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What Is Strategy?
Strategy & Execution HBR BestsellerToday's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity,... -
How to Write a Winning Business Plan
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleA well-conceived business plan is essential to the success of an enterprise. Whether you are starting up a venture, seeking additional capital for an... -
What VUCA Really Means for You
Strategic planning Magazine ArticleIt’s become a trendy managerial acronym: VUCA, short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and a catchall for “Hey, it’s crazy out there!” It’s also misleading: VUCA conflates four distinct types of challenges that demand four distinct types of responses. That makes it difficult to know how to approach a challenging situation and easy to […] -
Managing Risks: A New Framework
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleRisk management is too often treated as a compliance issue that can be solved by drawing up lots of rules and making sure that all employees follow them.... -
Understanding China
Global Business SpotlightThis package begins with "What the West Gets Wrong About China," by Rana Mitter and Elsbeth Johnson, which discusses three fundamental misconceptions:... -
Strategic Management for Competitive Advantage
Strategic planning Magazine ArticleHow some large companies infuse their planning process with new entrepreneurial vigor, maintaining market leadership over the long haul. -
Exploit the Product Life Cycle
Product management Magazine ArticleTo convert a tantalizing concept into a managerial instrument of competitive power… -
What's Your Negotiation Strategy?
Communication Magazine ArticleMany people don't tackle negotiations in a proactive way; instead, they simply react to moves the other side makes. While that approach may work in a... -
The Big Lie of Strategic Planning
Strategic planning Magazine ArticleA detailed plan may be comforting, but it’s not a strategy. -
Strategy Under Uncertainty
Decision making and problem solving Magazine ArticleWhat makes for a good strategy in highly uncertain business environments? Some executives seek to shape the future with high-stakes bets. Eastman Kodak Company, for example, is spending $500 million per year to develop an array of digital photography products that it hopes will fundamentally change the way people create, store, and view pictures. Meanwhile, […] -
Ten Ways to Create Shareholder Value
Corporate governance Magazine ArticleCompanies profess devotion to shareholder value but rarely follow the practices that maximize it. What will it take to make your company a level 10 value creator? -
The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy
Competitive strategy Magazine ArticleMost companies feel compelled to give to charity. Few have figured out how to do it well. -
Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing
Business communication Magazine ArticleIn many companies, sales forces and marketers feud like Capulets and Montagues—with disastrous results. Here’s how to get them to lay down their swords. -
Performing a Project Premortem
Project management Magazine ArticleProjects fail at a spectacular rate. One reason is that too many people are reluctant to speak up about their reservations during the all-important planning phase. By making it safe for dissenters who are knowledgeable about the undertaking and worried about its weaknesses to speak up, you can improve a project’s chances of success. Research […] -
The Strategic Challenges of Decoupling
Global Business SpotlightMost business executives who have put time, effort, and investment into developing a presence in China resist the notion of decoupling. With the Biden... -
The House of Quality
Analytics and data science Magazine ArticleDesign is a team effort, but how do marketing and engineering talk to each other? -
From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy
Organizational transformation Magazine ArticleCorporate strategy, the overall plan for a diversified company, is both the darling and the stepchild of contemporary management practice—the darling because CEOs have been obsessed with diversification since the early 1960s, the stepchild because almost no consensus exists about what corporate strategy is, much less about how a company should formulate it. A diversified […] -
Demystifying Strategy: The What, Who, How, and Why
Strategy Digital ArticleMany leaders I work with struggle with strategy. They know it’s important to have strategies in order to align decision making in their businesses. They understand that they can’t observe and control everything in their organizations (much as many of them would like to). They earnestly want to develop good strategies and they get the […] -
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing
Accounting Magazine ArticleMany companies abandoned activity-based costing because it did not capture the complexity of their operations, took too long to implement, and was too expensive to build and maintain. Here’s a way around those problems. -
Fast Heat: How Korea Won the Microwave War
Strategic planning Magazine ArticleOn my first visit to Samsung’s Suwon complex, the headquarters of the company’s electronics and appliance division was even more Third World than I expected. The factory floors were bare concrete. People hand-wheeled parts to and from the production line. The research lab reminded me of a dilapidated high-school science classroom. But the work going […]
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HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (including featured article "What Is Strategy?" by Michael E. Porter)
Strategy & Execution Book24.95View Details Is your company spending enormous time and energy on strategy development, with little to show for your efforts? We've combed through hundreds of Harvard... -
Groom Energy Solutions: Selling Efficiency
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details Groom Energy Solutions helps organizations reduce their energy use and costs through the implementation of energy efficiency measures, which create long-term... -
Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details The Locally Laid Egg Company is a family-owned company based out of Duluth, Minnesota. The company was established in 2012 as the first commercial grade... -
Innovation at GSA: Zero Environmental Footprint and the Extreme Challenge (A)
