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The head of Denmark's largest energy group pondered how to use their limited resources to advance the delivery of clean and reliable energy. The Danish State owned DONG Energy had started life as an importer and trader of gas and oil. Under the leadership of the current CEO, Anders Eldrup, the company had become an energy group, present in all steps of the gas and oil value chain and particular, in the EU market leader in offshore wind energy. As a developer and operator of wind farms, it was one of the world's leaders. In 2011, the company faced several strategic questions including whether and where they should continue investing in offshore wind and how to identify the next key growth businesses of the future.

Market capitalism, a system that has proven to be a remarkable engine of wealth creation, is poised for a breakdown. That sounds dire, and it is. Increasing income inequality, migration, weaknesses in the global financial system, environmental degradation, and inadequate government and international institutions are just a few of the forces that threaten to disrupt global market capitalism in the decades ahead. In conversations with business leaders around the world, the authors found that virtually all of them shared a deep concern for the sustainability of the market system, but their beliefs about how to respond varied widely. Some said that changing their behavior would be unnecessary or even inappropriate. Others were unsure how to deal with issues seldom thought to be the responsibility of individual firms. The authors call for business to be both innovator and activist in protecting and strengthening market capitalism. Instead of seeing themselves as narrowly self-interested players in a system that is overseen by others, business leaders must spearhead entrepreneurial activity on a massive scale-devising strategies that provide employment for the billions now outside the system, inventing business models that make better use of scarce resources, and creating institutional arrangements for coordinating and governing neglected and dysfunctional aspects of market capitalism.

Fu Chengyu is the fifth CEO to lead China National Offshore Oil Company - an SOE founded in 1982 to exploit Chinese offshore deposits. In 2010 he is trying to decide how to drive further growth in a company that has grown 556 times in less than 30 years, with profits grown 2600 times. He believes that the way CNOOC has been managed, a blend of market orientation and concern for employees and the nation has contributed importantly to the success. His challenge is to allocate resources among new areas to explore for petroleum and new sources of energy, and to develop managers with the capability of leading those businesses in the face of world class competitors. Both technical talent and the ability to integrate the efforts of non-Chinese leaders are involved.

Sam Palmisano became CEO of IBM in 2002. He dramatically energized the organization through portfolio changes and a values driven approach to managing the company.

Sam Palmisano became CEO of IBM in 2002. He dramatically energized the organization through portfolio changes and a values driven approach to managing the company.

Joel Klein took over the NYC Department of Education in 2002 and radically transformed the strategy and organization remarkably with improvements in performance. Day 1 of the two case series focuses on the steps taken by Klein over his eight year tenure. Supplementary video (both for homework and in class) provides Klein's thoughts about major developments.

Joel Klein took over the NYC Department of Education in 2002 and radically transformed the strategy and organization remarkably with improvements in performance. Day 2 focuses on Klein as a strategist, organization builder and driver of performance. Supplementary homework video provides Klein's thoughts on how one brings about change in a difficult public arena.

In 2007, Loews Inc., under the leadership of James Tisch, was considering whether to buy natural gas properties from Dominion Resources. The question is whether the acquisition fits the corporate strategy. In exploring the questions, students will have the chance to consider what is in fact a corporate strategy, how Loews' corporate strategy adds value, and how the way Loews is managed contributes to the results-a tripling of market value in 5 years.

In 2007, the leadership of the Indesit Company is focused on long-term corporate strategy. After 3 decades, the company has emerged as the number 2 home appliance producer in Europe. Should they invest further to be number 1, or should they focus on the global market, and if so, which part of the world? A subordinate issue is how to manage their multiple brands. Should they consolidate? This case has extensive data on global markets.

In his interviews and data analysis, Harvard Business School professor Bower found that companies performed better when they appointed insiders to the job of CEO. Other researchers, including Jim Collins in "Good to Great," have come to similar conclusions working from different data sets. Yet Bower finds far too many companies are managed without leadership development as an objective; as a result, when the time comes to name a new chief executive, those firms turn to outsiders. Both insider and outsider CEOs have strengths and weaknesses at the start. Insiders know the company and its people but are often blind to the need for radical change. Outsiders see the need for a new approach but can't make the necessary changes because they don't know the organization or industry sector well enough. What companies must do, then, is find a way to nurture what Bower calls inside-outsiders--internal candidates who have outside perspective. Often such executives have spent much of their time away from the mainstream of the organization, and away from headquarters, living with new opportunities and threats. Before becoming CEO, Procter & Gamble's A.G. Lafley, for instance, worked for years building P&G's Chinese operation rather than the core detergent business. IBM's Sam Palmisano was a champion of software and open systems at a time when Big Blue was essentially a closed-system, hardware-oriented company. To groom potential leaders, a development process for inside-outsiders needs to be in place. Ideally by the time they are 30 a talented manager can be given the opportunity to manage a whole business, so that they become good insiders. But they also need to be mentored with an eye toward preserving their outsider perspective, so they learn how to turn their new ideas into great businesses and are protected from senior managers who believe out-of-the-box thinkers need a lesson.

