Editorial Review

Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the Eartha Kitt of change-management gurus. Just when you think the grand dame has taken her final bow, she comes bounding back onto the scene with a new act that's as shrewd and insightful as anything any young kitten has to offer--but benefiting from decades of wisdom and experience that puts the whole litter to shame. Take, for instance, Read more

Reviews (40)

New Economy Lobotomy & more....
Author Kanter is the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration at Harvard (or was when she wrote the book), She has been named as on eof the 50 most powerful women in the world by the TIMES of London. Based on more than 300 inteviews and a global survey of more than 700 companies, the book Evolve! is a study in e-culture, strategy and community. Written back in 2001 -- the book still deserves to be on the shelf of every business exec or entrepreneur in this continually evolving new economy (and at the bargain price it's available on Amazon.com -- add it to your collection now). Kanter talks about talent, change (not just cosmetic) and social evolution...community takes a big role. Perhaps the one element she could have covered better is content-- since so much of what we see today is user generated content and content that is 2-way interactive. Commerce is not a one way street anymore....still the book covers many basics I'm sure you did not learn in B School and it gives insight and strategy into the why's and e-culture and how the Internet fits into the corporate structure of today and tomrorow...or perhaps how it is shaping it....The index is very good and can be used as a reference for making presentations at work or in developing your next-gen digital commerce start-up!

Still relevant for e-business managers in traditional firms
This book is to some extent out-of-date. It is written in the dot-com era. And there is indeed a lot of hype on the young start-ups' heroic characteristics such as speed, flexibility, and courage that traditional large companies couldn't compete with in the short run. Today, we all know that these characteristics didn't stand the test of time in a ruthless competitive landscape.
About the author...
This review is not so much about the book but rather about the author. I had the chance to have Rosabeth Moss Kanter as a Professor for a semester last year while doing an MBA at Harvard. She has an extraordinary personality, full of passion, full of colors and surprises. A fresh, insightful and pragmatic perspective of the world. A Grand lady who constantly evolves with her time. In my opinion, that's why her books, and Evolve! in particular, are so well written and so inspirational for all of us. Grand books are the reflect of Grand personalities. I cannot wait to get her new book "Confidence". ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate & Business History - General    5. E-Commerce - General    6. Economic aspects    7. Information technology    8. Internet    9. Management - General    10. Organizational change    11. Structural Adjustment    12. Success in business    13. Business & Management    14. Management & management techniques    15. Management    16. Computers    17. Internet - General    18. Electronic commerce    19. Technology    20. Social Aspects   

Reviews (1)

Essential, Informative, and Invaluable
This is one of the volumes in the new Harvard Business Essentials Series. Each offers authoritative answers to the most important questions concerning its specific subject. The material in this book is drawn from a variety of sources which include the Harvard Business School Press and the Harvard Business Review as well as Harvard ManageMentor�, an online service. Each volume is indeed "a highly practical resource for readers with all levels of experience." And each is by intent and in execution solution-oriented. Although I think those who have only recently embarked on a business career will derive the greatest benefit, the material is well-worth a periodic review by senior-level executives.
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Subjects:  1. Automation    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business/Economics    5. Decision Making & Problem Solving    6. Management - General    7. Business & Management   

Reviews (11)

A classic, in the HBR style
This book is a must-have for any manager's bookshelf.It delves into a topic cited widely in management literature, but seldom covered in depth.
Eye-opening read
Although I am not 100% on board with Pfeffer, he sure did get me thinking about how to recognize behaviors that may be related to power. He also gives excellent (although dated) real-life examples of how leaders used and failed to use politics, and the results of each. If you think politics in organizations stinks, read this book to get a different take. You may just discover some tools that will help you help others.

