Evolution or revolution? Radical political revolutions do happen and sometimes stick for years, but typically come at a high cost. Most big changes—in politics, culture, and technology—however, either never really take off or are quickly reversed. People will more readily accept enduring and major... [read more...]

What happens once the reassuring announcement is made that the company you are acquiring will be fully and respectfully integrated into your acquiring business? In many cases, those assurances are not believed. If you’re especially unfortunate, as when Shinhan Bank acquired Chohung, several thousand... [read more...]

If business leaders had paid closer attention to the wisdom of Peter Drucker—and actually put into practice—we might have avoided many problems we’re now facing. Among those problems, Kanter thinks we should include restoring trust in business in the wake of accounting scandals and the global financial... [read more...]

The organizational paradigm for large organizations is changing, leading many of them away from the traditional image of multinationals as lumbering, inflexible, and bureaucratic. Companies such as IBM, Procter & Gamble, Omron, CEMEX, Cisco, and Banco Real are resolving long-standing contradictions by... [read more...]

This Q&A conveys some of what professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter learned during her May 2006 trip to Cairo where she studied three exemplary global companies. Her goal was to understand how they were changing themselves in response to their global scope, and what effect they have on the surrounding region... [read more...]

An Interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s latest book, Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End, explores the nature of this personality trait, and explains how leaders can sustain winning streaks and turn around losing streaks. In this Leader to Leader interview, Kanter talks about the importance... [read more...]

In this executive summary of a Harvard Business School Publishing presentation, Rosabeth Moss Kanter explains the role that confidence plays in leaders for creating winning streaks – and avoiding losing streaks. In her familiar straightforward style, Kanter tells us about the four “levels” or types of... [read more...]

If you enjoy Kanter’s work, you’ll find this book to be a handy gathering of all 25 of her contributions to Harvard Business Review. If you are not familiar with her work, you might first take a look at our reviews of three of her HBR pieces—“The Middle Manager as Innovator”, “The Ten Deadly Mistakes... [read more...]

The much maligned middle manager received strong praise in Kanter’s 13-page article, first published in 1982. Based on her study of 165 middle managers at five major corporations in the United States, Kanter found these managers to be the key to innovative growth. After distinguishing between managers... [read more...]

Kanter paints an ugly portrait of the dynamics of ailing companies before looking for any common threads in the ones that successfully achieve a turnaround. Drawing on her experience with over 20 turnaround situations, but focusing particularly on the events at Gillette, the BBC, and Invensys, Rosabeth... [read more...]