Books published by Harvard Business Review Press

The best of Clayton Christensen's seminal work on disruptive innovation, all in one place.No business can afford to ignore the theory of disruptive innovation. But the nuances of Clayton Christensen's foundational thinking on the subject are often forgotten or misinterpreted. To achieve continuing growth in your business while defending against upstarts, you need to understand clearly what disruption is and how it works, and know how it applies to your industry and your company. In this collection of Christensen's most influential articles-carefully selected by Harvard Business Review's editors-his incisive arguments, clear theories, and readable stories give you the tools you need to understand disruption and what to do about it. The collection features Christensen's newest article looking back on 20 years of disruptive innovation: what it is, and what it isn't.Covering a broad spectrum of topics-business model innovation, mergers and acquisitions, value-chain shifts, financial incentives, product development-these articles illuminate the impact and implications of disruptive innovation as well as Christensen's broader thinking on management theory and its application in business and in life.This collection of best-selling articles includes: "e;Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave,"e; by Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen, "e;Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change,"e; by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Overdorf, "e;Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure,"e; by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott Cook, and Taddy Hall, "e;Innovation Killers: How Financial Tools Destroy Your Capacity to Do New Things,"e; by Clayton M. Christensen, Stephen P. Kaufman, and Willy C. Shih, "e;Reinventing Your Business Model,"e; by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagermann, "e;The New M&A Playbook,"e; by Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Alton, Curtis Rising, and Andrew Waldeck, "e;Skate to Where the Money Will Be,"e; by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, and Matthew Verlinden, "e;Surviving Disruption,"e; by Maxwell Wessel and Clayton M. Christensen, "e;What Is Disruptive Innovation?"e; by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, and Rory McDonald, "e;Why Hard-Nosed Executives Should Care About Management Theory,"e; by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor, and "e;How Will You Measure Your Life?"e; by Clayton M. Christensen.

China and India are home to one-third of the world's population. And they're undergoing social and economic revolutions that are capturing the best minds--and money--of Western business. In Billions of Entrepreneurs, Tarun Khanna examines the entrepreneurial forces driving China's and India's trajectories of development. He shows where these trajectories overlap and complement one another--and where they diverge and compete. He also reveals how Western companies can participate in this development.Through intriguing comparisons, the author probes important differences between China and India in areas such as information and transparency, the roles of capital markets and talent, public and private property rights, social constraints on market forces, attitudes toward expatriates abroad and foreigners at home, entrepreneurial and corporate opportunities, and the importance of urban and rural communities. He explains how these differences will influence China's and India's future development, what the two countries can learn from each other, and how they will ultimately reshape business, politics, and society in the world around them.Engaging and incisive, this book is a critical resource for anyone working in China or India or planning to do business in these two countries.

Whether you're new to running meetings or a seasoned executive with no time to waste, leading effective (and even pleasant!) meetings is a must. Running Meetings guides you through the basics of:Crafting a useful agendaInviting the right team membersMaking sure everyone's voice is heard while avoiding conflictCapturing decisions, ideas, and follow-up tasksDon't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives--from the most trusted source in business. Also available as an ebook.

You know you need to delegate some of your work so that you have time to focus on the things that require your expertise. But it's not easy to do. Delegating Work quickly walks you through the fundamentals of:Establishing a productive environmentAssigning the right work to the right peopleConducting an effective hand-off meetingMonitoring without micromanagingDon't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives--from the most trusted source in business. Also available as an ebook.

