Harvard Business Review
Annotated table of contents
Adi Ignatius, the editor in chief of HBR, writes on meaningful work, addition sickness and the usefulness of a good-riddance review.
Idea watch
2. HBR team, Lessons from large family firms about choosing a CEO
A study of CEO succession at publicly traded family firms that had revenue of more than 1 billion USD at some point during 2010 – 2018, shows that cash flow performance post-transition is stronger than at comparable non-family firms. Several practices may account for this: a pro-active, strategic approach to succession; an effective mix of long-term directors (insiders) and short-term directors (successful outsiders) involved in the selection process; rigorous, in-depth skill assessments; and the trust that new leaders have from the start. An interview with Anand Mahindra, a former executive chair of Mahindra Group, illustrates these points.
3. Amy Meeker, Conservative CEOs pursue riskier international deals that Liberals do
Meeker interviews Aaron Hill on his research into over 1000 decisions by Fortune 500 companies to invest in foreign markets. Riskier decisions, to buy rather than to create collaborations with local partners, are more common among companies that make political-campaign donations to conservatives. This is consistent with desire for greater control over future decisions. The difference is 2:1 for moderates and 4:1 for strong conservatives and liberals. The effect of political identities is smaller when CEOs have long-term performance incentives, while boards with a large number of independent directors may discourage alliances.
Bertrand took over his family wine business unexpectedly, in 1987, at the age of 22, developing it into a globally recognised label with sales of around 180 million USD a year. In this article he describes the gradual process of deepening his understanding of the craft of making distinctive, flavourful wines and the development of relationships and distribution networks across France, Europe and the USA. The business model relies on combining wine production with hotels, restaurants and events, savvy acquisitions and timely rebranding. Bertrand embraced organic and biodynamic principles in the early 2000s and all 17 estates are now certified at the strictest level. He is guided by a “pyramid of taste” for wine, including pleasure, emotion, meaning and identity.
Spotlight: The leadership mindset
5. Hitendra Wadhwa, Leading in the flow of work
Drawing on a repository of more than 1000 moments of transformative leadership, built since 2006, Wandhwa argues that there are five core energies that can sustain inspired responses in high-impact moments. By drawing on them to fashion a response, leaders can change the odds of success and elevate performance in their organisation. These energies are purpose (being committed to a noble cause); wisdom (being calm and receptive to the truth); growth (curious and open to learning); love (connection with others); and self-realisation (a joyful spirit). Preparing for high-stakes interactions, leaders set their intention and craft/visualise responses that activate these already present energies. The article provides 25 suggestions for achieving activation illustrating with examples of moments of transformation.
6. Nitin Nohria, Leaders must react
Nohria updates research on CEO schedules, with Michael Porter, published in 2018 in HBR which showed that for most leaders responding to unforeseen events occupies in average a third of their time. He proposes a framework for categorising issues, depending on how they first appear and how they develop over time, ranging between normal noise, whisper warnings, siren songs and clarion calls. Each needs to be met with a particular strategy and the article provides examples and a process for tackling emerging issues, including sensing, sizing and responding.
7. Ryan Quinn, Bret Crane, Travis Thompson, and Robert E. Quinn, Why real-time leadership is so hard
Quinn et al. note that leaders are prevented from switching to a creative response to challenges by four thought patterns: thinking that there is no alternative, no hope, no time, and no need. For each, the authors suggest tactics to reframe understanding, to chip away at negative blockers and open a sense of possibility.
Features
8. Jamil Zaki, How to sustain your empathy in difficult times
Putting boundaries around empathy, argues Zaki, could help employees and managers to get the best of both worlds, enjoying the benefits of feeling closer connection with co-workers, while staying healthy and productive. Three strategies can help. First, there is the rule of prioritising one’s own wellbeing, remaining alert to signs of internal distress, extending grace and self-compassion, and asking for help. Second, distinguish between emotional empathy, i.e. taking on someone’s feelings, and empathic concern, which is focused on helping to improve someone’s wellbeing. Empathic concern is practical and productive, avoiding the draining effects of participating too closely in others’ distress. Finally, thinking of empathy as a skill to develop over time also creates balance and perspective, sustaining motivation for the long-term.
9. Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms, Leading in a world where AI wields power of its own
Heimans and Timms distinguish three eras with distinct power dynamics, depending on how ideas and information flow, how expertise and governance work, how value is created, and how we interact with technology. Thus, following an era of old power, with top-down flows of information, expertise, and decision-making, we have been living in an era of new power, characterised by networks, crowdsourcing and a duality of offline and online activities. From here, Heimans and Timms perceive the emergence of the autosapient era, where technology runs through our bodies and decisions are encoded within economies of ideas. Smooth, productive functioning is not a given however, and they go on to provide advice on how to tackle challenges.
