"It's early 2025 and inside Equitable Holdings, CEO Mark Pearson is asking a simple but profound question: is 80% enough? Over the past three years, the company has undergone a sweeping transformation and launched a bold experiment to reinvent how a 160-year-old financial institution collaborates, innovates, and leads. This New Way of Working is designed to speed up decision-making, empower teams, and ignite a new culture of agility."
"As Pearson and his leadership team look ahead, they face a defining choice whether to push for total adoption or allow flexibility at the edges. This case challenges us to consider what true cultural change looks like and what it takes to make it last. Today on Cold Call, we welcome Professor Das Narayandas and guests Mark Pearson and Jeff Hurd to discuss the case, "New WOW at Equitable, A New Way of Working.""
Equitable Holdings launched a New Way of Working to speed decision-making, empower teams, and create agile culture across a 160-year-old firm. The three-year transformation tested decentralized decision rights, new collaboration methods, and leadership behaviors to accelerate innovation. Results varied: some divisions embraced the model and saw faster decisions and energized teams, while others maintained legacy practices and resisted change. CEO Mark Pearson and his leadership team must choose between driving total adoption or permitting flexibility at business-unit edges. Long-term success depends on aligning incentives, clarifying standards, and sustaining cultural shifts beyond initial implementation.
Read at Harvard Business Review
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