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HBR'S 10 Must Reads: The Essentials
Change is the one constant in business, and we must adapt or face obsolescence. Yet certain challenges never go away. That's what makes this book "must read." These are the 10 seminal articles by management's most influential experts, on topics of perennial concern to ambitious managers and leaders hungry for inspiration--and ready to run with big ideas to accelerate their own and their companies' success.
If you read nothing else - full stop - read:
Michael Porter on creating competitive advantage and distinguishing your company from rivals
John Kotter on leading change through eight critical stages
Daniel Goleman on using emotional intelligence to maximize performance
Peter Drucker on managing your career by evaluating your own strengths and weaknesses
Clay Christensen on orchestrating innovation within established organizations
Tom Davenport on using analytics to determine how to keep your customers loyal
Robert Kaplan and David Norton on measuring your company's strategy with the Balanced Scorecard
Rosabeth Moss Kanter on avoiding common mistakes when pushing innovation forward
Ted Levitt on understanding who your customers are and what they really want
C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel on identifying the unique, integrated systems that support your strategy
If you read nothing else - full stop - read:
Michael Porter on creating competitive advantage and distinguishing your company from rivals
John Kotter on leading change through eight critical stages
Daniel Goleman on using emotional intelligence to maximize performance
Peter Drucker on managing your career by evaluating your own strengths and weaknesses
Clay Christensen on orchestrating innovation within established organizations
Tom Davenport on using analytics to determine how to keep your customers loyal
Robert Kaplan and David Norton on measuring your company's strategy with the Balanced Scorecard
Rosabeth Moss Kanter on avoiding common mistakes when pushing innovation forward
Ted Levitt on understanding who your customers are and what they really want
C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel on identifying the unique, integrated systems that support your strategy
288 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
December 4, 2012
I just invested in myself with the HBR’S 10 Must Reads Collection by Harvard Business Review Press. This series is really good because each book has 10 of the best articles published by Harvard University on each topic. I think it is a must read for any ambitious manager, new or experienced leader.
It is easy to read, each book has approximately 300 pages. Each chapter is an article from great authors such as Peter F. Drucker, Theodore Levitt, Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton and others. One of the things that I liked on these books is that each chapter has a box called Idea in Brief, which gives you an idea of the basic concept of the chapter and most of them has very interesting case studies as well.
I highly recommend you to get this collection because will inspire you with ideas and knowledge that will accelerate both your own growth and company. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever-changing business environment. The titles include: Leadership, Managing Yourself, The Essentials, Change Management,Managing People and Strategy.
One of my favorite articles were:
What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Leadership)
Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton (HBR’S 10 Must Reads The Essentials)
Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker (HBR’S 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself)
The Real Reason People won’t Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Change Management )
What Great Managers Do by Marcus Buckingham (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Managing People)
The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution by Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin, and Elisabeth Powers (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Strategy)
“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes “ Peter F. Drucker
“The ability to change constantly and effectively is made by high-level continuity.” Michael E. Porter
It is easy to read, each book has approximately 300 pages. Each chapter is an article from great authors such as Peter F. Drucker, Theodore Levitt, Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton and others. One of the things that I liked on these books is that each chapter has a box called Idea in Brief, which gives you an idea of the basic concept of the chapter and most of them has very interesting case studies as well.
I highly recommend you to get this collection because will inspire you with ideas and knowledge that will accelerate both your own growth and company. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever-changing business environment. The titles include: Leadership, Managing Yourself, The Essentials, Change Management,Managing People and Strategy.
One of my favorite articles were:
What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Leadership)
Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton (HBR’S 10 Must Reads The Essentials)
Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker (HBR’S 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself)
The Real Reason People won’t Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Change Management )
What Great Managers Do by Marcus Buckingham (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Managing People)
The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution by Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin, and Elisabeth Powers (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Strategy)
“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes “ Peter F. Drucker
“The ability to change constantly and effectively is made by high-level continuity.” Michael E. Porter
November 9, 2016
Only a few of the articles were interesting but not "must reads" for a business person. Perhaps the articles were novel at the time they were published. Since then, many of the insightful topics have been expanded into books. A business person would recognize some of the authors like Peter F. Drucker ("The Effective Executive"), Jim Collins ("Good to Great"), and Daniel Goleman ("Emotional Intelligence").
November 25, 2019
Imaginem um almoço buffet feito pelos cozinheiros com mais estrelas do guia Michelin. É isso mesmo.
May 1, 2021
It was my first book of HBR'S 10 Must Reads. I did struggle with quite a few articles, but some I really enjoyed. The few topics I did enjoy and I guess they haven't aged as much were on Emotional Intelligence, Change and Leadership, many of concepts discussed in those articles still apply today. However, Innovation, Marketing Myopia, Balance Scorecard, though great to look at historically, I was just not convinced many of those concepts are still relevant or used today. 6 of these articles were written in 1990, one in 1960, and the two most recent ones in 2006. 30 years in a business world, especially during the time of internet emerging in its glory, is a lot of years, a lot of change, and many things that used to be relevant in 1990 definitely gained a totally new perspective along a 30-year period.
So 4 stars only because in my opinion, even published in 2011, some of the articles were in need of replacing (unfortunately) nevertheless - great material, very interestingly displayed to a reader and I definitely learnt something from every one of each. If they will have a new edition with more recent articles on the same topics I would definitely be interested to read it!
So 4 stars only because in my opinion, even published in 2011, some of the articles were in need of replacing (unfortunately) nevertheless - great material, very interestingly displayed to a reader and I definitely learnt something from every one of each. If they will have a new edition with more recent articles on the same topics I would definitely be interested to read it!
February 8, 2014
My boss invited me to join the firm's "Marketing & Strategy" team. Don't do that to me. I get excited, hit Amazon and order a pile of books on the subject. This is one of the books that came in a Harvard Business Review box set and seamed like a good place to start filling my brain with business related theory.
It's ten essays / articles bundled under the title 'Essentials' and that's exactly what it is. Read this and you'll be able to hold your ground among the wannabe CEO/CTO/CFO/CwhateverrocksyourboatO of any company.
Good stuff.
If you're into the whole business kind of thing.
Actually, when you're not into the whole business kind of thing, read this as well so you know what you're not into.
It's ten essays / articles bundled under the title 'Essentials' and that's exactly what it is. Read this and you'll be able to hold your ground among the wannabe CEO/CTO/CFO/CwhateverrocksyourboatO of any company.
Good stuff.
If you're into the whole business kind of thing.
Actually, when you're not into the whole business kind of thing, read this as well so you know what you're not into.
October 23, 2020
The HBR must read series are a necessity for anyone starting into business leadership! Each book has 10 of the best articles published by Harvard Business School on the topic. The articles will inspire you and widen your horizon of business thinking. It will also help you understand what goes into making/ running a business. The book is filled with real life examples of companies (IBM, IKEA, Amazon... etc.) and their case studies which is so insightful.
October 14, 2019
Coleção interessante de artigos da HBR sobre Business
November 6, 2020
Awesome book if you want to learn how to move into a management role without going to business school (which is a waste of time anyway).⠀
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July 2, 2024
Absolutely not essential reading. Most essays are old and dated, not timeless. These ideas are not enduring. Tough, slow reading.
May 11, 2021
I’m a historian thinking about a career change, and so I picked up the HBR “Best Reads” books in order to better understand the mentality of the modern corporation. As a trespasser in the world of business advice writing, there are lot of things about the genre that seem strange, notable, and different. I think my perspective can help clarify something about the larger mentality of corporate workers.
One of the most surprising things to me about the book first was that there was a complete lack of attention to chronology. The essays range over nearly five decades: the oldest essay was written in 1960, the most recent 2006. Yet the information about when pieces were written is buried at the very end of each document, written in tiny, forgettable script—you as a reader are not supposed to think about when the pieces were written. They are timeless pieces of business advice. The blindness to time is exacerbated by the book’s complete lack of organization. The essays are arranged alphabetically by author. There isn’t even any introductory matter that can help you understand why these pieces were chosen, or the context in which they were written, or their relationship to one another, or their larger effect on the field, or the existence of any kind of field of discussion at all. The result, then, is that it’s hard to get a sense of progression as you read through the pieces.
Neither do the authors explicitly position themselves in the context of any particular tradition or conversation.—When you read the work of academic historians, we will tell you who in particular we were inspired by and who in particular we are arguing against. This helps the reader put our work into a bigger context, to know what is new, useful and provocative about the individual piece.—But there is very little similar positioning in the HBR pieces. If you’re not paying attention, it just feels like a whole bunch of good (perhaps facile) advice. You get a bunch of free-standing advice—all of it convincing, and much of it probably thought provoking, and certainly some of it sound—but all this advice feels fractured, like a series of Instagram motivational pictures, just with more charts.
Despite this, I found that there was a kind of distinctive Harvard Business Review mentality: the culture of the Leader. Now in the business advice world, this might be standard, but it took some work for me to understand just who the audience for this writing was—just who the Leaders were who were imagined to be reading the pieces. The Leader seems to be a manager, perhaps an upper-level manager, who is responsible for big decisions and many people. The Leader is motivated. They are high achieving. They want to do good. Good for their firm—the Leader rarely has responsibility for their subordinates, or their customers, except insofar as it reflects the larger values and motivations of the company. What the leader wants is what the company wants. The Leader has achieved power and control—they just need to know how to use that power and control better.
What’s interesting is what the Leader does not see. The Leader very rarely sees anything outside of work. He (and the complete inattention to gender means it’s always a he) does not need to go home, sleep, play with the kids, and exercise. The Leader’s interests always align with their company. They do not have allegiance to a nation, ideology, or religion whose values might be in conflict with those of the company. They do not want higher pay. They do not feel any solidarity for particular parts of the company that might put some of their interests against others. The Leader makes hard choices—but hard choices about business. The Leader’s life, in other words, is full of business drama—stuff about strategy and marketing—and almost completely absent of human drama—they never feel fundamentally conflicted about their role as a Leader.
The Leader does not see the state. It’s like the Leader does not live in the same world of laws, politics, lobbying, special interests, congressional hearings and the like. Maybe it’s because those essays that consider the state too much become dated, and so they’re not considered for edited volumes of presumably timeless business advice content. But the Leader in these pieces almost never considers the state.
When you read between the lines, you get the sense that the Leader who is reading these pieces is understood to not always be a Leader. The Leader is often someone who wants to be a Leader: a student at Harvard Business School, perhaps. But the sense is that of course because of their smarts, ambition, and drive (and their good taste in reading the HBR)—they are certain to become a Leader after all.
One of the most surprising things to me about the book first was that there was a complete lack of attention to chronology. The essays range over nearly five decades: the oldest essay was written in 1960, the most recent 2006. Yet the information about when pieces were written is buried at the very end of each document, written in tiny, forgettable script—you as a reader are not supposed to think about when the pieces were written. They are timeless pieces of business advice. The blindness to time is exacerbated by the book’s complete lack of organization. The essays are arranged alphabetically by author. There isn’t even any introductory matter that can help you understand why these pieces were chosen, or the context in which they were written, or their relationship to one another, or their larger effect on the field, or the existence of any kind of field of discussion at all. The result, then, is that it’s hard to get a sense of progression as you read through the pieces.
Neither do the authors explicitly position themselves in the context of any particular tradition or conversation.—When you read the work of academic historians, we will tell you who in particular we were inspired by and who in particular we are arguing against. This helps the reader put our work into a bigger context, to know what is new, useful and provocative about the individual piece.—But there is very little similar positioning in the HBR pieces. If you’re not paying attention, it just feels like a whole bunch of good (perhaps facile) advice. You get a bunch of free-standing advice—all of it convincing, and much of it probably thought provoking, and certainly some of it sound—but all this advice feels fractured, like a series of Instagram motivational pictures, just with more charts.
Despite this, I found that there was a kind of distinctive Harvard Business Review mentality: the culture of the Leader. Now in the business advice world, this might be standard, but it took some work for me to understand just who the audience for this writing was—just who the Leaders were who were imagined to be reading the pieces. The Leader seems to be a manager, perhaps an upper-level manager, who is responsible for big decisions and many people. The Leader is motivated. They are high achieving. They want to do good. Good for their firm—the Leader rarely has responsibility for their subordinates, or their customers, except insofar as it reflects the larger values and motivations of the company. What the leader wants is what the company wants. The Leader has achieved power and control—they just need to know how to use that power and control better.
What’s interesting is what the Leader does not see. The Leader very rarely sees anything outside of work. He (and the complete inattention to gender means it’s always a he) does not need to go home, sleep, play with the kids, and exercise. The Leader’s interests always align with their company. They do not have allegiance to a nation, ideology, or religion whose values might be in conflict with those of the company. They do not want higher pay. They do not feel any solidarity for particular parts of the company that might put some of their interests against others. The Leader makes hard choices—but hard choices about business. The Leader’s life, in other words, is full of business drama—stuff about strategy and marketing—and almost completely absent of human drama—they never feel fundamentally conflicted about their role as a Leader.
The Leader does not see the state. It’s like the Leader does not live in the same world of laws, politics, lobbying, special interests, congressional hearings and the like. Maybe it’s because those essays that consider the state too much become dated, and so they’re not considered for edited volumes of presumably timeless business advice content. But the Leader in these pieces almost never considers the state.
When you read between the lines, you get the sense that the Leader who is reading these pieces is understood to not always be a Leader. The Leader is often someone who wants to be a Leader: a student at Harvard Business School, perhaps. But the sense is that of course because of their smarts, ambition, and drive (and their good taste in reading the HBR)—they are certain to become a Leader after all.
August 9, 2021
غزارة المعلومات وسلاسة وسهولة الأسلوب إذا اجتمعا في كتاب أكاديمي واحد فهو جدير بالاحتفاء. عشر مقالات كتبها نُخبة وصفوة من خبراء الإدارة لكل شخص "لم يقرأ شيئًا عن الضروريات، وهي موجهة في الأساس للمديرين الذين يطمحون إلى تغيير أوضاع شركاتهم ومؤسساتهم للأفضل لكن تنقصهم الدراية بماهية التغيير وكيفيته والتحديات والفخاخ التي ستقابله وغير ذلك مما يتعلق بعمليات التغيير في المؤسسات.
من الطبيعي أن يجد القارئ شيء من عدم ترابط المقالات بعضها ببعض ولكن طبيعة الكتاب تحتاج إلى إعادة القراءة والنظر للكتاب نظرة أكثر اتساعًا وبعيدًا عن القراءات المتشوفة أو الباحثة عن إرشادات مرقمة جاهزة للتطبيق الفوري بدون فهم وإدراك، وإن كان الكتاب في نفسه دليلًا لكل مدير أو قائد يرغب في تغيير وضع مؤسسته.
من الطبيعي أن يجد القارئ شيء من عدم ترابط المقالات بعضها ببعض ولكن طبيعة الكتاب تحتاج إلى إعادة القراءة والنظر للكتاب نظرة أكثر اتساعًا وبعيدًا عن القراءات المتشوفة أو الباحثة عن إرشادات مرقمة جاهزة للتطبيق الفوري بدون فهم وإدراك، وإن كان الكتاب في نفسه دليلًا لكل مدير أو قائد يرغب في تغيير وضع مؤسسته.
June 2, 2021
Yeah... no. So, I got this as part of a boxed set. The HBR 10 Must Reads series are basically reprints of articles from HBR. The Essentials contain articles from the other books in the same boxed set - there are duplicates. Kind of a bummer. Also, yes, some articles transcend time, but some don't, and these are really showing their age.