The ability to influence behavior, events and people
Jeffrey Pfeffer is Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, California. Previously he has been at the University of Illinois, the University of California at Berkeley, and as a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Business School. He has written several business- and management-related books.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business Life - General    3. Entrepreneurship    4. Management - General    5. Politics/International Relations    6. Organizational theory & behaviour   

Editorial Review

From the advent of electronic communications, there's been talk about how the world has been shrinking. Frances Cairncross, senior editor for the Read more

Reviews (14)

Prudent Optimism
I recently read this brilliant book before reading Cairncross' more recently published The Company of the Future. I highly recommend both and suggest that they be read in the order in which they were written. A look into the future
In this updated paperback edition of the 1997 original, Frances Cairncross of The Economist expounds the theory that, with the introduction of the Internet and new communications technologies, distance as a relevant factor in how we conduct our business and personal lives is becoming irrelevant. This, she claims, will be the single most important economic force shaping all of society over the next half century. Written by an economist?No kidding.
It would appear that this book continues the line of technological revolutionists/determinists - who provide no reasons as to why this new 'communications revolution' should be able to change our society apart fromwide-eyed 'look at what this technology will allow' type suggestions.Justbecause we have the ability to do something, doesn't mean everyone will doit and thus change society.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business Communication - General    3. Business/Economics    4. Forecasting    5. Information Technology    6. Social aspects    7. Technology    8. Technology And Social Change    9. Telecommunication    10. Telecommunications    11. Business & Management    12. Media, information & communication industries   

Reviews (4)

Dated applications but the core concepts are still relevant

Hopelessly out of date
Although I am a fan of HBR collections in general, this one is now out of date. Most of the articals are from the early 1990's, and in IT, 10+ years is an eternity.

Nice collection of articles
I really liked the article on Enterprise Systems, it gives a good understanding of what you are getting into when buying solutions like SAP. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Forecasting    5. Information Management    6. Information Technology    7. Information systems    8. Management    9. Management - General    10. Management Information Systems    11. Management & management techniques    12. Spreadsheet software   

Reviews (2)

Reputations do matter!
This book is exactly what I needed.The chapter on the Harvard reputation building will now form part of the research for my MBA dissertation. Fombrun clearly sets out perceptual mapping and the real value that companies can gain from reputation building. Invaluable for PR Counselors
Fombrun's REPUTATION is an invaluable tool that can help PR counselors better explain the importance of actively managing the client's internal and external images.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business/Economics    3. Case studies    4. Corporate Planning    5. Corporate image    6. Corporations    7. Entrepreneurship    8. Management    9. Management - General    10. Public Relations    11. Business strategy    12. Industrial relations    13. Management & management techniques   

Reviews (9)

An exciting read for the knowledge management junkie
For as long as anyone can remember leaders have been struggling to describe and to manage a mysterious kind of knowledge that people cannot readily pass on to others. It has been called wisdom, tribal knowledge, and tacit knowledge. Authors Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap put this elusive kind of expertise in an organizational context and call it deep smarts.
Deep smarts make Good to Great happen
This book uses great examples to explain the value of different levels of smarts. In the ancient hunting and gathering age, it's almost impossible for a hunter to get 1000 times of games more than his peer did. But in the Internet age, an expert programmer can easily make 1000 times of IT performance higher than her peer does.
Learning Influenced by Beliefs
This book is in the area of Knowledge Management. Similar to many other business books, it is based on empirical research performed by the authors.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Executive coaching    5. Human Resources & Personnel Management    6. Leadership    7. Management - General    8. Mentoring    9. Mentoring in business    10. Personnel & human resources management   

Reviews (7)

Not Quite the Whole Story
The book is written by insiders.They make the new CEO out to be quite a hero.Better ask some Intuit customers about that.

