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New research on innovation leadership from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including managerial practices that promote innovation among frontline workers, and identifying, attracting, and nurturing creative employees.
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How Would Jack Welch’s Leadership Style Fare in Today’s World?

by James Heskett

Some consider Jack Welch the best CEO of the 20th century, but two recent books examine his effectiveness as a leader. James Heskett ponders his early interactions with Welch and his complex legacy. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

by Lane Lambert

It's a harsh reality: The majority of new business ventures fail. In the book Productive Tensions, Rory McDonald and his coauthor say the key to survival is figuring out how to pivot during the innovation process.

Financial Distancing: How Venture Capital Follows the Economy Down and Curtails Innovation

by Sabrina T. Howell, Josh Lerner, Ramana Nanda, and Richard Townsend

Common wisdom holds that VC investment and VC-backed startups are relatively insulated from downturns. This study shows that the relative quantity and quality of innovation declines more for VC-backed firms than for other types of firms during downturns.

7 Successful Battle Strategies to Beat COVID-19

by Euvin Naidoo

The Agile methodology used to speed complex software development is also helpful for managing decision-making in today's crisis environment, says Euvin Naidoo. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

by Sean Silverthorne

In a new book, Rosabeth Moss Kanter encourages leaders to "think outside the building" to overcome establishment paralysis and generate powerful innovation. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

6 Skills That Wise Companies Harness for World-Changing Innovation

by Kristen Senz

What does it take to truly change the world? In The Wise Company, Hirotaka Takeuchi shares the practices that help leading companies turn knowledge into lasting breakthroughs. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Read Our Most Popular Stories of the Quarter

by Sean Silverthorne

From using machine learning to study CEOs to the value of work-from-anywhere policies, these were the stories that clicked most with our readers over the last three months. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

For Better Ideas, Bring the Right People to the Brainstorm

by Michael Blanding

Better ideas emerge when extroverts and people open to new experiences put their heads together, according to research by Rembrand M. Koning. But what about introverts? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

At Booking.com, Innovation Means Constant Failure

Re: Stefan H. Thomke

Booking.com and other innovative firms embrace a culture where testing, experimentation, and even failure are tried and true. Stefan Thomke explains the necessary ingredients for establishing a culture of innovation. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Companies Love Big Data But Lack the Strategy To Use It Effectively

by Dina Gerdeman

Big data is a critical competitive advantage for companies that know how to use it. Harvard Business School faculty share insights that they teach to executives. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Flexing the Frame: TMT Framing and the Adoption of Non-Incremental Innovations in Incumbent Firms

by Ryan Raffaelli, Mary Ann Glynn, and Michael Tushman

Organizations continuously face decisions about whether or not to adopt innovations. Often, however, senior teams do not adopt an innovation even when the organization has the resources to do so. Using real examples, this paper theorizes how the processes of cognitive and emotional framing inform managerial choices about whether or not to adopt innovations.

The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

by Michael Blanding

David Yoffie and Michael Cusumano find common leadership lessons from the tech titans of Microsoft, Intel, and Apple in the new book, Strategy Rules. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Who Is the Chief Sustainability Officer?

by Dina Gerdeman

There are only a few dozen chief sustainability officers in American companies, although their number has been growing rapidly. A new study by George Serafeim and Kathleen Miller explains who they are, where they come from, and how to make them more effective. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Leading Innovation is the Art of Creating ‘Collective Genius’

by Kim Girard

As Linda Hill sees it, innovation requires its own brand of leadership. The coauthor of the new book Collective Genius discusses what's been learned from 16 of the best business innovators. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Management: Theory and Practice, and Cases

by Richard L. Nolan

The author reflects upon his diverse experiences throughout his career with the benefits and challenges of case method teaching and case writing. The case method is undergoing tremendous innovation as students in the twenty-first century engage in learning about corporations, management, and board oversight. In particular, the creative and analytical process of writing the novelAdventures of an IT Leader is examined. The book's "hero's journey" foundation continued in a second Harvard Business Press book, Harder Than I Thought: Adventures of a Twenty-First Century Leader, focusing on CEO leadership in the global economy and the fast-changing IT-enabled pace of business. A third novel is in preparation: It concerns corporate leadership challenges into reinventing boards of directors for the twenty-first century. Key concepts include: A novel-based series of books is incorporating the "hero's journey" classic story structure along with the creation of associated fictional case characters designed to engage readers in the dimensions of human behavior, decision making, and judgments in carrying out the work of the modern corporation. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

by Robert Simons

Successful business strategy lies not in having all the right answers, but rather in asking the right questions, says Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons. In an excerpt from his book Seven Strategy Questions, Simons explains how managers can make smarter choices. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Managerial Practices That Promote Voice and Taking Charge among Frontline Workers

by Julia Rose Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer & Michael W. Toffel

How can front-line workers be encouraged to speak up when they know how to improve an organization's operation processes? This question is particularly urgent in the US health- care industry, where problems occur often and consequences range from minor inconveniences to serious patient harm. In this paper, HBS doctoral student Julia Adler-Milstein, Harvard School of Public Health professor Sara Singer, and HBS professor Michael W. Toffel examine the effectiveness of organizational information campaigns and managerial role modeling in encouraging hospital staff to speak up when they encounter operational problems and, when speaking up, to propose solutions to hospital management. The researchers find that both mechanisms can lead employees to report problems and propose solutions, and that information campaigns are particularly effective in departments whose managers are less engaged in problem solving. Key concepts include: Front-line workers offer more solutions to operational problems in departments whose managers are more engaged in problem solving. Information campaigns that promote process improvement generate more solutions from front-line workers, especially from workers whose managers are less routinely engaged in problem solving. Efforts at the organizational level can compensate for managers who cannot or do not create an environment that inspires front-line workers to speak up. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

by Martha Lagace

Why get an MBA degree? Transformations in business and society make this question increasingly urgent for executives, business school deans, students, faculty, and the public. In a new book, Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a Crossroads, Harvard Business School's Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin, and Patrick G. Cullen suggest opportunities for innovation. Q&A with Datar and Garvin plus book excerpt. Key concepts include: Executives and business school deans raised multiple concerns about the MBA landscape when the authors interviewed them for an HBS Centennial colloquium in 2008 on the future of MBA education. The challenges: Stakeholders question the value-added of MBA degrees. And MBAs lack sufficient leadership development, a "global mindset," and skill in navigating organizational realities. Rethinking the MBA examines each challenge in turn, and provides six case studies of schools that demonstrate flexibility and innovation in MBA education. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.