Succeed by mastering the art of the whoWhy surround yourself with the best? Because it mattersin all aspects of life.In fact, in professional environments, getting people rightwhat global leadership authority Claudio Fernndez-Aroz calls the art of great who decisionsmarks the difference between success and failure. To thrive, you need to identify those with the highest potential, get them in your corner and on your team, and help them grow. Yet surprisingly very few of us are able to meet that challenge.This series of short and engaging essays outlines the obstacles to great who decisions and offers solutions to address them in a systematic way. Drawing from several decades of experience in global executive search and talent development, as well as the latest management and psychology research, Fernndez-Aroz offers wisdom and practical advice to improve the choices we make about employees and mentors, business partners and friends, top corporate leaders and even elected officials.The personal stories and cutting-edge studies described in the book will help you understand both your own failings and the external forces commonly at play in staffing decisions. The author shares concrete recommendations on how to select the best people, bring out their strengths, foster collective greatness in the groups youve assembled, and create not only better organizations but also a better society.Starting with the cases of Amazon pioneer Jeff Bezos and Brazilian tycoon Roger Agnelli and continuing with individual and corporate examples from around the world, Fernndez-Aroz paints a vivid picture of what great who decisions look like and presents a fresh and commanding argument about why they matter more than ever today.

A New York Times BestsellerIntroducing the new, realistic loyalty pact between employer and employee.The employer-employee relationship is broken, and managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: the old model of guaranteed long-term employment no longer works in a business environment defined by continuous change, but neither does a system in which every employee acts like a free agent. The solution? Stop thinking of employees as either family or as free agents. Think of them instead as allies. As a manager you want your employees to help transform the company for the future. And your employees want the company to help transform their careers for the long term. But this win-win scenario will happen only if both sides trust each other enough to commit to mutual investment and mutual benefit. Sadly, trust in the business world is hovering at an all-time low.We can rebuild that lost trust with straight talk that recognizes the realities of the modern economy. So, paradoxically, the alliance begins with managers acknowledging that great employees might leave the company, and with employees being honest about their own career aspirations. By putting this new alliance at the heart of your talent management strategy, youll not only bring back trust, youll be able to recruit and retain the entrepreneurial individuals you need to adapt to a fast-changing world. These individuals, flexible, creative, and with a bias toward action, thrive when theyre on a specific tour of dutywhen they have a mission thats mutually beneficial to employee and company that can be completed in a realistic period of time. Coauthored by the founder of LinkedIn, this bold but practical guide for managers and executives will give you the tools you need to recruit, manage, and retain the kind of employees who will make your company thrive in todays world of constant innovation and fast-paced change.

National BestsellerStudents talk about Stewart D. Friedman, a management professor at the Wharton School, with a mixture of earnest admiration, gratitude and rock star adoration. New York TimesIn this national bestseller, Stew Friedman gives you the tools you need to achieve four-way winsimproved performance in all domains of life: work, home, community, and self. Friedman, celebrated professor and founding director of the Wharton Schools Leadership Program and its Work/Life Integration Project, explains how three simple yet potent principlesbe real, be whole, and be innovativecan help you, no matter what your age or what you do for work, become a better leader and have a richer life.In this engaging adaptation of his hands-on Wharton course, he offers step-by-step instruction to help you create positive, sustainable change in your world. This proven, programmatic method teaches you how to produce stronger results at work, find clearer purpose, feel less stressed, strengthen connections with the people who matter most to you, contribute further to important causes, and gain greater support for your vision of your future. If youre ready to learn to lead in all parts of your lifethis is the book for you.For a full array of Total Leadership tips and tools, visit totalleadership.org. Also look for Stew Friedmans book, Leading the Life You Want, which builds on Total Leadership by profiling well-known leadersfrom Bruce Springsteen to Michelle Obamawho exemplify its principles and demonstrate how success in your work is accomplished not at the expense of the rest of your life, but as the result of meaningful attachments to all its parts.

