Bill Fischer
DECEMBER 11, 2011
Amundsen and his team at the South Pole; Image via Wikipedia On December 14, 1911, one hundred years ago, Roald Amundsen, and a small team of four others, accomplished what no one else had ever done before: they reached the South Pole. At the time, this was truly terra incognito: one [.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 15, 2011
I recently got back from a month's vacation — the longest I've ever taken, and a shocking indulgence for an American. (Earlier this summer, I was still fretting about how to pull off two weeks unplugged.) The distance, though, helped me hone in on what's actually important to my professional career — and which make-work activities merely provide the illusion of progress.
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Bill Fischer
DECEMBER 29, 2011
Vincent Van Gogh, "The Sower," 1888. Image via Wikipedia Innovators all! That should be a natural, legitimate, goal for all organizations, but earlier this month, when I asked thirty-five senior managers from a well-known, successful, European consumer goods company "how many of them had innovation responsibilities?" the response was less than 20%. [.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 12, 2011
Each year at this time, I look forward and predict trends in social media for the coming year. But first, I look back at my predictions from last year. How'd I do? Not bad. Social media continues to move forward toward business integration, a trend that I identified last year. In a joint study from Booz Allen and social platform developer Buddy Media, 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEO's label social as a high priority.
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
DECEMBER 8, 2011
We recently attended the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit 2011 in Mumbai, where we moderated several panels and workshops on the topic of innovation. The experience gave us some insights into a unique approach to innovation called jugaad , which entrepreneurs and enterprises are practicing in complex emerging markets like India. Jugaad is a Hindi word that loosely translates as "the gutsy art of overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 22, 2011
Google is poised to completely alter how websites market themselves over the next year. While easing users into changing search results pages , Google has also designed a new method for websites to structure data so that its crawler can better pull information. This is a tremendous strategy. Google doesn't need to own all of the information in the world, but does own the methods of accessing that information — as well as the ability to advertise to people who use that access.
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
DECEMBER 6, 2011
As we come to the end of a bitter, divisive, downright ugly year in business and society, it's hard to pick the one big story that defines the climate of the times. This summer's rancorous debt-ceiling talks come to mind, as do the collapse of the feckless Italian government and the rise of Occupy Wall Street and its satellite movements around the country and the world.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 14, 2011
Even in this unprecedented business environment , great leaders know they should invest in their people. Those companies who are committed to a strong workplace culture tend to perform well, and now they are featured prominently in a new ranking recently released by Great Place to Work Institute. Among the top performers on the 2011 World's Best Multinational Companies list are culturally-strong technology companies such as Microsoft, NetApp, SAS, and Google.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 20, 2011
You've heard the horror stories: a job applicant gets turned down because his potential employer discovered his objectionable tweets, or saw pictures of his keg party on Facebook. There is a lot of advice out there about keeping your online activity from hurting your career. But there's a flip side. When handled correctly, social media can help you professionally.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 27, 2011
To get yourself and your team off to a good start for the new year, focus on progress. Our research discovered that fostering progress in meaningful work is the most important way to keep people highly engaged at work — even if that progress is a " small win.". We call this phenomenon the progress principle ; it works because people want to feel that they are contributing to something that matters.
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
DECEMBER 9, 2011
Recruiters and senior executives express frustration these days about corporate talent hunts at all levels. The gripe: "We're pouring tremendous energy into finding the right resumes. But we're losing the ability to find the right people.". Directors of summer internship programs, for example, have soured on seemingly "perfect" students with 3.9 grade-point averages from elite schools, who have mastered multiple foreign languages.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 1, 2011
An interview with John Coleman , coauthor of Passion and Purpose , and contributors: Patrick Chun , Umaimah Mendhro , and Rye Barcott. Download this podcast.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 6, 2011
Last year, I was fortunate to moderate a fascinating panel discussion with Harvard's Center for Public Leadership on the topic of " Next Generation Leadership." One of the panelists, Rosalinde Torres, encouraged us to ask the following question: "What has made you successful in the past that you need to change to move forward as a leader?". As we go through different phases in our personal and professional lives, we're called upon to adapt, to marshal skills different than those we've used in th
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 6, 2011
To what extent are you responsible for innovation in your company? The reality is that unless they're in research or product development, most people in organizations don't think of themselves as innovators. In fact, many managers discourage their people from inventing new ways of doing things — pushing them instead to follow procedures and stay within established guidelines.
