Bill Fischer
JUNE 28, 2011
Image via Wikipedia 2011 is the 100th anniversary of a really bad idea. In 1911, the British Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s determination to learn less, rather than more -- about life, clothing and diet in extreme cold conditions -- led to his assuming that he was smarter than thousands of [.
Innovation 360 Group
JUNE 9, 2011
Over the last year the key topics within the world of innovations has been impacted by social responsibility and sustainability aspects, which can be seen by analyzing the last 12 months of Google searching using Google Insights for Search. The top area of interest over the last 12 month has been. business innovation. open innovation. innovation management. technology innovation. social innovation.
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Innovation 360
JUNE 5, 2011
Last Friday we could read an interesting blog post by Scott Anthony. It was about four typical innovation pitfalls. Great article , and I like to comment upon it. The first lie is that you can trust the feedback when asking customers, and instead go for what they do today or if they are ready to spend some money on a new idea (on an early stage). This is a very useful way of verifying the real need and according to my experience also to be combined with testing the market with different versions
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 27, 2011
If you ask an extremely successful salesperson, "What makes you different from the average sales rep?" you will most likely get a less-than-accurate answer, if any answer at all. Frankly, the person may not even know the real answer because most successful salespeople are simply doing what comes naturally. Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of interviewing thousands of top business-to-business salespeople who sell for some of the world's leading companies.
Speaker: Jady West, VP of Hospitality & Chris Bennett, Head of Sales & Engineering
The modern hotel room is no longer just a place to stay—it’s an experience to remember. Today’s guests expect seamless connectivity, personalized comfort, and high-tech convenience. From AI-powered smart room controls to keyless entry, in-room entertainment, and app-based services, technology is redefining hospitality from the inside out. In this new session featuring industry pros Jady West and Chris Bennett, we’ll explore how high-speed, high-bandwidth connectivity powers the innovations that
Bill Fischer
JUNE 23, 2011
"The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.That sucks." So says28-year-old Cloudera founder, early Facebook veteranand one of Bloomberg BusinessWeek's "Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs" in 2010, Jeff Hammerbacher, in a refreshing insight about the present state of innovation. In fact,if we're honest [.].
Bill Fischer
JUNE 4, 2011
Among the "Seven misconceptions" regarding innovation that PwC's 1200 worldwide CEOs identified, there are five that are particularly important : Innovation can be delegated. Not so. The drive to innovate begins at the top. If the CEO doesn't protect and reward the process, it will fail. So many CEOs either "don't [.
Business Innovation Brief brings together the best content for business innovation and strategy professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 7, 2011
This post is part of the HBR Insight Center Making Collaboration Work. Last week I arrived home from work to see my 8th grade son toiling away on a science fair project with his classmate Marc. As I observed their breezy back-and-forth, one at the computer, the other laying out the poster board, both fully engaged, no ego involved, I found myself taken back.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 24, 2011
It's the burning question many of you have been hurling at me recently: "So instead of idly waiting around for the so-called mysteriously reluctant non-recovering recovery, what should we do to survive this never-ending raging crisis?". Here's a tiny suggestion. The "best" investment you can make isn't gold. It's the people you love, the dreams you have, and living a life that matters.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 8, 2011
The Big Grinning Kahunas that run the world don't agree on much these days, except one thing: the urgent, vital need for "recovery." On both sides of an increasingly fractious political divide, there's a common belief underlying the debates: what we really need is more stimulus, spending, cutting, slashing, or [insert big idea here], and the economy will "recover" — hey, presto!!
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 20, 2011
Last month, in an article in the New York Times on the ever-escalating "war for talent" in Silicon Valley , Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a passing comment that has become the entrepreneurial equivalent of a verbal tick — something that's said all the time, almost without thinking. "Someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better that someone who is pretty good," he argued when asked why he was willing to pay $47 million to acquire FriendFeed, a price that translat
Speaker: Kevin Burke, Founder & Managing Director at Digital One and AI & Automation Consultant
AI and automation are currently transforming the way sales and marketing teams operate. Generative AI crafts personalized outreach at scale, while conversational AI bots are engaging prospects in real time. Robotic process automation streamlines manual workflows by triggering tasks the moment a prospect takes a key action, and advanced AI analytics surface hidden patterns in the pipeline, improve forecasting, and help teams make data-driven decisions with confidence.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 15, 2011
Lots of organizations come to our company, Advertising for Humanity, asking for "a new brand." They typically mean a new name, or icon, or a new look and feel for their existing name. Lots of people think that brand begins and ends there — that once we shine up the name they can stick it below their email signature, pop it on their website, and, voila, they have a new brand.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 27, 2011
Anytime a CEO, quarterback, engineer or author is paid ridiculous amounts of money, dozens of investors, armchair quarterbacks, and scholars jump in to debate the value of individual contributors versus teams. Bill Taylor wrote the most recent of many interesting pieces, where he argued provocatively that " great people are overrated ," in response to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's comment that a great engineer is worth 100 average engineers.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 22, 2011
The road to hell may or may not be paved with good intentions, but the road to failure surely is. Take a good look at the people you work with, and you'll find lots of Good Starters — individuals who want to succeed, and have promising ideas for how to make that happen. They begin each new pursuit with enthusiasm, or at the very least, a commitment to getting the job done.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 3, 2011
If today's workplace had an anthem, it might very well be the British indie duo Ting Tings' new song with its refrain "Clap your hands if you're working too hard." Workplaces are more demanding than ever in terms of hours and performance. Americans are putting in more hours per week than previous years. That's creating a rising tide of resentment among the 70 million Gen Ys flooding into the workforce.
