Boxes and Arrows
SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
Did you ever get bounced around between departments when interacting with a company or service? This happened to me recently with my credit card: the card issuer and the bank backing it seemed to disagree who was responsible for my problem. Each blamed the other. I got caught in the middle. My communication with them also crossed multiple channels. For some things I used their website, for others I had to call.
Bill Fischer
SEPTEMBER 14, 2011
Replacing the boss in any organization is more often than not a source of great anxiety for all stakeholders involved. And, in fact, the "bigger" the boss -- the more visible, more iconic (or even the more iconoclastic) -- the greater the risks envisioned. Over the past few weeks, we've [.
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Bennett Cherry
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
Oh, yes, I now remember that Necessity is the Mother of Invention. Sorry, Plato, I had to borrow your quote here as I was reminded today by a former student that simple innovations are often the best innovations. See for yourself by watching this short video.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
A student at one of my talks on the nonprofit sector asked if I could name a for-profit company that was making a difference on the scale that nonprofits do. I said I'd be hard-pressed to name one that wasn't. Our youth are growing up with the strange notion that the only way to make a big difference in this world, or to be of service, is to work for a nonprofit organization, or become the next Bill Gates and establish a private foundation, or to start some kind of "social enterprise," often wit
Speaker: Alex Salazar, CEO & Co-Founder @ Arcade | Nate Barbettini, Founding Engineer @ Arcade | Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO @ Aggregage
If AI agents are going to deliver ROI, they need to move beyond chat and actually do things. But, turning a model into a reliable, secure workflow agent isn’t as simple as plugging in an API. In this new webinar, Alex Salazar and Nate Barbettini will break down the emerging AI architecture that makes action possible, and how it differs from traditional integration approaches.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they're fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged. But only 20 per cent of employees around the world report that they're fully engaged at work.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 28, 2011
There's a glum desperation in the air that's hard to escape: volatility, futility, and a McFuture ghoulishly wagging its skeletal finger at a lost generation. So on what scale would you say transformation should happen? What's the breadth of your vision for change? It's time to get not just serious, but maybe even a little bit radical. This isn't a drill, but a nine-alarm fire.
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
SEPTEMBER 14, 2011
Just as a chef is attuned to the subtleties of flavor and trends in the culinary arts, a presentation coach is attuned to the subtleties of language and trends in the communication art. One trend I've noted recently is the expression, "Does that make sense?" often used by a speaker during a conversation — or a presenter during a presentation — to check whether the listener or audience has understood or appreciated what the speaker has just said.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
The past few days have seen some very unusual events in New York. You might have heard that, over the weekend, a large contingent of folks started a protest on Wall Street. Using Twitter and other online tools, they started a large sit-in of the south end of Manhattan. The day before that, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg warned that frustrations over the U.S. economic and political situation could boil over into riots.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
In the Economist review of our book, The Innovator's DNA , the reviewer wondered whether genius-level innovators such as Marc Benioff, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs challenge the idea that working adults can really learn how to think differently and become innovators. We don't think so. Remember, it was Steve Jobs who jump-started the now-famous "Think Different" advertising campaign as a way to inspire consumers and recharge Apple's innovation efforts.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 13, 2011
Self control is the ability to say no, in the face of temptation, and to take sustained action, despite the difficulty of a given challenge. At its heart, self-control requires the ability to delay gratification. More commonly, it's called discipline, or will. Without self-control, we can't accomplish almost anything of enduring value. And we rarely pay much attention to it.
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
SEPTEMBER 21, 2011
There's an old saying that carries renewed meaning these days: Give the people what they want. Brands are furiously creating profiles in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter in the hopes of building engaging communities with customers and giving people what the brands think they want. The main activity in this effort is to spur consumers to "like" and "follow" a brand's Facebook and Twitter streams.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 6, 2011
"Daddy, come look at our island! Quick! Before it disappears!". We were in Bluffton, South Carolina playing on a sandbar that emerges only at low tide. The sun was barely up — we had woken early to watch the sandbar disappear as the tide rose — and now my wife Eleanor and I were relaxing in the warm salty water, eating juicy South Carolina peaches, soaking in the moment, enjoying our children and each other.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 1, 2011
Featured Guests: Fred Reichheld and Rob Markey, authors of The Ultimate Question 2.0. Download this podcast.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
What do Netflix, Zipcar, Mint.com, Nike+, Amazon, the Nintendo Wii, and the Apple iPhone all have in common? They all take advantage of four technologies that once were scarce and expensive but are now plentiful and cheap. These technologies can be combined in numerous ways, and we are just starting to see companies really taking advantage of the possibilities.
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Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
In the past 25 years, CEOs of many major corporations have relied on a flawed set of beliefs to lead their organizations. This set has influenced them to place way too much emphasis on maximizing shareholder value and not enough on generating value for society. Today we are mired in the Great Recession, which was brought about by the near collapse of the financial system.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 16, 2011
In 2003, Jim Poss was walking down a Boston street when he noticed a trash vehicle in action. The truck was idling at a pickup point, blocking traffic, with smoke pouring out of its exhaust. Litter was still all over the street. There has to be a better way, he thought to himself. Looking into the problem, Poss learned that garbage trucks consume more than 1 billion gallons of fuel in the U.S. alone.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
Organizations need talent more than talent needs them. Mid-career professionals weigh this truism as they consider ways to align their desires with their future career aspirations. These professionals seek new opportunities through career change in order to meet personal goals and to increase the likelihood of advancement , and changing one's career is closely associated with renewed career commitment and job satisfaction.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 1, 2011
A few months ago, when I wrote about women and soft power in business , I highlighted the woeful shortage of women leaders in the corporate world and cast my vote in favor of enabling their growth. I also pointed out that the current environment makes it imperative for organizations to recognize the unique characteristics that female executives possess, and argued that CEOs must encourage women in order to bring about a much-needed transformation in business.
