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Juj Winn/Getty Images According to the World Health Organization, a record number of young people worldwide are suffering from serious depression or anxiety disorders. In some sections of society, there is a tendency to dismiss this trend as the product of an over-indulged, over-entitled, and over-sensitive “snowflake generation.” To the contrary, there is growing evidence […]

Hayon Thapaliya When HubSpot was in its earliest stages, I used to say yes to almost anything: new features, new initiatives, new ideas. It empowered my team to move fast and get things done. I prided myself on being a “yes” man. We were working hard on getting product-market fit right, so anything we could […]

Ilka & Franz/Getty Images The new U.S. tax law is surprisingly unpopular. According to a New York Times survey, only one-third of Americans think their taxes will go down in 2018 as a result of the new tax law.  These pessimists are wrong. Almost every household will pay less in tax.  And over time the […]

omair khan/unsplash Last Thanksgiving, I watched my father-in-law evaluate over one hundred exams for the high school class he teaches on the U.S. government. They were mostly short answer questions: matching different provisions of the U.S. Constitution, and explaining the contents of the Bill of Rights. The grading was tedious and time consuming, and took […]

joshua sortino/Unsplash Coming off the winter holidays, most of us start dreaming of, if not planning, our spring and summer getaways. It’s tempting, of course, to default to the same vacation each year: your family’s cabin, a familiar beach town, your favorite city, that resort the kids loved. We often choose to spend our hard-earned dollars for comfort, […]

Nick Vedros/Getty Images Managers have hard jobs. They coordinate the work of their teams, align this work with company goals, serve as a primary source of professional development for their employees, deliver results, and many other critical tasks (all while keeping people engaged). We’ve previously written about what great managers do differently, but even great […]

Aron Vellekoop Len/Getty Images Getting as much as they can from analytics is critical for companies seeking to monetize their data, become data-driven, and put their data to work. Yet most find this difficult. Indeed, the failure rate of analytics projects remains distressingly high. A key reason for this is that senior managers fail to […]

hank walker/life/Getty Images What’s the best way to assess elite talent—those people you expect to play a critical role in your organization’s success?  Most management experts would say in-depth interviews, reference-checking and work sample reviews. Some forward-thinking companies might even use “auditions.” But at Citadel and Citadel Securities, we’ve decided to go a step further. […]

tyler garrison/Getty Images David Maister was angry. He had been surprised and annoyed to learn that his company had set up a new AI-based marketing system that was doing most of what he thought was his job as digital marketing manager at Global Consumer Brands: deciding what ads to place where, for which customer segments, […]

Hamish Blair/Getty Images You have the right to have work that enriches and enlivens you, rather than diminishing you. This is my own personal declaration of human rights at work. It informs everything I do as a coach, management professor, and human being. Yet it’s surprisingly controversial. Managers and employees in organizations around the world […]

From the Women at Work podcast: Download this podcast Have you ever been in a meeting and shared an idea, only to have it ignored? Then, 10 minutes later, a guy shares the same idea, and your boss says “Great idea!” (Grrr.) Or maybe you’ve been told you apologize too much, don’t speak up enough, […]

Mel Svenson/Getty Images Elon Musk’s new pay package has attracted almost as much divided opinion as Elon Musk himself. Advocates have claimed that it is “radical” and “bold,” praise often used to describe Tesla. Others argue that it is a publicity stunt. But, as with most things, the reality is likely in between these extremes. The […]

Jorg Greuel/Getty Images It’s no fun to tell employees that they’ve been passed over for a promotion — especially if you value them and their work. What’s the best way to deliver the bad news? What can you say to make sure they don’t lose interest in their jobs or hold grudges against you or […]

Aron Vellekoop Len/Getty Images In the last decade, there has been an explosion in the number of research deals between companies and universities. Companies, which have been reducing their spending on early stage research for three decades, have been increasingly turning to universities to perform that role, seeking access to the best scientific and engineering […]

yatharth roy vibhakar/unsplash All managers know that they need to help their employees through challenging times – whether it’s a tough work situation like a tight deadline or high-stakes client, or a demanding personal situation, like a new baby or a sick parent. But almost no manager is prepared for when one of their direct […]

