• How to Penetrate the US Market

    Marketing Digital Article
    Accounting for almost 30% of world GDP, the United States is the world’s largest and most demanding market for almost everything from oil to microprocessors to premium coffee. Companies around the world aspire to do business in the US, or at least with US companies in their home markets. By doing so, they learn much […]
  • Executive Incentives vs. Corporate Growth

    Boards Magazine Article
    Bonuses and other forms of incentive compensation are an effective motivator of executives to achieve ever higher earnings per share. The drive to produce short-term results, however, often influences management to forgo investment in capital equipment and R&D that would benefit the corporation several years hence even more than improved earnings next year would. The […]
  • Managing Demographic Risk

    Economics Magazine Article
    An aging workforce will compel businesses to change how they operate and could even threaten some companies’ viability. How vulnerable is your business?
  • Why Network Neutrality Is Good for Business

    Web-based technologies Digital Article
    Editor’s note: For an opposing viewpoint on this topic, see Robert E. Litan’s and Hal J. Singer’s entry “Why Business Should Oppose Net Neutrality.” In business school, where I teach, students are often predisposed to see legal concepts as impenetrable and foreign. I watch the lightbulbs go on as they see that Microsoft’s antitrust woes, […]
  • Diversification via Acquisition: Creating Value

    Mergers and acquisitions Magazine Article
    During the past 25 years an increasing proportion of U.S. companies have seen wisdom in pursuing a strategy of diversification. Between 1950 and 1970, for example, single-business companies comprising the Fortune “500” declined from 30% to 8% of the total. Acquisition has become a standard approach to diversification. In recent years the productivity of capital […]
  • Startups, It's Time to Think Like Camels - Not Unicorns

    Innovation & Entrepreneurship Digital Article
    Three strategies for surviving in a tough environment.
  • The Toxic Handler: Organizational Hero—and Casualty

    Organizational culture Magazine Article
    When companies cause emotional pain through nasty bosses, layoffs, and change, a certain breed of “healing” manager steps in to keep the gears moving. They are toxic handlers—unsung corporate heroes who save the day, but often pay a high price.
  • The Age of Customer Capitalism

    Leadership & Managing People Magazine Article
    Modern capitalism can be broken down into two major eras. The first, managerial capitalism, began in 1932 and was defined by the then radical notion that...
  • Live Life as an Experiment

    Managing yourself Digital Article
    It was an experiment. I was returning an item to the store from which I had bought it. The item was well within the return period, but there would be a 20% restocking fee. Could I evade that fee? What would I have to do or say to persuade them not to charge it to […]
  • The Risky Business of Diversification

    Innovation Magazine Article
    On the basis of a sample from the top 200 of the Fortune “500” and data from the PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategies) project, this author gives some guidelines for established companies on what to expect from new ventures. He points out that it takes an average of 10 to 12 years before the […]
  • You Need an Innovation Strategy

    Competitive strategy Magazine Article
    It’s the only way to make sound trade-off decisions and choose the right practices.
  • The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance

    Strategy & Execution Magazine Article
    Executives know that a company's measurement systems strongly affect employee behaviors. But the traditional financial performance measures that worked...
  • “Actually,” She Said, “He Works for Me.”

    Consumer behavior Digital Article
    Surprised by a gender stereotype? React calmly, directly, and move on.
  • Groupon Doomed by Too Much of a Good Thing

    Venture capital Digital Article
    “Alright, you caught us. We’re actually not making any money. In fact, we are really losing a lot of money.” This is the essence of Groupon’s declaration last week that it will remove the controversial accounting metric called Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income (ACSOI) from its financial statements. ACSOI essentially measures Groupon’s profits before subtracting […]
  • Go Downstream: The New Profit Imperative in Manufacturing

    Business models Magazine Article
    Now that providing services is more lucrative than making products, the old foundations for success in manufacturing are crumbling. Smart manufacturers are creating new business models to capture profits at the customer’s end of the value chain.
  • Companyism and Do More Better

    Competitive strategy Magazine Article
    Imagine yourself solving an arithmetic problem with the top managers of a leading Japanese automobile company. As a group, Japanese producers already export 2.3 million passenger vehicles a year to the United States. They are also building capacity for an additional 2.5 million vehicles in North America. You remind your friends across the table that […]
  • When the Invincible Become "Vincible"

    Global Business Digital Article
    This post is part of HBR's special issue on failure. Gary Wendt, CEO of GE Capital during its heyday, once said to me that the secret of his continuing...
  • New Books from the Press in September (Let Us Know What You Think!)

    Decision making and problem solving Digital Article
    As a matter of policy, we don’t review our own books, but we hope you will. Keep an eye out for the following Press titles in September, and let us know what you think of them in the comments. Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business by Josh Bernoff and Ted […]
  • The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care

    Organizational Development Magazine Article
    In health care, the days of business as usual are over. Around the world, every health care system is struggling with rising costs and uneven quality,...
  • The Right Way to Rally Your Troops

    Leadership & Managing People Digital Article
    Lessons from three CEOs facing crises.