Human Capital Briefs

Perhaps no one has done more for the cause of data-driven decision-making in the minds of the public than Nate Silver. But for most people, the gulf between recognizing the importance of data and actually beginning to analyze it is massive.

Rafael Nadal, who just won the U.S. Open for the second time, is my hero. His athleticism is extraordinary. His focus is awe-inspiring. His skill is, clearly, second to none. His will is unremitting. Yet those are not the reasons he’s my hero. In fact, it wasn’t until after he was finished playing in this year’s final that he rose to role model in my book. So what was it?

Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Sarah Green. I’m talking today with Jonathan Berman, author of Success in Africa, CEO Insights from a Continent on the Rise. Jonathan blogs regularly for HBR.org and has also written for the magazine.

The business media lit up over the weekend with the news that Steve Ballmer, the college friend who worked alongside Bill Gates to build Microsoft and was heir to the CEO job, will step down within a year.

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg is by all accounts a mensch. And what people used to call a stitch. When you meet him — for me it was at a BankInter-hosted gathering of scientists, business innovators, and policy experts in Madrid — you’re struck by his no-nonsense style and gruff Brooklyn charm.

Influence in the C-suite, or lack thereof, has been a long-standing challenge for HR leaders. In too many companies, Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) have wielded less influence in business decisions than the challenges their organizations require. That can change.

Reports of the death or deliquescence of Google's "20% time," which allows employees to devote one day a week to side projects, may well be exaggerated. They certainly inspire less controversy than Yahoo's targeted euthanizing of telecommuting.

Over the last 30 years I have served a large range of organizations as either a director or a trustee with the specific role of helping them exploit IT for competitive advantage. I believe that there are four highly interdependent categories of contributions the CIO and IT function should make.

Everybody has been piling on to hedge fund manager Bill Ackman lately. I'm not joining in. He's doing God's work. Or at least the market's.

Transformationally speaking, technological innovation is easy. Culture change is not. Jeff Bezos knows this. If he wants to kindle his newly-acquired Washington Post into Amazon Prime, he's free to do so.