Business administration and support services

“We” are seated at a negotiating table. “They” are seated across from us. The outcome of these talks will shape America’s future competitiveness and economic well-being. But “us” is not necessarily companies based in the United States. “Them” is not foreign nations. Rather, us is the people—most prominently, the work force—of the United States. And […]

Most businesspeople will serve on the board of a nonprofit organization at some point. But the governance of nonprofits can differ dramatically from the governance of businesses. Even the best intentions can prove disastrous when new board members fail to understand that their traditional business experience can carry them only so far.

Patients are becoming more demanding consumers. But the medical industry isn’t just another business.

Throughout most of modern business history, corporations have attempted to unlock value by matching their structures to their strategies: Centralization...

Traditionally, business viewed the social sector as a dumping ground for spare cash, obsolete equipment, and tired executives. But today smart companies are approaching it as a learning laboratory.

Political scientists, legislators, educators, business executives, lawyers, consumerists—practically everyone, it sometimes seems—is calling for better public management. For businessmen, the need is especially important because they feel surrounded by government institutions with which they are legally required to interact. But enthusiasm for good government is one thing; understanding the nature of it, to say nothing […]

For a leader, a public apology is always a high-risk move. Understanding what apologies can and cannot do will help you avoid both foolhardy stonewalling and unnecessary contrition.

We all know we can learn from our mistakes. So why not go out and make some? Here’s a systematic way to make carefully planned mistakes that pay off.

A high-tech reception system will make life easier for Quality Care’s staff, but what about its customers?

After days of meetings, J.F. Winchester, president of MDC Industries, felt no closer to a decision about whether MDC should exercise its option to buy a new and safer wallboard technology. Sitting down at his desk, he noticed the file marked “Goerner Wallboard Press Coverage,” which the media relations director had dropped off last week. […]

The physicians enjoy working at Regional Medical Center. So why are they about to walk off the job?

For decades prior to the 1980s, governments around the world increased the scope and magnitude of their activities, taking on a variety of tasks that the private sector previously had performed. In the United States, the federal government built highways and dams, conducted research, increased its regulatory authority across an expanding horizon of activities, and […]

Connecting with your best customers doesn’t have to involve Twitter or Facebook.

“A leader who deviates from compliance with the law sends devastating waves of damage throughout the organization,” the former president told HBR in 1988.

The other day I was asked to be on the board of directors of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. I was flattered to be considered for such an important position, but I knew right away I would turn it down. I have a simple rule: Never join the board of directors […]

Greatest Southeast Community Hospital is a 494-bed acute care facility located in southeast Washington, D.C. With revenues of $145 million and 2,650 employees, it is both the largest private employer and the only medical facility in a troubled and isolated community called Anacostia. Nearly a quarter of the area’s residents live below the poverty line, […]

One of history’s most remarkable organizational achievements—the large public corporation, governed by an independent board of directors—has served society for most of this century as an unrivaled creator of wealth and employment. Now it is an endangered species, and we must take strong measures to preserve and renew it. Patient capital is the foundation on […]

New organizations are emerging in its place—organizations that are corporate in form but have no public shareholders and are not listed or traded on organized exchanges. These organizations use public and private debt, rather than public equity, as their major source of capital. Their primary owners are not households but large institutions and entrepreneurs that […]

Reports of the “eclipse of the public corporation” underestimate its institutional staying power and unique capacity for renewal. In his recent HBR article, Michael C. Jensen, a distinguished scholar of corporate finance and governance, argues for a revolution in the structure of ownership and control in the U.S. economy.1 I share many of his criticisms […]

No one, not Joseph in Egypt or Alfred Sloan, has ever faced a managerial challenge as far-reaching as the one Mikhail Gorbachev has set for himself. In his own writings and speeches the Soviet economy comes across as a huge, failing industrial corporation whose workers are demoralized and whose managers are complacent about everything but […]