Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 20, 2014

Staying true to its roots as an engineering-centric company, Google has stood out both for its early skepticism of the value of managers as well as for its novel, often quantitative approaches to management decisions. If you only read one piece, make it this one by David Garvin in 2013 , on how Google sold its engineers on management.

IPO 15

IPO Management Engineering Innovation 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 30, 2014

Call 2014 the year of innovation. Google Trends reveals that interest in disruptive innovation crept up to peak levels this year. It seems that every time you hop on a quarterly earnings call, the CEO mentions innovation. If innovation is the foundation to building the future, this focus should be reassuring.

Long-term 10

Long-term Innovation Company IPO 10

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 1, 2011

Microfinance has come under fire in the past 18 months, triggered in part by SKS Microfinance's IPO. Critics complain that the institutions supporting microfinance have become too greedy, and many are using this as an argument to deeply regulate or, even more, cut support to microfinance operations. Such is the power of microfinance.

Microfinance 13

Microfinance IPO Bottom-up Finance 13

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 2, 2013

Today’s model is using African diasporas where companies hire native Africans living abroad and then send them to the continent to expand their operations. With Facebook’s $115 billion market cap on its IPO day, Mark Zuckerberg created wealth nearly equivalent to half of Nigeria’s GDP in 2012. Education drives technology.

Education 8

Education Technology IPO GDP 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 29, 2015

Brian Fitzpatrick joined Google as a senior software engineer in 2005, shortly after the company’s IPO. He had no formal authority as a leader, operating without any title or mandate. Companies like Google and 3M have benefited from embracing innovation that comes from all parts of the organization.

Strategy 8

Strategy Power Idea Generation Project 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 5, 2011

As Dick Morley — an MIT manufacturing innovator with deep experience in the auto industry — put it to us, "the trouble with big companies is that they take nice high-risk, high-return opportunities, then manage the risk out of them to the point that there's no return left." Certainly, that's a fair accusation.

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Innovation Intellectual Capital Mission Statement 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2017

Susan Fowler, a former site reliability engineer at Uber, recently wrote about her “very, very strange year at Uber,” characterized by a pervasive culture of alleged sexual harassment. It suggests that Kalanick initially saw the HR function as a means of recruiting staff to support fast growth.

Compliance 11

Compliance Hedge Human Capital Finance 11