The Practical Leader

FEBRUARY 13, 2012

The L-word makes hard-nosed managers squirm. These are the same managers loudly pronouncing goals of higher employee engagement and increased customer loyalty. These managers use lots of “leader-speak” about vision, values, engagement, or caring but their rhetoric is heartless and empty.

Airlines 53

Airlines P&L Collins Leadership 53

Surviving Leadership

OCTOBER 29, 2018

At this meeting, employees heard from the CEO, CHRO, General Counsel, COO, CFO, CMO, and any business leaders spearheading a major initiative. This would include a day spent with an installation tech and a day spent with a call center agent – preferably, in a market other than your own.

CFO 58

CFO P&L Call Center COO 58

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 19, 2016

One of the challenges of being a CEO is that you rarely are asked to choose between a wrong or right answer. CEOs should actively manage five specific tensions in today’s complex global business environment: Disruptive innovation versus leveraging the company’s core strengths. Manage costs — or add value?

CEO 8

CEO Supply Chain Disruptive Innovation P&L 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 10, 2012

Have you noticed that general managers are scarce these days? But in many large companies, the only true general manager is the CEO. Everyone else, whether in the C-suite or in the senior management ranks, runs a piece of a business or a support function. At one time general managers were at the center of the action.

Management 13

Management P&L Incubator Finance 13

In the CEO Afterlife

AUGUST 6, 2013

Never in the history of marketing has there been so much talk about branding. The conversation in the world of branding is well beyond product and service brand discussion by marketers and ad agencies. I remain impressed with the ongoing success of P&G, L’Oreal, Nike, Whole Foods, Pernod Ricard, Apple, and Starbucks.

Brand 260

Brand P&L Human Resources Brand Management 260

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Face facts: Most boards invest heavily in executive assessments, exposing chief-executive candidates to C-suite responsibilities and checking their P&L performance — while simultaneously scanning outside prospects. Thompson, the former CEO of Symantec, leads its search committee, and he is joined by Steve J.

CEO 8

CEO Committee P&L Charan 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

L’Oréal has made a strategic investment in Founders Factory , a digital startup accelerator. At L’Oréal, CEO Jean-Paul Agon signaled the company’s digital transformation when he recruited Lubomira Rochet to be the chief digital officer and a member of the executive team.

P&L 12

P&L Agility Fashion Media 12

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 5, 2014

Instead, the last few years have seen a proliferation of C-suite titles that include a component of marketing. This diversity reflects not only a deepening understanding of the connection between growth and customer satisfaction, but a much greater awareness of what marketing can do to help forge that bond.

P&L 10

P&L Banking Marketing Call Center 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 20, 2016

This question was at the heart of a recent study we conducted that is forthcoming at the Academy of Management Journal. In an effort to explore executives’ motivations for serving on boards, we looked at how board service is evaluated in the executive labor market. ” Similarly, Sempra CEO Debra L.

Execution 9

Execution P&L CEO COO 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 24, 2013

With former CEO A.G. She holds the Ernest L. In her latest book, SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good , she analyzed how P&G (among other companies) achieved long-term performance. Why is P&G making this move, now? But note how P&G did it. Asking A.G.

P&L 8

P&L Restructuring Price CEO 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 3, 2012

Editor's note: This fictional Management Puzzle dramatizes a dilemma faced by leaders in real companies. Like HBR's traditional case studies, HBR.org's Management Puzzles are based on academic research into business problems. Cespedes and Benson P. I can't believe the CEO actually likes this plan," she said.

P&L 12

P&L Management Chemicals Case Study 12

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 15, 2013

CEOs face countless decisions. While the obvious decisions that CEOs need to get right involve strategy and competitive advantage, too many executives delegate away three critical decisions that they need to own: decisions about goals, resource allocation, and people. The brilliant decision-makers look at the runway ahead.

P&L 8

P&L Fixed Assets Charan Delegation 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Imagine if managements, boards, and investors adopted them: we could restart our economy, energize our business school curricula and create prosperity for our children and grandchildren. In all but seven of these 45 years, Berkshire beat the S&P. Berkshire's talented managers get the P&L independence to run their own businesses.

Letter 14

Letter P&L Net Present Value Insurance 14

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

It may seem counterintuitive, but smart companies need to routinely rid themselves of less profitable customers, the same way an asset manager or rebalances an investment portfolio or a Major League Baseball general manager trades a declining player. Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, was recently asked if Redbox was a competitive threat.

P&L 14

P&L Supply Chain Retail Price 14

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 11, 2014

The Silicon Valley office with its pool tables, free-flowing beer, and hoodie-clad CEO is a cultural cliché, but many offices are becoming more casual – not only more relaxed socially, but also in their policies and processes. Zappos is getting rid of traditional management structures and even job titles. What the Experts Say.

Process 8

Process P&L Case Study Software 8

Ask Atma

MAY 20, 2012

So the designer teaches everyone about UX/AI, the coders teach about their development methodology, the project managers teach about agile protocols, and the sales people describe what it is like in the field. Emotional control – successful anger and/or frustration management. Curiosity – inclination to learn.

Team 52

Team How To Knowledge Management Self-aware 52

Great Leadership By Dan

JUNE 18, 2019

Ruthless prioritization serves you—the CEO, the general manager, the team owner, the person on the hook for the P&L of your business. In the past, you may have felt tempted to delegate brand to marketing or even to an outside agency. That means they’ve also become proficient in prioritizing.

