Do you find Facebook a helpful tool for maintaining and growing business contacts, or are you contemplating what Harvard Online editor Paul Michelman is about to do: "Defriend" all his business contacts. As a business tool, says Michelman, Facebook is not working, and it's...
In a much debated research paper last year, Princeton economist Alan S. Blinder concluded that up to 38 million jobs, or 29 percent, of US jobs are potentially offshorable within the next couple of decades -- that is, capable of being outsourced to workers in other countries. ...
It's not by accident that some of our greatest inventions have resulted from, well, accidents. Many inventors stumble across breakthrough ideas while actually looking for something else, or not even looking at all. A melted candy bar led to the creation of the the microwave oven. Penicillin...
As people continue to pinch pennies in a slowing economy, how does the seller of upscale products and services convince them to buy items that are impractical Hummer, unnecessary Amazon rain forest excursion, or expensively luxurious Lobster of the Month Club? The answer is simple. Lay...
If a great salesperson can sell an air conditioner to an Eskimo, Joy Mangano can sell clothes hangers to a nudist colony. Mangano is a home improvement megasaleswoman on the Home Shopping Network, and her technique, along with other top sales folks on the channel, were recently...
Do you work in a building designed to keep you energized, more productive, and that tells your company mission to all staff and visitors within a few steps of entering? I suspect most of us work in Dilbert's Cubicle World. So it's intriguing to see the HQ...
Following the historic 9 percent run up in oil futures June 6, expect your customers to be more concerned than ever about prices. But it's not just customers you have to worry about -- you need to be thinking right now about how to manage your business through the deepening...
I love products made by 37signals and now, thanks to innovation blogger Bill Taylor, I now admire the company as much as what it makes. As Taylor points out in an enlightening Harvard Online post, 37signals lives as a company by the same principles it embraces in...
New research suggests that you can spend your way to happiness. The catch I mean the benefit for yourself and society is that you have to spend it on others. In an article for the journal Science, the researchers report: Our findings suggest...
Do you spend your work time as effectively as you could? Let me answer for you. No. Everyone from CEOs to front-line managers squander their most valuable resource -- time -- like an untuned automobile wastes fuel. Our opportunities to create real value for the organization are...
Do you feel as if you are pulling the wool over the eyes of your workmates, hiding your incompetence? You are not alone. There is even a name for it: Imposter Syndrome. Management consultant Gill Corkindale takes up the subject of business professionals with...
Even in a decelerating economy, competition for top young talent remains high. To attract these folks, you need to be creative. Your competitors certainly are. Tammy Erickson blogs on Harvard Business some examples of what top companies are offering hot candidates. Here's a sample: ...
Economy-driven layoffs have already begun, more will follow. Will you be one of them? Harvard Business Review editor Diane Coutu believes she has a formula to help you keep your job while others around you are losing theirs. It goes like this: ...
Not much love was flying JetBlue's way on Valentine's Day 2007. You remember the stories. Trapped in the teeth of a sudden storm, JetBlue customers were stranded on New York runways, some for more than six hours, and many were delayed days to reach their ultimate destinations....
A friend of mine recently was part of a merger that left him reporting to a boss in his mid-30s. Since my friend is 53 -- about the age of his superior's own parents -- he found the relationship more than a little awkward. So I was...
Be honest. We're you really surprised at the revelations that State Department employees took clandestine peeks at the presidential candidate's passport files? I wasn't. I know of a department store credit office where the night shift routinely passes the time by pulling up records of famous customers....
One pitch entrepreneurs often hear from VCs and other investors is that they will help you find top talent for your organization. This is only partly true. If you want a CEO or CFO, then, yes, your venture funding partners can help recruit top names. But if...
Most of us have lived long enough corporate lives to recognize this scenario. CEO announces sweeping strategy shift for company. Managers and employees buy in enthusiastically -- everyone is on board! And the result is... Nothing. Change doesn't take hold....
Wal-Mart doesn't always win when it enters a new market. In business, David can beat Goliath, or at least maintain competitive advantage, by understanding weaknesses inherent in big companies and strengths to be derived from playing smart in your own backyard. The subject of...
If you hire a male superstar stock analyst from a competitor his performance often drops -- along with the market value of your company, says Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg. But hire a female star analyst and your investment is much more likely to be rewarded, Groysberg writes...
