HBR'S 10 Must Reads
Douban
The Essentials
Harvard Business School Press
Overview
Change is the one constant in business, and we must adapt or face obsolescence. Yet certain challenges never go away. That's what makes this book "must read." These are the 10 seminal articles by management's most influential experts, on topics of perennial concern to ambitious managers and leaders hungry for inspiration--and ready to run with big ideas to accelerate their own and their companies' success.
If you read nothing else - full stop - read:
Michael Porter on creating competitive advantage and distinguishing your company from rivals
John Kotter on leading change through eight critical stages
Daniel Goleman on using emotional intelligence to maximize performance
Peter Drucker on managing your career by evaluating your own strengths and weaknesses
Clay Christensen on orchestrating innovation within established organizations
Tom Davenport on using analytics to determine how to keep your customers loyal
Robert Kaplan and David Norton on measuring your company's strategy with the Balanced Scorecard
Rosabeth Moss Kanter on avoiding common mistakes when pushing innovation forward
Ted Levitt on understanding who your customers are and what they really want
C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel on identifying the unique, integrated systems that support your strategy
contents
1) "Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change," by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Overdorf, explains why so few established companies innovate successfully. 2) "Competing on Analytics," by Thomas H. Davenport, explains how to use data-collection technology and analysis to discern what your customers want, how much they're willing to pay, and what keeps them loyal. 3) "Managing Oneself," by Peter F. Drucker, encourages us to carve our own paths by asking questions such as, "What are my strengths?" and "Where do I belong?" 4) "What Makes a Leader?" Not IQ or technical skills, says Daniel Goleman, but emotional intelligence. 5) "Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work," by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, includes practical steps and examples from companies that use the balanced scorecard to measure performance and set strategy. 6) "Innovation: The Classic Traps," by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, advocates applying lessons from past failures to your innovation efforts. She explores four problems and offers remedies for each. 7) "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail," by John P. Kotter, argues that transformation is a process, not an event. It takes years, not weeks, and you can't skip any steps. 8) "Marketing Myopia," by Theodore Levitt, introduces the quintessential strategy question, "What business are you really in?" 9) "What Is Strategy?" by Michael E. Porter, argues that rivals can easily copy your operational effectiveness, but they can't copy your strategic positioning--what distinguishes you from all the rest. 10) "The Core Competence of the Corporation," by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel, argues that a diversified company is like a tree: the trunk and major limbs its core products, branches its business units, leaves and fruit its end products. Nourishing and stabilizing everything is the root system: its core competencies.
