Chart Your Course

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Optimistic employees work harder, longer and with a more innovative spirit. Optimism frames and fuels decisions, and in the modern workplace, it fosters solid work, innovation and sales. Microsoft has no shortage of firsts for technology, but they fail to generate the same buzz. Is bureaucracy weighing you down?

Chief Executive Officer 185

Chief Executive Officer Bureaucracy Motivation Innovation 185

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 8, 2013

What do you do if you're a leader in a large, successful organization with an entrenched bureaucracy, and you see the need for innovation? The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), however, was successful in transforming its bureaucracy. Thus, needed process changes within bureaucracies should always be built into such initiatives.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Innovation Supply Chain Long-term 8

Marshall Goldsmith

DECEMBER 16, 2013

Innovative high-technology corporations are currently paying employees large bonuses to recruit top talent. The CEO of a leading telecommunications company recently embarked on an innovative approach. Traditional compensation plans must be challenged, needless bureaucracy eliminated, and intrapreneurial opportunities provided.

Bureaucracy 151

Bureaucracy Intellectual Capital Kotter Telecommunications 151

Great Leadership By Dan

JULY 11, 2013

Mistakes, loss of creativity and innovation. The program team was highly dysfunctional and everyone had his or her own ideas about the source of the problems – the technical challenges, the difficult customer, the bureaucracy of the large company, procurement issues. Higher levels of stress and stress related illnesses and absenteeism.

Bond 243

Bond Attrition Absenteeism Bureaucracy 243

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 4, 2017

Department of State is a seriously big bureaucracy. My experience as a digital leader in the Obama administration confirmed my optimism that change can come to large bureaucracies. Successful change requires strong leadership, working in lockstep with good people to move the rest of the organization in the right direction.

Bureaucracy 10

Bureaucracy Politics Technology Morale 10

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Beyond Bureaucracy Challenge , the second leg of the HBR/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation. We asked some big questions in our quest to bust bureaucracy: What does it mean to build an organization in which everyone is aligned and inspired by a deeply-felt sense of purpose?

Bureaucracy 11

Bureaucracy Company Agility CIO 11

Harvard Business Review

MAY 27, 2013

You''ve been working at a small start-up for a while now when a large, deep-pocketed corporation comes knocking, asking you to join its innovation team. Or will you end up drowning in bureaucracy, pining for the white-knuckled start-up pace you''re used to? Should you take the job? Is the company "healthy but worried?"

Innovation 8

Innovation Uncertainty Bureaucracy Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

When we launched the Harvard Business Review/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation last year, we aimed to enlist the most progressive practitioners and thinkers in the collective effort of reinventing what we call "the technology of human accomplishment." Innovating Innovation. Vote on your favorite challenges.

Innovation 8

Innovation McKinsey Management Proposal 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 27, 2011

This post is part of a three-week series exploring the re-invention of the social infrastructure of cities, published in partnership with the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University. Since my youth I've been an early adopter of new technology. I know new technology can bring much creativity and value.

Software 14

Software Early Adopters Technology Crisis 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 21, 2016

As digital technologies continue to transform the economy, many leaders are struggling to set a digital strategy, shift organizational structures, and remove the barriers that are keeping them from maximizing the potential impact of new digital technologies. It is this combination that makes them able to drive transformation.

Industry 8

Industry B2C Agility Bureaucracy 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 5, 2017

Think about it: If our military can create a highly complex surgical theater anywhere in the world within hours, it’s not a stretch to think the knowledge and technology exists to take care of elderly, sick people in their own homes. Most care-delivery systems today don’t have processes for innovation and problem solving.

Health Care 8

Health Care Insurance Incentives Venture Funding 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 10, 2013

The appointment of Mary Barra as CEO-to-be of General Motors is a signal to car-lovers everywhere that the company is serious about its products and vehicle innovation. The centrality of innovation to the future — electric cars, hybrids, self-driving cars, and beyond — makes her experience pivotal. Start early, and go far.

Engineering 11

Engineering CFO Industry Bureaucracy 11

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 27, 2016

economy is not just the opportunity for raw innovation, but the ability to scale new technologies within large global companies. Only about 7% to 8% of companies retain the strengths of the founder’s mentality as they grow to industry leadership. One might even say that an increasing advantage of the U.S.

Company 11

Company Supply Chain Retail Bureaucracy 11

Harvard Business Review

MAY 9, 2011

The news that Cisco is dismantling its unique structure of councils and boards to reduce bureaucracy presents a cautionary tale and an insight into the true meaning of teamwork and collaboration in organizations. The group might distribute and rotate leadership roles and responsibilities.

Team 15

Team Sports Teamwork Bureaucracy 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 1, 2016

They abhor complexity, bureaucracy, and anything that gets in the way of the clean execution of strategy. During that decade, we estimate, the company captured more than 90 percent of the market’s global profits and seemed poised to maintain its leadership for years to come. Leadership & Managing People Book.

