Harvard Business Review
Annotated table of contents
Trying to get the attention of customers has become a large part of what companies do, not least those in publishing, and including Harvard Business Review Press. In his introduction to the issue, Adi Ignatius, the editor in chief, suggests that the research published in the spotlight section is relevant for us all.
Idea watch
2. HBR Team: A better approach to mergers and acquisitions
Over the last twenty years the rate of success for M&As has increased dramatically, from 30 to 70%, according to research by Bain & Company. This is due to several factors, including broader strategic aims for deals, better due diligence and better integration of acquired companies, helped by specialised M&A departments. Companies that are beginning to show interest in M&As but have not yet accumulated repeated experience may be the new drivers of growth. An interview with Chris Koch, CEO of Carlisle Companies, discusses his experience of acquiring 24 companies in deals totalling 3.5 USD since 2016.
3. Juan Martinez, When AI teammates come on board, performance drops
Martinez interviews Bruce Kohut of Columbia Business School about his research, with colleagues, on the effects of introducing AI members on team performance. The experiment consisted of 110 two-player teams competing in 12 rounds of the video game Super Mario Party’s Dash and Dine. An AI partner was introduced halfway through in some of the teams, leading to a drop in their productivity and that of their all-human partner factory teams. This suggests that AI team-mates decrease sociability, including motivation and trust and can have significant effects on the wider networked environment. However, the most skilled workers were less impacted by the introduction of AI, showing that high-skilled humans and intelligent workers can perform well together.
4. Sylvana Quader Sinha, CEO of Praava Health, on reimagining care in an emerging market
Quader Sinha, a Bangladeshi American with a successful career in law and policy, changed course in 2015 seeking to develop and establish a new health care model in the country of her ancestors. She relocated to Dhaka raising finance to build a system of vertically integrated care, from primary care to hospitals and laboratories. Praava Health now serves more than 600,000 patients with the help of a world-class team. The secret of its success, she says, is a strong vision and sense of mission, as well as values such as service, integrity, listening and excellence. In this article, she explains how this culture shapes every aspect of Praava Health, main milestones and plans for the future.
Spotlight: Winning at influencer marketing
5. Emily Hund, Why the influencer industry needs guardrails
Benefitting from low entry costs, the global influencer industry is now estimated at $21bn, sustained by around 300 million self-reported influencers and consistent demand from marketers. Having achieved volume, participants now have an interest in buttressing values, such as commitment to quality and integrity, as well as institutions, i.e. trade organisations and unions. This entails respecting and expanding regulatory provisions, including disclosure of paid relationships and other conflicts of interest, clarity around contractual obligations, and a willingness to forego immediate gain for the sake of long-term sustainability.
Achieving name recognition and a good reputation in one field may or may not be converted into gains in another, as the variable success of celebrity brands shows. Israeli et al. spell out some of the determining factors: the quality of the product; the size of the existing social media following; the ability to show a good fit between the celebrity and their new product; and the sheer graft of engaging with fans. Examples such as Tom Brady’s apparel venture, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop lifestyle brand, Beyonce’s athleisure brand, Ivy Park, and many others, illustrate these points.
Virtual influencers are becoming a serious option for marketers. According this research consumers are positive towards sponsored posts that feature virtual influencers. Even though they tend to have smaller audiences, engagement can be more substantial. As well as being cost-effective, there is low reputation risk from erratic behaviour and avatars can be easily fashioned to satisfy diversity requirements.
8. Kimberly A. Whitler and Graham Twente, How marketers choose college athlete influencers
Since 2021, US college athletes have been allowed to endorse products and thus become influencers and half a million of them have now done so. They are attractive brand ambassadors, likeable and popular among younger audiences. The research analysed Instagram posts of over 60 athletes hired by the 100 most reputable brands to distil main features. The athletes can come from a variety of sports and the number of their followers is not essential, as brands consider long-term potential to be more important. In general, the posts show self-discipline, through focus on candid shots and expected topics – sports – while avoiding overly sexualised images.
Features
9. Arnaud Chevallier, Frédéric Dalsace, and Jean-Louis Barsoux, The art of asking smarter questions
Chevallier et al. argue that the many questions we could ask in any situation fall broadly in five categories: investigative (what’s known?); speculative (what if?); productive (now, what?); interpretive (so, what?) and subjective (what’s unsaid?). They also create a diagnostic tool for determining questioning styles that left unchecked could create dangerous blind spots. By taking account of the full range of potentially useful questions, it becomes more likely that individuals, teams, and organisations will be able to articulate the right solutions.
10. Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton, Highly skilled professionals want your work not your job
According to surveys, independent workers represent around a third of the labour force in developed economies already, a phenomenon that is driven and supported by new technologies. In this article, Gherson and Gratton share findings of their research among global companies that are developing practices to enable the smooth collaboration between employees and freelance workers to deliver innovation. Managers are increasingly developing their skill sets for leading projects and a more flexible, less dependent labour force. At the same time, to support full-time employees, they need to let go of top-down control practices and nurture their development in exchange for loyalty and reliability. Examples from Mars, Johnson & Johnson, HSBC Digital Servies and others serve to illustrate.
