Monthly Archives: November 2010

Yesterday, more than 250,000 US State Department documents obtained by Wikileaks appeared online. And today, much of the talk around “Cablegate” (so named because reports from US embassies to Washington have long been called cables) is about how such a … Continue reading →

President Obama’s mission to Asia earlier this month was touted by US media primarily to highlight the 50,000 jobs created by deals signed in India during his visit. It’s a shame Obama — and the Western press — didn’t pay … Continue reading →

“Creative accounting” is really bad. Except when it’s good. Say that in a roomful of managers, and you get nervous laughter. For me, it evokes a wonderful old New Yorker cartoon by Robert Weber, where a small, meek accountant stands … Continue reading →

Featured Guest: Shawn Achor, CEO of Aspirant and author of The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. Download this podcast

Business is, above all, busy. And maybe it’s too busy. Let’s face it. Most of us spend most of our time chasing the immediate reward, the short-run “objective,” the near-term “goal — in short, the expedient and the convenient. But … Continue reading →

Corporate profits hit a new record in the U.S. in the third quarter of this year. At least, that was the headline after the data were released Tuesday. It was kind of a meaningless distinction: In a growing economy, even … Continue reading →

I pretty much knew that the reaction to my last blog analyzing the flawed logic of the AOL-Time Warner merger would elicit comments blasting me for using 20-20 hindsight. However, being right was not the point. My objective is to … Continue reading →

You may have had this experience: You alter an employee’s routine or change the way he’s evaluated, and you get a reaction that’s far bigger and more negative than anything you expected. What did you do wrong? Probably nothing except … Continue reading →

Robert L. Simons, Harvard Business School professor, explains why management teams must ask themselves tough questions. He is the author of Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution and the adapted HBR article Stress-Test Your Strategy: The 7 … Continue reading →

In 1976, Chinese soldiers dug the earth with their hands to free victims of the Tangshan Earthquake when their only tool, a small shovel, was destroyed in the day-and-night digging. They were part of an army of 240,000 soldiers trying … Continue reading →