Reconciling Principles with Realities

What makes Harvard Business School unique?

One thing that sets HBS apart is our interest in hands-on, practical management. Some business schools engage in deep analytical research that might influence management practice 10 or 20 years down the road. HBS has a very practical orientation that is meant to help managers here and now. For example, how do you decide which opportunities to pursue today? How do you work with a difficult team? That practical focus aligns well with my own passions and is what I love most about HBS.

How do HBS Executive Education programs help executives?

If you are attending GMP or many of our other programs, you have a lot of management experience and know quite a bit about business already. So, why is it productive for you to come to HBS and talk to people like me—academics who study business for a living?

If I tell you things you know already, that's not helpful. If I tell you theories that are far away from your day-to-day decision making, that's not helpful either. We address the questions and issues that preoccupy you in your job today—while encouraging you to think about these issues in a different way. That's our unique contribution. At HBS, you experience a productive tension between the way you always thought about business issues and the way HBS faculty—and peers from around the world—think about those issues.

Who gets the most value from the General Management Program?

The ideal GMP participant is an experienced manager who is transitioning into a new role with greater and broader responsibilities. As executives rise through the management ranks, their individual expertise matters less and less. To be qualified for a role in which they are managing a division or a country organization for a multinational, they need a new kind of expertise. It's a perfect time for them to come to HBS, reflect on the past, think about the issues they will face in their new role, and find the most productive ways to approach the leadership and management challenges.

Beyond career stage, the individuals who will benefit most from the GMP experience are those who are willing to step back from their day-to-day obligations and ask bigger questions—not so much, "How do I make my numbers for the quarter?" but rather, "How do I guarantee that my organization will still exist three, four, or five years down the road?" In addition, they should be willing to ask difficult questions of themselves—"What am I aspiring to in the future and why?" and "Will that path keep me engaged and excited?" The more people are ready to address these sometimes very personal, very difficult decisions, the more they will benefit from GMP.

How would you describe your approach to teaching?

What makes a good teacher is curiosity. I walk into a classroom very curious to know how people think about a particular issue and how diverse the views will be. My classes, like others at HBS, are very interactive. As participants draw on their own experience, I bring academic insights into the discussion and we exchange ideas. That dynamic is very productive and stimulating for all of us.

GMP participants bring a rich diversity of experience, which I find inspiring. I can ask, "Who has experience building a culture that is focused on quality in Latin America?" A dozen hands go up. I can ask, "Who has experience trying to reduce cost in a market with significant cost pressure in Asia?" Another dozen hands go up. No matter what we are discussing, that experience ensures that the real world is always in the classroom.

What do you most want executives to take away from your strategy classes?

One of the most important insights: Strategy is not complicated. There is a world out there that makes strategic decisions sound very involved. That mindset makes executives feel that it will take them 10 or 20 years before they really understand how to build a strategy.

But when executives walk out of GMP, their mindset is, "Strategic decision making is not complicated. I need to think about a few specific things, and there are a few ways to do it successfully." At GMP, we are building expertise, and we are building confidence that everyone in the classroom can be a successful strategist. It takes careful thought, but it’s not rocket science.

During the program, we connect strategy to other areas of the business. Many managerial issues are not neatly confined by functional titles. General management challenges are often about the links between functions. We want GMP participants to understand all these links.

What are some current trends that business leaders need to consider in formulating competitive strategies?

I am currently very interested in the way digital technology changes just about every facet of business. We call this the digital transition. In this new world, you relate to customers differently, you think about production differently, and you think very differently about the global footprint of your company. The way you can create value and the way you can capture value are influenced by digital technologies.

Today, every company is a technology company. Every company can use the Internet to manage costs or build relationships with customers. When I ask the participants in GMP, "Who is in the technology industry?" nearly all the hands go up. That reflects today's reality; technology changes business in such a fundamental way that everyone needs to think about it.

Strategists need to think about the same set of challenges they've always had, and also about the new set of challenges or opportunities that exist only because they now have a business in a digital world. You have to adjust your business model so that you find and capture the profit pools where digital technology has taken them.

Why does the HBS case study method work well?

Case studies deal with issues real companies and real executives face every day. When you study and discuss a case, the goal is not to become a carbon copy of the company you are studying, or to take away a specific solution, but rather to understand the logic behind the decision-making process so that you can apply the same approach to challenges you confront in your own organization.

In addition, case studies make sessions memorable. When I meet up with GMP alumni or executives who attended other HBS Executive Education programs, they almost always bring up a case discussed in class. I think that happens because there is an emotional component to learning with cases. During the case discussions, you put yourself out there. Just imagine sitting in class with 90 other really smart people and advocating for a particular solution. What will the others think? It's quite an emotional risk. The emotional quality of that classroom experience fixes it in your memory.

How does the GMP structure support learning?

The combination of on- and off-campus modules is designed to prompt executives to think about their organization in new ways. For example, before they come to campus, I ask participants to consider the source of competitive advantage for their company. They might go and talk with five different executives in their business and get five different answers. The program takes executives beyond that very operations-focused way of thinking right from the start.

Executives come to campus with preliminary answers to those questions, and through the cases and discussions, we drive to a deeper truth about their business. Everything is geared toward the ability to take back lessons from the classrooms and implement them at work. The module system enables a back-and-forth between new ideas discussed on campus and the realities we all face when we set out to really change things.

When executives come back to campus for Module 4, they often say, “I knew I could not change everything, but I talked to a dozen people about an idea that I took from GMP.” Their eyes light up when they talk about these conversations. Some of the insights and enthusiasm that they take away from GMP is communicated to their teams and organizations, so there is a multiplier effect. For that reason, the change that GMP can produce is much larger than you would think.

Why is the first off-campus module so important?

Module 1 helps to create a language and a platform that ensures Module 2 can be very productive. The speed at which people learn differs radically depending on their background, and Module 1 addresses that. If I work for an accounting firm, the accounting exercises are going to be trivial for me. But if I'm a marketing executive, then perhaps I have am not sure how to read a balance sheet or a P&L. We try to individualize that first module so people from very different backgrounds can learn in the way that is best for them.

How does GMP help participants address their current challenges?

One fundamental difference between working with a consulting firm, for example, and coming to HBS is that a consultant will provide a solution. In Executive Education, we focus much more on how to think about the problem.

For many executives, business and personal questions are tied together. Many people come to GMP with personal dilemmas such as "Is this the right industry for me?" or "Should I leave my company?" These are very personal decisions. I find that in the course of GMP, people change their perspective and think about their role quite differently. Some people discover they really were not in the right role. But for others, conflicts or issues they did not know how to deal with become opportunities for further growth and personal engagement in the organization.

For example, one participant came from a consulting organization whose executive team was split between a desire to grow the organization and a desire to keep profits high. This executive was almost ready to leave the organization, but the insights that he gained in GMP completely changed his way of thinking. He saw opportunities to link profitability and growth in a new and promising fashion. He brought the organization a really productive way of thinking about its future.

How do executives change as a result of attending GMP?

GMP participants change at three levels. First, they develop technical expertise. For example, they learn how to calculate the cost of capital. That process begins before they come to campus and continues throughout the program, as each lesson builds on the ones before. Next, they develop a general management perspective, changing their focus from excellence in a particular functional area to understanding the links between activities in the organization. The classroom conversations change in the later stages of the program because people are making more connections across the different functions of the organization.

The third level of change—and perhaps the most important one—is that participants change and grow as people. They have the time and the tools to think about broader questions such as "What are my goals? Why am I doing this? Can I imagine doing this for another 20 years and being really fulfilled, engaged, and excited about the opportunities? How do I add value to my company?" They also start asking, "How do I add value to my community, my country, or society as a whole?"

Asking these bigger questions changes people. When they arrive, GMP participants are focused on small things, but when they leave, they have much bigger aspirations.

What do you find most rewarding about GMP?

I find it very rewarding to see the sense of empowerment participants gain from greater technical knowledge. They can engage confidently in many more conversations. I also enjoy seeing how they begin to think differently about different parts of the business. They'll say, for example, "I always thought marketing was such a pain to deal with and wondered why they were so stubborn. Now I understand why they do what they do."

Our participants change as people—they become more ambitious. We hear back from them about getting a big promotion or starting a business. Seeing these personal changes is probably the most fulfilling part.

In your opinion, why is GMP successful?

Part of what makes GMP successful is that it is truly a global program, involving perspectives from all over the world. If you think about the world's challenges today, coupled with what many describe as a more limited capacity of government to drive change, what's the answer? The answer is going to be that businesses have to step up and figure out how to solve many of these global issues. Management is a key tool that enables businesses to be effective in the world. That has become so much more important in the past decade, and it is going to be increasingly important going forward. GMP enables executives to be effective general managers who can drive real change.