Human Capital Briefs
2013
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Capturing the Innovation Mindset at Bally Technologies
November 01 | Srikanth Srinivas, Retired Management Consultant | Comments (0)Bally Technologies, a leading provider of gaming systems for casinos, has earned more than 60 awards for innovation in just the last four years. It increased R&D spending from 7-8% of revenue before 2009 to 11-12% of revenue starting in 2010, and maximized the return on that increased investment.
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Miss Manners and Board and Director Performance
October 28 | Christopher Bennett, Senior Fellow, Human Capital, The Conference Board | Comments (0)I found myself in a debate with someone about the use of electronic data collection to preserve the anonymity of directors evaluating the board’s or each other’s performance. There are three main issues that make me uncomfortable with the idea of directors giving anonymous feedback.
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Nate Silver on Finding a Mentor, Teaching Yourself Statistics, and Not Settling in Your Career
October 28 | Walter Frick, Editor, Harvard Business Review | Comments (0)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.
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Nadal Is Strong Enough to Cry. Are You?
October 08 | Peter Bregman, CEO, Bregman Partners | Comments (0)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?
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How CEOs Are Succeeding in Africa
October 01 | HBR IDEACAST | Comments (0)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.
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Steve Ballmer’s Big Lesson for the Rest of Us
September 17 | Julia Kirby, Editor, Harvard Business Review | Comments (0)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.
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What’s to Be Learned from Ousted Leaders?
September 17 | Jeffrey Gedmin, President and CEO, Legatum Institute | Comments (0)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.
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C-Suite Influence: HR’s Greatest Challenge…and Opportunity
September 12 | Frank J. DiBernardino, Managing Principal, Vienna Human Capital Advisors, LLC | Comments (2)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.
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Just How Valuable Is Google's "20% Time"?
September 11 | Michael Schrage, Research Fellow, MIT School’s Center for Digital Business | Comments (0)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.
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A Board Director's Perspective on What IT Has to Get Right
September 09 | James I. Cash, Jr., James E. Robison Professor and Senior Associate Dean, Emeritus, Harvard Business School | Comments (0)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.