Great Case History of a Continuing Business Model Innovator!
How many companies have survived direct battles with Microsoft?Not very many.How many lived to win over direct battles with Microsoft?Even fewer.Intuit is in that elite company.That experience alone would make the book worth considering. Wonderful!
When Inside Intuit arrived in the mail, along with four other books I'd ordered, it was the first one I picked up to browse. Seven hours later, I finished the book! Reliving the experiences, placing myself in the events (I worked for Intuit for over fourteen years - by way of ChipSoft), was an overwhelming experience for me.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Competition    5. Computer software industry    6. Corporate & Business History - Strategies    7. History    8. Industries - Media & Communications Industries    9. Intuit (Firm)    10. Leadership    11. Marketing - General    12. Microsoft Corporation    13. Quicken (Computer file)    14. United States    15. Business & Management    16. Information technology industries    17. USA   

Reviews (3)

Fantastic book on how to focus your organizational efforts
One of the key concepts in this book is how difficult it is to balance the company's need for predictable results with its need for innovation.How do you stay on track while being able to identify new opportunities?Dr. Simons emphasizes the scarcity of management attention and the importance of realizing there are too many "good ideas" to pursue.The countervailing levers he has identified, allow management to reduce risk in the right areas thus freeing the organization to achieve higher levels of productivity.Great book for seasoned leaders responsible for designing and implementing strategy.

A great book for big picture seekers
Levers of Control presents a comprehensive theory illustrating how managers control strategy using 4 basic levers: belief systems, boundary systems, diagnostic systems, and interactive control systems (the wholebook is based on these 4 levers). Simons shows how these control leverscomplement each other when used together and how effective top managers usethese levers to stimulate and guide the search for strategies in thefutures.

Focus on strategy implementation
The book is far more interesting than the title suggests. "Levers of control" makes one think of man/woman being reduced to robots directed by the pulling of levers. The book is exactly about the opposite, how one canhave his cake and eat it. It provides a practical framework on how tocombine opposing forces in managing a company. Opposites like creativityand meeting profit objectives, precise objectives and alertness to thenecessasity of changing course, reward and punishment, control and freedom.Some of the insights require reader effort to understand. For example."Strategic planning is useless to develop strategies. Strategic planningstarts once the strategy has been determined." What is meant is this. Longrange planning carried out by staff departments trying to involve managersis a waste of time. Real strategies evolve interactively between severallayers of managers in the organisation. Once a strategy is determined aplan must be made for implementing it. However the reader has to figure outthat strategic planning no longer means strategy development but thedevelopment of a plan for strategy implementation, the execution of whichhas to be monitored. The book covers how to deal with the positive andnegative motivations of employees, how it is possible to manage the tensionbetween a budget system (referred to as a diagnostic system) and an actionoriented intelligence-gathering system (referred to as an interactivecontrol system). These two "control systems" are combined with two higherlevel "control systems", the vision and core values on the one hand andclarification of authority, accountability and no-go areas (referred to asboundary systems)on the other. None of these "control systems" areoriginal. The originality ofProfSimons isthat he shows how to operatethese systems so that they reinforce and complement each other. This bookis very useful for persons that have experienced how hard it is toimplement strategies and to reconcile freedom with the requirement ofdelivering predictable financial results. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Change    5. Controllership    6. Entrepreneurship    7. Executive Management    8. Industrial management    9. Management    10. Management - General    11. Statistics    12. Strategic Planning    13. Business strategy    14. Organizational theory & behaviour   

Reviews (6)

Ideas you can use to reach affluent customers
So many books about marketing or business are long on high-minded concepts, but very short on ideas you can use when you go to work the next day.Mass Affluence happily breaks that mold and offers up useful ideas in almost every chapter.
Why this one is a standout...
There are zillions of books out there on marketing moderate to high end items, most of them repeating the same old principles (yawn). You certainly don't need to waste your time or money on those.
A ground-breaking, seminal work
A collaboration between Paul F. Nunes (Executive Research Fellow at the Accenture Institute for High Performance Business in Wellesley, Massachusetts) and Brian A. Johnson (Senior Research analyst at the New York City based investment research and management firm of Sanford C. Bernstein & Company), Mass Affluence: 7 New Rules Of Marketing To Today's Consumer reveals that there is a pendulum swing in marketing from "one-to-one" customer strategies back to mass marketing. But there's a problem -- Today's more affluent but cautious consumers aren't responding to the strategies that worked with their middle-class predecessors. Mass Affluence lays out seven new rules of mass marketing specifically directed for use with the increasingly affluent populace and shows how innovative companies are implementing these novel strategies with high-end products that fill a heretofore ignored middle-ground in ordinary product categories ranging from clothing, to oral care, to house hold cleaning, and more. A ground-breaking, seminal work, Mass Affluence should be considered mandatory reading by any corporate manager charged with the responsibility of marketing his company's services or products in today's increasingly volatile, global, and competitive marketplace.
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Subjects:  1. Affluent consumers    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business/Economics    5. Consumer Behavior - General    6. Consumer behavior    7. Consumers    8. Customer Service    9. Marketing    10. Marketing - General    11. Marketing - Product Management    12. United States    13. Sales & marketing   