Are you suffering from work-related stress?Feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and short-tempered at work-and at home? Then you may have too much stress in your life. Stress is a serious problem that impacts not only your mental and physical health, but also your loved ones and your organization. So what can you do to address it?The HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work will help you find a sustainable solution. It will help you reach the goal of getting on an even keel-and staying there. You'll learn how to:Harness stress so it spurs, not hinders, productivityCreate realistic and manageable routinesAim for progress, not perfectionMake the case for a flexible scheduleEase the physical tension of spending too much time at your computerRenew yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally

Is your firms board creating valueor destroying it?Change is coming. Leadership at the top is being redefined as boards take a more active role in decisions that once belonged solely to the CEO. But for all the advantages of increased board engagement, it can create debilitating questions of authority and dangerous meddling in day-to-day operations. Directors need a new road mapfor when to lead, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way.Boardroom veterans Ram Charan, Dennis Carey, and Michael Useem advocate this new governance modela sharp departure from what has been demanded by governance activists, raters, and regulatorsand reveal the emerging practices that are defining shared leadership of directors and executives. Based on personal interviews and the authors broad and deep experience working with executives and directors from dozens of the worlds largest firms, including Apple, Boeing, Ford, Infosys, and Lenovo, Boards That Lead tells the inside story behind the successes and pitfalls of this new leadership model and explains how to: Define the central idea of the company Ensure that the right CEO is in place and potential successors are identified Recruit directors who add value Root out board dysfunction Select a board leader who deftly bridges the divide between management and the board Set a high bar on ethics and riskWith a total of eighteen checklists that will transform board directors from monitors to leaders, Charan, Carey, and Useem provide a smart and practical guide for businesspeople everywherewhether they occupy the boardroom or the C-suite.

Feeling stressed about your upcoming presentation? Whether you're nervous about how you'll organize your thoughts or how you'll articulate them on the big day, Presentations provides the quick guidelines and expert tips you need to:Craft your messagePrepare and rehearse effectivelyEngage your audienceManage Q&A sessionsDon't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives--from the most trusted source in business. Also available as an ebook.

Intimidated by corporate finance? The numbers (and the jargon) can feel overwhelming--but you have to understand them to manage effectively. Finance Basics explains the fundamentals simply and quickly, introducing you to key terms and concepts such as:How to navigate financial statementsHow to weigh costs and benefitsWhat's involved in budgeting and forecastingHow to gauge a company's financial healthDon't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives--from the most trusted source in business. Also available as an ebook.

Whos pulling for you? Whos got your back? Whos putting your hat in the ring? Odds are this person is not a mentor but a sponsor. Mentors can build your self-esteem and provide a sounding boardbut theyre not your ticket to the top.If youre interested in fast-tracking your career, what you need is a sponsora senior-level champion who believes in your potential and is willing to advocate for you as you pursue that next raise or promotion.In this powerful yet practical book, economist and thought leader Sylvia Ann Hewlettauthor of ten critically acclaimed books, including the groundbreaking Off-Ramps and On-Rampsshows why sponsors are your proven link to success. Mixing solid data with vivid real-life narratives, Hewlett reveals the two-way street that makes sponsorship such a strong and mutually beneficial alliance. The seven-step map at the heart of this book allows you to chart your course toward your greatest goals.Whether youre looking to lead a company or drive a community campaign, Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor will help you forge the relationships that truly have the power to deliver you to your destination.

A road map for redefining "success" and reaching your unique potential through a tough discipline of specific steps and exercises that will help you take control of your career, understand yourself far more deeply, and build your capabilities in a way that fits your passions and aspirations.

Are you at the top of your gameor still trying to get there? Take your cues from the short, powerful 9 Things Successful People Do Differently, where the strategies and goals of the worlds most successful people are on displaybacked by research that shows exactly what has the biggest impact on performance. Heres a hint: accomplished people reach their goals because of what they do, not just who they are. Readers have called this a gem of a book. Get ready to accomplish your goals at last.

