If you read nothing else on marketing that delivers competitive advantage, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you reinvent your marketing by putting it—and your customers—at the center of your business.
Leading experts such as Ted Levitt and Clayton Christensen provide the insights and advice you need to:
? Figure out what business you’re really in
? Create products that perform the jobs people need to get done
? Get a bird’s-eye view of your brand’s strengths and weaknesses
? Tap a market that’s larger than China and India combined
? Deliver superior value to your B2B customers
? End the war between sales and marketing
Looking for more Must Read articles from Harvard Business Review? Check out these titles in the popular series:
HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Communication HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Collaboration HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Innovation HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Making Smart Decisions HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Teams
If you read nothing else on leadership, read these 10 articles (featuring “What Makes an Effective Executive,” by Peter F. Drucker). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles on leadership and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your own and your organization's performance.
HBR's 10 Must Reads On Leadership will inspire you to:
- Motivate others to excel
- Build your team's self-confidence in others
- Provoke positive change
- Set direction
- Encourage smart risk-taking
- Manage with tough empathy
- Credit others for your success
- Increase self-awareness
- Draw strength from adversity
This collection of best-selling articles includes: featured article "What Makes an Effective Executive" by Peter F. Drucker, "What Makes a Leader?" "What Leaders Really Do," "The Work of Leadership," "Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?" "Crucibles of Leadership," "Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve," "Seven Transformations of Leadership," "Discovering Your Authentic Leadership," and "In Praise of the Incomplete Leader."
If you read nothing else on managing yourself, read these 10 articles (plus the bonus article “How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton M. Christensen). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles to select the most important ones to help you maximize yourself.
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself will inspire you to:
Stay engaged throughout your 50+-year work life Tap into your deepest values Solicit candid feedback Replenish physical and mental energy Balance work, home, community, and self Spread positive energy throughout your organization Rebound from tough times Decrease distractibility and frenzy Delegate and develop employees' initiative
This collection of best-selling articles includes: bonus article “How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton M. Christensen, "Managing Oneself," "Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?" "How Resilience Works," "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time," "Overloaded Circuits: Why Smart People Underperform," "Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life," "Reclaim Your Job," "Moments of Greatness: Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership," "What to Ask the Person in the Mirror," and "Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance."
Is your company spending too much time on strategy development-with too little to show for it?
If you read nothing else on strategy, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you catalyze your organization's strategy development and execution.
This book will inspire you to:
Distinguish your company from rivals
Clarify what your company will-and won't-do
Craft a vision for an uncertain future
Create blue oceans of uncontested market space
Use the Balanced Scorecard to measure your strategy
Capture your strategy in a memorable phrase
Make priorities explicit
Allocate resources early
Clarify decision rights for faster decision making
If you read nothing else on communicating effectively, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you express your ideas with clarity and impact—no matter what the situation.
Leading experts such as Deborah Tannen, Jay Conger, and Nick Morgan provide the insights and advice you need to:
? Pitch your brilliant idea—successfully
? Connect with your audience
? Establish credibility
? Inspire others to carry out your vision
? Adapt to stakeholders’ decision-making styles
? Frame goals around common interests
? Build consensus and win support
Looking for more Must Read articles from Harvard Business Review? Check out these titles in the popular series:
HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Collaboration HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Innovation HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Making Smart Decisions HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategic Marketing HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Teams
If you read nothing else on managing people, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your employees' performance.
This book will inspire you to:
Tailor your management styles to fit your people
Motivate with more responsibility, not more money
Support first-time managers
Build trust by soliciting input
Teach smart people how to learn from failure
Build high-performing teams
Manage your boss
If you read nothing else on decision making, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you and your organization make better choices and avoid common traps.
Leading experts such as Ram Charan, Michael Mankins, and Thomas Davenport provide the insights and advice you need to:
? Make bold decisions that challenge the status quo
? Support your decisions with diverse data
? Evaluate risks and benefits with equal rigor
? Check for faulty cause-and-effect reasoning
? Test your decisions with experiments
? Foster and address constructive criticism
? Defeat indecisiveness with clear accountability
Looking for more Must Read articles from Harvard Business Review? Check out these titles in the popular series:
HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Communication HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Collaboration HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Innovation HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategic Marketing HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Teams
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 a "must read." These are 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 competitive advantage
John Kotter on leading change
Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence
Peter Drucker on managing your career
Clay Christensen on disruptive innovation
Tom Davenport on analytics
Robert Kaplan and David Norton on the Balanced Scorecard
Rosabeth Moss Kanter on innovation
Ted Levitt on marketing
C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel on core competence
Terrified of speaking in front of a group? Or simply looking to polish your skills? No matter where you are on the spectrum, this guide will give you the confidence and the tools you need to get results.
