Outgoing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg knows more than a thing or two about running huge, complicated organizations and digital media. So when he notes in a farewell interview that, thanks to social media, there's now "an instant referendum on everything; I think it's going to make governing more difficult," private sector managers better get nervous, too. The Arab Spring and other Twitter-credited uprisings get virtually all...

We are drawn to those who echo what it is we already believe. We get a dopamine rush when we are presented with confirming data similar to what we get when we eat chocolate or fall in love. On Facebook we defriend those with different political views to our own. On Twitter we follow people just like us. Yet a vast body of research now points to the...

What do billionaires have in common? What is it that they do better than anyone else? Why do we admire them, or their companies' products and services, so much? I've spent some time trying to identify common traits in the Forbes list of billionaires and other similar lists of the world's wealthiest. I'm particularly interested in finding patterns in the types of people whom I respect. It's less...

Whether we're looking at business or politics, sports or entertainment, it's clear we live in an era of self-celebration. Fame is equated with success, and being self-referential has become the norm. As a result we are encouraged to pump ourselves full of alarming self-confidence. Bluster and the alpha instinct, contends Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of business psychology, often get mistaken for ability and effectiveness (at least for a while)....

How important is innovation these days? Increasingly important, if one goes by the frequency of the word appearing during earnings calls that publicly traded companies have with investment analysts. In 2008, the word appeared 1,733 times in earnings calls for 435 large publicly traded companies. That's an average of about four mentions per company (Starbucks topped the list with 139 mentions). In the last four quarters where full...

Companies covered by larger numbers of analysts generate fewer patents, and the patents they produce have lower impact than those from other firms, according to an analysis by Jie (Jack) He of the University of Georgia and Xuan Tian of Indiana University. The findings suggest that analysts exert so much pressure on managers to meet short-term financial goals that they impede companies' investment in long-term projects, the researchers...

A good idea faces so many obstacles en route to market today that it's a wonder we have any innovative products at all. You know those baby sea turtles that get eaten by birds and crabs on their way from the nest to the water? It's like that. Corporations have narrowed the focus of their R&D by pressing for clear, short-term wins; venture capitalists are too quick to...

Because a pure idea is a beautiful thing, and seeing it get mauled as it struggles to become something real can be highly disappointing. It's painful to see your "bridge to the moon" end up as a mere woodshed. Welcome to HBR's new Insight Center: Beyond the Breakthrough: Executing on Innovation. This four-week series addresses the reality problem that always besets great ideas, and our thesis in curating...

Rafael Nadal, who just won the U.S. Open for the second time, is my hero. His athleticism is extraordinary. His focus is awe-inspiring. His skill is, clearly, second to none. His will is unremitting. It's a joy to watch him in competition. Yet those are not the reasons he's my hero. In fact, it wasn't until after he was finished playing in this year's final that he rose...

You've just received word that you've been fired. Or perhaps the company has gone through a re-structuring and eliminated your job — and you've been told that none of the managers you've worked with over the years have a position for you on their team. This comes as a shock to your system, especially if you've enjoyed a record of success up to this point in your career....

Chris spent years working for a supportive, encouraging manager at a major technology company headquartered in Silicon Valley. In fact, his boss raved about him. His manager gave him top ratings in his performance evaluations, space to do his work, and had never been controlling. He was, according to Chris, terribly, unswervingly nice. Picture perfect boss, right? Wrong. His manager had been in the company for 20 years....

Life is a series of negotiations. You negotiate all day, every day, from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep. Contract terms and conditions. Hiring, managing performance, and firing. Defining deadlines, scope, and deliverables. Collecting fees. Seeking alignment about business strategy. Enlisting stakeholders. Creating partnerships and joint ventures. Dissolving them. You make offers, counteroffers, and agreements to settle. You say yes. You say...