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Since the pandemic, companies have adopted the technologies of virtual work remarkably quickly--and employees are seeing the advantages of more flexibility in where and when they work. As leaders recognize what is possible, they are embracing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset work using a hybrid model. To make this transition successfully, they'll need to design hybrid work arrangements with individual human concerns in mind, not just institutional ones. That requires companies to approach the problem from four different perspectives: (1) jobs and tasks; (2) employee preferences; (3) projects and workflows; and (4) inclusion and fairness. Leaders also need to conceptualize new work arrangements along two axes: place and time. Millions of workers around the world this year have made a sudden shift from being place-constrained (working in the office) to being place-unconstrained (working anywhere). Employees have also experienced a shift along the time axis, from working synchronously with others 9 to 5 to working asynchronously whenever they choose. If leaders and managers can successfully make the transition to an anywhere, anytime model, the result will be work lives that are more purposeful and productive.

If you're launching a business, the odds are against you: Two-thirds of start-ups never show a positive return. Unnerved by that statistic, a professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School set out to discover why. Based on interviews and surveys with hundreds of founders and investors and scores of accounts of entrepreneurial setbacks, his findings buck the conventional wisdom that the cause of start-up failure is either the founding team or the business idea. The author found six patterns that doomed ventures. Two were especially common: "Bad bedfellows." Other parties besides the founders--like employees, strategic partners, and investors--can all play a major role in a firm's demise. Quincy Apparel, for instance, was undone by weak support from its investors and factory partners and inflexible employees. "False starts." Many overlook a crucial step in the lean start-up process: researching customer needs before testing products. Like Triangulate, an online dating start-up, they keep rushing to launch fully functional offerings that don't fit any market needs. The good news is, firms can avoid that pitfall by rigorously defining the problem they want to solve, getting one-on-one feedback from potential customers, and validating concepts with real customers in real-world settings.

As companies respond to intensifying competitive pressures and challenges, they ask more and more of their employees. But organizations often have very little to show for the efforts of their talented and engaged workers. By selecting fewer initiatives with greater impact, companies can make their strategies more powerful. A strategic initiative is worthwhile only if it does one or more of the following: It creates value for customers by raising their willingness to pay. As your company finds ways to innovate or to improve existing products, the maximum price people will be willing to pay for the offering rises. It creates value for employees by making work more attractive. Offering better jobs lowers the minimum compensation that you have to offer to attract talent to your business. It creates value for suppliers by reducing their operating cost. As suppliers' costs go down, the lowest price they would be willing to accept for their goods falls. As companies expand the total amount of value created for their customers, employees, and suppliers, they position themselves for enduring financial success.

Many large companies fail to pay enough attention to their leadership pipelines and succession practices. That leads to excessive turnover at the top and destroys a significant amount of value--close to $1 trillion a year among the S&P 1500 alone, say the authors of this article. The biggest costs are underperformance at companies that hire ill-suited external CEOs, the loss of intellectual capital in the C-suites of organizations that executives leave behind, and for companies promoting from within, the lower performance of ill-prepared successors. Companies and their boards can (and must) do better. The solution isn't that complicated: Firms need to start succession planning well before they think they need to; make sure they identify and develop rising stars; appoint the most promising executives to the board to help prepare them to take on the top job; and look at both internal and external candidates. In addition, when working with search consultants, firms should avoid perverse incentives like contingency and percentage fees.

Large digital multisided platforms (MSPs) such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Apple's App Store have made it much easier for sellers to reach new customers, but as thousands of companies large and small have discovered, conducting business on them carries significant risks and costs. MSPs sometimes exploit sellers' dependency on them in various subtle and not-so-subtle ways. They raise fees. They change their recommendation algorithms to put more emphasis on price. They require sellers to advertise to maintain visibility in search results. They compete against sellers by imitating their products. They impose restrictions on the prices sellers can set outside of the MSP. And they change their rules and design in ways that weaken sellers' relationships with their customers. But all is not lost, say the authors. Sellers can employ four strategies to build viable businesses on platforms. They can develop and invest in direct channels, use platforms mainly as showrooms, go deep with highly specialized offerings or go broad with many different offerings, and wage public relations and lobbying campaigns to curb platforms' power.