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details In 2010, Martha Johnson, new Administrator of the General Services Agency (GSA), advanced the Zero Environmental Footprint (ZEF) initiative-a sustainability... -
Tega Industries (C1), Supplement
Sales & Marketing Case Study5.00View Details Supplement for Case A00335 -
MRC, Inc. (B)
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details MRC, Inc. faces a decision regarding entry into the production of polyester fiber in competition with much larger firms. An updated version of an earlier... -
Principles of Family Business System Change
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study8.95View Details Identifies several practical principles to keep in mind when changing a family business system. -
Zee Entertainment and Essel Group: A Quest for Legacy and Beyond (A)
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study8.95View Details The case traces the entrepreneurial journey of Indian media baron Subhash Chandra. It starts with his entry into a struggling family business in 1967... -
Experiments in Public Procurement: Italy Buys in Bulk Sequel
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Under pressure from the European Union, which had admitted Italy to the "Eurozone" hesitantly, on condition that the country control its deficit spending... -
Amanda and Kristen: Mented Cosmetics
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study8.95View Details The co-founders (Black HBS alumnae) of an e-commerce beauty startup explore the unmet needs within the beauty industry. This case study examines the entrepreneurial... -
Syntex Laboratories (A)
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details A consulting project involving a mathematical model of the sales force indicates that Syntex Labs should nearly double the size of their sales force and... -
Crafting Strategy
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details This note provides an introduction to crafting strategy following an options-led approach. It provides an overview of scenario planning, and it prepares... -
Cincom Systems, Inc.
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details Tom Nies, charismatic CEO of Cincom Systems, is considering a public offering of his software enterprise, but the 1987 stock market crash checks his plans.... -
Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures--and Yours
Strategy & Execution Book29.95View Details China and India are home to one-third of the world's population. And they're undergoing social and economic revolutions that are capturing the best minds--and... -
Strategic Planning on a Military Air Station: Calm Skies or Turbulence Up Ahead?
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details This disguised case provides a strategic plan devised and used on a military base. Senior officers clarified their strategy, outlined capabilities needed,... -
Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details Wilderness Safaris sees itself as a conservation company that is built on a business model of providing high-end, premium-priced wildlife safaris in various... -
General Electric: Strategic Position--1981
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details Describes the introduction and evolution of General Electric's strategic planning system from the 1960s to Jack Welch's tenure. Allows discussion of the... -
Ganong Bros. Ltd.
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details Ganong Bros. Ltd. is a fifth-generation family chocolate company facing financial difficulties. The firm has spread its resources too thin and needs to... -
General Electric Medical Systems--2002, Spanish Version
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details Discusses one of General Electric's flagship divisions--the world's leading provider of medical diagnostic imaging equipment. Provides an opportunity... -
The New LAX: Ready for Takeoff?
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details The case highlights the challenges and successes LAX CEO Deborah Flint and Board Chair Sean Burton have achieved from Flint's arrival in 2015 to December...
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What Is Strategy?
Strategy & Execution HBR BestsellerToday's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity,... -
How to Write a Winning Business Plan
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleA well-conceived business plan is essential to the success of an enterprise. Whether you are starting up a venture, seeking additional capital for an... -
What VUCA Really Means for You
Strategic planning Magazine ArticleIt’s become a trendy managerial acronym: VUCA, short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and a catchall for “Hey, it’s crazy out there!” It’s also misleading: VUCA conflates four distinct types of challenges that demand four distinct types of responses. That makes it difficult to know how to approach a challenging situation and easy to […] -
Managing Risks: A New Framework
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleRisk management is too often treated as a compliance issue that can be solved by drawing up lots of rules and making sure that all employees follow them.... -
Understanding China
Global Business SpotlightThis package begins with "What the West Gets Wrong About China," by Rana Mitter and Elsbeth Johnson, which discusses three fundamental misconceptions:... -
Strategic Management for Competitive Advantage
Strategic planning Magazine ArticleHow some large companies infuse their planning process with new entrepreneurial vigor, maintaining market leadership over the long haul. -
Exploit the Product Life Cycle
Product management Magazine ArticleTo convert a tantalizing concept into a managerial instrument of competitive power… -
What's Your Negotiation Strategy?
Communication Magazine ArticleMany people don't tackle negotiations in a proactive way; instead, they simply react to moves the other side makes. While that approach may work in a... -
The Big Lie of Strategic Planning
Strategic planning Magazine ArticleA detailed plan may be comforting, but it’s not a strategy. -
Strategy Under Uncertainty
Decision making and problem solving Magazine ArticleWhat makes for a good strategy in highly uncertain business environments? Some executives seek to shape the future with high-stakes bets. Eastman Kodak Company, for example, is spending $500 million per year to develop an array of digital photography products that it hopes will fundamentally change the way people create, store, and view pictures. Meanwhile, […]