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Agriculture is not what it used to be. Neither is coverage of the industry by news organizations. A century ago, about 40% of the U.S. population lived on the farm, and one in three U.S. jobs was tied to agriculture. It made sense for daily newspapers to cover farming and to write for farmers. But now, less than 2% of the U.S. population lives on the farm, and a similarly small percentage of U.S. employment stems from agriculture. News organizations face a quandary: Covering agriculture for farmers no longer makes sense, and reporters must cover the industry differently. The question is how? In addition, the genetic revolution has created an agriceutical system, and the functions performed and the people performing have all changed. Unfortunately, news editors are not knowledgeable enough to understand the significance of this change and inform their readers about it. This case addresses how to change this perception.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Because software is an increasingly pervasive part of the New Economy, delegating decisions about its development to technical staff can be risky for executives. Today's general manager needs to have a good grasp of the most effective methods for developing and deploying software products and services throughout the organization. Research conducted by the author and colleagues proves a growingly accepted theory about software development: The best process is an evolutionary one. Focusing on the area of Internet software development, the researchers uncovered four practices that lead to success: early release of the evolving product design to customers, daily incorporation of new software code and rapid feedback on design changes, a team with broad-based experience in shipping multiple projects, and major investments in the design of the product architecture. Among the development projects cited are Linux, the poster child of the open-source movement, and Internet Explorer 3.0. In environments with rapidly changing markets and technologies, the usefulness of the evolutionary model extends beyond developing software. By dividing tasks into microprojects, a company can tailor the model to reflect any context. In more mature environments, companies can specify more of the product design upfront, use longer microprojects, and develop greater functionality before feedback is needed. Flexibility is key.

Virtually everyone in the field of leadership studies can agree on the greatness of two or maybe three titles. But because it's axiomatic that leadership is contextual, there is no top ten list of books whose supremacy and currency are self-evident. Here, leadership scholar Barbara Kellerman presents a list of works that form an exception to the general rule that leadership is inseparable from context. In a field of study that is almost obsessively particular, these books are universal. Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt; The Functions of the Executive by Chester Barnard; On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle; Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Civilization and Its Discontents, and Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud; The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan; The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay; Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.; and The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.

If leadership is personal, then personal experience must hold some of the most valuable lessons in leadership. With that in mind, HBR's editors canvassed leaders in business, academia, and the arts, asking them to tell us about the experiences that taught them the most about leadership at its best--and worst. Each of the 17 responses was unique, of course, but some common threads emerged. Many of those we asked credited one or both parents with teaching them principles of good leadership. Several cited their own lapses as examples of bad leadership. Some leaders were transformed by experiences in the military or on the playing fields of school. Others found defining moments in the social movements of the 1960s. The leaders canvassed include Disney CEO Michael Eisner, former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy, director of NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute Francis Collins, and Semco owner Ricardo Semler. Ultimately, what all of these stories demonstrate is that the act of leadership is just that--action. It's about showing, not telling, and setting the right example.

You've heard about the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace--that there's an incontrovertible link between executives' emotional maturity, exemplified by such capabilities as self-awareness and empathy, and their financial performance. Now, new research extends that base. Drawing on two years of research, the authors contend that the leader's mood and his or her attendant behaviors have enormous effects on bottom-line performance. Accordingly, top executives' primal task is emotional leadership. In other words, before leaders can turn to setting strategy, fixing budgets, or hiring staff, they must first attend to the impact of their moods and behaviors. To help them do that, the authors introduce a five-step process of self-reflection and planning. Executives should ask themselves: Who do I want to be? Who am I now? How do I get from here to there? How do I make change stick? And who can help me? Working through this process will help leaders determine how their emotional leadership is driving the moods and actions of their organizations and how to adjust their behavior accordingly.

Executives are busy people. They have too much to do and certainly too much to read. Yet, judging from the books and magazines they buy, executives are never too time pressed or information saturated to learn more about leadership. In this roundtable, six experts from the corporate world, the nonprofit sector, and academia tackle tough questions about leadership. The discussion, which began with what leaders ought to do, touched on three common themes: the need to formulate and communicate a vision for an organization; the need for a leader to add value to an enterprise; and an organizational imperative for a leader to motivate followers. Conversation then turned to how leaders ought to lead, focusing on topics such as the leadership role of the generalist in organizations and the need to remain calm and decisive in a crisis. Reflecting their widely varying backgrounds, the participants drew on their experiences to help them drive home their views on developing new leaders, rewarding extraordinary effort, and keeping organizations focused on their missions.

