In the years since Zappos was founded, we’ve had to make some big decisions. One of the most significant came in early 2004 when we decided to relocate from San Francisco to Las Vegas. Our biggest problem then was customer service—specifically, finding the right employees to staff our call center.

One can naturally debate any system that seeks to crown the world’s most innovative companies. Boston Consulting Group’s list, which relies heavily on surveys asking senior executives to name the companies they perceive to be innovative, risks succumbing to the halo effect.

From presidents to hip-hop producers to poets, the last page of every issue of Harvard Business Review is always an interview with someone who has succeeded outside the traditional corporate world. Here, some of our favorite lessons from the class of 2013.

Not only are individual companies and industries battling for talent, but countries are, too. In the global competition for top talent, emigration of highly skilled workers —brain drain — can result in an especially pernicious drag on the source nations’ talent pools. Many countries are susceptible to flights of talent and experience its deleterious effects.

It is now official. Girls like cars. And car companies know how to be driven by women. The appointment of Mary Barra as CEO-to-be of General Motors is a signal to car-lovers everywhere that the company is serious about its products and vehicle innovation.

It’s a dilemma that faces family businesses all too frequently. We saw it recently when we worked with a $4 billion global manufacturing business in Hong Kong. The company was managed by the founder, who turned it over to his son when he retired.

Don’t just mourn Nelson Mandela. Learn to be Nelson Mandela. He was the consummate turnaround leader. As the first democratically-elected president of post-apartheid South Africa, he took on and reversed the destructive symptoms of decline.

Soon after the class of 2009 collected their degrees, they stepped into the worst job market in a generation. Hiring for new college graduates had dropped 35 to 40 percent in only a year. Hiring for new PhDs, lawyers, architects, and journalists had plummeted as well.