Bob Antice is well-loved and famously connected in the music industry. For decades he was a star-the most successful salesman in the company's history, friend and mentor to generations of performers, and a sought-after speaker at industry events. Bob's work from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s put Powerful on top: The company outsold all its competitors for eight straight years in the 1980s. And when he wasn't finding new ways to sell records, Bob was discovering new performers the label's talent-and-repertoire staff had somehow missed. But now his sales are flagging, and the label's CEO wants him out. Bob's current manager isn't sure that what he offers as a mentor and a public face for Powerful is relevant in the age of iPads, Shazam, and Live Nation. Still, Bob has an important personal relationship with the label's most important performer. Should he stay or should he go? Two commentaries are attached to the case, one from Peter Cappelli and Bill Novelli, the authors of Managing the Older Worker, and the other from Tamara J. Erickson, the author of "Retire Retirement" and "What's Next, Gen X?"

Bob Antice is well-loved and famously connected in the music industry. For decades he was a star-the most successful salesman in the company's history, friend and mentor to generations of performers, and a sought-after speaker at industry events. Bob's work from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s put Powerful on top: The company outsold all its competitors for eight straight years in the 1980s. And when he wasn't finding new ways to sell records, Bob was discovering new performers the label's talent-and-repertoire staff had somehow missed. But now his sales are flagging, and the label's CEO wants him out. Bob's current manager isn't sure that what he offers as a mentor and a public face for Powerful is relevant in the age of iPads, Shazam, and Live Nation. Still, Bob has an important personal relationship with the label's most important performer. Should he stay or should he go? Two commentaries are attached to the case in R1009M and included in R1009Z, one from Peter Cappelli and Bill Novelli, the authors of Managing the Older Worker, and the other from Tamara J. Erickson, the author of "Retire Retirement" and "What's Next, Gen X?"

Generation X employees will bring a new sensibility to the leadership of corporations, precisely because they are broadly dissatisfied with corporate life. Alternative thinkers with a strong streak of realism, they're ready to take charge-by leading differently. Gen Xers grew up during times of major restructuring, and many of them reject status-quo definitions of success, such as climbing the corporate ladder, in favor of work/life balance. This point of view equips them to engage in five context-creating leadership activities that are well suited for today: fostering collaborative capacity; asking compelling questions; embracing complexity and welcoming disruptive information; actively shaping corporate (collective) identity; and appreciating diversity. Xers may feel like underappreciated workhorses, squeezed between two much larger cohorts: Baby Boomers and the twenty-something members of Generation Y. And they worry that management jobs will skip a generation because Boomers and Gen Y share a natural kinship. But if we give them the chance to lead as their time arrives, their affinity for realism over idealism will serve modern corporations extremely well.

Josh Lewis, a young staffer at Rising Entertainment, is frustrated because his boss, marketing chief Sarah Bennett, won't listen to his ideas about using new media to promote films. She's trapped in the 1990s, he thinks, when people actually watched network TV! Rushing through his assignment for a team presentation, he works up a plan and pitches it to the CEO in the hallway. The CEO loves it, but Sarah is upset with Josh for going over her head - and submitting subpar work on the presentation. How can these members of two different generations work together effectively? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0902B and R0902Z. Clashes between impatient Generation Y and pay-your-dues Generation X are inevitable but certainly manageable, says Ron Alsop, author of The Trophy Kids Grow Up. For starters, Sarah should reprimand Josh for bypassing her; he should respect her authority and work with her, not around her. But Sarah must address Josh's frustrations. Like many Gen Yers, he wants to know that his work is meaningful, and he needs constructive feedback on suggestions. Enterprise Rent-A-Car president Pamela Nicholson says that given the CEO's enthusiasm, Sarah should commend Josh's initiative but remind him to keep her in the loop. Sarah and Josh also might be able to forge a more productive relationship if Rising Entertainment set up training and feedback programs to help integrate Gen Yers into the workforce, as Enterprise has. Jim Miller, an executive VP at General Tool & Supply, thinks Josh put his team in jeopardy by doing his assigned tasks poorly. Sarah needs to coach him on being a team player and set clear expectations about performance and communication. However, she could have done a much better job of validating his good idea - perhaps by asking him to spearhead some experiments for the group.

