Human Capital Briefs

The sad news came over the weekend that Warren Bennis has died. For us at HBR it is the loss of a long-time author and friend. Many, many more will miss him, too, as a teacher and adviser.

Ram Charan’s recent column “It’s Time to Split HR” has created quite a stir. He argues that it’s the rare CHRO who can serve as a strategic leader for the CEO and also manage the internal concerns of the organization. I believe CHROs have much to offer CEOs.

Shelly Lazarus has been building brands at Ogilvy & Mather for more than 40 years. In this condensed and edited interview, Lazarus shares her thoughts on what “brand” really means in a career context, and why simply being yourself may be the best strategy of all—for women or for men.

Sarah was a longtime director of the company that J.P. ran, a Florida-based shopping-center-development group, and she was devoted to both him and his firm. But board meetings had been tense recently, and J.P. had grown distant.

In an interview, Cisco CEO John Chambers once remarked on his intimate knowledge of rival CEOs. He claimed that based on this insight he could anticipate their market moves one or even two steps in advance. I thought he might be exaggerating. I decided to test his claim.

Market Basket employees don’t seem to stick around just for the wages and good benefits. The rallies for Demoulas suggest that they truly believe in his leadership and the direction he set for the company.

I have published one book and completed another. The published book is a history of Intel Corporation, largely told through its three famous founders. The finished book deals with the emerging science of team-building and management. And at the intersection of the two lies an interesting story.

Firms run by CEOs who had won major awards (such as CEO of the year) showed significant declines in stock prices, return on assets, and ability to meet market earnings expectations in the 3 years after the awards were won.

Sheryl Sandberg may have claimed one of the catchiest titles of the decade for a whither-women book — Lean In — but Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi has a pretty good one too, if she ever wants to go there.