Most companies are struggling to realize artificial intelligence's potential to completely transform the way they do business. The problem is, they typically apply AI in a long list of discrete uses, an approach that doesn't produce consequential change. Yet trying to overhaul the whole organization with AI all at once is simply too complicated to be practical. What's the solution? Using AI to reimagine one entire core business process, journey, or function end to end, say three McKinsey consultants. That allows each AI effort to build off the previous one by, say, reusing data or enhancing capabilities for a common set of stakeholders. An airline, for example, focused on its cargo function, and a telecom provider on its process for managing customer value. Scaling up AI involves four steps: (1) Identify an area where AI will make a big difference reasonably quickly and there are multiple interconnected activities and opportunities to share technology. (2) Staff the team with the right people and remove the obstacles to their success. (3) Reimagine business as usual, working back from a key goal and then exploring in detail how to achieve it. (4) Support new AI-based processes with organizational changes, such as interdisciplinary collaboration and agile mindsets.

Most companies say they're committed to advancing women into leadership roles. What they may fail to recognize, though, is that systemic barriers are holding women back. As a result, women remain disadvantaged at every stage of their employment and underrepresented in positions of power. Drawing on their own research and the scholarship of others, the authors describe common forms of gender discrimination in seven key areas of talent management: attracting candidates, hiring employees, integrating newcomers into the organization, developing employees, assessing performance, managing compensation and promotion, and retaining employees. Companies can level the playing field by identifying patterns of gender bias in the way they treat people and then systematically making appropriate changes. They can, for example, avoid loaded language in job postings, anonymize the resumes of applicants, cultivate an inclusive culture, increase women's access to mentors, set clear criteria for salary offers and raises, and destigmatize flexible work arrangements. Research has shown the value of all these practices in fully leveraging women's talents.

For two decades progressive thinkers have argued that a more sustainable form of capitalism would arise if companies regularly measured and reported on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. But although such reporting has become widespread, and some firms are deriving benefits from it, environmental damage and social inequality are still growing. This article, by Timberland's former COO, outlines the problems with both sustainability reporting and sustainable investing. The author discusses nonstandard metrics, insufficient auditing, unreliable ESG ratings, and more. But real progress, he says, requires not just better measurement and reporting practices but also changes in regulations, investment incentives, and mindsets.

Everyone knows that success at work depends on being--and being seen as--both competent and likable. You need people to notice your growth and accomplishments while also enjoying your company. But if you draw attention to the value you've created, to ensure that managers and peers recognize it, you risk coming across as a shameless self-promoter. No one likes a braggart. In this article the author explains how to highlight your accomplishments at work without having it backfire. Drawing from a fascinating strain of laboratory research, she advises against several popular tactics such as "humblebragging" and "boomer­asking" (asking a question in the hope it will be reciprocated so that you can bring up your own accomplishments). Instead, she advises, recognize situations where self-promotion is socially acceptable (such as job interviews) and consider using a mentor or other agent to boast on your behalf.

After a tsunami hits his island nation, Sahan Kumara believes that his family's business--one of the largest conglomerates in the region--should help with the country's recovery. He, his father, and his brother agree on the need to contribute financially. But Sahan wonders if that's enough. The Kumara Group has the resources and expertise to oversee the country's rebuilding program--which is faltering under the direction of the government and NGOs. As Sahan wrestles with the question of how involved Kumara should get, he weighs conflicting advice from his brother, others in the company, and an old friend at a different firm. This fictional case study by Christopher J. Malloy features expert commentary by Nirvana Chaudhary and Margaret Schuler.

Four recent books help readers smartly channel an increasingly common condition: "Trust Yourself," by Melody Wilding; "Chatter," by Ethan Kross; "Anxiety at Work," by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton; and "The Anxiety Toolkit," by Alice Boyes.

