675 Posts found for Source: Harvard Business Review

Organizations have always depended on data — to manage operations, to communicate with customers, to pay employees and suppliers, to plan their futures, and so forth. Those with the best data have enjoyed distinct advantages — in commerce, for example, better understanding the market leads to better products offered at better prices, and so forth. Data has enabled strategy, but, with few exceptions, neither driven … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Thomas C. Redman | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Strategy

In “What Is Strategy,” [Michael] Porter argues against a bevy of alternate views … At a fundamental level, all strategies for Porter boil down to two very broad options: Do what everyone else is doing (but spend less money doing it), or do something no one else can do.

A tour de force by any measure, “What Is Strategy?” is certainly required reading for all … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Andrea Ovans | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

The first person to think seriously about how businesses function was Ronald Coase. In his groundbreaking 1937 paper he argued that firms gained competitiveness by reducing transaction costs, especially those related to information. In his view, firms could grow until the point that organizational costs cancelled out transactional benefits.

In the 1980s, Michael Porter built on this idea and made it more possible for … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Greg Satell | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Strategy is not the inevitable outcome of a process of analysis: it is a choice of where a firm wants to play and how it will win there going forward. Yes, a working knowledge of the industry and its likely evolution, the customers and their likely preferences, the firm itself and its potential capabilities and cost structure, and its competitors and their likely responses and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Anyone taking the time to delve into the literature of strategy quickly realizes that there are two fiercely opposed camps.

In the red corner we have the “positioning school” (TPS) and in the white we have the “resource-based view of the firm” (RBV). Michael Porter is credited with (or more often accused of) creating TPS in 1980—positing that a firm should think about positioning itself in … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Smart executives know that sustaining great companies requires both strategic consistency and reinvention. But how do you achieve each without sacrificing the other?

In my experience, the answer lies in being able to answer — and act on — two important questions: what capabilities set your company apart from everyone else? And, are there changes happening in your world that will make those capabilities obsolete or … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ken Favaro | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Efforts to grow blur uniqueness, create compromises, reduce fit, and ultimately undermine competitive advantage. In fact, the growth imperative is hazardous to strategy.

Content: Quotation | Author: Michael E. Porter | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Growth, Strategy

Back in the early 1960s, the great Boston Consulting Group founder and strategy theorist Bruce Henderson asserted that there was only one way to successfully compete: gain a relative market share advantage over all competitors so as to have lower costs than all of them. The payoff is that it puts the firm in a position to drive those relative costs even lower as competition … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

The “scientific model” of management, as Warren Bennis and Jim O’Toole called it, emphasized conceptual knowledge and tools and techniques – what Greek philosophers would have called episteme and techne. It was assumed that organizations could be studied by detached “objective” observers and that management science could be “values-free” – just like the natural sciences. More generally this scientific model has resulted in a misanthropic … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David K. Hurst | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Capitalism, Education, Leadership, Management, Mission

An economist falls apart and turns into a blubbing puddle on the floor if you take away the concept of trade-offs because they all started in the same place: the societal trade-off between guns and butter. Trade-offs are a sacred article of faith for economists. You simply can’t be an economist if you don’t consider trade-offs to be a central feature of your worldview.

Content: Quotation | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Economics

Doesn’t every business want to maximize its profits? Pricing textbooks certainly all assume they do, or at least that they want to achieve a certain profit level under given constraints. But in truth businesses rarely focus on only profitability; most strive to satisfy various stakeholders and meet the goals of balanced scorecards. And even when a company is focused tightly on financial performance, there are … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Stefan Michel | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Finance, Management, Pricing

Virtual meetings don’t have to be seen as a waste of time. In fact, they can be more valuable than traditional face-to-face meetings. Beyond the fact that they’re inexpensive ways to get people together – think: no travel costs and readily available technology – they’re also great opportunities to build engagement, trust and candor among teams.

Several years ago, my company’s Research Institute embarked on an … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Keith Ferrazzi | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

When something seems too good to be true, it usually is. And management techniques, practices, and strategies are no different. When you read a business book or attend a presentation on a particular management practice, it is a good habit to explicitly ask, “What might it not be good for?” When might it not work; what could be its drawbacks?

[…] There is a second … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Freek Vermeulen | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Knowledge, Management, Thought, Trends / Analysis

Great managers strive to do right by their employees — treat them well, motivate them to succeed, and provide the support and coaching each person needs. This is often easier said than done, especially when it comes to coaching. That’s because coaching takes time, skill, and careful planning. And there are certain types of people who may be particularly challenging for managers to coach. Think … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Amy Gallo | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Proper questioning has become a lost art. Because expectations for decision-making have gone from “get it done soon” to “get it done now” to “it should have been done yesterday,” we tend to jump to conclusions instead of asking more questions. And the unfortunate side effect of not asking enough questions is poor decision-making. That’s why it’s imperative that we slow down and take the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Tom Pohlmann | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Personal Development

The competition for top MBA programs is notoriously tough. If you want to get in, you’ll have to present your achievements, skills, and values in a compelling way. Take this brief assessment to see if you know how to impress the admissions committee.

First, read the questions, each one typical of what you’d find on a B-school application. Then choose whether the sample response is weak … [ Read more ]

Content: Prospective MBA Content | Author: Marie Mookini | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Getting In

We are the most social species on earth — but also inherently selfish. Darwinian theories of organizational behavior highlight the fundamental tension between “getting ahead” and “getting along” in the workplace. Resolving that tension involves balancing individuals’ agendas and the goals of the group. To do that, it’s critical to select the right team members — people who are likely to gel, particularly when the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Organizational Behavior

In talent development practice, companies spend millions of dollars and countless hours every year on self-reported assessments that only target self-knowledge. The core problem is that we’re notoriously poor judges of our own capabilities.

Content: Article | Author: Erich C. Dierdorff | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

All of us differ dramatically in our attitude towards habits, and our aptitude for forming them. From my observation, I began to realize that just about everyone falls into one of four distinct groups: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels.

The key question is: How do you respond to an expectation? We all face two kinds of expectations:
1. Outer expectations: meet a work deadline, observe traffic regulations
2. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Gretchen Rubin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

How does behavioral economics impact our decision making process?

Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Francesca Gino, John Beshears | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Economics, Organizational Behavior