Written by presentation expert Nancy Duarte, the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations will help you:
? Win over tough crowds
? Organize a coherent narrative
? Create powerful messages and visuals
? Connect with and engage your audience
? Show people why your ideas matter to them
? Strike the right tone, in any situation
If you read nothing else on inspiring and executing innovation, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you innovate effectively.
Leading experts such as Clayton Christensen, Peter Drucker, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter provide the insights and advice you need to:
? Decide which ideas are worth pursuing
? Innovate through the front lines—not just from the top
? Adapt innovations from the developing world to wealthier markets
? Tweak new ventures along the way using discovery-driven planning
? Tailor your efforts to meet customers’ most pressing needs
? Avoid classic pitfalls such as stifling innovation with rigid processes
Looking for more Must Read articles from Harvard Business Review? Check out these titles in the popular series:
HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Communication HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Collaboration HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Making Smart Decisions HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategic Marketing HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Teams
This comprehensive guide is an essential primer for managers who seek to develop the skills and capabilities that will help them excel in a complex business world. From hiring and retaining good people to motivating and developing team members, from understanding key financial statements to delegating work effectively, and from setting goals for others to managing your own career, the actionable advice in this guide will help you stay at the top of your game.
Is your company's top talent jumping ship as good replacements become harder to get?
If you need the best practices and ideas for winning the race for talent-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 11 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Look for good people in all the right places
Interview more effectively
Make-and keep-compelling promises to candidates and employees
Mitigate the risks of hiring stars from other companies
Coach and mentor to shore up commitment
Stretch promising employees' responsibilities
Rotate high performers into a variety of teams
Reverse the female brain drain
If you need the best practices and ideas for gaining market share in developing economies-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Manage risk in unstable environments
Ward off political threats to your business
Customize your business model for emerging markets
Tailor your strategy to capitalize on countries' strengths
Gain ground on emerging giants
Compete in China's new high-tech market
Win the war for talent in developing economies
Serve the bottom of the pyramid profitably
To achieve your goals and get ahead, you need to rally people behind you and your ideas. But how do you do that when you lack formal authority? Or when you have a boss who gets in your way? Or when you’re juggling others’ needs at the expense of your own?
By managing up, down, and across the organization. Your success depends on it, whether you’re a young professional or an experienced leader.
The HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across will help you:
? Advance your agenda—and your career—with smarter networking
? Build relationships that bring targets and deadlines within reach
? Persuade decision makers to champion your initiatives
? Collaborate more effectively with colleagues
? Deal with new, challenging, or incompetent bosses
? Navigate office politics
Can 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 finance
Compare your firm's financials with rivals'
Shift your team's focus from revenues to profits
Assess your vulnerability to industry downturns
Use financial data to defend budget requests
Invest smartly through cost/benefit analysis
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 team
? Break major objectives into manageable tasks
? Create a schedule that keeps all the moving parts under control
? Monitor progress toward your goals
? Manage stakeholders’ expectations
? Wrap up your project and gauge its success
When you’re fumbling for words and pressed for time, you might be tempted to dismiss good business writing as a nicety. But it’s a skill you must cultivate to succeed: You’ll lose time, money, and influence if your e-mails, proposals, and other important documents fail to win people over.
The HBR Guide to Better Business Writing, by writing expert Bryan A. Garner, gives you the tools you need to express your ideas clearly and persuasively so clients, colleagues, stakeholders, and partners will get behind them. This book will help you:
? Push past writer’s block
? Grab—and keep—readers’ attention
? Earn credibility with tough audiences
? Trim the fat from your writing
? Strike the right tone
? Brush up on grammar, punctuation, and usage
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 set you apart from the pack.
Whether you're a new professional or an experienced one, this guide will help you:
Prioritize and stay focused
Work less but accomplish more
Stop bad habits and develop good ones
Break overwhelming projects into manageable pieces
Conquer e-mail overload
Write to-do lists that really work
Customize your delivery for maximum persuasive power.
If you need the best practices and ideas for communicating effectively-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Pitch your brilliant idea-successfully
Connect with your audience
Establish credibility
Inspire others to realize your vision
Adapt to your listeners' decision-making styles
Frame goals around common interests
Build consensus and win concessions
Neutralize stressful conversations
If you read nothing else on collaborating effectively, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you work more productively with people on your team, in other departments, and in other organizations.