11. Michael Mankins and Patrick Litre, Transformations that work
Within the last decade, outright failure in transformations, i.e. achieving less than 50% of what was proposed, has become less common 13% of companies surveyed, compared to 38%. While the proportion of those who met or exceeded expectations stayed the same (12%), more companies have had mediocre results (75%). According to Mankins and Litre, six critical practices can help improve the odds for success: embracing continuous transformation, rather than isolated, discrete efforts; creating stronger impetus by integrating transformation into the established operating rhythm of the company; compounding energy and motivation by tackling no more than two primary routines at any one time; opening up the art of the possible by setting aspirations, rather than targets; giving leadership for transformation to those who understand what truly needs to change, i.e. (usually) middle managers; and backing up transformations with capital investment.
12. Peter Cappelli and Ranya Nehmeh, HR’s new role
Cappelli and Nehmeh argue that companies are responding too slowly to labour shortages: they still abide by the conventional wisdom that responsiveness to market conditions means being ready to carry out deep layoffs and to keep promotions and pay rises to a minimum. Instead, HR departments should lead the way in bringing into the open information that could change the conversation around staffing and manpower. This includes highlighting the costs of turnover – a multiple of the annual salary – and the negative impact of unfilled vacancies or promotions without pay rises. Cappelli and Nehmeh also suggest embracing the good examples we have, for instance creating ways to nurture riskier innovations in separate P&L centres, and investing in training and developing the work force, at companies such as Walmart, PwC, IBM.
13. Shameen Prashantham and Lola Woetzel, To create a greener future you cannot ignore China
Global impact in combating climate change needs to consider China both as a substantial emitter and as a market for innovations and solutions for the energy transition. Western companies should engage their Chinese counterparts to accelerate and scale up innovation in green tech and beyond. To begin, Western companies need to uphold climate and social equity criteria in their operations in China as much as they do in their other markets. Moreover, Western companies can benefit from alliances with Chinese partners and allies, who can provide not only manufacturing solutions but also market access and innovations of their own. Examples include Apple and Microsoft, LanzaTech (turns CO2 emissions into fuel for aviation), Carbfix (turns carbon into stone), financial companies focused on creating demand for carbon-removal technologies, Honeywell, Logan Energy, and many others.
14. Omar Rodríguez-Vilá, Dionne Nickerson, and Sundar Bharadwaj, How inclusive brands fuel growth
Many established consumer brands could expand their attractiveness and reach by developing products that appeal to historically underrepresented communities, whether defined by race, gender, nationality or other characteristics. Moving beyond mainstream cultural standards requires a systematic and structural approach, including changing the in-store experience for underrepresented groups by training all staff in good DEI practices, and changing hiring, marketing and sales approaches. The article draws on the experience of companies such as Sephora, Target, Google, Delta Airlines to offer guidance on how to see and define this wider market, how to serve it, and how to be an active participant in expanding and shaping it through collaborations and partnerships.
15. David de Cremer, For success with AI bring everyone on board
De Cremer provides an analysis of the sources of resistance to AI and best responses. He suggests that typically employees respond with negativity and cynicism when they feel they lose their autonomy to the logarithm, when the rationale for introducing AI is poorly understood and when AI becomes part of the silos in the organisation, reinforcing the differences between those in command of the tech, own the data or draw benefit from the AI and the rest. He recommends four practices for countering these risks: reinforcing social connections; encouraging collaborations between tech and non-tech teams; developing leadership skills to offer guidance and reassurance during times of uncertainty and transition; and demonstrating high regard for human values.
16. Ilya A. Strebulaev and Alex Dang, Make decisions with a VC mindset
Decision making in venture capital relies on skills that could be useful and instructive for other areas of business, according to Strebulaev and Dang, especially when developing radically new products and services. The VC mindset they describe has a high level of comfort with failure. Several principles are discussed in detail together with the design features of the decision-making process typically put in place to protect them: individual over the group; disagreement over consensus; exceptions over dogma; and agility over bureaucracy. For instance, the focus on individual is reflected in the search for unique ideas that go against the grain. Equally, VC teams seek to avoid rapid, premature decision convergence; they tend to be small to ensure fast communication and accountability; collect blind feedback on proposal deals before investment decisions are discussed; and give junior analysts, who do most of the research, the chance to speak first.
Experience
17. Robin Abrahams and Boris Groysberg, Advice for the unmotivated
Abrahams and Groysberg propose a sequence of four steps to tackle lapses in motivation. The process starts with detachment, stepping back from the pressure of work, putting boundaries around it by marking when it ends, exercising or meditating. Having created this space, we may want to cultivate self-compassion and help others. Further, taking small actions and tackling the less demanding tasks could reignite interest. And by looking at the larger picture, how our work is meaningful to others can help put our efforts in a better light.
18. Thomas H. Davenport and George Westerman, Case study: How aggressively should a bank pursue AI?
This case study spells out what an ambitious transformative investment in AI would mean for a bank, from the changes to be introduced to the size of the capital investment and expected results. While tech enthusiasts are all in, the CEO must consider the risks of alienating both employees and customers through the loss of human touch. Experts shed light on implications.
19. Scott Berinato, What can business learn from art?
The essay reviews three books and one TV series produced in the UK, Grand Designs (Channel 4) focussing on the process of getting to mastery, or happiness, or the finished work of art. It is the work itself that can provide a sense of accomplishment, the pleasure we take in connecting deeply to the task and experiencing ourselves as we carry it out. Such a priority can shape day-to-day business decisions, how much we keep control and how much we submit to outside pressures, not least technology.
20. Alison Beard, Life’s work: An interview with Hernan Diaz
Hernan Diaz, the winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for literature for this second novel, Trust, discusses his long apprenticeship as a writer, his commitment to the craft and his interest in language and communication across national cultures and historical epochs.
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