Harvard Business Review September - October 2018

Curiosity, we all know, is the spark that can lead to breakthrough innovation. And it turns out that it helps produce more than new ideas. Recent research by Francesca Gino at Harvard Business School points to several surprisingly practical benefits for business: Curiosity improves decision making because it reduces our susceptibility to stereotypes and to confirmation bias; it fuels employee engagement and collaboration; and it fortifies organizational resilience by prompting creative problem solving in the face of uncertainty and pressure. In short, curiosity boosts business performance. And yet, while managers may say they value inquisitiveness, too often they stifle it. In a survey of some 3,000 employees across a wide range of firms and industries, Gino found that just one-quarter reported feeling curious on the job regularly, and 70% said they…

In her new book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, Doris Kearns Goodwin explores the nature of leadership—something she’s been turning over in her mind since her graduate school days at Harvard. “I spent my career living with ‘dead’ presidents,” she says, “but studying them through the lens of leadership, I felt I was meeting them anew. I hope that in these times of fracture and fear these stories will provide perspective on today’s dilemmas and stir us to thought and action in our private and public lives.” Angela Duckworth grew up hearing all about the accomplishments of her older cousins, including her coauthor Thomas Lee. Even so, in-person encounters with Tom were few and far between. It was not until recently that their paths crossed professionally, when Tom called with a question:…

THE LEADER’S CALENDAR HBR ARTICLE BY MICHAEL E. PORTER AND NITIN NOHRIA, JULY–AUGUST Chief executives have tremendous resources at their disposal, but they face an acute scarcity in one critical area: time. Drawing on an in-depth 12-year study, this Spotlight package examines the unique time-management challenges of CEOs and the best strategies for conquering them. I run a small company with just 55 employees, but we do business globally in a very competitive space. Although this article is about CEOs of big companies, it also applies to CEOs of small companies like mine. The authors’ findings are very relevant and the CEOs’ experiences are surprisingly similar to my own. I’m glad to see that many leaders face the same challenges and think they can draw on the same strategies. John Sorensen, owner, Couples Resort These…

How Are You Protecting Your High Performers from Burnout? BY MATT PLUMMER The Death of Supply Chain Management BY ALLAN LYALL ET AL. What to Do When Your Boss Won’t Advocate for You BY NICHOLAS PEARCE Leaders Focus Too Much on Changing Policies, and Not Enough on Changing Minds BY TONY SCHWARTZ GE’s Fall Has Been Accelerated by Two Problems. Most Other Big Companies Face Them, Too. BY ROGER L. MARTIN Who Killed the GE Model? BY BENJAMIN GOMES-CASSERES 3 Transitions Even the Best Leaders Struggle With BY CASSANDRA FRANGOS…

A decade ago INSEAD marketing professor Marcel Corstjens was consulting with employees at a multinational consumer packaged goods company about ways to rejuvenate one of its biggest brands. During three days of meetings, he found a one-hour presentation by the company’s R&D team deeply fascinating. But no one else did. “There were many ideas that could have been developed,” he says, “but at the end of the R&D session everyone said, ‘OK, let’s get back to the communications and advertising issues,’ and nobody ever talked about the R&D again.” It’s no secret that large CPG companies are marketing powerhouses, but this apparent disregard for R&D insights stuck with him. Although CPG companies rank far behind high-tech and health care companies in R&D spending, some do devote more than $1 billion…

Sanjay Khosla spent more than 30 years as an executive at Unilever and Kraft, and now, as a senior adviser at Boston Consulting Group and a professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School, he helps companies find ways to increase organic growth and improve their innovation process. He spoke with HBR about balancing the pursuit of incremental innovations with more-ambitious projects. Edited excerpts follow. What’s the main takeaway from this research? That companies that are successful at innovation build on what’s working. They look for what I call the 3Ms: areas with good profit margins, momentum, and the potential to make a material financial impact. They try to find a balance between quick wins and medium- and long-term projects. It can’t be just about blockbusters, because it’s very risky to bet only on…