Reviews (5)

Useful Insight into Family-Managed Companies
Miller and Le Breton-Miller present a well-researched and well-written study focused on 4 themes in family-run firms: command, continuity, community, and connection.These themes translate into management principles that can and should be used by public companies and other organizations as well.Their (sometimes counter-intuitive) findings show companies such as Cargill, L.L. Bean, The New York Times, IKEA and others manage to survive and thrive.An insightful and interesting book.

A Classic in Family Business Studies
Modernisation theorists and chandlerian followers have developed plausible arguments that there are too many weaknesses in family-controlled businesses such as nepotism, small-scale, and short-lived.
How Some Acorns Eventually Became Oak Trees...and Others Can
In several recent reviews, I have quoted remarks by Jack Welch when explaining why he admires small businesses: "For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy."
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Family-owned business enterpri    5. Family-owned business enterprises    6. Management    7. Management - General    8. Strategic Planning    9. Success in business    10. Management & management techniques   

Reviews (5)

superficial book
This book is extremely superficial and unimaginative, giving only scant information and profiles from a number of companies of a few finance careers.

good, but the Vault guides are better
In my opinion there is more and better objective information on Finance and investment banking careers in the Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking and in the Vault Guide to Finance Interviews, which have the added benefit of being able to be purchased on vault.com and downloaded immediately.Good luck.

better information in the Vault guides
In my opinion there is more and better objective information on Finance and investment banking careers in the Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking and in the Vault Guide to Finance Interviews, which have the added benefit of being able to be purchased on vault.com and downloaded immediately.Good luck. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting - General    2. Business & Economics    3. Career/Job    4. Careers - General    5. Careers - Other Specific Fields    6. Careers / Job Opportunities    7. Corporate Finance    8. Finance    9. Advice on careers & achieving success    10. Careers guidance   

Reviews (1)

Finally a complete and easy to follow book on trusts
This is one of the few books of its type to explain all the important data points of managing trusts and investing.Its straight forward and comprehensive.This is written for lawyers and non-profressionals with an interest in this area.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Estates & Trusts    3. Investment Finance    4. Investments & Securities - General    5. Legal Reference / Law Profession    6. Legal investments    7. Personal Finance    8. Private Law    9. Prudent person rule    10. Trusts and trustees    11. United States    12. Investment & securities    13. Management accounting   

Reviews (2)

Rigorous, Practical, and Eloquent

A Good Supplement!
I recommend this book in addition to my own, "Strategic Organizational Change." The combination of the two books works well for my students (and clients). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate culture    5. Executive Management    6. General    7. Organizational change    8. Structural Adjustment    9. Management & management techniques   

Reviews (1)

Essential Information and Invaluable Advice
This one of the volumes in the new Harvard Business School Essentials Series. Each offers authoritative answers to the most important questions concerning its specific subject. The material in this book is drawn from a variety of sources which include a Peter Cappelli article on market-driven retention in the Harvard Business Review and various other articles published in Harvard Management Review Update as well as the hiring module found in Harvard ManageMentor�, an online service. Each volume is indeed "a highly practical resource for readers with all levels of experience." Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Human Resources & Personnel Management    5. Personnel & human resources management