Leadership is different from management, but not for the reasons most people think. Leadership isn't mystical and mysterious. It has nothing to do with having "charisma" or other exotic personality traits. It is not the province of a chosen few. Nor is leadership necessarily better than management or a replacement for it. Rather, leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action. Each has its own function and characteristic activities. Both are necessary for success in today's business environment. Management is about coping with complexity. Its practices and procedures are largely a response to the emergence of large, complex organizations in the twentieth century. Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change. Part of the reason it has become so important in recent years is that the business world has become more competitive and more volatile. More change always demands more leadership. Most U.S. corporations today are over-managed and under-led. They need to develop their capacity to exercise leadership. Successful corporations don't wait for leaders to come along. They actively seek out people with leadership potential and expose them to career experiences designed to develop that potential. Indeed, with careful selection, nurturing, and encouragement, dozens of people can play important leadership roles in a business organization. But while improving their ability to lead, companies should remember that strong leadership with weak management is no better, and is sometimes actually worse, than the reverse. The real challenge is to combine strong leadership and strong management and use each to balance the other.

We can't examine breakthrough leadership without acknowledging that it exists as part of a duality; leaders forge relationships with followers. So what do those followers want and need from their leaders? They're looking for significance, community, and excitement--or the deal is off.

AT&T once dominated virtually all U.S. telecommunications sectors. In 1984, AT&T was broken up into a new AT&T and seven operating companies, known as RBOCs (regional Bell operating companies) or Baby Bells. This case focuses on the period from 1984 to 2000, during which time AT&T went through a series of tumultuous changes. AT&T acquired, and then divested, the computer company NCR. AT&T bought McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. for almost $12 billion. AT&T spun off its equipment division into a new company called Lucent. AT&T invested more than $100 billion to acquire various cable television assets. Finally, in 2000, AT&T announced a sweeping restructuring plan that would break the company up into separates wireless, broadband, business long distance, and consumer long distance companies.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Describes the major phases of an initiative designed to transform the organization and enhance patient safety. Raises interesting questions about how to encourage candid discussion about failures while continuing to hold people accountable for their performance.

French utility, Vivendi, purchased the United States-based entertainment giant Universal in late 2000. In so doing, the rechristened Vivendi Universal became a major force in music, films, and television production, adding to its European-based cable television and telecommunications assets. By the end of 2001, Vivendi Universal was betting on continued convergence of distribution channels to knit together an international entertainment conglomerate. Its plans would put Vivendi Universal in direct competition with established entertainment giants such as Disney, Viacom, and the merged AOL Time Warner.

The partners of CompleteScript.com, an Internet-based automated prescription filling service, have to decide whether to continue developing their innovative service themselves, to escalate the project with the help of venture capital or to sell the business. One of the partners knew they would need to create a solid plan with a clear strategy and cost structure to prepare for any of the options.

After a decade of economic weakness, the doors of Japan Inc. are opening for outsiders. In fact, research shows that foreign acquirers now have considerable advantages over domestic acquirers. Here's how companies can seize those advantages.

In May 2000, Bob Eckert sat on a plane bound for the West Coast and thought to himself, "What have I done?" He was about to become CEO of Mattel, a struggling company in an industry he knew nothing about. And he was facing unrealistic expectations not only from Wall Street but also from Mattel's 30,000 employees, who hoped for an effective leader yet feared sweeping change. How did this former CEO of Kraft Foods address employees' anxiety, gain their trust, and start to turn Mattel around? By using the concept of "mealtime." When people gather together to share a meal, they are nourished in both body and spirit. They become face-to-face equals who exchange opinions, ask questions, receive answers, and share ideas. Eckert knew that he had to build brands and cut costs, but he found that the most crucial and challenging task was to make others comfortable enough to share their metaphorical meals with him. And he found that his favorite place to share these metaphorical--and actual--meals was the employee cafeteria. To make each meal a success, Eckert practiced what he calls "setting the table," which means preparing the atmosphere for honest dialogue by drawing on a set of tools--utensils, if you will--designed to quell apprehension. These include naming the source of tension and calling for honesty; deferring, when appropriate, to the other person's realm of expertise; and recognizing common experience. In this article, Eckert tells the story of his first steps from food guy to toy guy and describes what it takes to fit into the strange new world of another company.

