The Change Masters: Innovations for Productivity in the American Corporation

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

A distinguished sociologist and consultant to many Fortune 500 companies provides in-depth case histories of consistently successful American concerns and analyzes the elements that contribute to a company's innovative energy and success

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Leadership, Entrepreneurship

Hardcover

First published March 15, 1985

About the author

Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. She is also Chair and Director of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative, an innovation that helps successful leaders at the top of their professions apply their skills to national and global challenges in their next life stage. A collaboration across all of Harvard, the Advanced Leadership Initiative aims to build a new leadership force for the world.

Her latest book, MOVE: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead, is a sweeping look across industries and technologies shaping the future of mobility and the leadership required for transformation. Her strategic and practical insights guide leaders of large and small organizations worldwide, through her teaching, writing, and direct consultation to major corporations and governments. The former chief Editor of Harvard Business Review, Professor Kanter has been repeatedly named to lists of the “50 most powerful women in the world” (Times of London), and the “50 most influential business thinkers in the world” (Thinkers 50). She has received 24 honorary doctoral degrees, as well as numerous leadership awards, lifetime achievement awards, and prizes. These include the Academy of Management’s Distinguished Career Award for scholarly contributions to management knowledge; the World Teleport Association's “Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year” award; the International Leadership Award from the Association of Leadership Professionals; and the Warren Bennis Award for Leadership Excellence.

She is the author or coauthor of 19 books. Her book The Change Masters was named one of the most influential business books of the 20th century (Financial Times). SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good, a manifesto for leadership of sustainable enterprises, was named one of the ten best business books of 2009 by Amazon.com. A related article, "How Great Companies Think Differently," received Harvard Business Review's 2011 McKinsey Award for the year's two best articles. Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End (a New York Times business bestseller and #1 Business Week bestseller), describes the culture of high-performance organizations compared with those in decline and shows how to lead turnarounds, whether in businesses, schools, sports teams, or countries. Men & Women of the Corporation, winner of the C. Wright Mills award for the best book on social issues and called a classic, offers insight into the individual and organizational factors that promote success or perpetuate disadvantage; a spin-off video, A Tale of ‘O’: On Being Different, is a widely-used tool for diversity training. A related book, Work & Family in the United States, set a policy agenda; later, a coalition of university centers created in her honor the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for the best research on work/family issues. Another award-winning book, When Giants Learn to Dance, showed how to master the new terms of competition at the dawn of the global information age. World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy identified the rise of new business networks and dilemmas of globalization, a theme she continues to pursue in her new book MOVE and the Harvard Business School U.S. Competitiveness Project.

Through her consulting arm, Goodmeasure Inc., she advises numerous CEOs and has partnered with IBM on applying her leadership tools from business to other sectors as a Senior Advisor for IBM’s Global Citizenship portfolio. She has served on many business and non-profit boards, such as City Year, the urban “Peace Corps” addressing the school dropout crisis through national service, and on a variety of national or regional commissions including the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors. She speaks widely, often sharing the platform with Presidents, Pr

Reviews

[Marta Dominguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this book in a note written by Peter Drucker in one of his books (Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and PrinciplesInnovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and PrinciplesInnovation and Entrepreneurship, highly recommended). I assumed that if Drucker had read it... it would be worth the try. Although I recognized some of the behaviours that project managers and bosses show in day-to-day work, the whole text didn´t resonate with me as true innovation. I think the book was written in the 80s when product management was a new thing. But nothing of that is at the core of what innovation stands for today.

In summary: read the book if you are a fresh guy to a corporation and want to know the politics of the job; don´t read this book if you are a entrepreneur or a manager who want to discover what innovation can do for you. (less)

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Change Masters by Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a study of how US industry needed to adapt or die and the strategies used by some of the biggest companies. This book covers strategies for project managers, leaders and how to do change from an institutional level. While older the lessons learned are still applicable today and if you are in the change filed this is a timeless classic

[Robert Bogue · Rating 4 out of 5]

My journey through change management work led me to The Change Masters in an indirect way. When I mentioned that I was writing a course on change management, and I listed off several of the authors’ works I was using in the course, my colleague mentioned that, years ago, they had learned change management from The Change Masters – but it was a book I hadn’t heard of and hadn’t heard people refer to. Like it frequently happens when books arrive in my consciousness this way, there are many useful nuggets.

Read more

[Alex Devero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Innovation requires decentralized power and more freedom for employees. Have your employees step outside their usual roles, while promoting openness and being honest about your company's history. Even if your employees have great ideas, they won't make a difference if your organization isn't structured to help them emerge.

[Kscarritt]

Although written in the eighties, reads as if written last year. Critical analysis of corporate organization

[Denise Mitnick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for Entrpreneurs.

[Don Gubler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kanter is very perceptive.

[Sally]

http://ideas.ted.com/2014/09/18/busin...