Speaker: Jason Cottrell and Gireesh Sahukar
Retailers know the clock is ticking–legacy SAP Commerce support ends in 2026. Legacy platforms are becoming a liability burdened by complexity, rigidity, and mounting operational costs. But modernization isn’t just about swapping out systems, it’s about preparing for a future shaped by real-time interactions, AI powered buying assistants, and flexible commerce architecture.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 7, 2011
This post is part of the HBR Insight Center Making Collaboration Work. Teamwork and collaboration are critical to mission achievement in any organization that has to respond quickly to changing circumstances. My research in the U.S. intelligence community has not only affirmed that idea but also surfaced a number of mistaken beliefs about teamwork that can sidetrack productive collaboration.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 6, 2011
New York Times pundit David Brooks recently expressed in 800 words a message I have spent the last 15 years trying to communicate to senior business leaders and ambitious young people around the world. The title of Brooks's column was "It's Not About You," and he wrote it as a rebuttal to commencement-season addresses that urge young people to follow their passion, pursue their dreams, and, above all, do what makes them happy.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 13, 2011
After a decade of painstaking research, we have concluded that American firms are on average the best managed in the world. This is not what we — a group of European researchers — expected to find. But while Americans are bad at football (or soccer, as it's known as locally), they are the Brazilians of Management. Over the past decade, a team from Harvard Business School, London School of Economics, McKinsey & Company, and Stanford has systematically surveyed global management.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 6, 2011
Everyone complains about his or her boss from time to time. In fact, some consider it a national workplace pastime. But there's a difference between everyday griping and stressful frustration, just as there is a clear distinction between a manager with a few flaws and one who is incompetent. Dealing with the latter can be anguishing and taxing. But with the right mindset and a few practical tools, you can not only survive but flourish.
Speaker: Yohan Lobo and Dennis Street
In the accounting world, staying ahead means embracing the tools that allow you to work smarter, not harder. Outdated processes and disconnected systems can hold your organization back, but the right technologies can help you streamline operations, boost productivity, and improve client delivery. Dive into the strategies and innovations transforming accounting practices.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 2, 2011
Every day I go to meetings where language suggests people are cogs. With peers in a few CEO roundtables, I've heard things like: "I plan on hiring 3 biz dev people to get $345K per headcount in revenues." After publishing a book about closing the execution gap by focusing on the "peopley" stuff, CEOs of major companies took me aside (in a friendly way) to suggest I had made a major faux pas, and would be seen as having gone "soft.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 23, 2011
Nearly every company in the world gives lip service to the idea that "our people are our greatest asset." Yet when the Conference Board Survey came out earlier this year, employees were the unhappiest they have been in their 22 years of tracking job satisfaction rates. Around the same time, CNNMoney reported a survey that indicated 84% of Americans are unhappy with their current job.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 13, 2011
This post is part of the HBR Insight Center Making Collaboration Work. Many posts on this site over the past few weeks make it clear that collaboration is critical to high performance in organizations today. But how does performance affect collaboration? In sports, it is a truism that winning can temporarily overcome various problems between teammates.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 17, 2011
Almost 50 years ago Ernest Dichter , the father of motivation research, did a large study of word of mouth persuasion that revealed secrets of how to use social media to build brands and businesses. The study was reported in a 1966 article in HBR. A major Dichter finding, very relevant today, was the identification of four motivations for a person to communicate about brands.
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Harvard Business Review
JUNE 8, 2011
If you took a poll of critical skills most important to business success, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a list that didn't include vision, leadership, drive, ambition, or intellect. You'd be equally hard pressed to find one that included, much less led with, generosity. That generosity is important and valued isn't news — but a key driver of success?
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 8, 2011
In recent months, several high-level leaders have mysteriously lost their way. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund and a leading French politician, was arraigned on charges of sexual assault. Before that, David Sokol, rumored to be Warren Buffett's successor, was forced to resign for trading in Lubrizol stock prior to recommending that Berkshire Hathaway purchase the company.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 1, 2011
It's college graduation season, which makes this a happy time in the Boston area. Lots of families are congregating here to celebrate the education achievements of one of their own. I have nothing but good memories of my two graduation days; one at MIT, the other at Harvard. But I remember precisely nothing of what was said at the ceremonies themselves.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 17, 2011
"In a market that's become extremely lean and mean. individuals who have tended to be the senior statesmen of their day are sometimes the first to go.". That comment by Richard Stein, an executive recruiter in New York, should be handed out with diplomas to all newly minted MBAs. On the one hand this is good news for them because it means there is room at the top — but it's also a warning to these up-and-comers that time flies.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 7, 2011
Hirotaka Takeuchi , Harvard Business School professor, and Ikujiro Nonaka , professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University, explain how the best executives strive for the common good. They are the authors of the HBR article The Wise Leader.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 9, 2011
When I joined the Harvard Business School faculty, I received cards and letters from friends and family congratulating me on achieving one of the ultimate brass rings of academics. I felt pretty good about myself until I visited my assigned office in Morgan Hall. In an adjacent office was a colleague who had written something like 12 books and was an internationally recognized scholar in the area of organizational innovation.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 28, 2011
Are the people who work for you a real team? It's easy to extol teamwork, but not every group is a team. In fact, most teams we see, aren't — because their managers focus on building the most effective relationships they can with each individual who works for them. They spend their time managing person by person, paying little attention to collective performance.
Harvard Business Review
JUNE 13, 2011
Getting a venture underway is often easier than keeping it going and growing. At each major stage from start-up to sustainable success, entrepreneurs face tough questions about shifting gears, making major changes, and letting go of people, partners, and products. For new businesses, inability or unwillingness to change can land them in the statistics about high failure rates at the five-year mark.
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