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Separate the facts from the fads: A groundbreaking, fiveyear study reveals the musthave management practices that truly produce superior results.
What Really Works by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce, and Bruce Roberson
Reprint R0307C
This article is made available to you with compliments of SAP. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www.hbr.org or call 800-988-0886.
Separate the facts from the fads: A groundbreaking, five-year study reveals the must-have management practices that truly produce superior results.
What Really Works by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce, and Bruce Roberson
© 2003 BY HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The dot-com boom of the 1990s had changed the rules of business forever, it seemed; all you needed was a sexy IPO, cold nerve, and the magic carpet of momentum trading. But even as entrepreneurs and venture capitalists were dismissing traditional business models as antiquated and conventional business wisdom as old school, we found ourselves wondering if they were right. For years we had watched new management ideas come and go, passionately embraced one year, abruptly abandoned the next. “What really works?” we wondered. Our curiosity prompted us to undertake a major, multiyear research effort in which we carefully examined more than 200 well-established management practices as they were employed over a ten-year period by 160 companies. Our findings took us quite by surprise. Most of the management tools and techniques we studied had no direct causal relationship to superior business performance. What does matter, it turns out, is having a strong grasp of the business basics. Without exception, companies
that outperformed their industry peers excelled at what we call the four primary management practices—strategy, execution, culture, and structure. And they supplemented their great skill in those areas with a mastery of any two out of
What Really Works by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce, and Bruce Roberson
Reprint R0307C
This article is made available to you with compliments of SAP. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www.hbr.org or call 800-988-0886.
Separate the facts from the fads: A groundbreaking, five-year study reveals the must-have management practices that truly produce superior results.
What Really Works by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce, and Bruce Roberson
© 2003 BY HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The dot-com boom of the 1990s had changed the rules of business forever, it seemed; all you needed was a sexy IPO, cold nerve, and the magic carpet of momentum trading. But even as entrepreneurs and venture capitalists were dismissing traditional business models as antiquated and conventional business wisdom as old school, we found ourselves wondering if they were right. For years we had watched new management ideas come and go, passionately embraced one year, abruptly abandoned the next. “What really works?” we wondered. Our curiosity prompted us to undertake a major, multiyear research effort in which we carefully examined more than 200 well-established management practices as they were employed over a ten-year period by 160 companies. Our findings took us quite by surprise. Most of the management tools and techniques we studied had no direct causal relationship to superior business performance. What does matter, it turns out, is having a strong grasp of the business basics. Without exception, companies
that outperformed their industry peers excelled at what we call the four primary management practices—strategy, execution, culture, and structure. And they supplemented their great skill in those areas with a mastery of any two out of