Josh Lewis, a young staffer at Rising Entertainment, is frustrated because his boss, marketing chief Sarah Bennett, won't listen to his ideas about using new media to promote films. She's trapped in the 1990s, he thinks, when people actually watched network TV! Rushing through his assignment for a team presentation, he works up a plan and pitches it to the CEO in the hallway. The CEO loves it, but Sarah is upset with Josh for going over her head - and submitting subpar work on the presentation. How can these members of two different generations work together effectively? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0902B and R0902Z. Clashes between impatient Generation Y and pay-your-dues Generation X are inevitable but certainly manageable, says Ron Alsop, author of The Trophy Kids Grow Up. For starters, Sarah should reprimand Josh for bypassing her; he should respect her authority and work with her, not around her. But Sarah must address Josh's frustrations. Like many Gen Yers, he wants to know that his work is meaningful, and he needs constructive feedback on suggestions. Enterprise Rent-A-Car president Pamela Nicholson says that given the CEO's enthusiasm, Sarah should commend Josh's initiative but remind him to keep her in the loop. Sarah and Josh also might be able to forge a more productive relationship if Rising Entertainment set up training and feedback programs to help integrate Gen Yers into the workforce, as Enterprise has. Jim Miller, an executive VP at General Tool & Supply, thinks Josh put his team in jeopardy by doing his assigned tasks poorly. Sarah needs to coach him on being a team player and set clear expectations about performance and communication. However, she could have done a much better job of validating his good idea - perhaps by asking him to spearhead some experiments for the group.

Josh Lewis, a young staffer at Rising Entertainment, is frustrated because his boss, marketing chief Sarah Bennett, won't listen to his ideas about using new media to promote films. She's trapped in the 1990s, he thinks, when people actually watched network TV! Rushing through his assignment for a team presentation, he works up a plan and pitches it to the CEO in the hallway. The CEO loves it, but Sarah is upset with Josh for going over her head - and submitting subpar work on the presentation. How can these members of two different generations work together effectively? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0902B and R0902Z. Clashes between impatient Generation Y and pay-your-dues Generation X are inevitable but certainly manageable, says Ron Alsop, author of The Trophy Kids Grow Up. For starters, Sarah should reprimand Josh for bypassing her; he should respect her authority and work with her, not around her. But Sarah must address Josh's frustrations. Like many Gen Yers, he wants to know that his work is meaningful, and he needs constructive feedback on suggestions. Enterprise Rent-A-Car president Pamela Nicholson says that given the CEO's enthusiasm, Sarah should commend Josh's initiative but remind him to keep her in the loop. Sarah and Josh also might be able to forge a more productive relationship if Rising Entertainment set up training and feedback programs to help integrate Gen Yers into the workforce, as Enterprise has. Jim Miller, an executive VP at General Tool & Supply, thinks Josh put his team in jeopardy by doing his assigned tasks poorly. Sarah needs to coach him on being a team player and set clear expectations about performance and communication. However, she could have done a much better job of validating his good idea - perhaps by asking him to spearhead some experiments for the group.

"What best practice challenges the conventional wisdom about what to do in a downturn?" We put that question to our team of management bloggers at harvardbusiness.org. This article provides an edited selection of their provocative responses.

Our annual survey of ideas and trends that will make an impact on business: Stan Stalnaker heralds a peer-to-peer economy in which consumers become consumer-producers. Tamara J. Erickson dissects the expectations of Gen Y workers. Dr. Jerome Groopman writes a prescription for avoiding misdiagnoses in decision making. Michael Sheehan warns not to resort to the tools of competition when it's really opposition that threatens your company. John J. Medina conceives of a brain-friendly workplace that applies modern science to daily performance. Dan Ariely studies the minds of "honest" people when they cheat. Paul Root Wolpe and Daniel D. Langleben share truths about technologically sophisticated lie detection. Scott Berinato shines a light on the cybercrime service economy. Mark Kuznicki, Eli Singer, and Jay Goldman showcase Toronto, where a technology-driven event led to real social change. John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas argue that online games are preparing the twenty-first-century workforce. Jane McGonigal calls alternate reality games the promising new operating systems for real-world business. Miklos Sarvary mines the history of broadcasting for wisdom about competing in the metaverses of the internet. Judith Donath asks how true to yourself you'll be in the virtual world. Jan Chipchase surveys the soon-to-be-charted territory of metadata trails. Lew McCreary points a finger at people who blame technology for their bad behavior. Jaime Lerner sees the city of the future in a turtle's shell. David Vogel catalogs the advantages of socially responsible lobbying. George Pohle lets the numbers prove the mass-market promise of China's second-tier cities. Aamir A. Rehman and S. Nazim Ali discuss the boom in sharia-compliant finance. Michael J. Mauboussin identifies the shrinking domain in which experts are the best problem solvers. Garrett Gruener reveals his list of sustainable and unsustainable trends.