June 16, 2012
A good way to get a glimpse at Kaplan Norton.
Not a big fan of the 2 first summaries: "Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change" and "Competing on Analytics", they tend to turn out obsolete
Not a big fan of the 2 first summaries: "Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change" and "Competing on Analytics", they tend to turn out obsolete
April 2, 2023
الكتاب رائع مليء بالأفكار الملهمة في الإدارة ولكن الترجمة كان ممكن تبقى أحسن من كدا كتير
June 28, 2026
While much of the book feels like table stakes or filler, it provides a solid foundational starting point for dissecting the critical mechanics of strategy, core competencies, and the structural traps that kill corporate innovation.
To be blunt, this collection is a mixed bag. Concepts like competing on analytics are basic prerequisites in today's market, and while the self-management piece is good, a lot of the remaining articles are just fluff. The true utility of this book lies in extracting and combining the frameworks from four specific areas: Strategy, Core Competence, Marketing Myopia, and Innovation.
Here is the distilled, high-signal breakdown of what actually matters.
1. Strategy & Core Competence (The Competitive Engine)
Strategy Requires Trade-offs: Strategy is not just about operational effectiveness; it is the creation of a unique and valuable position by actively choosing what not to do. If a strategy doesn't force painful trade-offs and define which markets you will ignore, it is simply a wish list.
Defining the Core: Your core competencies are the non-negotiable engines of your competitive moat. When assessing an organization or a potential acquisition, you have to ask: How long could we dominate this sector if we lost this specific competency? Everything else can be outsourced; the core must be protected, amplified, and infused across business units.
The M&A Pitfall: Sustainable competitive advantage relies on a "fit" among a company's varying activities. When companies chase new markets through poorly aligned M&A, they often compromise their original strategy, diluting the very trade-offs that made them successful in the first place.
2. Innovation: The Classic Traps
Most companies understand they need to innovate to fuel growth, yet they repeatedly fall into the same structural and cultural traps. When an established legacy business attempts to launch a new venture, it usually suffocates it through one of these four mistakes:
Strategy Mistakes: Executives often reject opportunities that appear too small at first glance, assuming that only massive new product blockbusters are worth the effort.
Process Mistakes: Companies strangle innovation by applying the exact same tight planning, budgeting, and performance reviews to fledgling ideas that they apply to mature, existing businesses. The remedy is to add flexibility to your control systems, such as reserving special funds for unexpected opportunities.
Structure Mistakes: Organizations often isolate new enterprises in separate silos, which creates two distinct classes of corporate citizens: the "innovators" having all the fun, and the mainstream managers who actually make the money. Instead of isolating them, leadership must tighten the human connections between the innovation groups and the rest of the business to promote mutual learning.
Skills Mistakes: A fatal assumption is thinking that innovation teams should automatically be led by the best technical people. Innovation requires intense interpersonal capital. You need leaders with strong communication skills who can build coalitions, leverage different strengths, and protect the team from corporate antibodies.
3. Marketing Myopia (The Disruption Blind Spot)
Industries routinely obsolete themselves through a lack of creativity and a failure to focus on the core customer need.
The Product Obsession: The classic example is the railroad industry. They thought they were in the "railroad" business rather than the "transportation" business. By obsessing over the efficiency of their rail carts instead of how to best move their customers, they were completely blind-sided by cars and airplanes.
Sustainable vs. Disruptive Focus: You cannot rely on an expanding population, mass production efficiencies, or pure R&D to protect your market share. If you are entirely focused on sustainable innovation—tweaking efficiencies to beat legacy competitors—you leave the door wide open for a new platform to step in and steal your audience by providing a fundamentally different value proposition.
To be blunt, this collection is a mixed bag. Concepts like competing on analytics are basic prerequisites in today's market, and while the self-management piece is good, a lot of the remaining articles are just fluff. The true utility of this book lies in extracting and combining the frameworks from four specific areas: Strategy, Core Competence, Marketing Myopia, and Innovation.
Here is the distilled, high-signal breakdown of what actually matters.
1. Strategy & Core Competence (The Competitive Engine)
Strategy Requires Trade-offs: Strategy is not just about operational effectiveness; it is the creation of a unique and valuable position by actively choosing what not to do. If a strategy doesn't force painful trade-offs and define which markets you will ignore, it is simply a wish list.
Defining the Core: Your core competencies are the non-negotiable engines of your competitive moat. When assessing an organization or a potential acquisition, you have to ask: How long could we dominate this sector if we lost this specific competency? Everything else can be outsourced; the core must be protected, amplified, and infused across business units.
The M&A Pitfall: Sustainable competitive advantage relies on a "fit" among a company's varying activities. When companies chase new markets through poorly aligned M&A, they often compromise their original strategy, diluting the very trade-offs that made them successful in the first place.
2. Innovation: The Classic Traps
Most companies understand they need to innovate to fuel growth, yet they repeatedly fall into the same structural and cultural traps. When an established legacy business attempts to launch a new venture, it usually suffocates it through one of these four mistakes:
Strategy Mistakes: Executives often reject opportunities that appear too small at first glance, assuming that only massive new product blockbusters are worth the effort.
