The HBR Agenda 2011

In the spirit of the new year, we asked two dozen business and management leaders what projects they’ll take on in 2011. Here they share their answers—which range from shaking up the study of economics to lifting the quality of discussion on the internet. We expect these people to make significant headway during the year, […]

by

and

Laura D’Andrea Tyson

by

and

Laura D’Andrea Tyson

From the Magazine (January–February 2011)

Summary.

Reprint: R1101B

HBR asked top management thinkers to share what they were resolved to focus on in 2011. Here are their answers:
Joseph E. Stiglitz will be crafting a new postcrisis paradigm for macroeconomics whereby rational individuals interact with imperfect and asymmetric information.
Herminia Ibarra will be looking for hard evidence of how “soft” leadership creates value.
Eric Schmidt will be planning to scale mobile technology by developing fast networks and providing low-cost smartphones in the poorest parts of the world.
Michael E. Porter will be using modern cost accounting to uncover—and lower—the real costs of health care.
Vijay Govindarajan will be trying to prototype a $300 house to replace the world’s poorest slums, provide healthy living, and foster education.
Dan Ariely will be investigating consumers’ distaste for genetically modified salmon, synthetic pharmaceuticals, and other products that aren’t “natural.”
Laura D. Tyson will be promoting the establishment of a national infrastructure investment bank.
Esther Duflo will be striving to increase full immunization in poor areas of India.
Clay Shirky will be studying how to design internet platforms that foster civility.
Klaus Schwab will be undertaking to create a Risk Response Network through which decision makers around the world can pool knowledge about the risks they face.
Jack Ma will be working to instill a strong set of values in his 19,000 young employees and to help clean up China’s environment.
Thomas H. Davenport will be researching big judgment calls that turned out well and how organizations arrived at them.
A.G. Lafley will be proselytizing to make company boards take leadership succession seriously. Eleven additional contributors to the Agenda, along with special audio and video features, can be found at
hbr.org/2011-agenda.

In the spirit of the new year, we asked two dozen business and management leaders what projects they’ll take on in 2011. Here they share their answers—which range from shaking up the study of economics to lifting the quality of discussion on the internet. We expect these people to make significant headway during the year, and we hope their efforts will inspire HBR readers to pursue similarly lofty projects.

A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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DA

In his best-selling book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, Dan Ariely presents often humorous and peculiar research findings that provide new insights into human behavior that can help us make better decisions as individuals, as corporations, and as a society.
TB

Tim Brown is the CEO and president of the international design consulting firm IDEO and the author of Change by Design (HarperBusiness, 2009).
PC
Thomas H. Davenport is the President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, a visiting scholar at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and a senior adviser to Deloitte’s AI practice. He is a coauthor of All-in on AI: How Smart Companies Win Big with Artificial Intelligence (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023).
ED
Claudio Fernández-Aráoz is an advisor on Talent and Family Businesses, a frequent lecturer at Harvard Business School, and the author of It’s Not the How or the What but the Who.
Lynda Gratton is a professor of management practice at London Business School and the founder of HSM Advisory, a future-of-work research consultancy. Her most recent book is Redesigning Work: How to Transform Your Organization and Make Hybrid Work for Everyone (Penguin Business, 2022).
Vijay Govindarajan is the Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, a Dartmouth-wide chair and the highest distinction awarded to Dartmouth faculty, a Faculty Partner in the Silicon Valley incubator Mach49, and a Senior Advisor at the strategy consulting firm Acropolis Advisors. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His latest book is Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future. His Harvard Business Review articles “Engineering Reverse Innovations” and “Stop the Innovation Wars” won McKinsey Awards for best article published in HBR. His HBR articles “How GE Is Disrupting Itself” and “The CEO’s Role in Business Model Reinvention” are HBR all-time top-50 bestsellers. Follow him on LinkedIn.
vgovindarajan
JH

J. Richard Hackman is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams. The misperceptions that are summarized in this post are explored in greater depth in his new book Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems (Berrett-Koehler, 2011). He is interviewed by HBR in “Why Teams Don’t Work” (May 2009) and is the author of Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances (Harvard Business School Press, 2002).
HI

Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and the author of Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, revised edition (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023), and Working Identity, revised edition (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023).
HerminiaIbarra
PK

Paul Kedrosky is an investor, entrepreneur, and a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation.
A.G. Lafley, the recently retired CEO of Procter & Gamble, serves on the board of Snap Inc.
Charlene Li is the Founder and CEO of Altimeter Group and the author of five books, most recently The Engaged Leader, as well as the New York Times bestseller, Open Leadership and the co-author of the critically acclaimed book, Groundswell. She is a sought-after speaker and advisor to many Fortune 500 companies. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two teenagers.
JM

Jack Ma is Executive Chairman and lead founder of Alibaba Group
JM
DP

Daniel H. Pink is the author of four books about the changing world of work. His next book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others (Riverhead), will be published in January 2013.
Michael E. Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School. He has served as an adviser to governments and campaigns around the world on the advancement of social policy and economic policy, including Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. His latest paper is The Role of Business in Society. He is an academic adviser to the Leadership Now Project.
ES
Eric Schmidt is the executive chairman of Google.
KS
CS
JS
Robert I. Sutton is an organizational psychologist and a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. He has written eight books, including (with Huggy Rao) The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder (St. Martin’s Press, January 2024).

New!

HBR Learning

Global Collaboration Course

Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Global Collaboration. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

Learn how to overcome barriers when working globally.

Start Course

Learn More & See All Courses

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