Harvard Business Review Press publishes the best thinking in the areas of business strategy, general management, technology, leadership, human resources, and innovation. Intelligent business readers turn to them for answers to the questions they face every day, and for the guidance and debate that will have a profound impact on their lives — both personally and professionally.
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Summary; Public speaking. Attending a networking event. Confronting a coworker. These are uncomfortable tasks, but sometimes need to be performed for us to grow professionally. So how do you move out of your comfort zone? It’s simple: be honest about your excuses; recognize your strengths and take advantage of them; and finally, jump in. If…
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Summary. Critical thinking is the ability to analyze and effectively break down an issue in order to make a decision or find a solution. At the heart of critical thinking is the ability to formulate deep, different, and effective questions. For effective questioning, start by holding your hypotheses loosely. Be willing to fundamentally reconsider your initial…
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Summary. Setting resolutions often feels like a pointless exercise — something we do at the beginning of each year only to then feel guilty by February. The pandemic has only made the practice feel more helpless. Why even attempt to set resolutions when you have no idea what will transpire in the coming months? The author explains…
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Summary. To understand how profitable a business is, many leaders look at profit margin, which measures the total amount by which revenue from sales exceeds costs. But if you want to understand how a specific product contributes to the company’s profit, you need to look at contribution margin, which is the leftover revenue when you deduct the…
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Summary. Midsize companies have weaknesses when it comes to addressing the talent issues they face — but they also have critical strengths. The authors present three steps leaders can take to leverage those strengths and prevail in the toughest talent market in memory. First, they should identify and prioritize exactly which talent they’re lacking — the…
ByHBR.org
by Michael E. Porter From the Magazine (November-December 1998) Now that companies can source capital, goods, information, and technology from around the world, often with the click of a mouse, much of the conventional wisdom about how companies and nations compete needs to be overhauled. In theory, more open global markets and faster transportation and communication…
