It has become almost impossible to avoid news stories about the wrongdoing and greed of CEOs and their top teams. While the business people I work with every day are far different from the
ill-intentioned business executive often portrayed in the media, these reports of malfeasance have clearly had an impact.

Nestlé with its headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlé and today it is the world's largest food and beverages company. Nestlé employs approximately 247,000 people and has factories or operations in almost every country of the world. In 2005, Nestlé generated a turnover of 91 billion Swiss francs. The company's priority is to supply the best and most essential products to people – wherever they are, whatever they need – throughout their lives.

The IEDC-Bled School of Management in Bled, Slovenia, was one of the first management schools in Central and Eastern Europe. Over the years, it has offered more than 900 management and executive education programmes to business people from 56 countries.

The complexity and demanding nature of today's business environment requires companies to create increasingly broader teams of management as ever more quick and quality decisions are needed in companies.

In the dynamic turbulent environment of the 21st century, a competitive advantage will accrue to those companies which know how to identify, understand and satisfy the needs of both the market and their clients. The key condition for efficiently satisfying these needs lies in the search for different ways to inspire flexibility in the company.

The ability to think creatively and innovatively analyse problems and new opportunities is the most desired quality employees should have in organisations with development potential.

Creative thinking is also a skill. De Bono would say: a skill like riding a bike or swimming. We improve from exercise to exercise, and the pleasure increases as well. And if you enjoy creative thinking, you can also enjoy managing – despite any hindrances and problems, or perhaps even due to them.

Today, leading people is certainly a great challenge for any manager. Regardless of the substance of leading or the area of work involved, leading primarily means directing and organising relations between the employees. One of the key characteristics of good leaders is that they know how to bring together their own perception and their employees' perception of their leadership skills. These two perceptions frequently differ significantly, which is also shown in the table in the article in which we present the results of research among Swiss managers.