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In this McKinsey Award-winning article, first published in May 1989, Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad explain that Western companies have wasted too much time and energy replicating the cost and quality advantages their global competitors already experience. Canon and other world-class competitors have taken a different approach to strategy: one of strategic intent. They begin with a goal that exceeds the company's present grasp and existing resources:...
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Ten years ago, world-renowned professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne broke ground by introducing "blue ocean strategy," a new model for discovering uncontested markets that are ripe for growth. In this bound version of their bestselling Harvard Business Review classic article, they apply their concepts and tools to what is perhaps the greatest challenge of leadership: closing the gulf between the potential and the realized talent and energy of...
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Peter F. Drucker argues that what underlies the current malaise of so many large and successful organizations worldwide is that their theory of the business no longer works. The story is a familiar one: a company that was a superstar only yesterday finds itself stagnating and frustrated, in trouble and, often, in a seemingly unmanageable crisis. The root cause of nearly every one of these crises is not that things are being done poorly. It is not...
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What business is your company really in? That's a question all executives should all ask before demand for their firm's products or services dwindles.
In Marketing Myopia, Theodore Levitt offers examples of companies that became obsolete because they misunderstood what business they were in and thus what their customers wanted. He identifies the four widespread myths that put companies at risk of obsolescence and explains how business leaders can...
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In The Discipline of Teams, Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith explore the often counter-intuitive features that make up high-performing teams-such as selecting team members for skill, not compatibility-and explain how managers can set specific goals to foster team development. The result is improved productivity and teams that can be counted on to deliver more than just the sum of their parts. Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading...
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Most executives have a big, hairy, audacious goal. But they install layers of stultifying bureaucracy that prevent them from realizing it. In this article, Jim Collins introduces the catalytic mechanism, a simple yet powerful managerial tool that helps turn lofty aspirations into reality. The crucial link between objectives and results, this tool is a galvanizing, nonbureaucratic way to turn one into the other. But the same catalytic mechanism that...
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Numerous studies show that people will rise, or fall, to the level where their superiors believe them capable. As a manager, it is up to you to have high expectations for your employees, and to communicate those expectations to them. In Pygmalion in Management, J. Sterling Livingston urges you to understand the power you have over your subordinates' success, and use it to benefit everyone involved. Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading...
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Hundreds of millions of people in China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil are eager to enter the marketplace. Yet multinational companies typically pitch their products to emerging markets' tiny segment of affluent buyers, and thus miss out on much larger markets further down the socioeconomic pyramid-which local rivals snap up. By applying the authors' recommendations, you can position yourself to compete innovatively in developing countries-and to unlock...
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While there is a widespread belief that some people are born to lead, the existence of an 'ideal manager' is almost entirely a myth. Basic skills - the ones that most employees can learn - are often more important than personality traits. In Skills of an Effective Administrator, Robert L. Katz identifies the three fundamental abilities companies should seek to develop in their managers. Find out for yourself how these vital skills can be put to work...
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Why are your smartest and most successful employees often the worst learners? Likely, they haven't had the opportunities for introspection that failure affords. So when they do fail, instead of critically examining their own behavior, they cast blame outward-on anyone or anything they can. In Teaching Smart People How to Learn, Chris Argyris sheds light on the forces that prevent highly skilled employees for learning from mistakes and offers suggestions...
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In this provocative exploration into the nature and value of power in organizations, authors David McClelland and David Burnham reveal how the drive for influence is essential to good management. The authors provide a wealth of counterintuitive insights about what using power really means in today's business landscape. Power Is the Great Motivator is a must-read for all managers seeking to foster high morale and a strong sense of responsibility and...
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Conflict in the workplace is natural-and even necessary. Colleagues who challenge one another's thinking tend to consider a richer range of options, which ultimately leads to better business decisions. How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight reveals the tactics managers can use to ensure that these healthy back-and-forth moments remain constructive and focused on the issues. Managers who embrace this kind of positive conflict will find increasingly...
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In his sixty-five-year consulting career, Peter F. Drucker, widely regarded as the father of modern management, identified eight practices that can make any executive effective. Leadership is not about charisma or extroversion. It's about these practices: Effective executives ask, "What needs to be done?" They also ask, "What is right for the enterprise?" They develop action plans. They take responsibility for decisions. They take responsibility for...
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In a world where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. The best companies survive by consistently creating new knowledge, disseminating it widely throughout the organization, and quickly leveraging it in their business processes and their products. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Ikujiro Nonaka shows how your company can exploit its knowledge to continually innovate and reinvent itself...
15) Managing Oneself
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We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: with ambition, drive, and talent, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren't managing their knowledge workers careers. Instead, you must be your own chief executive officer. That means it's up to you to carve out your place in the world and know when to change course. And it's up to you to keep...
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Business is like war: The best combatant wins while the worst loses, right? Not necessarily. Companies can succeed spectacularly without destroying others. And they can lose miserably after competing well. Exceptional businesses win by actively shaping the game they're playing, not playing the game they find. The Right Game shows you how to do this-by altering who's competing, what value each player brings to the table, and which rules and tactics...
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When asked to define the ideal leader, many would emphasize traits such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision-the qualities traditionally associated with leadership. Often left off the list are softer, more personal qualities-but they are also essential. Although a certain degree of analytical and technical skill is a minimum requirement for success, studies indicate that emotional intelligence may be the key attribute that distinguishes...
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Judging by all the hoopla surrounding business plans, you'd think the only things standing between would-be entrepreneurs and spectacular success are glossy five-color charts, bundles of meticulous-looking spreadsheets, and decades of month-by-month financial projections. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, often the more elaborately crafted a business plan, the more likely the venture is to flop.
Why? Most plans waste too much...
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Imagine overseeing a workforce so motivated that employees relish more hours of work, shoulder more responsibility themselves; and favor challenging jobs over paychecks or bonuses. In One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? Frederick Herzberg shows managers how to shift from relying on extrinsic incentives to activating the real drivers of high performance: interesting, challenging work and the opportunity to continually achieve and grow into...
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Corporate values and corporate operations have always been dynamically intertwined, but today more than ever the trend toward focusing on the social impact of the corporation is an inescapable reality that must be factored into managerial decision making. Instead of the utopian and sometimes anticapitalistic bias that marks much of applied business philosophy, this article presents a process of ethical inquiry that is immediately accessible to managers...
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