Process Mistakes: Companies strangle innovation by applying the exact same tight planning, budgeting, and performance reviews to fledgling ideas that they apply to mature, existing businesses. The remedy is to add flexibility to your control systems, such as reserving special funds for unexpected opportunities.
Structure Mistakes: Organizations often isolate new enterprises in separate silos, which creates two distinct classes of corporate citizens: the "innovators" having all the fun, and the mainstream managers who actually make the money. Instead of isolating them, leadership must tighten the human connections between the innovation groups and the rest of the business to promote mutual learning.
Skills Mistakes: A fatal assumption is thinking that innovation teams should automatically be led by the best technical people. Innovation requires intense interpersonal capital. You need leaders with strong communication skills who can build coalitions, leverage different strengths, and protect the team from corporate antibodies.
3. Marketing Myopia (The Disruption Blind Spot)
Industries routinely obsolete themselves through a lack of creativity and a failure to focus on the core customer need.
The Product Obsession: The classic example is the railroad industry. They thought they were in the "railroad" business rather than the "transportation" business. By obsessing over the efficiency of their rail carts instead of how to best move their customers, they were completely blind-sided by cars and airplanes.
Sustainable vs. Disruptive Focus: You cannot rely on an expanding population, mass production efficiencies, or pure R&D to protect your market share. If you are entirely focused on sustainable innovation—tweaking efficiencies to beat legacy competitors—you leave the door wide open for a new platform to step in and steal your audience by providing a fundamentally different value proposition.
August 22, 2024
As someone who has spent most of his professional career as a small business owner instead of a cog in a corporate machine, I'm not the ideal candidate for HBR case studies...or am I?
I always enjoyed reading the ones my professors would select during my MBA program and I recently had a chance to read this one.
As some reviewers have already noted, the relevance/quality of the studies varies...but I will say that all of the articles are helpful at some level. Any small business owner can take what is being talked about at a corporate level and adapt that to their own situations to improve their personal and professional performance, both for themselves and for their team members.
(quoting Barry Beracha) "In God we trust. All others bring data." (p. 31)
"One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence." (p. 47)
"Ethics requires that you ask yourself, 'What kind of person do I want to see in the mirror in the morning?'" (p. 52)
"Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values." (p. 55)
"In a knowledge society...we expect everyone to be a success. This is clearly an impossibility. For a great many people, there is at best an absence of failure. Wherever there is success, there has to be failure." (p. 61)
"Self-aware people know — and are comfortable talking about — their limitations and strengths, and they often demonstrate a thirst for constructive criticism. By contrast, people with low self-awareness interpret the message that they need to improve as a threat or a sign of failure." (p. 72)
"Strategy is making trade-offs in competing." (p. 200)
"General management is more than the stewardship of individual functions. Its core is strategy: defining and communicating the company's unique position, making trade-offs, and forging fit among companies." (p. 215)
"Deciding what target group of customers, varieties, and needs the company should serve is fundamental to developing a strategy. But so is deciding not to serve other customers or needs and not to offer certain features or services." (p. 215)
I always enjoyed reading the ones my professors would select during my MBA program and I recently had a chance to read this one.
As some reviewers have already noted, the relevance/quality of the studies varies...but I will say that all of the articles are helpful at some level. Any small business owner can take what is being talked about at a corporate level and adapt that to their own situations to improve their personal and professional performance, both for themselves and for their team members.
(quoting Barry Beracha) "In God we trust. All others bring data." (p. 31)
"One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence." (p. 47)
"Ethics requires that you ask yourself, 'What kind of person do I want to see in the mirror in the morning?'" (p. 52)
"Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values." (p. 55)
"In a knowledge society...we expect everyone to be a success. This is clearly an impossibility. For a great many people, there is at best an absence of failure. Wherever there is success, there has to be failure." (p. 61)
"Self-aware people know — and are comfortable talking about — their limitations and strengths, and they often demonstrate a thirst for constructive criticism. By contrast, people with low self-awareness interpret the message that they need to improve as a threat or a sign of failure." (p. 72)
"Strategy is making trade-offs in competing." (p. 200)
"General management is more than the stewardship of individual functions. Its core is strategy: defining and communicating the company's unique position, making trade-offs, and forging fit among companies." (p. 215)
"Deciding what target group of customers, varieties, and needs the company should serve is fundamental to developing a strategy. But so is deciding not to serve other customers or needs and not to offer certain features or services." (p. 215)
November 23, 2021
My first introduction to HBR's 10 Must Reads and I have to say I'm quite impressed. There is a wide-ranging selection of ideas and articles that added real value to many business discussions I've had.
There seem to be some slight variations in articles based on the edition of this book. The version I had had the following 10 articles.
(1) Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Overdorf
(2) Competing on Analytics by Thomas H. Davenport
(3) Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker
(4) What Makes a Leader? by Daniel Goleman
(5) Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
(6) Innovation: The Classic Traps by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
(7) Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail John Kotter
(8) Marketing Myopia by Theodore Levitt
(9) What is Strategy by Michael E. Porter
(10) The Core Competence of the Corporation by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel
The articles tended to be more focused on those in management and senior management positions. There were many ideas on how to structure a team and organization which I found fascinating. Yet, there were enduring ideas that I didn't know were in theory for such a long time.
