Uncompromising Leadership in Tough Times

Economic difficulties need not mean that we lower our standards for leadership. If anything, we should raise our sights. New work by HBS professor Michael Beer and colleagues shows that there is still a place for what they term uncompromising leadership. Due out this summer, the book High Commitment, High Performance: How to Build a Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage describes organizations that, Beer says, "are diametrically opposite to the firms we saw fail on Wall Street. The book's perspective also leads to answers to the question of how to manage in tough times in a way that avoids liquidation of human and cultural assets." The book looks broadly at what it takes to build a high commitment, high performance (HCHP) system inside companies. It asks and answers questions such as: What outcomes must such an organization achieve in order to sustain commitment and performance?

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Education News

As the kids go back to school, how are the adults educating themselves? Check out these story links:

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I Want My MBA

You’ve made it so far in your career without an MBA. Is now the time to work for one, or are you too old?

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Innovation Universities Are Hot--Rotman, Ziba, IDEO, Continuum, Stanford, Institute of Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum I just got off the phone with Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the U of Toronto, who told me that corporations are flocking to his institution to learn integrative thinking (design thinking). I've heard the same thing from innovation consultancies who are setting up their own "universities" to teach design thinking to corporate managers.

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Eight business technology trends to watch

McKinsey's continue to have some interesting news - here is some of their latest on technology... Eight emerging trends are transforming many markets and businesses. Executives should learn to shape the outcome rather than just react to it. Technology alone is rarely the key to unlocking economic value: companies create real wealth when they combine technology with new ways of doing business. Through our work and research, we have identified eight technology-enabled trends that will help shape businesses and the economy in coming years. These trends fall within three broad areas of business activity: managing relationships, managing capital and assets, and leveraging information in new ways.

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