10. Julia Binder and Michael D. Watkins, To solve a tough problem, reframe it
Binder and Watkins propose a five-step process for generating solutions to problems without jumping to conclusions, considering as many aspects as possible. To begin, engage in frame-storming, generating a variety of options for defining the problem. To identify root causes, utilise the iceberg model, moving from events, immediately visible on the surface, to patterns of behaviour, underlying structures, and mental models. Empathy maps for the different stakeholders in the situation – employees, customers, investors – including what they say, think, feel and do will add nuance to the analysis. To elevate the problem, examine the broader organisational issues, with its different layers, such as structures, interpersonal relationships, symbols, and politics. Finally, it becomes possible to envision a solution and trace back the path to success, whether the time frame is immediate, near-future, or longer-term.
Despite their good intentions and creative solutions to thorny social problems, nonprofits often struggle to sustain their interventions over the time and to put their advances on a secure long-term basis. In this article, Bertini et al. suggest that charging for services to low-income consumers can result in positive outcomes: paying for services leads to a sense of ownership and responsibility as well as higher expectations, while providing an amount of independence from donors. To engage beneficiaries effectively, the authors provide advice on developing a detailed understanding of differences and variations within the population served, increasing awareness of the solutions on offer, and developing practices for shared accountability. Examples include Worldreader, a provider of e-readers to school children in developing countries, Sustainable Health Enterprises, offering pads and tampons to young girls to keep them in school, the Vaccine Alliance, the Program for Early Parent Support and others.
12. Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao, Rid your organization of obstacles that infuriate everyone
Needless complexity can come in many forms, and it can stop us from being effective. It is the result of addition sickness, a bias towards assuming we create value and improved solutions means by adding something new, a bias that is often rewarded and reinforced by organisations. Moreover, leaders are often allowed to ignore how their initiatives may burden unnecessarily other parts of the organisation. In response, Sutton and Rao offer strategies for assessing what ought to be easy or hard and processes for simplification. These include good-riddance reviews and subtraction tools, in the form of rules, games, specialists, networks and movements.
13. John Winsor and Jin H. Paik, Do you need an external talent cloud?
Winsor and Paik take stock of the world of platforms for talent: there are more than 800 of them, spanning different regions and skill sets. They explore the issues from the point of view of companies and those who work in them: the rationale for tapping into this pool of prospective workers and how to do it, from finding the right platform, to creating a centre of excellence, and launching a pilot.
Cook et al. examine the options for turning generative AI into a competitive advantage, from adopting publicly available tools, to customising them and creating continuous feed-back loops. As they point out, some businesses are more likely to benefit from AI, depending on their size and the specifics of their offerings and data sets. Assessing the challenges and opportunities of generative AI for any one business entails considering questions about the quantity of content that can be replaced, the scope of improving their competitive position by using the technology, the specificity of a firm’s data, and the reliability of customer feedback and its expense.
15. Roger L. Martin, Jann Schwarz, and Mimi Turner, The right way to build your brand
Martin et al. suggest that it is possible to detect a reliable connection between the content of brand building campaigns and financial performance. In their view, when campaigns articulate a memorable, valuable, and deliverable promise to the customer they are more likely to have a significant, positive impact on sales and brand awareness. The article draws on a study of more than 2000 campaigns, between 2018 and 2022, of which just over 800 contained a promise, and considers effectiveness across several measures, such as brand perception, brand preference and purchase intention. Moreover, committing to a specific promise can be a unifying mechanism, leading to greater collaboration and cohesion among the different departments within a company.
Experience
16. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, The new rules of executive presence
Hewlett considers how perceptions and expectations of gravitas, communication skills and appearance, the components of executive presence, have changed in the last decade. For instance, to establish gravitas, demonstrating inclusiveness and respect for others has become more important; in terms of communication, command of zoom and listening to learn are highly valued; when it comes to appearance, there are new pressures to combine authenticity and presence both in-person and online. The article then offers reflections, tactics, and examples for emerging challenges. Executive presence can be learned, and it is worth striving for. While it can help with individual advancement, higher levels of executive presence also heighten and elevate experience and motivation for everyone else.
17. Dennis Dennehy, Case study: Should I pitch a new project-management system?
In this case study, the work of teams of developers, across time zones and within the broader organisation, is coordinated to resolve batches of tasks in two-week sprints, leading to quarterly releases of software updates. When a one-year pilot project for an alternative project-management system, Flow, leads to improvements in some areas but does not increase productivity, its proponents consider whether it is worth presenting to the process-improvement board.
18. Alison Beard, Can we make middle age less miserable?
Beard considers five new books on the challenges of growing older while trying to stay relevant and credible at work and beyond. Coming to terms with the irretrievable loss of paths not taken and the slowing down of energy and motivation may take their toll but hope remains. Finding deeper meaning, acceptance of emotional truth, and a fuller sense of connection to communities are possible.
19. Alison Beard, Life’s work: An interview with Norma Kamali
Fashion designer Norma Kamali shares about her 56-year career leading her own company, and her love of fashion and the creative life. She believes that designers would benefit from embracing the business side of their profession and has a productive principle of self-limitation: “I don’t need to be the richest or most famous designer in the world. I know my place and it’s a happy one”, she says. A great believer in exercise – for the whole company! – she plans to live to 120 and hopes that an AI program will continue to generate designs inspired by her archive even after she has passed.
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