The star of the 2018 Oscar-winning documentary "Free Solo" talks about how he prepares for climbs, the way he thinks about risk, and what's next now that he has achieved his lifelong ambition to scale El Capitan.

After a tsunami hits his island nation, Sahan Kumara believes that his family's business--one of the largest conglomerates in the region--should help with the country's recovery. He, his father, and his brother agree on the need to contribute financially. But Sahan wonders if that's enough. The Kumara Group has the resources and expertise to oversee the country's rebuilding program--which is faltering under the direction of the government and NGOs. As Sahan wrestles with the question of how involved Kumara should get, he weighs conflicting advice from his brother, others in the company, and an old friend at a different firm. This fictional case study by Christopher J. Malloy features expert commentary by Nirvana Chaudhary and Margaret Schuler.

After a tsunami hits his island nation, Sahan Kumara believes that his family's business--one of the largest conglomerates in the region--should help with the country's recovery. He, his father, and his brother agree on the need to contribute financially. But Sahan wonders if that's enough. The Kumara Group has the resources and expertise to oversee the country's rebuilding program--which is faltering under the direction of the government and NGOs. As Sahan wrestles with the question of how involved Kumara should get, he weighs conflicting advice from his brother, others in the company, and an old friend at a different firm. This fictional case study by Christopher J. Malloy features expert commentary by Nirvana Chaudhary and Margaret Schuler.

Deborah Lovich, Partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), has been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to join the firm's Executive Committee as its youngest member and only current woman, as well as just the second woman in its history. Encouraged by her mentors, she saw this role as an important platform to help shape BCG's future. Yet, she had family to consider. Taking up the opportunity would add an additional five to six weeks of travel per year, on top of an already hectic schedule that kept her from home and her four children most days of the week. Her husband Mark, who had finished a grueling 12-year MD-PhD program one year earlier, decided to put his career on hold to be a stay-at-home dad because of her many commitments. Now, with the possibility of even further time away from the family looming, and the kids wanting more time with her, Mark made a serious demand: that she not only decline the Executive Committee role, but also scale back her commitments so that he could relaunch his career. Lovich must weigh how to balance her responsibilities to her family without sacrificing the career she had worked so hard to build.

This case provides updates on Deborah Lovich's decision and how she navigated her work and family responsibilities over the following decade.

This case provides further updates on Deborah Lovich's decision, as well as reflections from her family and mentors on her path.

In 2020, the chief executive officer of Abelana Game Reserve in South Africa was considering the arrangement between the game reserve and the Mashishimale community, who owned the land. He had promised to provide added value to the land by highlighting four pillars of focus: land, community, business, and investors. Two lodges were formally opened to guests in March 2020, but the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic stopped all business activities-until September 2020, when the government began easing lockdown restrictions and the shareholders met to discuss tourist bookings and expansion plans. The management team had an ambitious and exciting overall vision for the game reserve, but there were more pressing challenges to consider, including a collaborative cross-sector partnership, training and developing workers, creating jobs in the community, and supporting local businesses. Were there other shared value ideas to consider for more employment opportunities and growth within the community?

This public-sourced case describes the lapses in board oversight that led to the dramatic rise and fall of collaborative office space company WeWork and its charismatic leader, Adam Neumann. The case is set in September 2019 and follows board member Mark Schwartz into a critical board meeting to discuss many of the issues facing the company as it tries to raise billions through an IPO: lapses in governance oversight and fiscal discipline, CEO Neumann's erratic behavior, and perhaps even fraud. The case offers an opportunity to evaluate WeWork's strategy and path to future profitability; the board and other stakeholders' role in WeWork's hypergrowth and rapid fall from grace; differences in corporate governance in private versus public companies; and the governance changes that occur in preparation for an IPO. With WeWork on the brink, students are put in Schwartz's shoes in the board meeting and challenged to answer the question: What would you do and why?

Student spreadsheet supplement to case 120114