Most of the articles are from the 60s-90s yet are still relevant today. Ideas such as Marketing Myopia, Balanced Scorecard, Strategy, and EIQ were all things that I learned before but it was nice to see the thought process explained in further detail.
I learned many things from each. Some articles were a bit rather duller to read through while others were refreshing. It's really a grab bag of HBR articles. This is something I plan on keeping on my shelf for a while for future rereadings.
4.5/5. Rounded to a 5. Focused more on those in management. If not in management, it can be a bit irrelevant but fun if you're into business books.
There seem to be some slight variations in articles based on the edition of this book. The version I had had the following 10 articles.
(1) Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Overdorf
(2) Competing on Analytics by Thomas H. Davenport
(3) Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker
(4) What Makes a Leader? by Daniel Goleman
(5) Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
(6) Innovation: The Classic Traps by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
(7) Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail John Kotter
(8) Marketing Myopia by Theodore Levitt
(9) What is Strategy by Michael E. Porter
(10) The Core Competence of the Corporation by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel
The articles tended to be more focused on those in management and senior management positions. There were many ideas on how to structure a team and organization which I found fascinating. Yet, there were enduring ideas that I didn't know were in theory for such a long time.
Most of the articles are from the 60s-90s yet are still relevant today. Ideas such as Marketing Myopia, Balanced Scorecard, Strategy, and EIQ were all things that I learned before but it was nice to see the thought process explained in further detail.
I learned many things from each. Some articles were a bit rather duller to read through while others were refreshing. It's really a grab bag of HBR articles. This is something I plan on keeping on my shelf for a while for future rereadings.
4.5/5. Rounded to a 5. Focused more on those in management. If not in management, it can be a bit irrelevant but fun if you're into business books.
May 31, 2026
Today's Managers Recognize the impact that measures have on performance. But they rarely think of measurements as an essential part of strategy. Managers fail to question whether or not their old measures are relevant to the new initiatives.
Overall, this book shares a lot of useful insights on managing companies and organizations. It covers a wide range of topics, including leadership, strategy, decision-making, and organizational effectiveness.
What I like most is that many of the key points are practical and actionable, not just theoretical. The “Idea in Practice” sections are especially helpful because they show how the concepts can actually be applied in real business and organizational settings.
One thing I noticed, though, is that some of the articles were written quite a while ago. While the core principles are still relevant, some examples and case studies don’t fully reflect today’s realities, such as digital transformation, remote work, AI, and the fast-changing business landscape. But overall, there are still many great takeaways and key points that I can learn from.
May 29, 2012
1.Meeting the challenge of disruptive change:
Sustaining versus disruptive innovation – sustaining technologies are innovations that make a product better in ways that customers in the mainstream market already value; disruptive innovations create an entirely new market through the introduction of a new kind of product, one that’s actually worse, initially, as judged by the performance metrics that mainstream customers value.
Industry leaders seldom successfully cope with or introduce disruptive innovations. Because most established firms get their people working on innovation within organizational structure designed to surmount old challenges – not ones that the new venture is facing.
To avoid this mistake, ask:
“does my organization have the right resources?”
“does my organization have the right processes?”
“does my organization have the right values?
“what team and structure will best support our innovation effort? (metric based on process and value)”
Other chapters:
Migration of capabilities – over time, the locus of the organization’s capabilities shift its processes and values.
Creating capabilities through acquisitions
2. Competing on analytics
Analytical competitor: using sophisticated data-collection technology and analysis to wring every drop of value from all business process
Anatomy of an analytics competitor
Widespread use of modeling and optimization
An enterprise approach (these organizations don’t gain advantage from one killer app, but rather from multiple applications.
Senior executive advocates
Their sources of strength
The right focus – supply chain, costumer selection, pricing, human capital, product quality, financial performance, R&D (with examples)
The right culture
The right people
The right technology
The long road ahead – it is always very long-term, e.g. after collecting data, it takes time
You know you compete on analytics when you…
apply analysis not only to core capability but also to a range of functions
not only recognize the importance but also make them a primary focus
treat is as a part of culture that’s constantly emphasized
not only consume data, but create a “tests and learn” culture based on small exp.
3. Marketing oneself (know thyself)
4. What makes a leader by Daniel Goleman
Emotional intelligence matters – self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills
5. Putting the balanced scorecard to work
what makes a balanced scorecard special?
It is a top-down reflection of the company’s mission and strategy
It is forward looking
It integrates external and internal measures
It helps you focus
Mainly four aspects
To my shareholders – financial perspective
To my customers – customer perspective e.g. satisfaction and market share
With my internal management process – internal business perspective
Innovation and learning perspective
6. Innovation
strategy mistakes: hurdles too high, scope too narrow
process mistakes: controls too tight
structure mistakes: connections too loose, separations too sharp
skills mistakes: leadership too weak, communication too poor
7. Leading change
transformation is a process, not an event.
Common errors:
1. not establishing a great enough sense of urgency
2. not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition
3. lacking a vision
4. under-communicating the vision
5. not removing obstacles to the new vision
6. not systematically planning for, and creating short-term wins
7. declaring victory too soon
8. not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture
8.Marketing myopia
every major industry was once a growth industry, but many are in the shadow of decline. The reason is not because the market is saturated, but there has been a failure of management.
“the railway company is not only in the railway industry, but the transportation industry.” (striking idea)
A common mistake for companies is that they tend to view themselves as providing products instead of serving customers.
