APRIL 2009
Departments
8 COMPANY INDEX
10 FROM THE EDITOR
16 STRATEGIC HUMOR
18 FORETHOUGHT
Are “great” companies just lucky?…The
link between employee happiness and
customer satisfaction is a myth…Health
institutions need deep change to realize
IT savings…How alliance experience can
undermine alliance performance…An overlooked energy source has huge potential…
The CEO of CARE sets out to increase its
clout…Improved survey techniques reveal
what customers really want…Tapping the
input of others boosts early innovation
success…Antisocial colleagues damage
employee productivity.
28 HEALTH & WELLNESS
Go Ahead, Have Regrets
Michael Craig Miller, MD
In this first in a series of articles created in
partnership with Harvard Health Publications, a Harvard psychiatry professor explores the upside of regret. There’s a reason
it’s been ranked the most valuable of the
negative emotions.
33 HBR CASE STUDY
Who Can Help the CEO?
Phil Terry
Eliot Robbens is the CEO of a two-year-old
spinout that hasn’t yet made good on its
ambitious financial projections. He’s just
lost his second sales VP, and the company’s
board will be meeting in a few days. Now
he’s frantically seeking advice – from an old
friend on the board, from a squash opponent, from his wife. None of them can provide any help. Commentary by Jaithirth Rao,
Susan J. Ashford, and Stephen J. Socolof.
43 DIFFEREN T VOICE
Leadership Lessons from
Abraham Lincoln
A Conversation with Historian
Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Pulitzer Prize winner who unleashed
the team-of-rivals concept talks about how
modern leaders can make it work.
48 2008 MCKINSEY AWARDS AND
2009 MCKINSE Y JUDGES
99 MANAGING YOURSELF
Decoding Resistance to Change
Jeffrey D. Ford and Laurie W. Ford
Resistance, properly understood as feedback, can be a valuable resource that helps
you implement change effectively. Here’s
the decoder you need to make that happen.
105 BEST PRACTICE
Getting Brand Communities Right
Susan Fournier and Lara Lee
Building a strong brand community with
your customers is not a task that can be left
to the marketing department. It requires
an organization-wide commitment to
understanding people’s needs, relinquishing control, and leveraging conflict. Not all
companies can pull it off. Can yours?
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112 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
120 PANEL DISCUSSION
Broken Trust 105
Don Moyer
In an economic crisis, when trust in the system and others is at a low ebb, your impulse
may be to hold your breath and wait for
something to happen. But that’s the worst
mistake you can make.
114 EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES