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Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 14, 2011
One of Kent's friends — we'll call him Roy — is a master craftsman who owns a small business that makes custom wood furniture. After making some cutbacks in 2009, his little company still employs three fine woodworkers, an office supervisor/customer service rep, and an apprentice. What makes Roy unusual is that when he founded his firm a dozen years ago, he realized he knew nothing about business.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 27, 2011
As 2011 comes to a close, the editors of HBR.org are taking a look back at the most popular blog posts of the year to find out what most preoccupied you, our readers. These 11 posts all hit a common nerve and went viral; it's no surprise that most of them contain advice about how to succeed and be happy at work. We can't resist including another 11 posts, a hard-to-agree-upon sampling of the ideas we were proudest to publish and discussions we most enjoyed hosting this year.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 2, 2011
In the tech startup world, technology is important for success, but it does not disproportionately determine winners and losers. Two companies can invent similar technologies; one will win and the other will lose. Focusing on technology supremacy alone is a model for failure. Over the years, I have consistently seen what I call "latent factors" — business features that are generally outside the scope of the core tech team — to be real factors in a company's success.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 1, 2011
Most of what is written about collaboration is positive. Even hip. Collaboration is championed enthusiastically by the Enterprise 2.0 experts, as well as leading thinkers like Don Tapscott , as the crucial approach for the 21st century. Collaboration creates once-elusive "buy-in or "empowerment," improves problem solving, increases creativity, is key to innovation at companies like Lego , Pixar , and Intuit.
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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
DECEMBER 1, 2011
Despite the recent crackdowns in New York and Los Angeles, it's not surprising that the Occupy Wall Street movement has exploded into 900 chapters. The Occupy movement — as well as The Tea Party — are both "mad as hell" about the current state of affairs. Both sides share a general dissatisfaction with our current capitalist system. The left wants to end capitalism.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 19, 2011
I approach a book by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman with a mixture of wariness and anticipation. Wariness because Friedman's books tend to go on for many pages longer than they need to, and many of those pages contain his trademark blend of Davos Man self-congratulation and cheesy metaphors. Yet I still have a sense of anticipation because in every one of Friedman's books there are a handful of insights that are so clear, so sharp, so flat-out right that they frame how you look at the
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 6, 2011
Many of us in business have heard the popular aphorism, "People are your greatest asset." Some of us may even believe it. But is this sentiment reflected in our corporate cultures and the way our leaders lead? For the most part, no — and there's a reason for that. People are not your greatest asset. Even great people are not your greatest asset.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 5, 2011
I'd had tendinitis in my elbow for over a year. Even something as gentle as twisting a doorknob made me wince in pain. I went to see my brother, Bertie, who also happens to be my doctor. As Bertie examined my elbow, I reminded him of everything I had done to try to fix my problem. When it began to hurt, I used ibuprofen. When that didn't work, we tried two injections of cortisone, six months apart.
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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
DECEMBER 9, 2011
This post is part of the HBR Forum, The Future of Retail. A couple of months ago, I found myself, of all places, in the research lab of one of the largest shopping cart manufacturers. I had been invited to preview a prototype for the future. It was a whole new area of study for my ongoing investigation into the psychology of brands. Until this visit, I'd never so much as given a thought to the shopping cart's design.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 22, 2011
" Donner du temps au temps ," the late French President François Mitterrand used to say. "Give time for time." The notion being that you need to make time in order to appreciate the ultimate gift we have been given: time on this earth. Every day, we make conscious and less conscious choices on time allocation. Some uses of our time are routine — dropping off kids, eating meals, or going for a daily run.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 20, 2011
Currencies imploding, markets fluctuating, politicians dithering, economies stagnating, societies fracturing, unrest spreading. Welcome to the winter of our discontent — again. Is America failing ? And are the other advanced economies following in its staggering footsteps (UK, I'm looking at you )? Consider my very crude, edited, back-of-the-envelope take on a few of the criteria outlined in the Failed States index , one by one.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 12, 2011
At MTV, we have long suspected that understanding the relationship between Millennials and game play is one of the keys to understanding the generation as a whole. Our 2011 study, "Let's Play Brand," attempts to understand some of the implications of this "meta-game-mentality" for brand builders and marketers. The study has given us startling reaffirmation of our intuition that a "game-like metaphor" applies to almost every aspect of Millennial life.
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
DECEMBER 7, 2011
In response to a prior blog post about meaningless words, commenter Brett wrote , "It would be interesting to see those words and phrases that do inspire confidence and trust. That would be a great follow up." Here you go, Brett (and Aggressive Reader, who seconded Brett's suggestion). This discussion of meaningful words is primarily about replacements for weak, meaningless ones, while the prior discussion was about the complete elimination of condescending, insulting or self-deprecating ones.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 22, 2011
The world is coming apart in many interesting ways. I recently bought an iPad. After using it for a few days I bought a wireless keyboard. A week later I bought a case that puts the iPad in one half and the keyboard in the other. Presto! A disaggregated laptop that is lighter and more versatile, since I can use the screen by itself as an e-reader and the keyboard with other devices.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 21, 2011
The following six ideas emerged this past year as powerful "innovation invitations." They seem certain to intensify in global power and influence. They'll be sources of — and resources for — innovation differentiation this coming year. If your organization doesn't find them innovatively interesting, then be careful: they may be wielded by the competitors you most dread. 1.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 5, 2011
I'd say that in about half of my business conversations, I have almost no idea what other people are saying to me. The language of internet business models has made the problem even worse. When I was younger, if I didn't understand what people were saying, I thought I was stupid. Now I realize that if it's to people's benefit that I understand them but I don't, then they're the ones who are stupid.
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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