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Why GE’s Jeff Immelt Lost His Job: Disruption and Activist Investors

Harvard Business Review

In his Harvard Business Review article summing up his tenure, Immelt recalls that the two things that influenced him most were Marc Andreessen’s 2011 Wall Street Journal article “ Why Software Is Eating the World ” and Eric Ries’s book The Lean Startup. Innovation at GE was on a roll. Then it wasn’t.

Ries 8
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The Most Innovative Companies Don’t Worry About Consensus

Harvard Business Review

Consensus is a powerful tool. Nick is a typical manager at a one of the world’s most successful widget companies. But like most hierarchical organizations, Nick’s managers and their managers expect to be informed of his ideas before they make their way to the big boss. Again, consensus can be a powerful tool.

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Considering a Start-Up? Think Again.

Harvard Business Review

The refrain is all too familiar: If you want to change the world and get rich in the process, then just go for it. In The Lean Start-Up , Eric Ries talked about vanity metrics — numbers that create the illusion of success, rather than validate actual progress. The problem isn't what the message says, but what it doesn't.

Ries 16
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How GE Stays Young

Harvard Business Review

GE is an icon of management best practices. That includes learning from the outside and striving to adopt certain start-up practices, with a focus on three key management processes: (1) resource allocation that nurtures future businesses, (2) faster-cycle product development, and (3) partnering with start-ups.

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In Big Companies, Lean Is Only One Piece of the Puzzle

Harvard Business Review

In 2010, one of us was sitting in a room at the Harvard Business School with Eric Ries and a number of budding entrepreneurs. To us, there are few better examples at demonstrating the power of the Lean Startup. But like disruption before it, the zeitgeist around lean has in some ways grown apart from the power and purpose of the idea.

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If You Want to Lead, Read These 10 Books

Harvard Business Review

Our ability to wield power and control situations is our masculine side, while the capacity for relatedness and love is feminine. The book outlines the circumstances where you are most powerful, how to deploy these strengths as a leader, and potential pitfalls. In order to lead, you must also learn to say 'yes.' You will have your own.

Books 13
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Build Your Reputation the Rachael Ray Way

Harvard Business Review

Sometimes, it seems they've always loomed large: for decades, Michael Porter has been synonymous with strategy, and John Kotter with change management. One minute, you've never heard of Eric Ries , and the next he's on the cover of Inc. But there's nonetheless a general order to the process. Skills development comes first.