Management Articles

President Trump’s daily briefings march on, treating us to graphs and projections about the medical and economic consequences of the coronavirus. Recently the president also began to opine about reopening the country for business, visibly leaning tow…

The U.S. government is now predicting a coronavirus death toll of perhaps more than 200,000 Americans—so it certainly seems we ought to be fighting this pandemic “like a real war.” Many officials, including our president, have repeatedly invoked the …

A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll again demonstrated that health care is the top government priority among voters. So how are our political leaders tackling the question? For Democratic presidential candidates, the debate is mostly about a new “M…

Imagine if you were suddenly in charge of rebuilding America’s infrastructure. Or overhauling our society’s healthcare. Or restructuring the tuition economics of higher education. How would you answer such a call? Twenty years ago, you might have led…

Look back upon the Three Mile Island accident that flooded suburban Pennsylvania with toxic nuclear waste—and then imagine the panic of the  generating plant managers that March morning in 1979. Some routine maintenance in the facility suddenly …

How often do we blame leaders who don’t live up to their supposed wisdom and experience? Why did the all-knowing Alan Greenspan miss the housing bubble that launched the Great Recession? Why did Marissa Mayer, the whiz kid from Google, fail to turn a…

Right now your job probably means being part of team—or even several. Collaboration, group problem-solving, and shared responsibility for deliverables are now norms of organizational life. You may think of yourself as a spirited individual, but you r…

The “Airbnb community,” the “Linux community,” the “Nike running community”: In our networked age, who isn’t talking about “community” as part of their strategy? Well, why not? “Community” now handily implies group solidarity or mass collaboration ac…

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.” Thoreau’s lyric observation (adjusted for gender balance) might describe the modern workplace. Too many professionals not engaged in their jobs, plodd…

Looking back to 1996, on her first senior job at Xerox—as VP of HR–Anne Mulcahy laughed gently. “The position was historically under-rated and bureaucratic—and, frankly, that reputation was earned.” In a few short years and plenty of hard work,…

“I hate to be managed. When someone tells me what to do, the hair on my neck bristles!” This voice on my phone was not a frustrated millennial, blaming some boss who “doesn’t get it.” It was 53-year old Dominic Barton, Managing Director of McKinsey &…

Venture investor Marc Andreessen famously wrote “software is now eating the world”— encoded intelligence dominates business. A new book (Platform Revolution) wants to update the slogan. Author Sangeet Choudary (and co-authors, Geoffrey Parker and Mar…

In 2008 Jim Whitehurst abandoned the comfortable hierarchy of Delta Airlines for the freedom-loving culture of Red Hat. Before long, he grasped that the ethos of his new technology company mirrored the spirited communitarianism of the open source Lin…

The U.S. Department of Labor marks today’s holiday to honor “the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” It’s also a chance for us to look ahead—about the future challenges of workplaces and human …

Dad needs a coronary bypass operation—and you’re helping him choose between two local hospitals. You discover  both have about the same history of patient deaths per 100 procedures performed. You further learn that, at Hospital A, most recent by…