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AE Leadership Letter > Volume 11, Issue 3
AE Leadership Letter: Volume 11, Issue 3
Bringing you new ideas for impacting people performance including the latest on company culture, work-life balance, time management, developing next-generation leaders, and new management ideas being implemented in other industries
In This Issue
leadership lab
The Road Warrior
Industry Intersections
leadership lab – New management ideas at work
New Study Questions Ambition, Leadership Link
Ambition ≠ aptitude
Too many companies adopt a passive approach to leadership development. When top positions open up, they default to promoting those employees who possess the greatest ambition to ascend the corporate ladder. A new study by researchers at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, however, upends the conventional wisdom that individuals with the most ambition make the most effective leaders.
Room for discrepancy
The Stanford researchers asked 472 executives enrolled in a West Coast business school’s leadership development program to answer ambition-related questions and complete 360-degree self-assessments in 10 leadership competencies that included decision-making, managing collaborative work, and motivating others. Colleagues and subordinates were also asked by the study’s authors to evaluate the executives in the same leadership categories. When analyzing the 3,830 ratings, researchers discovered a “significant discrepancy between how ambitious leaders view themselves and how others perceive them.” The study found that ambitious executives had rosier opinions of their leadership effectiveness than their colleagues and subordinates in 7 of the 10 categories.
Active ingredient
Based on their findings, which were published in the journal PNAS Nexus in August 2024, researchers recommend that firms rethink their approach to leadership development and identification of prospective leaders. They suggest that companies consider whether they are promoting employees based more on their ambitions than their abilities. Rather than relying on a self-selected candidate pool of ambitious employees to fill senior leadership positions, the study’s authors advocate that companies take a more active role and identify and recruit “candidates based on individual traits that are known to predict leadership aptitude, such as intelligence and prosociality.” The study also advises firms to encourage high-aptitude employees who may lack ambition to pursue leadership positions and work to buoy the confidence of less-assertive, but promising employees early in their careers.
The Road Warrior – Travel tips for firm leaders
New Studies Highlight Business Travel’s Resurgence
Call it a comeback
While business travel’s post-pandemic recovery has been slower than leisure travel’s more immediate rebound, road warriors are once again pounding the pavement and taking to the skies. And a pair of recent studies reveal that business travel expenditures are poised to surpass pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024. (One note: Inflation has contributed to rising corporate travel expenditures, so while spending is returning to pre-pandemic levels, overall business trip volume still lags 2019’s totals.)
Reaching new heights
The 2024 Deloitte Corporate Travel Report forecasts that business travel spending this year will reach—and perhaps surpass—2019’s record level. Business travelers and travel managers surveyed by Deloitte projected that corporate travel spending could increase by between 8% and 12% in 2024. While business travel spending growth is forecasted to cool by several percentage points in 2025, Deloitte still expects it to be double or triple GDP growth. Increased event participation and client demand for in-person meetings are the top two drivers of the business travel upturn, according to survey respondents.
Trade (show) routes
Trade shows, which provide the most bang for the corporate development buck by allowing attendees to meet with numerous clients and prospects in a condensed time frame, are the biggest draws for business travelers. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of business travelers surveyed by Deloitte expected to make at least one trip to attend a trade show or exhibition in 2024, compared to 45% for training and development programs, 42% for sales meetings or client relationship building, and 40% for client project work.
Shaking hands on it
The annual report and forecast published by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) also projects record corporate travel spending in 2024, driven by relative stability in international economies and lingering pent-up demand. The report, which covers 72 countries, forecasts that worldwide business travel spending will reach $1.48 trillion by the end of 2024, an 11% increase from the previous year. That spending level would eclipse the record high of $1.43 trillion set in 2019. More than three-quarters (76%) of business travelers surveyed by the GBTA reported being on the road the same or more compared to 2019, and it’s clear they see the benefits of handshake meetings. More than 80% of global business travelers reported their most recent trip was “very” or “moderately” worthwhile in achieving their business objectives.
Industry Intersections – Inspirational initiatives from outside the AE industry
How a Nonalcoholic Beer Maker Brewed Success
Sober thoughts
When Bill Shufelt quit his job on the trading desk of one of the country’s preeminent hedge funds to start a craft brewery, he had no prototypes and zero beer experience outside of drinking it. Since its 2018 launch, however, Athletic Brewing Company has skyrocketed to become one of the top 20 breweries in the U.S. The remarkable aspect of Athletic’s ascent? Its beers are nonalcoholic. For AE firm leaders willing to look beyond the industry’s provincial walls, Athletic Brewing’s success story offers inspiration and education.
Identify an under-served market
When Shufelt bemoaned the lack of a high-quality nonalcoholic beer at dinner one night, his wife told him, “You should fix it.” He ran with the idea. For two years, Shufelt researched the $115 billion beer business in his spare time, and surveys he commissioned confirmed that he wasn’t the only one seeing an unmet need. Amid a growing trend of alcohol moderation, 55% of adults said they would drink a good nonalcoholic beer. With nonalcoholic alternatives representing only 0.3% of U.S. beer sales, Shufelt identified an untapped market worth billions of dollars.
Hire subject-matter experts
Having never brewed a batch of beer, Shufelt needed a professional brewer to create the product. Although hundreds of brewers turned him down, he persisted until craft brewer John Walker accepted the challenge of making a good-tasting nonalcoholic beer.
Produce a high-quality product
Knowing the business plan depended on the product’s quality, Shufelt and Walker spent nine months experimenting with various recipes in the former hedge-fund trader’s garage. Employing an entirely new brewing process, Athletic produced beer that tasted like, well, beer. As word-of-mouth about Athletic’s quality spread, the fledgling company couldn’t keep up with the orders. It outgrew its first brewery in 10 months. After doubling capacity, Athletic outgrew it again in another three months.
Know your target audience
When it launched, Athletic Brewing pursued a very specific target audience—weekend warriors. With millennials and Gen Zers leading the trend toward lower alcohol consumption, the company targeted young, active adults between the ages of 24 and 44. It sponsored pro volleyball tournaments, Spartan Races, and half-marathons at which it gave away samples that hooked consumers. Athletic Brewing is now the top-selling nonalcoholic beer brand in the U.S., according to NielsenIQ, with an estimated valuation of $800 million.
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