It's bad enough to lose a trusted employee who works well within your organization, but when you lose a star performer who has built up strong customer relationships, something else is at stake: The star's customers may also walk out the door. In a two-year study of more than 200 people from 57 companies, Neeli Bendapudi and Robert Leone found that most strategies to keep customers when stars leave are largely ineffective because they grow out of a company's perspective, not a customer's. The authors asked customers how they felt and discovered three main concerns. First, customers can become attached to a particular key contact employee, and if that person leaves, they wonder whether service will suffer. You can forge a broader relationship by ensuring that customers interact with many employees, using techniques like deploying teams, rotating staff, and offering one-stop shopping. Second, customers fear that a replacement won't be as good as the employee who left. You can combat this by stressing the quality of all your employees--not just superstars. Publicize your hiring practices, training, and employees' achievements. Third, customers want information about the changeover and how you will manage the transition. Communicate the identity of a replacement in advance of a departure, and have the outgoing employee introduce the new person. Addressing all areas of customer concern in concert tells customers that you value their business and that you deserve to keep it. In the article, the authors also include a scorecard to rate your company on how well you are protecting customer relationships when employee turnover occurs.

When you think of UPS, what comes to mind? Most likely, you conjure up images of brown delivery vans, but this $30 billion company is much more than a package delivery carrier. Since its founding in 1907, UPS has continually broadened its territory, its offerings, and its mission to better serve a changing marketplace. Today, it employs over 360,000 people and operates in some 200 countries and territories. In this interview, CEO Jim Kelly--who began his UPS career 37 years ago as a driver--talks candidly about the challenges of trying to grow such a huge, mature business. He explains the company's focus on international expansion: "Going forward, the rest of the world offers more growth opportunity than the United States because we have a long way to go to achieve the same density abroad that we have domestically." And he discusses how UPS chooses which new business streams to pursue. To move forward, Kelly says, UPS has had to recast its mission: UPS enables global commerce not just by delivering packages but by facilitating the worldwide flow of information and funds as well. His biggest problem, he admits, has been giving UPS employees the confidence to take on all that new territory. He talks about how he helped foster a new self-image as a company of innovators, undaunted by an uncertain world. Once UPSers reflected on the many changes the company had undergone--from a local messenger service to a common-carrier wholesale business to an airline offering next-day deliveries to a logistics management and finance business--they developed, as Kelly puts it, a sense of, "Yeah, it's new and it's different...but that's okay. We've done that successfully for many years."

The (A) case describes the situation of Cadbury Schweppes (CS) and its sugar confectionery business, in a state of 'satisfactory underperformance' in which past strategies and practices make it hard for new management to initiate change in this widely respected company. The (B) case shows how from 1997 to 1999 John Sunderland, the new CEO and a new divisional manager used value based management (VBM) as a vehicle for transforming respectively the company and the sugar confectionery division with strong emphasis on people and leadership practices. The (C) case describes how CS' performance management system was redesigned in line with the Managing for Value (MfV) philosophy. It illustrates the new management performance process in action in the beverages business in Spain, where the country manager is faced with major competitive challenges.

The (A) case describes the situation of Cadbury Schweppes (CS) and its sugar confectionery business, in a state of 'satisfactory underperformance' in which past strategies and practices make it hard for new management to initiate change in this widely respected company. The (B) case shows how from 1997 to 1999 John Sunderland, the new CEO and a new divisional manager used value based management (VBM) as a vehicle for transforming respectively the company and the sugar confectionery division with strong emphasis on people and leadership practices. The (C) case describes how CS' performance management system was redesigned in line with the Managing for Value (MfV) philosophy. It illustrates the new management performance process in action in the beverages business in Spain, where the country manager is faced with major competitive challenges.