Preston Bottger

Professor Emeritus of Leadership and General Management

Preston Bottger is Professor Emeritus of Leadership and General Management. He has combined teaching, research, and consulting in leadership development and strategy execution for over 25 years.

He was director of IMD’s Mobilizing People, a two-week leadership program, for eight years. His consulting work in Europe includes a global asset management firm, and several companies in manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries.

Before joining IMD, Bottger was Professor of the Practice of Management at The Fuqua School of Business Duke University (1990 -1998), holding the positions of Executive Director of the North Carolina Family Business Forum and Executive Director of the Hartman Center for Mid-Sized Companies. At Duke, he was extensively involved in executive education with duties both in teaching and program direction. Previously, he was on faculty at the Australian Graduate School of Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney (1980-1989), and was Founding Director of the Graduate Management Qualification, a distance learning MBA-level program for engineers and scientists around Australia.

His work in the USA, either as a consultant or as a program director in executive education, included projects for AT&T, ABB, Lafarge, Wachovia Bank, Wolseley, Organon Teknika, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson. In Australia, his consulting in leadership development included work with QANTAS, Westpac, Ampol, EXXON, Australian Telecom, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce, and the Australian Treasury. For many years, he lectured on leadership and decision making at the Joint Services Staff College and at the Royal Australian Navy Staff College.

Bottger holds a PhD in management from the Australian Graduate School of Management, and a Master of Engineering Science and a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from the University of New South Wales. He has won the Outstanding Teacher Award presented by Duke University’s Weekend Executive MBA class, and the Outstanding Paper Award in Management Development presented by the US Academy of Management. He is the author of numerous research articles in international journals on the topics of problem solving in groups, leadership, and motivation, and is the lead author of Managing People (CMRD, Sydney).

He has served as editor (OB/Operations) of the Australian Journal of Management and is on the editorial board of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Human Resources Management. He also edited the book Leading in the Top Team, which provides practical advice based on the actions and decisions of real leaders in a range of roles and situations. His current research interests are focused on how individuals develop various capacities for leadership in the context of their organization’s strategy.

Academic publications
Article
What new general managers must learn and forget in order to succeed
General ManagementLeadershipTalent ManagementChange Management
This paper aims to highlight the surprises awaiting executives making the transition from functional to general management responsibilities – and offer a guidance system to help general managers (G...
1 January 2009
Article
The off-line imperative
DigitalGeneral ManagementTop Team
This paper highlights the importance of executives taking a timeout to reflect – and to build that habit into their work routines. This study is based on extensive observation of and discussion wit...
1 January 2007
Insight for Executives
Article
Cinco maiores desafios e obstáculos dos novos líderes
Leadership
Além de engajar as equipes com um objetivo comum, os líderes precisam estar aptos a motivar os colaboradores, bem como devem ficar abertos a ensinar e aprender o tempo todo¦
16 December 2014
Article
How loyal are your employees?: Understanding the keys to retaining talent
Organizational Behavior
Organizations – or, more accurately, their senior executives – can lose talented employees for a variety of different reasons. People who feel poorly managed, unrecognized, under-utilized or frustr...
29 April 2013
Article
Existe-t-il un profil type de leader?
Leadership
Machiavel a identifié, il y a cinq cents ans, trois types de personnes : celles qui comprennent les choses par elles-mêmes, celles qui ont besoin qu’on les leur explique et celles qui ne les compre...
16 August 2012
Leadership essentials
Article
Leadership essentials
Leadership
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adams¦There are no two ways around it: Leadership is hard work. Yet, the actual task...
31 May 2012
Article
Is there a certain profile that makes for a good leader
Leadership
Machiavel a identifié, il y a cinq cents ans, trois types de personnes : celles qui comprennent les choses par elles-mêmes, celles qui ont besoin qu’on les leur explique et celles qui ne les compre...
1 February 2012
Article
The keys to coaching, developing, retaining and sustaining talent
Organizational BehaviorEconomics
Executives around the globe have responded to the economic crisis by reviewing their systems for managing human capital. The smartest of them are not simply asking questions about their current inv...
5 August 2009
Article
Le pari réussi du Groupe Swatch dans le luxe
Luxury
Après avoir créé ses fameuses montres design et bon marché, le numéro 1 mondial de l'horlogerie est devenu un acteur majeur de l'industrie du luxe.
1 March 2007
Article
Führungsprinzipien am Beispiel von Nicolas G. Hayek
Top Team
Der Erfolg der Swatch Group basiert auf den Führungsgrundsätzen des Gründers. Eine Studie zeigt, wie Nicolas G. Hayek neue Geschäftschancen wittert und umsetzt.
1 January 2007
Article
Sunrise points the way to successful integration
StrategyOrganizational BehaviorMergers and Acquisitions
Experienced executives often say of M&As: “The dealmakers have it easy. It’s the poor guy who has to manage the post-transaction execution that has it hard.” The job of managing post-transaction in...
20 October 2006
Article
Finding your way to a successful integration
Mergers and Acquisitions
For any merger or acquisition, the hardest part is post-transaction integration. The authors of this article find useful lessons in the experience of a Swiss telecoms company.
20 October 2006
Article
Can we really master uncertainty?
Disruption
The authors say the uncertainty will never disappear, but business can develop responses to it.
17 March 2006
Article
Sunrise, le succès grâce à la mobilisation du personnel
Organizational BehaviorOrganizational Transformation
1 October 2005
Article
A shining example
LeadershipMergers and AcquisitionsOrganizational Behavior
Kim Frimer skilfully combined opposites to turn Sunrise - a struggling Swiss telecoms company - into a market leader in less than three years. The authors of this article examine his methods.
1 June 2005
Article
Führungsstärke dank einer handfesten Methodik
LeadershipStrategy
1 January 2005