Yaroslav Kushta/Getty Images The future of the workforce is one of the biggest issues facing CEOs today. It’s abundantly clear to all that artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and advanced robotics make it possible for machines to take on tasks that once required a person to do them. How should companies prepare, strategically, to thrive […]

Cindy Loughridge/Getty Images Bad bosses aren’t just a workplace nuisance. A leader’s manipulative, passive-aggressive, credit-taking, and overly-critical behavior can lead to workplace bullying, job dissatisfaction, psychological distress, and depression among employees according to a set of recent studies by the University of Manchester of more than 1,200 people. If you’re struggling with the effects of your boss’s […]

Moshe Cohen, a senior lecturer at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, says you can’t take the emotion out of a negotiation. After all, negotiations revolve around conflict, risk, and reward—which are inherently emotional. Instead of sidelining your feelings, understand them. Cohen explains how to understand your triggers and use your emotions and those of […]

Romano Cagnoni/Getty Images Michelangelo approached the craft of sculpting with the humble conviction that a unique and beautiful piece of art already existed within the stone, and his job was only to release it. We think the best mentors approach their art in the same way. Social psychologists have already confirmed that in the best […]

Nicholas Blechman A new year has arrived, along with the usual air of optimism. Yet the 21st century is already shaping up to be a challenging one. From climate change to terrorism, the difficulties confronting policy makers are unprecedented in their variety, but also in their complexity. Our existing policy tool kit seems stale and […]

CSA Images/Mod Art Collection/Getty Images Software doesn’t always end up being the productivity panacea that it promises to be. As its victims know all too well, “death by PowerPoint,” the poor use of the presentation software, sucks the life and energy out of far too many meetings. And audit after enterprise audit reveals spreadsheets rife […]

Dr. Terri Cooper, Principal & Chief Inclusion Officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP What will it take to be a great leader in the future?  Listen to Angelia Herrin, Special Projects editor for Harvard Business Review, interview Dr. Terri Cooper, Principal and Chief Inclusion Officer of Deloitte Consulting, as she discusses six attributes of leaders who display […]

Neasden Control Centre for hbr Nearly five years ago, a show that followed the lives of inmates in a women’s prison shook up television. Orange Is the New Black became an unexpected hit, helping to put Netflix on the map as a creator of innovative original entertainment. The show pushed boundaries with its dark humor […]

Caroline Stirling/Getty Images Sally’s finger hovered over the “Purchase” button. After hours of online sleuthing, she was pretty sure the green chair would complete her living room. It was the style and color she wanted, home delivery was guaranteed within three days, she had money in the bank to pay for it, and both the […]

Laura Schneider for HBR To make a good decision, you need to have a sense of two things: how different choices change the likelihood of different outcomes and how desirable each of those outcomes is. In other words, as Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb have written, decision making requires both prediction and judgment. […]

The New York Public Library It is tempting to regard artificial intelligence as a threat to human leadership. After all, the very purpose of AI is to augment, improve, and ultimately replace human intelligence, which is still widely regarded, at least by us humans, as our key competitive advantage. There is no reason to believe […]

Cristina Marx/EyeEm/Getty Images Mary Barra, Meg Whitman, Indra Nooyi: These are just three of the women who have successfully broken through the notorious “glass ceiling” to become CEOs of large public firms. Although women are still underrepresented at the top of corporations, there is growing interest in understanding whether men and women have different experiences […]

Neasden Control Centre for hbr “Wall Street doesn’t care.” I’ve been attending conferences on green or sustainable business for more than 15 years, and I’ve worked closely with senior executives at multinationals on sustainability strategy. Through it all, I hear a common refrain: Even though climate change is already creating material risks and opportunities for […]

New ventures are searching for a business model, not executing one. from HBR.org http://ift.tt/2rqmgu1