Leading experts such as Daniel Goleman, Herminia Ibarra, and Morten Hansen provide the insights and advice you need to:
? Forge strong relationships up, down, and across the organization
? Build a collaborative culture
? Bust silos
? Harness informal knowledge sharing
? Pick the right type of collaboration for your business
? Manage conflict wisely
? Know when not to collaborate
Looking for more Must Read articles from Harvard Business Review? Check out these titles in the popular series:
HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Communication HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Innovation HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Making Smart Decisions HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategic Marketing HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Teams
Persuade others to do what you want-for their own reasons.
If you need the best practices and ideas for making deals that work-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Seal or sweeten a bargain by uncovering the other side's motives
Conquer faulty assumptions to make the right deals
Forge deals only when they support your strategy
Set the stage for a healthy relationship long after the ink has dried
Make promises you can keep
Gain your adversaries' trust in high-stakes talks
Know when to walk away
If you need the best practices and ideas for making your supply chain strong and agile-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Use your supply chain as a competitive weapon
Gain customers' trust by revealing where your products come from
Collaborate with other companies-even rivals-to achieve scale
Make smart decisions about where to manufacture
Pick the most profitable supply chain for your products
Align partners' interests with your own
Revamp your supply chain to meet green goals
Most companies waste billions of dollars on technology. Don't be one of them.
If you need the best practices and ideas for unleashing technology's strategic potential-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are eight inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Clarify corporate strategy with your IT department
Fund only IT projects that support your strategy
Transform IT investments into profits
Build one technology platform for your entire organization
Adopt new technologies only when their best practices are established
Use analytics to make smart decisions at all levels of your company
Integrate social media into your business
If you read nothing else on building better teams, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you assemble and steer teams that get results.
Leading experts such as Jon Katzenbach, Teresa Amabile, and Tamara Erickson provide the insights and advice you need to:
? Boost team performance through mutual accountability
? Motivate large, diverse groups to tackle complex projects
? Increase your teams’ emotional intelligence
? Prevent decision deadlock
? Extract results from a bunch of touchy superstars
? Fight constructively with top-management colleagues
Looking for more Must Read articles from Harvard Business Review? Check out these titles in the popular series:
HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Communication HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Collaboration HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Innovation HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Making Smart Decisions HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategic Marketing
Where do you want to go-and how will you get there?
If you need the best practices and ideas for achieving career growth and fulfillment-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 11 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Break out of a career rut
Earn a spot on your company's high-potential list
Find out what's really holding you back
Get the kind of mentoring that leads to a promotion
Groom yourself for an external move
Turn the job you have into the job you want
Crack the code of C-suite entry
Take control of your career after being fired
Great entrepreneurs don't take risks. They manage them.
If you need the best practices and ideas for launching new ventures-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are nine inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Zero in on your most promising prospects
Set a clear direction for your start-up
Test and revise your assumptions along the way
Tackle risks that could sabotage your efforts
Carve out opportunities in emerging markets
Launch a start-up within your company
Hand over the reins when it's time
If you read nothing else on change, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you spearhead change in your organization.
This book will inspire you to:
Lead change through eight critical stages
Establish a sense of urgency
Overcome addiction to the status quo
Mobilize commitment
Silence naysayers
Minimize the pain of change
Concentrate resources
Motivate change when business is good
How do you keep your customers coming back-and get them to bring others?
If you need the best practices and ideas for making your customers loyal and profitable-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are nine inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Turn angry customers into loyal advocates
Get more people to recommend you
Boost customer satisfaction by satisfying your employees
Focus on profitable customers-whether they're loyal or not
Invest in the right CRM technology for your business
Mine customer data for more effective marketing
Increase your customers' lifetime value
If you need the best practices and ideas for smart decision making-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Make bold decisions that challenge the status quo
Support your decisions with diverse data
Avoid choices that justify past bad decisions
Evaluate risks and benefits with equal rigor
Check for faulty cause-and-effect reasoning
Test your decisions with experiments
Foster and address constructive criticism
Defeat indecisiveness with clear accountability
Root out unconscious prejudices
Effective marketing can mean the difference between runaway successes and costly flops. Covering everything from customer programs to ad campaigns to sales promotions, this is every marketer’s hands-on guide to turning opportunities into profits.
The Harvard Business Essentials series is designed to provide comprehensive advice, personal coaching, background information, and guidance on the most relevant topics in business. Whether you are a new manager seeking to expand your skills or a seasoned professional looking to broaden your knowledge base, these solution-oriented books put reliable answers at your fingertips.
All eyes are on China. Home to a quarter of the world's population, China's rapid growth, expanding openness, and developing consumer market have made the region a hotbed of opportunity-and risk-for today's multinationals.
