Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

How I Did It: Lessons from the Front Lines of Business

Rate this book
Powerful stories from the world’s top CEOs to help prepare you for the hard decisions ahead. The essays in How I Did It teach and inspire. Pulled directly from the pages of one of the most popular columns in Harvard Business Review , these essays offer firsthand accounts of the most difficult management challenges faced by the men and women who occupy the corner office. It’s the next best thing to sitting down and talking face-to-face with these corporate leaders. You’ll hear from renowned global leaders

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

17 people are currently reading
173 people want to read

About the author

Harvard Business Publishing

325 books795 followers
Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) is a publisher founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, independent corporation and an affiliate of Harvard Business School (distinct from Harvard University Press), with a focus on improving business management practices. The company offers articles, books, case studies, simulations, videos, learning programs, and digital tools to organizations and subscribers.
HBP consists of three market units: Education, Corporate Learning, and Harvard Business Review Group. Their offering consists of print and digital media (Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review Press books, Harvard Business School cases), events, digital learning (Harvard ManageMentor, HMM Spark), blended learning, and campus experiences.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
15 (23%)
4 stars
32 (50%)
3 stars
12 (18%)
2 stars
5 (7%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Profile Image for Ahmed.
639 reviews19 followers
July 17, 2020
مجموعه من المقالات عن تجارب رؤساء تنفيذيين و أصحاب القرار في عالم الأعمال، تبين نجاح او اخفاق التجارب
و لا تحدد اذا كانت صحيحة او خاطئة بقدر عرض المشهد العام لشركات و الأدوات اللتي استعانوا بها في مواجهة الازمات
تتنوع التجارب من شركات التكنلوجيا الى المصانع و الشركات التقليدية
كتاب يصلح بقراءة مقال واحد يومياً للاستفادة التجارب في الحياة العملية
Profile Image for Lyndell.
41 reviews
August 14, 2015
How I Did It is a compilation of 34 first person stories of CEO’s of leading American corporations who tell of real business challenges they encountered and how they dealt with them. Originally written as a series of articles for the Harvard Business Review, the stories have now been complied into a single 336 page book divided into six sections: Picking the Right People, Building the Right Culture, Telling the Right Story, Growing around the World, Doing Smart Deals and Finding a Strategy that Works. Each section consists of four to seven stories with unique lessons grouped under the respective general theme.
The CEO’s represent a wide cross section of corporate America - including well-known names such as Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric, Bill Marriott of Marriott International, Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Eric Schmidt of Google. Other familiar companies represented include Xerox, HoneyWell, Office Depot, Encyclopedia Britannica and IMAX. Even though the companies represented are large, the issues dealt with are typical of those faced by business executives at all sizes of companies such as hiring the right persons, dealing with declining sales, finding and executing the right strategy and negotiating deals.
Each of the CEO’s writes about critical business issues they faced, their thought processes and deliberations, and how they ultimately made key decisions in order to resolve the pertinent issues. The stories are mostly written in a succinct and to the point manner and are all quick digestible reads. Moreover, the personal tone of the contributors adds tremendous value to this collection. Some of the executives speak very candidly, often talking openly about their trepidation, and admitting their mistakes, making them appear very human.
How I Did It is highly enjoyable and insightful book and is the closest most persons will ever get to having a personal armchair chat with a major CEO.
2 reviews1 follower
September 25, 2022
Author: Many, Edited by: Daniel McGinn
Title: How I Did It: Lessons from the Front Lines of Business
Paperback, 336 pages
Published March 18th 2014 by Harvard Business Review Press

McGinn is an experienced business editor and reporter who has authored two books and regularly collaborates with authors as a ghostwriter and book doctor. In his current role at Harvard Business Review, he oversees the magazine's features and the team of editors who produce its long-form articles. The author has finely curated a collection of essays, directly pulled from the Harvard Business Review, of the challenges faced and tackled by the global leaders in their own words. The heads of the companies clearly write about their uncertainty, anger, nervousness and about being simply wrong, all these elements were pretty surprising.
The book has been divided into different sections of the challenges faced by the leaders, each story unique and more exciting than the other leaves you asking for more. The leaders share in their own words about the situations they had before them and the kind of pressure they have on them because the whole company depends on their decision. The essays present how unconventional methods the leaders used and the kind of nerve they had to do so and to actually prove it be successful was enthralling. One thing all the leaders showed in common was that: The company comes first, their work, their quality, their loyal customers; it’s one thing they genuinely devote their lives to, it’s like their child.
The book mentions that the powerful stories from the world’s top CEOs would help prepare us for the hard decisions ahead, which couldn’t have been more true and it was truly a very refreshing book to read as it gave a very rare view of what it takes to be the CEO and hear them out in their range of voices.
Profile Image for Sriram.
125 reviews1 follower
July 18, 2024
Should have been grouped better but good insights
379 reviews16 followers
September 1, 2014
Very good essays from HBR addressing a wide variety of issues that a company may face.

From shutting down a business to raising capital, to ensuring that a business sale goes through, how and why employees are important and how to focus on company culture.

The stories of Zappos, HCL Tech, R Benckiser, Celtel, Google, Blockbuster were particularly interesting.
A pleasant read with good stories and lessons.
Profile Image for Lara Valls.
118 reviews
July 24, 2023
Some stories are worth it, some are pure propaganda… can’t believe how Harvard publishes some of them as an example to follow or on how to operate in similar situations…

But some of them were interesting and inspiring to read.

These incredible individuals, achieving larger than life feats, transforming companies, industries, facing extreme challenges…

Again, some of the stories were worth the read.
Profile Image for Dale.
70 reviews5 followers
March 28, 2017
This book was an anthology of articles from the Harvard Business Journal by CEOs on various issues that they dealt with the issues they faced leading their companies. Because not every CEO is a good writer, the quality of the articles varied hugely, but one thing they had in common was good insight into the corner office.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.