Drawn Ideas/Getty Images We are now in the era of “do-it-yourself” career development. Companies less frequently offer formal training – a trend that has been on the decline for years. This may be because employees change jobs so frequently (job tenure now averages about four years) that firms don’t see the value in investing in […]

vincent tsui for hbr Much of the strategic focus in the digital economy thus far has revolved around getting better insights into consumers. B2C firms have been the leaders in customer analytics initiatives. E-commerce, mobile commerce, and social media platforms have enabled businesses to better sculpt marketing and customer support initiatives and customer services. Extensive […]

alicemoi/Getty Images Why is that some companies have great heads of strategy who make an outstanding contribution to their companies while others don’t? To answer this question, we evaluated a sample of 55 different heads of strategy and looked more closely at 11 who were particularly successful and 10 who were at the other end […]

alicemoi/Getty Images Why is that some companies have great heads of strategy who make an outstanding contribution to their companies while others don’t? To answer this question, we evaluated a sample of 55 different heads of strategy and looked more closely at 11 who were particularly successful and 10 who were at the other end […]

Evening Standard/Stringer/Hayon Thapaliya/Getty Images There’s been a ripple of excitement of late as some big companies have unveiled (fairly modest) raises and bonuses for workers. Wal-Mart announced that it would pay out up to $1,000 per employee, depending on seniority, and that it would begin a process of boosting its minimum wage to $11 per […]

Evening Standard/Stringer/Hayon Thapaliya/Getty Images There’s been a ripple of excitement of late as some big companies have unveiled (fairly modest) raises and bonuses for workers. Wal-Mart announced that it would pay out up to $1,000 per employee, depending on seniority, and that it would begin a process of boosting its minimum wage to $11 per […]

Zelma Brezinska/EyeEm/Getty Images One of the big challenges in both expanding the number of Americans with health care coverage and keeping premiums affordable for people with chronic or serious illnesses has been persuading young and healthy adults to obtain policies. Critics argue that the new U.S. tax law has made this task even harder with its elimination […]

Juj Winn/Getty Images It seems beyond debate: Technology is going to replace jobs, or, more precisely, the people holding those jobs. Few industries, if any, will be untouched. Knowledge workers will not escape. Recently, the CEO of Deutsche Bank predicted that half of its 97,000 employees could be replaced by robots. One survey revealed that “39% […]

Carmen Martínez Torrón /Hayon Thapaliya/Getty Images AI is coming. That is what we heard throughout 2017 and will likely continue to hear throughout this year. For established businesses that are not Google or Facebook, a natural question to ask is: What have we got that is going to allow us to survive this transition? In […]

Harry Haysom/Getty Images When we talk about the importance of building strong relationships with employees, there’s a growing contingent that we often neglect: those who don’t work in the main office. This means not just the 31% of Americans who work remotely four or five days a week but also the people in satellite locations, where […]

Jagdip Singh, a professor of marketing at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, explains his research team’s new findings about customer satisfaction. He says apologizing is often counterproductive and that offering customers different possible solutions is usually more effective. He discusses what companies can do to help service representatives lead interactions […]

Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his platform needs to change. Community feedback has shown that public content has been “crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other,” according to Zuckerberg. As a result, the company says it will be focusing more on promoting posts […]

Tim Ellis/Getty Images On January 6, 2017, JANA Partners, a New York–based activist hedge fund, and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) sent a letter to Apple’s board of directors that may change the future of activist investing. Citing a substantial body of expert research, the letter stated, “We believe there is a clear need for Apple to […]

hbr staff/csa images/Getty Images Good customer service seems like common sense for businesses. But how valuable is it really? Until now, this has not been rigorously quantified across different companies. Businesses are understandably reluctant to share their CRM and sales data, and most research in this field has been based on surveys. But as more […]