Harvard Business Review on Doing Business in China offers a timely and insightful analysis of what it will take to successfully do business in twenty-first-century China. Featuring eight articles, each written by experts in Chinese business and culture, HBR on Doing Business in China explores issues including:
-The possibilities and pitfalls multinationals face in the newly opened Chinese domestic market
-The unique cultural and social factors that govern the buying preferences of Chinese consumers
-The deep-seated cultural traditions Westerners must understand to negotiate successfully with the Chinese
-The emergence of Chinese brands as powerful rivals in the global market
-Strategies for entering and winning in China as competition- both local and global-heats up
Most teams underperform. Yours can beat the odds.
If you need the best practices and ideas for superior team building-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Boost team performance through mutual accountability
Motivate large, diverse groups to tackle complex projects
Increase groups' emotional intelligence
Reverse the fortunes of a struggling team
Prevent decision deadlock
Extract results from a bunch of touchy superstars
Fight constructively with top-management colleagues
Ensure productivity in far-flung teams
Managers at every level, and in every industry, must balance various working styles, build efficient management teams, and develop sharp negotiation skills to remain competitive. Harvard Business Review on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution offers a selection of the best thinking on negotiation practice and managing conflict in organizational settings.
The Harvard Business Essentials series is designed to provide comprehensive advice, personal coaching, background information, and guidance on the most relevant topics in business. Whether you are a new manager seeking to expand your skills or a seasoned professional looking to broaden your knowledge base, these solution-oriented books put reliable answers at your fingertips.
If you need the best practices and ideas for creating business models that drive growth-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Reinvent your business profitably
Set your model up for success with a winning competitive strategy
Test and change your assumptions about customers
Spot trends that could transform your business
Exploit disruptive technologies
Give traditional offerings a shot in the arm
Produce game changers for your industry or market
Build a new business in an established organization
Protect the earth and your bottom line.
If you need the best practices and ideas for turning sustainability into competitive advantage-but don't have time to find them-this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.
This collection of HBR articles will help you:
Craft strategy to compete on green turf
Redesign your business model, products, and processes to achieve green goals
Parlay your efforts into lower costs and higher revenues
Capture more value from clean-tech investments
Launch sustainability programs with impact
Synchronize green initiatives by overhauling your supply chain
Engage constructively with environmental activist groups
Mitigate the risks of climate change
From the preeminent thinkers whose work has defined an entire field to the rising stars who will redefine the way we think about business, The Harvard Business Review Paperback Series delivers the fundamental information today's professionals need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world.
With articles ranging from an in-depth look at the "mommy-track" to perspectives on telecommuting, this book will help HR professionals and employees at all levels understand the oftentimes delicate balance between our professional and personal lives.
This guide will help managers survive and thrive in their new ventures. Beginning with the basics of writing a business plan, this wide-ranging resource moves on to cover topics that will ensure the success of a new venture.
The Harvard Business Essentials series is designed to provide comprehensive advice, personal coaching, background information, and guidance on the most relevant topics in business. Whether you are a new manager seeking to expand your skills or a seasoned professional looking to broaden your knowledge base, these solution-oriented books put reliable answers at your fingertips.
Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough management ideas-many of which still speak to and influence us today. The Harvard Business Review Classics series now offers readers the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the world-and will have a direct impact on you today and for years to come.
Business is like war: The best combatant wins while the worst loses, right? Not necessarily. Companies can succeed spectacularly without destroying others. And they can lose miserably after competing well.
Exceptional businesses win by actively shaping the game they're playing, not playing the game they find. The Right Game shows you how to do this-by altering who's competing, what value each player brings to the table, and which rules and tactics players use.
A best-seller in its previous editions, Scale Development: Theory and Applications, Third Edition has been extensively updated and revised to address changes in the field and topics that have grown in importance. Widely adopted for graduate courses in departments such as Psychology, Public Health, Marketing, Nursing, and Education, this book will prove beneficial to applied researchers across the social sciences.
It takes more than a good product to keep a company successful-it takes a strong business model. Whether you're leading an established corporation or launching a new startup, you need to have the right structure in place to reach your goals. With this collection of HBR articles, you'll learn how to establish the business model you need to succeed and execute transformational growth for your business.
Introducing the Harvard Business IdeaCast, a free weekly podcast from Harvard Business Publishing featuring interviews with the leading thinkers in management. To listen or subscribe, visit www.harvardbusiness.org or search for "Harvard Business IdeaCast" on iTunes.
Every business needs a business plan a plan to meet the expected and unexpected opportunities and obstacles the future holds. This book will help you take a long, hard look at each element of the plan and show you how to communicate the right message to the right people, and maximize the chances of getting your business launched.
Next book list: Books on Space Opera Sci-Fi and More from Author Greg Egan >>