Human Capital Briefs

The belief that there is a direct connection between the board of directors and organizational success has been gaining ground lately, evidenced by the pressure shareholder activists have been exerting on boards for transparency.

As group president of enterprise growth at American Express, Dan Schulman is trying to expand the brand to serve non-affluent customers who he says are paying too much for existing financial services.

What are the key external forces shaping your organization? How do perspectives differ among members of your C-suite? What role will C-suite collaboration play in your company’s success? How do organizations that outperform their peers differ from other organizations?

The founder of the Khan Academy, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free online education to students around the world, talks with HBR senior editor Alison Beard. For more, read the Life’s Work section in the January-February issue of HBR.

The dot-com bust not only hurt Internet start ups—it pummeled telecom companies, many of which went bankrupt or were forced into mergers. Ciena CEO Gary Smith, the company’s CEO since 2001, describes how his company survived, regrouped, and resumed its growth.

When you find yourself thinking about old-fashioned, out-of-touch, hierarchical, siloed organizations, General Motors quickly comes to mind. Criticism was levied at GM’s cars — described as “cookie-cutter” or worse.

The former Secretary of Defense talks with HBR editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius about his new book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.

Not all directors perform equally well once inside. Sometimes a prince in other realms can even turn into a petty gabber, the very opposite of what English novelist George Eliot had championed: “Blessed is the man who having nothing to say abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.”