Yenpitsu Nemoto/Getty Images As AI continues to develop, a major test of its potential will be whether it can replace human judgment in individualized, complex ways. At Georgia State University, we investigated a test case where AI assisted high school students in their transition to college, helping them to navigate the many twists and turns […]

pchyburrs/Getty Images The restaurant industry is notorious for being competitive, risky, and low-margin. This is no less true for the world’s most acclaimed high-end restaurants. Despite being able to charge hundreds of dollars for a meal and being fully booked months in advance, top restaurants often still have a hard time turning a profit. And […]

Stacey Oldham/Getty Images Have you ever been on an executive team where things just clicked? You had a common goal, communication flowed easily, and everyone was willing to put in the long hours for a final push. Looking back, you wish you could replicate and carry forward that same secret sauce on every team, especially […]

Bogdan Dreava/EyeEm/Getty Images Not a day goes by without the announcement of the appointment of a new VP of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a Chief Data Scientist, or a Director of AI Research. While the enthusiasm is undeniable, the reality is that AI remains an early-stage technology application. The potential is vast, but how managers cut […]

Jeffery Coolidge/Getty Images Revise budget numbers. Parent/teacher conference Wednesday. Edit the marketing overview document. Finish summer camp applications. Give candidate interview feedback to HR. Grocery run — we’re out of everything. Start drafting quarterly forecast. Call the roofer for the estimate. Organize team strategy session. Schedule kids’ flu shots. Get back to Jayesh and Liu on IT plan. […]

Jeffery Coolidge/Getty Images Revise budget numbers. Parent/teacher conference Wednesday. Edit the marketing overview document. Finish summer camp applications. Give candidate interview feedback to HR. Grocery run — we’re out of everything. Start drafting quarterly forecast. Call the roofer for the estimate. Organize team strategy session. Schedule kids’ flu shots. Get back to Jayesh and Liu on IT plan. […]

CSA Images/Printstock Collection/Getty Images Does a robot manage your money?  For many of us, the answer is yes. Online and algorithmic investment and financial advice is easy to come by these days, usually under the moniker of “robo-advisor.” Startups such as Wealthfront, Personal Capital, and Betterment launched robo-advisors as industry disruptors, and incumbents, such as […]

Pm images/Getty Images The best performing companies are often the best aligned. But who in your company is paying attention to how well aligned your strategy is with your organization’s purpose and capabilities? In my research and consultancy with companies, I observe that, oftentimes, no individual or group is functionally responsible for overseeing the arrangement […]

Jessica Durrant/Getty Images Vincent Siciliano, CEO of California-based New Resource Bank, was brought in to turn things around and restore the bank’s founding mission, which is to “serve values-driven businesses and nonprofits that are building a more sustainable world.” Within a few years, Vince had the bank back on track, but not everything was going […]

Enis Aksoy/Getty Images Walmart announced today that it is raising its starting wages in the United States from $9 per hour to $11, giving employees one-time cash bonuses of as much as $1,000, and expanding maternity and parental leave benefits as a result of the recently enacted tax reform. It is part of Walmart’s broader effort to create […]

MirageC/Getty Images People don’t quit a job, the saying goes — they quit a boss. We’ve heard it so many times that when we started tracking why employees leave Facebook, all bets were on managers. But our engagement survey results told a different story: When we wanted to keep people and they left anyway, it […]

eva bee/Getty Images The vast majority of humans throughout history worked because they had to. Many found comfort, value, and meaning in their efforts, but some defined work as a necessity to be avoided if possible. For centuries, elites in societies from Europe to Asia aspired to absolution from gainful employment. Aristotle defined a “man […]

Hayon Thapaliya It was Monday morning and Lee opened his inbox to find an email from his manager: “Lee, I’ve decided to have Carlos present to the governing board, instead of you. I’m sure you’re good with this.” Lee had spent the entire weekend preparing for the presentation. Not only did he know the numbers […]

frank lloyd wright/ullstein bild/Getty Images Organizations are rushing to implement open office spaces in hopes of retaining talent, encouraging cross-functional collaboration, enhancing exposure to different kinds of expertise, and accelerating creativity and innovation. Sometimes this works, but often it doesn’t. In our research, we discovered that success with open offices may have as much to […]