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The Folly of Stretch Goals

Harvard Business Review

Deming insisted that companies, "Eliminate management by objective." Although the final book hasn't been written on sub-prime mortgages and the ensuing banking crisis, we do know that stretch goals played a large role in putting the investment banks in serious jeopardy. Here's why.

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Planning Doesn’t Have to Be the Enemy of Agile

Harvard Business Review

Planning has long been one of the cornerstones of management. Early in the twentieth century Henri Fayol identified the job of managers as to plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control. The capacity and willingness of managers to plan developed throughout the century. Consider the Dutch financial services firm ING Bank.

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