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Innovation is key to overcoming crises. This guide outlines how businesses can navigate uncertainty by adapting strategies, embracing open innovation, and strengthening resilience. Learn how to reassess business models, engage external expertise, and build a robust innovation ecosystem. Explore the three phases of crisis response—from immediate adaptation to long-term transformation—and discover how collaboration accelerates progress while reducing costs.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 23, 2011
The media is already dissecting yesterday's Facebook event, where the company unveiled major new changes to their platform. Par for the course, really. Drama always accompanies any change to the Facebook site or platform. But I see drama brewing in a place unaccustomed to it, and involving a different kind of media — the media buying agencies that wield most of the money spent on advertising on the Facebook platform and the companies they represent.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
There's a bogus belief that gets in the way of managers when they evaluate performance. That myth says that in order for an appraisal to be objective, assessors must have quantifiable metrics to support their assessment judgment. That's just not true. What is a performance appraisal ? The straightforward answer: A performance appraisal is a formal record of a manger's opinion of the quality of an employee's work.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
This essay originally appeared in the collection End Malaria , proceeds from which go to Malaria No More. For more information or to buy the book, go to EndMalariaDay.com. When I was an admin at Apple, I used to go to meetings and see the problem so clearly, when others could not. I didn't think I had the right or the capabilities to speak this truth.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
Over the summer I had an early morning conference call with another consultant and one of his clients. As we were wrapping up, I asked the other two people where they were calling from. One sheepishly said that she was vacationing on the Jersey Shore with her family and had sneaked out early to make the call. The second person admitted that he was on vacation in Martha's Vineyard and had done the same thing.
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The DHS compliance audit clock is ticking on Zero Trust. Government agencies can no longer ignore or delay their Zero Trust initiatives. During this virtual panel discussion—featuring Kelly Fuller Gordon, Founder and CEO of RisX, Chris Wild, Zero Trust subject matter expert at Zermount, Inc., and Principal of Cybersecurity Practice at Eliassen Group, Trey Gannon—you’ll gain a detailed understanding of the Federal Zero Trust mandate, its requirements, milestones, and deadlines.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 30, 2011
This blog post is part of the HBR Online Forum The CEO's Role in Fixing the System. To achieve sustained growth and profit in today's hyper-competitive global markets, leadership must have a deep commitment to and knowledge of those who truly invest in the firm — employees, vendors, customers, the community, and owners in for the long term. My view is that an emphasis on short term (i.e., quarterly) earnings has many damaging effects on a company's ability to pursue an innovative or entrep
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
The biggest enemy of top-line growth is analysis and its best friend is appreciation. Sure, in a small minority of companies and industries, like the smartphone business these days, there is explosive growth, and if an analysis is done of past trends, it shows lots of opportunity for top-line growth. But in the majority of businesses, if the available data are crunched, it shows a slowly growing industry — one growing with GDP or population.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
In the wake of his recent retirement, much has been written about Steve Job's peerless leadership and how he transformed not just his company, Apple, but the way we interact and live with media and technology. However long Apple manages to stay on top, there is no doubt that Jobs, with his angular genius, relentless quest for perfection, and industry-changing products, will go down as one of the greatest iconoclasts of business.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
A growing number of companies talk about the benefits of adopting web 2.0 tools inside the organization, but the list is short for companies that are using them for increased business results. Unisys , the 138-year old tech firm, has quickly made "going social" part of its culture. Here's how they did it, and how they're using social media tools to become more agile, to share knowledge, and to increase the speed of innovation.
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
SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
I miss office meetings. No one is more surprised about that than me. I've had days when I was in meetings from the moment I walked into the office until the moment I left. I've opened Outlook some days and wanted to pull my hair out at the day set out before me. I've had to run from one meeting to another because Outlook stupidly allows people to schedule meetings back to back without even 3 minutes to get from one room to another.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
A few months ago, I got two pieces of fantastic news at the same time: I had a unique opportunity to start a company, and I was expecting my first child. As a fellow at Stanford's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (informally called the d.school) I'd managed to finagle a way into a class that I knew would help me follow the entrepreneurial path I'd always wanted to explore.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
An estimated 12% of all humans who have ever lived are alive today. This slice of humanity has more life choices available to it than any previous generation. Four generations ago, the average European worker had about five-to-ten obvious occupations to choose from. Today we have tens of thousands of choices, but we don't have the thinking tools to match.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 6, 2011
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's message about finding common grounds for action has nothing to do with coffee grounds. Shultz is on a campaign to restore confidence in America and the American economy. He wants to ignite a contagious upward spiral of confidence. He has called for a national call-in conversation on September 6. Having devoted an entire book to the topic of Confidence — upward spirals, downward spirals, and turnaround — I applaud Schultz for courage and leadership.
Speaker: Ben Epstein, Stealth Founder & CTO | Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO, Aggregage
When tasked with building a fundamentally new product line with deeper insights than previously achievable for a high-value client, Ben Epstein and his team faced a significant challenge: how to harness LLMs to produce consistent, high-accuracy outputs at scale. In this new session, Ben will share how he and his team engineered a system (based on proven software engineering approaches) that employs reproducible test variations (via temperature 0 and fixed seeds), and enables non-LLM evaluation m
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