Raffaella Sadun, a professor at Harvard Business School, explains why seemingly common-sensical management practices are so hard to implement. After surveying thousands of organizations across the world, she found that only 6% of firms qualified as highly well-managed — and that managers mistakenly assumed they were all above average. She is a co-author of “ ... Show More
Sep 8
A Leading Restaurateur on What It Takes to Scale a Winning Culture
When a company is small, maintaining a strong culture can feel relatively easy. But as organizations grow, layers of management, geographic distance, and pressure for efficiency can make it much harder to preserve what made the company special in the first place. Restaurateur Dan ... Show More
31m 53s
May 2018
Why Management Practice Matters
In this episode, Mihir sits down with HBS economist Rafaella Sadun, who has dug deep into why and how management practices matter with award-winning large-sample empirical work. Rafaella discusses the problems and promise of family ownership, why Americans do IT better, the secre ... Show More
28m 38s
Jan 2025
How to Make Better Decisions Under Pressure
Many people believe that leaders instinctively make the best decisions based on past experience, almost like muscle memory. But Carol Kauffman, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the founder of the Institute of Coaching, challenges this view. She explains why falli ... Show More
28m 14s
Jun 2025
Stress Test Your Strategy Before It Fails
While many teams and organizations engage in scenario planning, most don’t go far enough. Arjan Singh, consultant and adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University, says a more disciplined approach, borrowed from the military, can help leaders truly test how their strategies ... Show More
26m 51s