DON'T LET YOUR FEAR OF FINANCE GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR SUCCESSCan you prepare a breakeven analysis? Do you know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet? Or understand why a business that's profitable can still go belly-up? Has your grasp of your company's numbers helped-or hurt-your career?Whether you're new to finance or you just need a refresher, this go-to guide will give you the tools and confidence you need to master the fundamentals, as all good managers must.The HBR Guide to Finance Basics for Managers will help you:Learn the language of financeCompare your firm's financials with rivals'Shift your team's focus from revenues to profitsAssess your vulnerability to industry downturnsUse financial data to defend budget requestsInvest smartly through cost/benefit analysis

MEET YOUR GOALS-ON TIME AND ON BUDGET.How do you rein in the scope of your project when you've got a group of demanding stakeholders breathing down your neck? And map out a schedule everyone can stick to? And motivate team members who have competing demands on their time and attention?Whether you're managing your first project or just tired of improvising, this guide will give you the tools and confidence you need to define smart goals, meet them, and capture lessons learned so future projects go even more smoothly.The HBR Guide to Project Management will help you:Build a strong, focused teamBreak major objectives into manageable tasksCreate a schedule that keeps all the moving parts under controlMonitor progress toward your goalsManage stakeholders' expectationsWrap up your project and gauge its success

IS YOUR WORKLOAD SLOWING YOU-AND YOUR CAREER-DOWN?Your inbox is overflowing. You're paralyzed because you have too much to do but don't know where to start. Your to-do list never seems to get any shorter. You leave work exhausted but have little to show for it.It's time to learn how to get the right work done.In the HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done, you'll discover how to focus your time and energy where they will yield the greatest reward. Not only will you end each day knowing you made progress-your improved productivity will also set you apart from the pack.Whether you're a new professional or an experienced one, this guide will help you:Prioritize and stay focusedWork less but accomplish moreStop bad habits and develop good onesBreak overwhelming projects into manageable piecesConquer e-mail overloadWrite to-do lists that really work

Express your ideas clearly and with impact-no matter what the situation. These ten definitive Harvard Business Review articles on communication will help you connect with even the toughest crowds, gain influence and credibility, and neutralize stressful conversations.

Take your business into the future-the right way. In these ten definitive Harvard Business Review articles, the world's foremost authorities on innovation demonstrate how to place the right bets when picking ideas to pursue, tweak new ventures through experimentation, and tailor your efforts to meet customers' most pressing needs.

Turn team members into innovatorsMost organizations approach innovation as if it were a sideline activity. Every so often employees are sent to Brainstorm Island: an off-site replete with trendy lectures, creative workshops, and overenthusiastic facilitators. But once they return, its back to business as usual.Innovation experts Paddy Miller and Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg suggest a better approach. They recommend that leaders at all levels become innovation architects, creating an ecosystem in which people engage in key innovation behaviors as part of their daily work.In short, this book is about getting to a state of innovation as usual, where regular employeesin jobs like finance, marketing, sales, or operationsmake innovation happen in a way thats both systemic and sustainable.Instead of organizing brainstorming sessions, idea jams, and off-sites that rarely result in success, leaders should guide their people in what the authors call the 5 + 1 keystone behaviors of innovation: focus, connect, tweak, select, stealthstorm, (and the + 1) persist: Focus beats freedom: Direct people to look only for ideas that matter to the business Insight comes from the outside: Urge people to connect to new worlds First ideas are flawed: Challenge people to tweak and reframe their initial ideas Most ideas are bad ideas: Guide people to select the best ideas and discard the rest Stealthstorming rules: Help people navigate the politics of innovation Creativity is a choice: Motivate everyone to persist in the five keystone behaviorsUsing examples from a wide range of companies such as Pfizer, Index Ventures, Lonza, Go Travel, Prehype, DSM, and others, Innovation as Usual lights the way toward embedding creativity in the DNA of the workplace.So cancel that off-site. Instead, read Innovation as Usualand put innovation at the core of your business.