The new CEO of a small manufacturing firm pursues growth through the launch of Entrepreneurial Subsidiaries. While the firm grows revenues from $600 million to over $2 billion in 10 years, problems surface as the subsidiaries are integrated into the established business

Supplements the (A) case.

Senior executives have long been frustrated by the disconnection between the plans and strategies they devise and the actual behavior of the managers throughout the company. This article approaches the problem from the ground up, recognizing that every time a manager allocates resources, that decision moves the company either into or out of alignment with its announced strategy. A well-known story--Intel's exit from the memory business--illustrates this point. When discussing what businesses Intel should be in, Andy Grove asked Gordon Moore what they would do if Intel were a company that they had just acquired. When Moore answered, "Get out of memory," they decided to do just that. It turned out, though, that Intel's revenues from memory were by this time only 4% of total sales. Intel's lower-level managers had already exited the business. What Intel hadn't done was to shut down the flow of research funding into memory (which was still eating up one-third of all research expenditures); nor had the company announced its exit to the outside world. Because divisional and operating managers--as well as customers and capital markets--have such a powerful impact on the realized strategy of the firm, senior management might consider focusing less on the company's formal strategy and more on the processes by which the company allocates resources. Top managers must know the track record of the people who are making resource allocation proposals; recognize the strategic issues at stake; reach down to operational managers to work across division lines; frame resource questions to reflect the corporate perspective, especially when large sums of money are involved and conditions are highly uncertain; and create a new context that allows top executives to circumvent the regular resource allocation process when necessary.

Brainard, Bennis and Farrel is a short case designed to explore the challenge of establishing appropriate compensation from a general management/CEO perspective. Brainard (B) is a one-page handout that is designed to show how an already difficult problem is made more complex by situational context--the detailed personal and interpersonal relationships among key executives over time.

Supplements the (A) case. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Supplements the (A) case. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

The List is HBR's annual attempt to capture ideas in the state of becoming--when they're teetering between what one person suspects and what everyone accepts. Roderick M. Kramer says it isn't bad when leaders flip-flop. Julia Kirby describes new efforts to redefine the problem of organizational performance. Joseph L. Bower praises the "Velcro organization," where managerial responsibilities can be rearranged. Jeffrey F. Rayport argues that companies must refocus innovation on the "demand side." Eric Bonabeau describes a future in which computer-generated sound can be used to transmit vast amounts of data. Roger L. Martin says highly reliable corporate systems such as CRM tend to have little validity. Kirthi Kalyanam and Monte Zweben report that marketers are learning to contact customers at just the right moment. Robert C. Merton explains how equity swaps could help developing countries avoid some of the risk of boom and bust. Thomas A. Stewart says companies need champions of the status quo. Mohanbir Sawhney suggests marketing strategies for the blogosphere. Denise Caruso shows how to deal with risks that lack owners. Thomas H. Davenport says personal information management--how well we use our PDAs and PCs--is the next productivity frontier. Leigh Buchanan explores workplace taboos. Henry W. Chesbrough argues that the time is ripe for services science to become an academic field. Kenneth Lieberthal says China may change everyone's approach to intellectual property. Jochen Wirtz and Loizos Heracleous describe customer service apps for biometrics. Mary Catherine Bateson envisions a midlife sabbatical for workers. Jeffrey Rosen explains why one privacy policy won't fit everyone. Tihamer von Ghyczy and Janis Antonovics say firms should embrace parasites. And Jeffrey Pfeffer warns business-book buyers to beware. Additionally, HBR offers a list of intriguing business titles due out in 2005.

Supplements the (A) case.

The deal of the year in 2002, was the acquisition of Dresdner Bank by Allianz. Written from the perspectives of Allianz's CEO, Henning Schulte-Noelle, before and after the deal and a regional manager implementing the concept of a full-line financial service provider. Presents the original question facing Schulte-Noelle: "Should Allianz acquire Dresdner?"

Examines the acquisition of Dresdner Bank by Allianz--the deal of the year in 2002. Examines some of the challenges posed by the turnaround of Dresdner as seen by Michael Diekmann, the new CEO of Allianz. In working with Dresdner, Allianz needed to figure out what it meat to be a fully integrated financial service provider. Focuses on the development of the product line, the question of branding, the investment bank, and the organization.