Brand 197

Brand P&L Delegation Loyalty 197

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 15, 2017

CEOs and boards still generally view technology as a cost. Some CEOs are still in denial, and time is against them — the longer it takes, the more dramatic the needed transformation and the higher the risk.” ” This engagement between directors and management starts with the permission and knowledge of the CEO.

CIO 9

CIO Committee Technology P&L 9

Coaching Tip

MARCH 29, 2017

"When they get to own a P&L or become the CEO, in many cases executives are rusty at strategy or have never even been given a set of tools to set strategy," says management consultant Tim Lewko. Decide: What are the key products, markets, and capabilities? Plan: How to implement and achieve decisions?

Process 70

Process P&L CEO Execution 70

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

In today's economy, where the fast growth of emerging markets outpaces America and the developed world, if you haven't gone global yet, it's time to get moving. One of the biggest challenges they face is how to manage a diverse group of people across a broad geographic scope. The agenda was always the same, and it was a marathon day.

P&L 15

P&L Globalization CFO Operations 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

An “operating model” — how a company organizes and manages its resources to achieve its strategic ambitions — is the bridge between strategy and execution. Who has P&L authority? Second, they’re specific enough to help senior management make trade-offs. It includes accountabilities.

Strategy 8

Strategy Company Banking Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 7, 2012

But once the company has honed in on a strong value proposition and found initial product-market fit, what is the best approach to scaling it? With over $1 billion in revenue, 2000 employees and a market capitalization of over $6 billion, Akamai has become a role model for scalable start-ups. After all, scaling is hard. Really hard.

P&L 12

P&L Lewin EBITDA Ries 12

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 17, 2012

Consider George, a CEO of a large building-engineering firm in Silicon Valley. As business boomed, new hires and managers competed hard with each other to scramble up the corporate ladder (while prying other people's fingers off of it). In a way," he says, "the slower market has been a blessing. We're not as frenetic.

P&L 12

P&L Construction Survey Stress 12

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2012

When Palmisano retired this month, the media chronicled his success by focusing on IBM's 21% annual growth in earnings per share and its increase in market capitalization to $218 billion. These are the qualities I believe made him the best CEO, so far, of the 21st century: Humility and openness. Patience and a long-term view.

Globalization 15

Globalization Golden Parachute Short-term Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 29, 2015

It made a massive investment (more than $1 billion) to build a software “ Center of Excellence ” in San Ramon, California to manage the data explosion created by the increasing intelligence of its industrial machines. Melody Ivory , a User Experience Product Manager, told me, “I was about employee number 30 in February 2012.

Software 8

Software Six Sigma Insourcing P&L 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 16, 2015

Our understanding of how organizations think and act doesn’t always make this distinction between the interests of the enterprise and its managers. CEO, President, COO (Top Dogs): These highest order decision makers are the big picture thinkers. In other words, addressing the downside is more important than touting the upside.

P&L 8

P&L Due Diligence CIO COO 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 31, 2018

We conducted a 10-year study, which we call the CEO Genome Project , in which we assembled a data set of more than 17,000 C-suite executive assessments and studied 2,600 in-depth to analyze who gets to the top and how. The path to CEO rarely runs in a straight line; sometimes you have to move backward or sideways in order to get ahead.

CEO 8

CEO CFO P&L Career 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 26, 2018

We were working hard on getting product-market fit right, so anything we could do to get more customers and to find the right feature mix was a critical learning opportunity. If someone had a marketing grader idea, chances are I would say “yes” to it. You need to add the word ‘no’ to your management vocabulary.”

P&L 14

P&L Strategy Press Release Marketing 14

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 20, 2011

While "running out" isn't really the right phrase, it's clear that delivering many commodities to market is getting harder and more expensive (we don't dig for oil a mile under the ocean for the heck of it). The best analysis of the resource scarcity mega-trend came from asset manager Jeremy Grantham. Right now, the U.S.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Apparel P&L Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 25, 2012

Tommy was a director and Jane was the Midlands regional sales manager for Egan & Sons, a supplier of doors and staircases to Westmid for 63 years. Enlisting several younger financial managers, he made the case to the executive director, Wilfred Hammond, who approved the hiring of a consultant with extensive experience in ABC.

Case Study 14

Case Study P&L Cost Due Diligence 14

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 3, 2014

According to one consultant, job candidates focus most intently on “the past success—of the CEO and of the company. Candidates also appraise a firm’s future prospects, market competitiveness, and business strategy. He saw the upside in this hot market sector and the opportunity to lead and mentor a young team.”.

Reputation 12

Reputation Consultative P&L Execution 12

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Yet they don't work, and their repeated application makes many managers incredibly gender fatigued and frustrated. Solution : Make gender balancing a strategic initiative, led by the CEO, framed as a lever to achieving business strategy, not as a separate initiative for already overburdened executives. Problem 1: Calling it Diversity.

Diversity 8

Diversity Balanced Scorecard P&L Committee 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 29, 2011

She led him down a long corridor to a door marked "Hotel Manager." You're responsible for your own P&L, just like all the other hotel managers, and that includes promotional spending of any kind. In fact, we barely have a marketing budget at the corporate level. Honestly, Fernando, not much," Beatriz said.

Case Study 10

Case Study Hotels Price Decentralization 10

Strategy Driven

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Yet for the small handful of companies that have managed to drive growth consistently – even through tough times – the payoff is great. In Discovery-Driven Growth , Rita McGrath and Ian MacMillan challenge what you thought you knew about managing growth. How do they do it? How can the doctor get that done?

Innovation 50

Innovation NPV Business Model Constraint 50