No matter your field, industry, or specialty, as a leader you make a series of crucial decisions every single day. And the harsh truth is that the majority of decisionsno matter how good the intentions behind themare mismanaged, resulting in a huge toll on organizations, the people they employ, and even the people they serve.So why is it so hard to make sound decisions? In Think Twice, now in paperback, Michael Mauboussin argues that we often fall victim to simplified mental routines that prevent us from coping with the complex realities inherent in important judgment calls. Yet these cognitive errors are preventable.In this engaging book, Mauboussin shows us how to recognize and avoid common mental missteps. These include misunderstanding cause-and-effect linkages, not considering enough alternative possibilities in making a decision, and relying too much on experts.Through vivid stories, the author presents memorable rules for avoiding each error and explains how to recognize when you should think twicequestioning your reasoning and adopting decision-making strategies that are far more effective, even if they seem counterintuitive. Armed with this awareness, you'll soon begin making sounder judgment calls that benefit (rather than hurt) your organization.

Moving beyond the process of changeWhy is change so hard? Because in order to make any transformation successful, you must change more than just the structure and operations of an organizationyou need to change peoples behavior. And that is never easy.The Heart of Change is your guide to helping people think and feel differently in order to meet your shared goals. According to bestselling author and renowned leadership expert John Kotter and coauthor Dan Cohen, this focus on connecting with peoples emotions is what will spark the behavior change and actions that lead to success. Now freshly designed, The Heart of Change is the engaging and essential complement to Kotters worldwide bestseller Leading Change.Building off of Kotters revolutionary eight-step process, this book vividly illustrates how large-scale change can work. With real-life stories of people in organizations, the authors show how teams and individuals get motivated and activated to overcome obstacles to changeand produce spectacular results. Kotter and Cohen argue that change initiatives often fail because leaders rely too exclusively on data and analysis to get buy-in from their teams instead of creatively showing or doing something that appeals to their emotions and inspires them to spring into action. They call this the see-feel-change dynamic, and it is crucial for the success of any true organizational transformation.Refreshingly clear and eminently practical, The Heart of Change is required reading for anyone facing the challenges inherent in leading change.

Conversation-powered leadershipHow can leaders make their big or growing companies feel small again? How can they recapture the magicthe tight strategic alignment, the high level of employee engagementthat drove and animated their organization when it was a start-up? As more and more executives have discovered in recent years, the answer to this conundrum lies in the power of conversation.In Talk, Inc., Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind show how trusted and effective leaders are adapting the principles of face-to-face conversation in order to pursue a new form of organizational conversation. They explore the promise of conversation-powered leadershipfrom the time-tested practice of talking straight (and listening well) to the thoughtful adoption of social media technology. And they offer guidance on how to balance the benefits of open-ended talk with the realities of strategic execution.Drawing on the experience of leaders at diverse companies from around the world, Talk, Inc., offers provocative insights and user-friendly tips on how to make organizational culture more intimate, more interactive, more inclusive, and more intentionalin short, more conversational.

Why Everyone Needs Analytical SkillsWelcome to the age of data. No matter your interests (sports, movies, politics), your industry (finance, marketing, technology, manufacturing), or the type of organization you work for (big company, nonprofit, small start-up)your world is awash with data. As a successful manager today, you must be able to make sense of all this information. You need to be conversant with analytical terminology and methods and able to work with quantitative information. This book promises to become your quantitative literacy"e; guidehelping you develop the analytical skills you need right now in order to summarize data, find the meaning in it, and extract its value. In Keeping Up with the Quants, authors, professors, and analytics experts Thomas Davenport and Jinho Kim offer practical tools to improve your understanding of data analytics and enhance your thinking and decision making. Youll gain crucial skills, including: How to formulate a hypothesis How to gather and analyze relevant data How to interpret and communicate analytical results How to develop habits of quantitative thinking How to deal effectively with the quants in your organizationBig data and the analytics based on it promise to change virtually every industry and business function over the next decade. If you dont have a business degree or if you arent comfortable with statistics and quantitative methods, this book is for you. Keeping Up with the Quants will give you the skills you need to master this new challengeand gain a significant competitive edge.