Company 8

Company Survey Bureaucracy Globalization 8

Tanveer Naseer

JANUARY 6, 2015

A Leader’s Insights In “ Joy, Inc – How We Built a Workplace People Love ”, Richard Sheridan, cofounder and CEO of software design firm Menlo Innovations, delineates the practical steps he has taken to create and maintain a corporate culture that makes people “excited to come to work every day.”

Influence 100

Influence Succession Ethics Bureaucracy 100

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Sensors, the cloud, mobile and broadband wireless, and other such technologies are increasing the flow of digitized information exponentially. Change the dialogue in the senior leadership team to focus on the end-to-end customer experience. Balancing the short-term and long-term is a dynamic leadership challenge. Tom Watson, Jr.

Short-term 8

Short-term How To Venture Capitalist CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 4, 2013

Take Apple and the work it put into building a technology platform on which hundreds of thousands of independent developers could create apps and offer them to Apple''s customers. In the 20th Century, their organizations competed on scale efficiency and relied on hierarchical bureaucracies to run tight ships. We" is smarter than "me".

Management 9

Management Bureaucracy Self-aware Agility 9

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 10, 2017

Without critical self-reflection, organizations build silos, bureaucracies, and cultures that impede rather than enable performance. Product innovation sits at the intersection of R&D, marketing, and business intelligence. What are our markets? Who is our customer?

Competitive Advantage 8

Competitive Advantage Supply Chain Bureaucracy McKinsey 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 2, 2015

While leaders of many care organizations may be fearful that a new centralized staff function would add to corporate overhead and bureaucracy at a time when they are trying to reduce expenses, becoming adept at the delivery of value-based care requires capabilities that provider organizations currently lack.

Health Care 8

Health Care Management Cost Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 17, 2015

This intensive customer focus has increased as technology-enabled transparency and online social media accelerate an inexorable flow of market power downstream from suppliers to customers. The clients don’t have to own or maintain the technology. The technologies and trends shaping tomorrow’s businesses.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Customer Intimacy Software 8

Strategy Driven

AUGUST 10, 2015

But for old-school bureaucracies, it’s a scary new world that requires managers to rethink the basic principles that govern established businesses. Does your company rely on barriers such as proprietary technology, arbitrary business rules, regulations or litigation to stifle competition? Is anybody steering the ship?

Strategy 50

Strategy Succession Software Industry 50

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 11, 2013

economy spent one trillion dollars fixing and treating the so-called Y2K Bug, which we now know was a manufactured “crisis” by technology consulting companies. As was discussed in Chapter 8, technology constitutes one tenth of 1% of any organization’s overall Big Picture. In 1999, the U.S. Bad Work, Poor Planning.

Crisis 58

Crisis Crisis Management Retail Budgeting 58

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

In today's world, start-ups aren't the only ones who can innovate. As I discussed in my post How Big Companies Can Save Innovation , large companies are now better positioned to innovate than ever before. Innovation increasingly involves creating business models that tap big companies' unique strengths.

Innovation 8

Innovation Company Venture Capitalist Health Care 8

Leading Blog

JANUARY 22, 2020

Reduce Bureaucracy 3. Overhaul Technology 5. To address the technology gap at Nasdaq, Greifeld went outside to buy winners—smart acquisitions. Business leaders should always cultivate an attentive disposition toward outsiders, especially in industries impacted by technology. Get the Right People on Board 2.

Organization 256

Organization Bureaucracy Competitive Advantage Technology 256

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 15, 2017

1 — Consistent Leadership Over Time Matters in This Market. GM will keep its technology center in Bangalore. Even more crucial, the future of mobility will be shaped by three disruptive forces: electrification, shared ownership, and driverless technology. Understanding it takes time and focus.

CEO 10

CEO Long-term Short-term Mass Marketing 10

Harvard Business Review

JULY 11, 2014

Today’s most competitive marketplace isn’t technology but talent. Their function has been turned upside down and inside out as a result of digital technology, empowered employees, and connected customers. Leadership + digital acumen: Many digital natives lack leadership experience and many seasoned leaders lack digital expertise.

Marketing 8

Marketing Strategy Brand Metrics 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

Innovation is one those evergreen themes: it is a rare CEO who doesn't list innovation as one her top four or five priorities. But innovation is an elusive beast. We can look to companies renowned for innovation — like Apple and Google — and try to learn from them. So what to do? But that's a flawed approach.

Company 8

Company Stage-Gate Innovation Bureaucracy 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

That turns out to be a powerful approach to leadership in a world of expanding complexity, immense challenges and intense change. billion global IT services firm, HCL Technologies, puts it: "The CEO should be the Chief Question Asker, not the final provider of answers." Genuine questions unleash humility, curiosity, even vulnerability.

Organization 15

Organization Open-book Bureaucracy CEO 15

Mark Sanborn

MARCH 22, 2022

But neither last very long without being affected by unforeseen events, new customer demands or better technology. Don’t let bureaucracy, slow decision making and outdated rules slow the process. (To Tom Peters famously said, “Ready, Fire, Aim” which was as much about innovation and experimentation as taking action.

Agility 100

Agility Contingency Plans Crisis Learning-by-Doing 100