Product Description

The Harvard Business Review Paperback Series is designed to bring today's managers and professionals the fundamental information they need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world. From the preeminent thinkers whose work has defined an entire field to the rising stars who will redefine the way we think about business, here are the leading minds and landmark ideas that have established the Harvard Business Review as required reading for ambitious businesspeople in organizations around the globe.

The business environment has become increasingly precarious, thus raising the stakes for nearly every managerial move. This cutting edge collection includes articles on how to lead in a downturn economy, overcome a growth crisis, stay resilient through difficult periods, and more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #283804 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
The Series: Harvard Business Review is a brand name recognized throughout the world. The volumes cover "hot" topics and perennial favorites. Books help readers understand the fundamental issues, concerns, and controversies associated with each of the respective topics. Readers can use the books to brush up on the latest, best thinking or to address a particular need in their organizations.

Customer Reviews

The enduring common denominator....Leadership
When I was offered a chance to review a book on leadership I knew my father would be interested. As a retired military commander now in the business world his perspective is two-fold. Here is a brief look on what he thought of the Harvard Business review pinpointing on leading in turbulent times.

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The importance of quality leadership is the main thread woven throughout the eight articles of "Leading in Turbulent Times". Although this collection of essays was published in 2003 and mostly refers to the economic challenges from the beginning of the decade, the principles of leadership remain the same today. Many readers may miss the main theme as they attempt to compare our current recession to that of the past and dismiss many of the contributing author's thoughts on business leadership.

It is clear when you read this book that an understanding of our economic past and the poor leadership decisions made will help to avoid making the same mistakes again. Whether you are a manager, executive, or an up and coming employee, this book from the Harvard Business Review series will offer an insight to handling the real challenges of leadership. Setting a course to reach the company's vision for the future, rightsizing and layoffs, anticipating and preparing for volatile markets, understanding resiliency in people and organizations, and understanding your core competencies and seizing opportunities is explained in easy to understand and focused language.

A Mixed Bag
This is a difficult book to review as it comprises a collection of articles written by different authors, culminating in a mixed bag of excellent to confusing advice on managing through turbulent times.

In "Moving Upward in a Downturn", Mr. Darrell Rigby offers excellent advice on bucking the conventional wisdom to diversify during a downturn to "hedge your bets". "Successful downturn managers avoid diversification, and concentrate as many resources as possible on playing to win on their main field of competition." Mr. Rigby also believes many executives overreact to alarming economic trends by laying off workers en masse. The prevailing tendency to layoff staff is largely unnecessary, especially given that turnover rates in the U.S. average 15%-20% annually.

While Adrian Slywotzky's and Richard Wise's idea of leveraging hidden assets as a new source of growth is refreshing ("The Growth Crisis - and How to Escape It"), their stated objective of sustained double digit annual growth is unrealistic and ignorant of mitigating circumstances such as slow growth (utilities) or declining industries, company size (can a company the size of Microsoft possibly grow in the double digits indefinitely?), and industries dependent on government funding (health insurance for seniors) to name a few.

"Patching: Restitching Business Portfolios in Dynamic Markets", by Kathleen M. Eisenhardt and Shona L. Brown. This was a whopper of a confusing article. The authors define "Patching" as "mapping and remapping business units to create a shifting mix of highly focused, tightly aligned businesses that can respond to changing market opportunities." Any business strategy whereby its executioner has to "balance on the edge of chaos" is a recipe for disaster. Furthermore, the authors' requirements for the right infrastructure to facilitate patching have an unforgiving margin of error as well.

On balance, there are enough well written articles supported by case studies to make this version of the HBR publication well worth the time spent reading. 3.5 stars.

Critical Reading for Today's Manager
Harvard Business Review is one of the finest periodicals on management thought, leadership and strategy. HBR took its finest articles from its best authors and compiled a series of paperbacks on topical subjects. This book is one of thouse, and although Leading in Turbulent Times was first published in 2003, but don't let that influence your purchase decision.

The 8 articles contained in the book generally date from the late 1990's and earlt 2000's, and were initially written in response to the bursting of the tech bubble and subsequent economic recession. The lessons learned then about management, psychology, strategy and leadership may have been convenienetly forgotten by most of us over the last 8 years of economic prosperity, but are well covered in this book.

In particular, the articles by David James on troubled company turn arounds and Joseph Badaracco on leadership were enyojable and timeless. Other articles on taking advantage of a crisis for positive change and on strategies for surviving and thriving in all business cycles were extremely insightful as well.

If you are responsible for managing or leading in an organization that has been impacted by the current economic times, you will find this book on point, topical and extremely useful. I highly reccommend it, and the entire series, to anyone interested in management, leadership, strategy or best practices. You will not be disappointed.