Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 24, 2017

This scenario is characterized by many divergent projects, fragmented activities that have little in common with the initial strategic plan, and projects that do not fit together. An example of strategic burnout can be found at Lego around 2004. The multitude of projects drove the company in numerous directions at the same time.

Strategy 8

Strategy Strategic Planning Stress Hamel 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Through my leadership development work with the United Nations (UN), I’ve been privileged to work with professionals who operate in some of the world’s most challenging contexts. ” As with seeds tossed onto rocky soil, Van Wagenen accepts that not all projects will germinate and bear fruit.

Stress 14

Stress Learning-by-Doing Report Project 14

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 19, 2014

In 2002, the year Alibaba.com first became profitable, founder Jack Ma gathered a handful of employees in his office and told them there was a secret project that they had the opportunity to join. Today, Alibaba looks more like a conglomerate than a typical tech company, with a diverse set of businesses operating largely independently.

Porter 8

Porter Decentralization Film Project 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 6, 2014

The idea was simple: Combine the best of both companies into the new Yahoo China, which was projected to generate more than $25 million in revenue in 2004. We were optimistic about Yahoo’s future in China as the deal closed in January 2004. So with Alibaba, we realized we needed to be willing to give up all operating control.

Chief Financial Officer 10

Chief Financial Officer Operations Learning-by-Doing IPO 10

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2012

Here's a case in point: In 2004, my HBS colleague Gary Pisano and I conducted a project at a leading manufacturer of highly sophisticated production equipment for the electronics industry, which I'll call "Exotech." Like many companies, Exotech struggled with serious time delays in its product-development projects. The results?

Team 12

Team Software Project Tools 12

Leading Blog

APRIL 16, 2021

But Chrysler was in bankruptcy, and we didn’t know whether our Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealership that we opened in 2004 would survive the ax of the bankruptcy court. Operating a small business is not unlike owning a really old house: things break a lot, and you need to fix them, over and over and over. Ours did; over 700 did not.)

Learning-by-Doing 255

Learning-by-Doing Long-term Automotive Open-book 255

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 24, 2016

Gifts from the private sector can help these organizations grow, undertake projects they would otherwise be unlikely to afford, offer more job security to their employees or more incentives to their volunteers, improve their operations, and ultimately thrive.

Reputation 8

Reputation Project Comparison Sample 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2011

Nokia's inability to field a credible response to the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and Google's Android operating system in 2008 has precipitated a freefall in its share price. Motorola is finally attempting a comeback with handsets using Google's Android operating system, but is now only a minor player.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Long-term Brand Early Adopters 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 1, 2011

In 2004, the BBC Symphony Orchestra gave a performance of the modern classic 4' 33" by John Cage , a composition famous for its counterintuitive focus on the sounds of music not being played. They operate under tight timelines and competitive pressures. This is not the time to answer emails or tackle a long-neglected project.

Public Relations 16

Public Relations Execution System Marketing 16

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2016

This can disrupt a firm’s ability to operate on schedule and budget. Of the respondents, 72% said that climate change presents risks that could significantly impact their operations, revenue, or expenditures. Coca-Cola, for example, faced a water shortage in India that forced it to shut down one of its plants in 2004.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Price Loyalty Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2017

Since most of Nemours’s patient revenue was from fee-for-service contracts, we designed this pilot program to integrate our population health expertise with our clinical operation, in an effort to better understand value-based care and reimbursement models and to further improve health outcomes in a population of children with asthma.

Health Care 8

Health Care Transportation Cost System 8

In the CEO Afterlife

MARCH 18, 2015

This can mean expanding product lines, entering new markets and geographies, line extending brands, acquiring new businesses, creating projects, and adding layers of management to manage the self-created complexity. By 2004, sales and profits were in double digit declines. Added complexity makes sure of that. Something had to be done.

Apparel 100

Apparel Brand Franchising Competitive Advantage 100

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

The market favorably receives projects with long-term payoffs, particularly those in research and development. And I witnessed its truth firsthand as the CEO of Merck in 2004, when our earnings were going to fall short of analysts' expectations.

CEO 15

CEO Short-term Long-term Restructuring 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 11, 2015

Máirín started working at Red Hat as an intern and later joined us full time in 2004, after she graduated from college. It was in a case involving the latter that led Red Hat’s executive vice president and chief people officer DeLisa Alexander to approach Máirín to talk about a proposed project.

Management 8

Management Performance Review Review Mission Statement 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

While former management consultants are not frequently chosen as CEOs — our research noted 28 former management consultants with five-plus years of consulting experience out of a total of 541 CEO transitions between 2004 and 2010 — the evidence we’ve uncovered here would suggest that, as a class, they are fully worthy of consideration.

Consultative 9

Consultative CEO Management Short-term 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

To prioritize projects, for instance, the ALL team could have forecast future cash flows for every potential investment and ranked all proposals on the basis of their net present value. Within three years, ALL's Brazilian rail operations had increased revenues by 50% and tripled EBITDA. Making better decisions.

Strategy 8

Strategy Proposal Guidelines Net Present Value 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

Creative and sci­entific work has migrated to teams and, more recently, to large, distributed teams like the hundreds of scientists that worked on the human genome project. 2 (2004): 349–399. The study showed that the days of the solitary genius or lone inventor—think Newton or Einstein—are over.

How To 8

How To Diversity Letter Learning-by-Doing 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 15, 2018

For example, at The Fat Duck in the UK (which has had three Michelin stars since 2004, except in 2016 when it closed for refurbishment, and where I worked on the innovation side), cooking temperatures are systematically controlled to 0.1°C, This means achieving precise standardization and strong quality control.

Innovation 8

Innovation Project Creativity Open-book 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

Leaders who succeed at the job usually do so by combing through the company in search of noncore assets to shed, businesses to sell, activities to stop, functions to eliminate, and product lines to simplify, as Steve Jobs did when he took back the reins at Apple in 1997, and as Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the CEO of Lego, did in 2004.

Company 8

Company How To Business Model Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 23, 2018

Project Apollo Archive/NASA Johnson Space Center/Flickr. It offers an example of what we call “strategic agility,” or the ability to effectively (and continually) adapt how a firm operates and competes. The transitional model (from 1993 – 2006): This phase kicked off with the International Space Station project.

Budgeting 8

Budgeting Technology Innovation Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

The app was a big technology project for us. They’re part of something bigger than a burger joint; they work for a company that gives back to the communities in which it operates. You just have to look for and seize every opportunity to make your people feel valued and purposeful in their work.

Franchising 8

Franchising Loyalty Download Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Fifty-eight percent of patients referred to Virginia Mason, our medical center in Seattle, for back surgery would be more appropriately treated without an operation. In 2004, large Seattle employers came to our medical center seeking more affordable health care. Electronic medical records can help correct these systemic defects.

Health Care 8

Health Care Innovation Creativity Guidelines 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 12, 2011

Their exclusive agreement had been launched in the go-go year of 2000, but by 2004 it had landed in court. Boston Scientific a few years back launched a secret project to reverse-engineer the technology of its single-source supplier of coronary stents. Then we learn a lot from the proceedings.

Management 11

Management Airlines How To Pharmaceuticals 11

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2016

employees, customers, free agents, communities we operate in) and so much more. Voser took a detour to be CFO for ABB from 2002 to 2004 and then returned to Shell to become CEO in 2009. Consider Marshall Goldsmith’s new 15 Coaches Project. Mastering digital requires leaders to be agile amid disruption.

Leadership Development 8

Leadership Development Disaggregation Development Leadership 8