How Do You Attract The Best Executives?

By Professor Boris Groysberg, Harvard Business School and his research team Abstract: Executive loyalty and executive engagement drive company success. What are the factors that can in/decrease executive loyalty and engagement? How can you act on this? Professor Boris Groysberg at Harvard Business School has partnered with The Official Board to survey over 7,000 top… More

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Ten Words to Impress Your Data Scientist

Before there was “data science”, as most of us will recall, there was simply “data”. It was straightforward. The blossoming discipline of data science has emerged. Here are ten phrases that surround the hot new world of data science. 1. Do we have an alpha? Finding an “alpha” mostly refers to finding a formula for… More

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100 Executive Job Descriptions

Print or Save in PDF. “What’s in a name?” William Shakespeare famously asked in Romeo and Juliet. In today’s corporations, the more suitable question might be: “What’s in an executive job title?” The answer: Quite a lot. This document describes in a few words the 100 most popular executive jobs that we have found at the… More

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Five Tips for Designing an Executive Team

Large and fast-growing companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Netflix have invented new organizations and new ways of doing business. Their organizational structures and new approaches to business are reflected in the executive business titles that collectively define their organizational structures. These same titles are also promulgating within the 75,000+ company organizational charts that we… More

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Executive Job Trends for 2019

Of the ten most valuable U.S. companies, seven are technology-centric. Yet, while technology has become the first corporate change driver, it is not the only one. We recently completed an analysis of 280,000 executive moves at the world’s 75,000 largest companies over the past 12 months. Print or Save in PDF What we discovered is… More

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Lead Business Transformation

By Professor Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School and Susan Seligson. The British innovation strategist and author Max McKeown observed that “all failure is failure to adapt, all success is successful adaptation.” Those words could serve as a mantra for executives and companies seeking to stay relevant in a swiftly evolving global marketplace. Executive Summary When it… More

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Seven Skills to Succeed in the C-Suite

By Professor Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School and Susan Seligson. Integrity. Initiative. Self-confidence. Maturity. When it comes to staying relevant and at the top of their game, these were among the traits rated highest in importance in our sweeping survey of thousands of executives worldwide. And while there was variation among industries, most executives… More

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12 Emerging C-Level Positions

Print or Save in PDF On business cards  and on LinkedIn profiles too, business titles are the epicenter of the corporate ladder of power and professional recognition. When new business titles emerge, they are likely to be much more than mere semantics. More commonly, they reveal deeper shifts in corporate strategies and directions. We have observed that 12 C-level… More

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Resolving to Stay Relevant in 2018

By Professor Boris Groysberg, Sarah Abbott, and Katherine Connolly Baden, of Harvard Business School. Over seven thousand executives from 145 countries recently responded to a survey about maintaining the relevance of their skills. We distributed the survey in partnership with The Official Board, a global corporate directory of the medium and large companies; the survey data… More

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21 Hacks for Your Business Intelligence

The earliest known use of the term “Business Intelligence” (BI) dates back to 1865.  It was found in the Cyclopædia of Commercial and Business Anecdotes. The author used the term to describe how an English trader gained profit by receiving and acting upon information prior to his competitors. Today, while BI is booming, this is… More

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Seven Things to Know About Data Management

I have just returned from the NOAH17 Conference. During the two-day conference at Berlin’s Tempodrom, hundreds of CEOs and founders from established champions and emerging disruptors across industries shared tips and trends in their respective digital initiatives. I am grateful to Justus Lumpe and Marco Rodzynek for inviting me to speak on the topic of data management and for organizing such… More

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The Embrace of Human Resources Analytics

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,” business management icon Peter Drucker is quoted as saying. Identifying, developing and measuring vital business metrics are the starting point and foundation business improvement processes. All of this is no less true in human resources, where functions have only become more complex. Human resources executives are… More

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Charting a Path to the Boardroom

By Yo-Jud Cheng Doctoral Student at Harvard Business School, and Boris Groysberg Professor at Harvard Business School. Print or Download Board directorships provide an intellectual challenge for directors and an opportunity to not only share expertise but to also gain new insights. For many high-potential executives, a board directorship marks the next frontier of career advancement… More

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HR and Marketing Synergies Grow

Large companies throughout the world are increasingly focused on developing their brand not just with prospective customers, but also with existing employees. To develop and communicate an “employer brand”, corporate human resources executives are leveraging many of the tools traditionally managed by marketing departments–social media, internal communications and advertising. Because human resources departments may lack the… More

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The Best BtoB Sales Triggers

Business to business (BtoB) customers typically search the web before contacting a potential supplier. One would think that this would accelerate the BtoB selling cycle, but experience shows that just the opposite is happening. Why is this? When some steps in the selling process are shortened, others are lengthened because customers are assessing their options… More

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Seizing Sales Triggers

There is perhaps no greater opportunity for a business than reaching the right person with the right message at the right time. But how do we know when the sales stars are aligned? When events are unfolding with prospects, experienced sales people know that their prospects are more likely to quickly place an order.  Such… More

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Twenty Trends Driving Change in Human Resources

  In our ongoing conversations with hundreds of senior executives around the world, we can’t help but notice the obvious: Big, sweeping changes are underway in the global economy—and they are impacting the human resources profession in an equally big way. We see at least twenty prominent trends impacting hiring, engagement, talent management and organization… More

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Four Board Challenges Unveiled in Harvard Research Survey

How can boards function more effectively? And what role can board members play in supporting the strategic objectives of the firms they oversee? Harvard Business School Professor Boris Groysberg and doctoral student Jocelin Yo-Jud Cheng along several research partners (listed below) are conducting a survey that will help us answer these very questions. Their preliminary analyses… More

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What 2016 Has in Store for Executive Recruitment

Nearly three months into 2016, there is every reason to believe this will be a critical year for the executive recruitment industry.  The industry is rapidly adjusting to new realities in the world’s evolving economic realities and leveraging emerging opportunities in technology and social media.  At least seven trends are driving change in executive recruiting:… More

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