article thumbnail

Even Senior Executives Need a Side Hustle

Harvard Business Review

Hedge against uncertainty. Intrigued by technology and innovation, Achan took the initiative to develop two iPhone apps. But as I discovered in 2001, when I was laid off from my newspaper job abruptly, with only a week’s severance pay, it’s good to have options. How did he make this unusual career leap?

article thumbnail

Idle Funds are the Devil's Playground

Harvard Business Review

Regarding the latter, we point to some well-documented and broadly perceived shifts in the geography, demography, and technology of global economic activity. And at the time, as industrial technology appeared, it afforded many good opportunities to invest in such assets at high expected returns.

Banking 11
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

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

Harvard Business Review

And in the 21st century, the majority of public company shareholders are institutional investors (banks, insurance companies, pensions, hedge funds, REITs, investment advisers, endowments, and mutual funds), not individuals. (In GE’s gross margin was 21% last year, compared with 28% for United Technologies and 30% for Siemens.

Ries 8
article thumbnail

The Tempting of Rajat Gupta

Harvard Business Review

Between 1994 when he was first elected and 2001, in his third term, the Firm more than doubled its number of consultants (3,300 to 7,700), partners (425 to 891), and annual revenues ($1.5 They paid their executives accordingly, as did the banks, brokerage houses, hedge funds, and private-equity outfits whose share of U.S billion to $3.4