A business leader’s currency is ideas. The current May-June 2021 issue of the Harvard Business Review is a mine field of ideas just waiting to be banked. I usually go through the new issue when it is received and end up reading the article titles, executive summaries and perhaps two or three articles.
The cover stories were all must-reads, or at a minimum certainly worth serious skims. Doing Hybrid Right, How to Manage the New Reality of Work, Understanding China, How to Eliminate Strategic Overload and Savvy Self-Promotion.
There were five articles about China. These reminded me of what I observed when I was in China in 2012. China’s business activity has become very capitalistic, yet it is a Communist country. There is a contradiction with that, but it doesn’t change the situation that people are starting and operating businesses and benefitting from its success. The political situation and human rights suppression are viewed by comparison to the freedoms we have in America along with remembrances of Mao’s disastrous Cultural Revolution. However, today’s China is a different China but many of our images are two generations old. We need to change our thinking.
Articles that gave me strategic thinking prods besides the cover stories included the following:
- Why Start-ups Fail
- The High Cost of Poor Succession Planning
- Don’t Let Platforms Commoditize Your Business
- Getting AI to Scale
- How to Close the Gender Gap
- Overselling Sustainability Reporting.
- Why Customer Loyalty Programs Can Backfire
- Banks with More Women on Their Boards Commit Less Fraud
- The CEO of Pfizer on Developing a Vaccine in Record Time
- What Role Should a Company Play in a National Crisis?
- Anxiety When There’s a Lot to Be Anxious About
Plus regular columns, executive summaries, brief bios of contributors and ads, some of which are also idea generators. The articles are also laced with fine graphics and charts to make the reading experience even more pleasant.
In all, an impressive issue and well worth checking it out.
If you have any tax, business, financial, leadership or management issues you want to discuss please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
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