Common myths:
1. an ever0expanding and more affluent population will ensure our growth (there are rivals)
2. there is no competitive substitute for your industry’s major product
3. we can protect ourselves through mass production (there is a difference between selling and marketing – selling focuses on the seller while marketing on the buyer)
4. R&D will ensure our growth (the problem of engineers)
“why should the oil companies do anything different? Would not chemical fuel cells or solar energy kill the present product lines? The answer is that they would indeed, and this is precisely the reason for the oil firms having to develop these power units before their competitors do, so they will not be companies without an industry”
creative destruction – destroying their own highly profitable assets, e.g. petrol companies recognize the customers’ need of not wanting to refuel; thus they start to produce a long-lasting fuel
9.what is strategy
operational effectiveness is not a strategy. It is necessary, but not sufficient. You can make a company perform more efficiently, but there are some problems: rivals can easily learn from you; there will be competitive convergence (which makes companies indistinguishable)
strategy is deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value. There are three bases
variety based (based on the choice of product or service varieties)
needs-based (target customer)
access-based (customer geography or customer scale)
position requires trade-offs (people need to choose!)
fit drives both competitive advantage and sustainability
the growth trap – people are afraid of positioning because of a seemingly limiting market size. In fact, revenue will rise but profit will fall
10.the core competence of the corporation
core competency – the company’s collective knowledge about how to coordinate diverse production skills and technologies (which can be used to produce a large range of seemingly unrelated products)
Sustaining versus disruptive innovation – sustaining technologies are innovations that make a product better in ways that customers in the mainstream market already value; disruptive innovations create an entirely new market through the introduction of a new kind of product, one that’s actually worse, initially, as judged by the performance metrics that mainstream customers value.
Industry leaders seldom successfully cope with or introduce disruptive innovations. Because most established firms get their people working on innovation within organizational structure designed to surmount old challenges – not ones that the new venture is facing.
To avoid this mistake, ask:
“does my organization have the right resources?”
“does my organization have the right processes?”
“does my organization have the right values?
“what team and structure will best support our innovation effort? (metric based on process and value)”
Other chapters:
Migration of capabilities – over time, the locus of the organization’s capabilities shift its processes and values.
Creating capabilities through acquisitions
2. Competing on analytics
Analytical competitor: using sophisticated data-collection technology and analysis to wring every drop of value from all business process
Anatomy of an analytics competitor
Widespread use of modeling and optimization
An enterprise approach (these organizations don’t gain advantage from one killer app, but rather from multiple applications.
Senior executive advocates
Their sources of strength
The right focus – supply chain, costumer selection, pricing, human capital, product quality, financial performance, R&D (with examples)
The right culture
The right people
The right technology
The long road ahead – it is always very long-term, e.g. after collecting data, it takes time
You know you compete on analytics when you…
apply analysis not only to core capability but also to a range of functions
not only recognize the importance but also make them a primary focus
treat is as a part of culture that’s constantly emphasized
not only consume data, but create a “tests and learn” culture based on small exp.
3. Marketing oneself (know thyself)
4. What makes a leader by Daniel Goleman
Emotional intelligence matters – self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills
5. Putting the balanced scorecard to work
what makes a balanced scorecard special?
It is a top-down reflection of the company’s mission and strategy
It is forward looking
It integrates external and internal measures
It helps you focus
Mainly four aspects
To my shareholders – financial perspective
To my customers – customer perspective e.g. satisfaction and market share
With my internal management process – internal business perspective
Innovation and learning perspective
6. Innovation
strategy mistakes: hurdles too high, scope too narrow
process mistakes: controls too tight
structure mistakes: connections too loose, separations too sharp
skills mistakes: leadership too weak, communication too poor
7. Leading change
transformation is a process, not an event.
Common errors:
1. not establishing a great enough sense of urgency
2. not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition
3. lacking a vision
4. under-communicating the vision
5. not removing obstacles to the new vision
6. not systematically planning for, and creating short-term wins
7. declaring victory too soon
8. not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture
8.Marketing myopia
every major industry was once a growth industry, but many are in the shadow of decline. The reason is not because the market is saturated, but there has been a failure of management.
“the railway company is not only in the railway industry, but the transportation industry.” (striking idea)
A common mistake for companies is that they tend to view themselves as providing products instead of serving customers.
Common myths:
1. an ever0expanding and more affluent population will ensure our growth (there are rivals)
2. there is no competitive substitute for your industry’s major product
3. we can protect ourselves through mass production (there is a difference between selling and marketing – selling focuses on the seller while marketing on the buyer)
4. R&D will ensure our growth (the problem of engineers)
“why should the oil companies do anything different? Would not chemical fuel cells or solar energy kill the present product lines? The answer is that they would indeed, and this is precisely the reason for the oil firms having to develop these power units before their competitors do, so they will not be companies without an industry”
creative destruction – destroying their own highly profitable assets, e.g. petrol companies recognize the customers’ need of not wanting to refuel; thus they start to produce a long-lasting fuel
9.what is strategy
operational effectiveness is not a strategy. It is necessary, but not sufficient. You can make a company perform more efficiently, but there are some problems: rivals can easily learn from you; there will be competitive convergence (which makes companies indistinguishable)
strategy is deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value. There are three bases
variety based (based on the choice of product or service varieties)
needs-based (target customer)
access-based (customer geography or customer scale)
position requires trade-offs (people need to choose!)
fit drives both competitive advantage and sustainability
the growth trap – people are afraid of positioning because of a seemingly limiting market size. In fact, revenue will rise but profit will fall
10.the core competence of the corporation
core competency – the company’s collective knowledge about how to coordinate diverse production skills and technologies (which can be used to produce a large range of seemingly unrelated products)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2024
I read these essays years back, as middle manager, and got little actionable info from it beyond understanding how those higher in the org chart might be forming their work strategies.
