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Why Individuals No Longer Rule on Sales Teams

Harvard Business Review

Companies have long developed and managed their sales people differently from other employees, placing great emphasis on individual performance. From 2002 to 2012, the impact of individuals’ task performance on unit profitability companywide decreased, on average, from 78% to 51%.

Team 10
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IBM Focuses HR on Change

Harvard Business Review

In their role of stewards of policy compliance, they can tend to be a brake on change. Over the last decade, HR at IBM took a number of steps to help drive operational improvement: Delivered the new skills IBM needed at the front lines. Another ripe area for innovation is knowledge management and the impact of social media.

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7 Tips for Managing Freelancers and Independent Contractors

Harvard Business Review

But the rules and expectations are different when you’re managing a freelancer who isn’t fully employed by your company. Many managers assume that they don’t need to tend to freelancers as much as they do regular employees—and there’s some truth to that, says Dan Pink, author of Free Agent Nation and Drive.

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An Insider’s Account of the Yahoo-Alibaba Deal

Harvard Business Review

The number of internet users in China stood at roughly 5 million in 1999 but grew to 40 million in 2002, by which time it was clear that Yahoo was not getting the traction that local Chinese internet companies were seeing. search engine company Inktomi in 2002. The company was owned by management, venture capitalists, and SoftBank.

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What Uber’s China Deal Says About the Limits of Platforms

Harvard Business Review

On August 1 Uber announced that it is selling its Chinese brand and operations to Didi Chuxing for $1 billion, its annual burn rate in that market, in exchange for a 20% stake in the local competitor. And that the two companies’ CEOs, Travis Kalanick and Cheng Wei, would take seats on each other’s boards.