation”? Sometimes academic research is too abstract and

There is no such thing as a new idea
Everybody seems to be aware of the importance of innovation, but do you really know why it is worth to be innovative? There is no