Transparency

Late next week, you’re going to notice some changes around here. We’re about to unveil a new design and structure for Harvard Business Publishing’s Web properties. You’re probably familiar with two of our Web sites- one (HBR.org) focused primarily on content from the print Harvard Business Review, and the second (HarvardBusiness.org) showcasing mostly Web-native content […]

Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, explains how to inspire, motivate, and empower people at all levels to act with accountability.

As American companies and unions mobilize to organize Political Action Committees (PACs) with an eye to the upcoming mid-term elections, it is worth taking a step back to ask: Does it pay to donate to political candidates? Such a question might seem touchingly naïve, but in reality, the empirical evidence on this issue is much […]

What holacracies have in common with 18th-century pirates.

Here’s how to avoid dysfunction and maintain integrity.

Authors’ note: Each week in July and August, we’ll introduce a new trend you have to watch from our HBR article in the July-August special issue. We also invite you to comment on this trend and suggest what trends you think you have to watch. The relationship between business and civil society was showing signs […]

With the help of technology, companies today sweep up huge amounts of customer data. But they tend to be opaque about the information they collect and...

Call it death by Froot Loops. The food industry's much-ballyhooed, and hugely expensive, Smart Choice campaign was launched last August and pulled just...

If there's one thing that the past decade's business disasters should teach us, it's that we need to stop evaluating corporate leaders simply on the basis...

Research suggests we should pay more attention to the ways we are in the dark.

A Rolls-Royce engine blows up, and ... silence - for four days. The great British engineering company took its time to find out what had happened to the...

I successfully avoided government throughout the first 20 years of my private sector career. But in 2003, after a career first in industry and then as a road-warrior strategy consultant, I found myself as an accidental bureaucrat in the public sector. I never saw it coming. After a weak attempt at retirement, my wife wasn’t […]

Four tech companies top the list.

Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned...

With thanks to Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs got the last word on his remarkable life. But will Apple’s founder be as fortunate extending his enterprise legacy? Apple’s leadership — the Tim Cooks and Jonathan Ives — will step up to realize the vision of their late leader. But that’s this year and next. What about […]

Women and people of color still earn less than white men for the same work — and this disparity compounds over time.

When you think about non-governmental organizations focused on environmental issues, you might think of Greenpeace, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, or the Natural Resources Defense Council. For decades, these powerful organizations have launched global pressure campaigns, attracted many millions of members, and in recent years, they have even […]

New research found that while the policy did increase diversity, it didn’t necessarily change company cultures.

Leaders need to do more to encourage candor.

Five trust-building strategies.