Basic Competence Can Be a Strategy

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2017

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Raffaella Sadun, a professor at Harvard Business School, explains why seemingly common-sensical management practices are so hard to implement. After surveying thousands of organizations across the world, she found that only 6% of firms qualified as highly well-managed — and that managers mistakenly assumed they were all above average. She is a co-author of “Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?” in the September–October 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everyone it's Kurt we need your help with our annual survey this is your last chance to help us get to know you so we can make idea cast even better for you
0:09.8	it's easy just go to HBR.org
0:13.0	podcast survey.
0:15.0	Again, that's HBR.org.
0:17.0	And thanks for listening. Welcome to the HBR IDA cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Sarah Green-Per-Michael.
0:38.2	Telling executives that they need to have clear goals and retain talent seems, well, silly.
0:43.6	Isn't that just common sense?
0:45.4	But the truth is, so many organizations
0:47.5	are failing on the fundamentals and don't even realize it.
0:51.2	Harvard Business School Professor Raphael A Sedoon says it's time to go back to the basics, and she has the
0:56.8	data to prove it. Sedoon and other researchers have
0:59.6	surveyed 15,000 organizations in 34 countries about core managerial practices, and what they found calls
1:06.3	into question the conventional wisdom about operational excellence.
1:10.0	It's not just table stakes, nor is it distinct from strategy.
1:13.9	In fact, operational excellence is so rare and so hard to achieve
1:18.0	that it actually can be a strategic advantage.
1:21.0	Joining me now is Raphaelistadun. She's a co-author of the new article,
1:25.0	Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?
1:28.0	It's in the September, October 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review
1:32.0	and available on HPR.
1:33.8	org.
1:34.8	Raffela, thank you so much for being here today.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Harvard Business Review, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Harvard Business Review and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.