Reading it now, in both a Director level position and serving on various professional Boards, I have underlined and highlighted relentlessly.
Some info is slightly dated, but a bit of creative thinking puts it right-square into the modern day.
Likewise, it’s nearly all focused on gaining competitive edge in corporate for-profit scenarios but is smartly written such that it’s a simple lift to apply to many (if not any) marketplace or company structure.
If you are now or looking to be soon a business leader, this is still a solid go-to.
Reading it now, in both a Director level position and serving on various professional Boards, I have underlined and highlighted relentlessly.
Some info is slightly dated, but a bit of creative thinking puts it right-square into the modern day.
Likewise, it’s nearly all focused on gaining competitive edge in corporate for-profit scenarios but is smartly written such that it’s a simple lift to apply to many (if not any) marketplace or company structure.
If you are now or looking to be soon a business leader, this is still a solid go-to.
September 19, 2024
This book was a very good collection of insights from as far back as the 1960s. Definitely worth reading if you are interested in understanding modern trends in commerce.
I had some expectations that I gathered from the title- to me, the 'Essentials' would encompass the most important things to know about business in general. I feel that those expectations were mostly filled- the authors gave essays on a wide range of subjects including management, leadership, trending changes in business, and the like. All in all, I liked them. I could find myself asking for more systematic organization, but I bought the boxed set, and the other books in the collection are organized to specific subjects. So I'm happy with the book by and large.
I had some expectations that I gathered from the title- to me, the 'Essentials' would encompass the most important things to know about business in general. I feel that those expectations were mostly filled- the authors gave essays on a wide range of subjects including management, leadership, trending changes in business, and the like. All in all, I liked them. I could find myself asking for more systematic organization, but I bought the boxed set, and the other books in the collection are organized to specific subjects. So I'm happy with the book by and large.
May 5, 2019
The Drucker article is four stars, the others 1–3. Some ok stuff on innovation, but this material is covered more clearly and fully in The Innovator's Dilemma (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...). Scattered good ideas around what makes company strategy successful (increasing mutual fit of differentiating behaviors, investing in core competencies) that were probably revelatory in the 80's and 90's but are now conventional wisdom you'll pick up in your first few years in industry. Skip the balanced scorecard article.
January 31, 2023
This book provided helpful insight on some foundational business topics. Though the topics and examples are a little dated it is still easy to see the ways that the core principles could be applied to business today. I believe this is the type of book that can be revisited at different times in a career since I found aspects that resonated strongly with my current experiences. Overall, some very interesting perspectives and much to consider.
July 29, 2017
Para un principiante en cuestiones de la gestión y administración de empresas como yo, es un libro esencial dado la experiencia y conocimiento de los autores. Puedo concluir que ante todo una persona debe mantenerse en sus principios y valores éticos, ademas de abrirse su mente y ver el bosque y no solo quedarse en un árbol. Totalmente recomendado.
January 20, 2019
So few of the articles are relevant, with the average published +20 years ago. Peter Drucker’s “Managing Oneself” and Daniel Goleman’s “What Makes a Leader” will likely be the most helpful to others, since they don’t suffer from timeliness or lack the of, but if you’re picking up HBR’s Must Reads, stick to more recent publications.
November 24, 2023
Many of the concepts are now considered common sense which might be thought provoking when these articles were released. It was a very boring read for me except for a few interesting parts.
It might be useful as it helped me think from various perspectives, still, I would not recommend anyone who is not in an executive position to read this.
It might be useful as it helped me think from various perspectives, still, I would not recommend anyone who is not in an executive position to read this.
November 30, 2023
Lots of classics and ways of rethinking strategy, change, innovation, marketing, etc. Lots of interesting frameworks and principles for broad purposes. A lot of times it felt kind of like just viewing past failures/successes in terms of their new terms/framework they were pushing. Interesting but not groundbreaking
January 8, 2018
A collection of HBR's top reads from the past 20 (yes 20) years. I'm fortunate that through my work I've already come across much of the content - for those less familiar, this will be a much more engaging read than it was for me. 3.5 stars if I could.
April 23, 2019
Plenty of concrete practical lessons.
Although some articles are over 30 years old, they still carry valuable insights. Nevertheless, their validity in current times needs to be question and analysed.
Although some articles are over 30 years old, they still carry valuable insights. Nevertheless, their validity in current times needs to be question and analysed.
January 14, 2021
The articles can go back to the 60s-80s but they are still super valuable!
I would say this is a great read, though, if you can get just the articles you are interested in, you might be better off :)
Always good food for thoughts!
I would say this is a great read, though, if you can get just the articles you are interested in, you might be better off :)
Always good food for thoughts!
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