Leaders - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

A Strategy For Steady Leadership in an Unsteady World

change—business leaders have entered a new era requiring new ways of leading. Traditional management methods seem no longer sufficient to address the volume of change we are seeing. I label this VUCA 2.0. In a 1998 report designed to... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

10 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

The COVID Two-Step for Leaders: Protect and Pivot

air.” Two critical questions, posed by Hernan Saenz and Dunigan O’Keeffe of Bain and Company, can help organizational leaders frame their thoughts about how to survive in the present and position their companies to thrive in the... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

As economies reopen after forced shutdowns caused by COVID-19, managers around the world are faced with a dual challenge: keep the workforce safe while preserving business viability in an evolving and volatile market. How should businesses start to design their “new... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

04 Jan 2022
What Do You Think?

Firing McDonald’s Easterbrook: What Could the Board Have Done Differently?

(iStockphoto/tofumax) A corporate board’s most important decision is selecting the organization’s CEO. By the same token, one could argue that a board’s most distasteful decision concerns firing a CEO. Once directors agree to release the CEO, the next step is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

11 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

10 Rules Entrepreneurs Need to Know Before Adopting AI

problems. Positioning your service or product as “AI for health care” or “AI for sales” is not nearly specific enough. While you can sell AI tools to data science teams or IT departments, business leaders want to know you understand their... View Details

Keywords: by Rocio Wu

January 2014 (Revised June 2020)
Case

The Rise and Fall of Nokia

By: Juan Alcacer, Tarun Khanna and Christine Snively

In 2013, Nokia sold its Device and Services business to Microsoft for €5.4 billion. For decades Nokia had led the telecommunications (telecom) industry in handsets and networking. By the late 2000s, however, Nokia's position as market leader in mobile devices was... View Details

Keywords: Mobile Phones; Smartphone; Telecommunications; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Emerging Markets; Technological Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Asia

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14 Apr 2022
Op-Ed

Let’s Move Forward from COVID—Without Forgetting What We’ve Learned

environmental factors created by a persistent virus. It’s as if the success and gains made in 2021 with vaccinations and the incremental return to work and school policies have made leaders at different echelons reluctant to admit that... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

May 2019
Background Note

Developing Yourself as a Leader: A Framework for Millennial High Potentials & Emerging Leaders: How to PACE Your Self-Development

By: Ethan Bernstein and Kirstin Lynde

Millennials are redefining what it means to develop future leaders. In business organizations, leadership development—defined as “the expansion of a person's capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes“—has traditionally been the work of corporate... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Management Skills; Management Style

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2020
Book

Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You

By: Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

When leaders and aspiring leaders seek out advice, they're often told to try harder. Dig deeper. Look in the mirror and own your natural-born strengths and fix any real or perceived career-limiting deficiencies.

We offer a different worldview. We argue... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Skills; Belonging; Leadership; Management Skills; Trust; Organizational Culture

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15 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: It Takes a Village

leader does matter.) Because there is not only a business, but also an ownership group and a family that need capable leadership, a family business system is much more complicated than other kinds of business organizations. Leading these... View Details

December 21, 2021
Article

How to Become a Better Listener

By: Robin Abrahams and Boris Groysberg

Listening is a skill that’s vitally important, sadly undertaught, and physically and mentally taxing. In the aftermath of COVID-19, particularly with the shift to remote work and the red-hot job market, it’s never been more important—or more difficult—for leaders to be... View Details

Keywords: Listening; Nonverbal Communication; Communication; Competency and Skills; Performance Improvement

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June 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Background Note

Delivering Strategic Human Resource Management

By: Boris Groysberg, Andrew N. McLean and Cate Reavis

This note reviews the history of the human resources (HR) function and the strategic human resources management (SHRM) movement, wherein HR managers' aspired to be strategic partners with line managers. Reviews practices for implementing a strategic-business-partner... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources

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2012
Book

Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Continuous improvement, understanding complex systems, and promoting innovation are all part of the landscape of learning challenges today's companies face. I show that organizations thrive, or fail to thrive, based on how well the small groups within those... View Details

Keywords: Change; Interpersonal Communication; Learning; Values and Beliefs; Innovation and Invention; Management; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Research; Strategy; Complexity; Value

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01 Feb 2023
What Do You Think?

Will Hybrid Work Strategies Pull Down Long-Term Performance?

(iStockphoto/AndreyPopov) Remote work has always been an essential part of economic activity. Some people work from home, some work from anywhere, and some work where customers need them. But the COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to both full-time remote work strategies and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Jan 2021
Research & Ideas

How 'Small C' Change Can Beat Large-Scale Rebuilding

Even as COVID vaccines begin early deployment, pressure on leaders continues to mount to engage in “Big C” change: rapid course corrections through job cuts, recruiting a fresh management team, and redesigning roles and responsibilities... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, and Sebastian Flegr; Sports

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

central part of their mission, asserting that they educate and develop leaders for society. And yet, if we look at the leading research universities and at the business schools within them, the topic of leadership is actually given fairly... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

03 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Why Confronting Racism in AI 'Creates a Better Future for All of Us'

business leaders of mainstream companies? Turner: Over the years, I’ve heard plenty. They fall in three categories: expense, denial, and blame. First, the expense myth comes up most often with people claiming that “diversity is expensive”... View Details

Keywords: by Barbara DeLollis

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Code of Change

corporate leaders about the purpose of and means for change. In effect these two approaches to organizational change represent theories in use by senior executives and the consultants and academics who advise them. By "theory in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Nitin Nohria

24 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

These Coronavirus Heroes Show Us How Crisis Leadership Works

the challenges and inspire their organizations to help the world work its way through these difficult times. In a crisis like this, there is no place for leaders to be bragging or overpromising the capabilities of their company or using... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Health

2016
Book

The Three Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation

By: Vijay Govindarajan

How to Innovate and Execute. Leaders already know that innovation calls for a different set of activities, skills, methods, metrics, mind-sets, and leadership approaches. And it is well understood that creating a new business and optimizing an already existing one are... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Innovation Leadership

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