Executing complex initiatives like acquisitions or an IT overhaul requires a breadth of knowledge that can be provided only by teams that are large, diverse, virtual, and composed of highly educated specialists. The irony is, those same characteristics have an alarming tendency to decrease collaboration on a team. What's a company to do? Gratton, a London Business School professor, and Erickson, president of the Concours Institute, studied 55 large teams and identified those with strong collaboration despite their complexity. Examining the team dynamics and environment at firms ranging from Royal Bank of Scotland to Nokia to Marriott, the authors isolated eight success factors: (1) "signature" relationship practices that build bonds among the staff, in memorable ways that are particularly suited to a company's business; (2) role models of collaboration among executives, which help cooperation trickle down to the staff; (3) the establishment of a "gift culture," in which managers support employees by mentoring them daily, instead of a transactional "tit-for-tat culture;" (4) training in relationship skills, such as communication and conflict resolution; (5) a sense of community, which corporate HR can foster by sponsoring group activities; (6) ambidextrous leadership, or leaders who are both task-oriented and relationship-oriented; (7) good use of heritage relationships, by populating teams with members who know and trust one another; (8) role clarity and task ambiguity, achieved by defining individual roles sharply but giving teams latitude on approach. As teams have grown from a standard of 20 members to comprise 100 or more, team practices that once worked well no longer apply. The new complexity of teams requires companies to increase their capacity for collaboration by making long-term investments that build relationships and trust, and smart near-term decisions about how teams are formed and run.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In studying teams at large companies in Europe and the United States, finds that diversity and complexity are becoming the rule. Diverse teams bring to bear a range of experiences and attitudes to tackle companies' hardest challenges. Paradoxically, however, the very nature of team diversity often creates conditions that reduce teams' innovative capacity. Illustrates many failures in collaboration and knowledge-sharing that resulted from faultlines--subgroups or coalitions that emerge naturally within teams, typically along demographic lines such as age, gender, and functional background, yet finds that some teams were able to collaborate and share knowledge despite the presence of faultlines. A defining factor was the behavior of the team leader and, in particular, the extent to which the leader was task-oriented or relationship-oriented. Where it is likely strong faultlines will emerge, many leaders tend to encourage team members to come together. However, simple socializing can make people's differences more apparent and cause faultlines to solidify. Recommends that leaders vary their leadership style according to how long a team has been together and outlines four steps for successful functioning of diverse teams: leaders should diagnose the likely extent of faultlines in a new team; focus on task orientation when a team is newly formed; consider when a switch in leadership style would be most appropriate; and finally, build a relationship-oriented style. Switching from task orientation to relationship orientation will be successful only when a team has developed a clear protocol for communication and coordination and an established operational structure.

What distinguishes a company that has deeply engaged and committed employees from another one that doesn't? It's not a certain compensation scheme or talent-management practice. Instead, it's the ability to express to current and potential employees what makes the organization unique. Companies with highly engaged employees articulate their values and attributes through "signature experiences"--visible, distinctive elements of the work environment that send powerful messages about the organization's aspirations and about the skills, stamina, and commitment employees will need in order to succeed there. Whole Foods Market, for example, uses a team-based hiring and orientation process to convey to new employees the company's emphasis on collaboration and decentralization. At JetBlue, the reservation system is run by agents from their homes, a signature experience that boosts employees' satisfaction and productivity. Companies that successfully create and communicate signature experiences understand that not all workers want the same things. Indeed, employee preferences are an important but often overlooked factor in the war for talent. Firms that have engendered productive and engaged workforces address those preferences by following some general principles: They target potential employees as methodically as they target potential customers; they shape their signature experiences to address business needs; they identify and preserve their histories; they share stories--not just slogans--about life in the firm; they create processes consistent with their signature experiences; and they understand that they shouldn't try to be all things to all people. The best strategy for coming out ahead in the war for talent is not to scoop up everyone in sight but to attract the right people--those who are intrigued and excited by the environment the company offers and who will reward it with their loyalty.