Academic Research Conference Keynote Address

Philip L. Fioravante, Ph.D is a well-rounded business executive and an Associate Professor-Marketing at Walsh College (Troy, MI). Dr. Fioravante currently is with several firms in an Executive capacity. He is Senior Managing Partner – Strategy Development Group (SDG) and also, GreenRock Capital. SDG is a business advisory and consulting practice with affiliates around the world. GreenRock Capital is a private equity firm exclusively focused on micro-level investing in entrepreneurial business opportunities. In addition, Dr. Fioravante is an Operating Partner – Industrial Opportunity Partners (Evanston, IL).

Dr. Fioravante has extensive experience developing proprietary approaches in both market and product development. Moreover, he has a copyright on a Marketing Toolkit© which he has used in consulting with domestic and international technology-based clients. Dr. Fioravante also sits on numerous academic and corporate boards for both private and public international companies. He also has been a guest speaker and panel member at many industry and international educational sessions. In addition, he has published several peer reviewed articles in the areas of corporate philanthropy, the value proposition of strategic philanthropy, and leadership – strategy and innovation.

Dr. Fioravante has a B.S. in Applied Engineering Sciences – Manufacturing Engineering from Michigan State University, a MBA – International Business from Wayne State University (Detroit), an Advanced Executive Program Certificate from MIT and his Ph.D in Organizational Management & Strategy from the Business and Technology College at Capella University (Minneapolis). He currently is in a post-doc studies initiative at Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management.

DR. PHILIP FIORAVANTE

An Effective Leadership Revelation:

Blending Dark Side and Positivist Traits

The leadership phenomenon arguably has received more attention than any other management rudiments. This phenomenon is linked to a variety of behavioral theories and leadership taxonomies. The two featured leadership styles herein are the positivist perspective and the dark side vein. Defining leaders in a positivist or dark side viewpoint is not linear but, rather multifaceted and leads to a broader discussion regarding functionality of emotional intelligence.

The construct of leadership and takes the interested participant through how social-behavioral sciences contribute to the foundation of the leadership style traits such as, charisma, authenticity, and character. Leadership by its parts “Leader and ship” is deeply rooted in direction and a collective group on a journey towards a goal. Leaders use framing methods for providing meaning to their message. The most skillful are able to apportion certain aspects of the subject matter and disallow others as a means of controlling the message and placing emphasis in a self-serving manner. This skill resonates in positivist as well as dark side leaders. Leadership brings all constituencies in line with a common and collaborative movement towards success.

Personal perspectives are the result of the learned values and attitudes, observed, and experienced during a lifetime. Setting the tone or message of a business organization is vital to its foundation and must be levered with effective communication, strong business ethics, and moral reasoning to achieve congruency of follower adherence. Leadership is about two things – clear vision and an ability to incentivize others to follow. The focus should be on process and results, not on dictating and questioning why but rather how did we arrive at the decisions.