HBRS 10 Must Reads: The Essentials by Harvard Business Review

HBRS 10 Must Reads: The Essentials Reviews

• 
  Carolina Esteves de Andrade

  I just invested in myself with the HBR’S 10 Must Reads Collection by Harvard Business Review Press. This series is really good because each book has 10 of the best articles published by Harvard University on each topic. I think it is a must read for any ambitious manager, new or experienced leader.
  
  It is easy to read, each book has approximately 300 pages. Each chapter is an article from great authors such as Peter F. Drucker, Theodore Levitt, Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton and others. One of the things that I liked on these books is that each chapter has a box called Idea in Brief, which gives you an idea of the basic concept of the chapter and most of them has very interesting case studies as well.
  I highly recommend you to get this collection because will inspire you with ideas and knowledge that will accelerate both your own growth and company. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever-changing business environment. The titles include: Leadership, Managing Yourself, The Essentials, Change Management,Managing People and Strategy.
  
  One of my favorite articles were:
  
  What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Leadership)
  
  Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton (HBR’S 10 Must Reads The Essentials)
  
  Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker (HBR’S 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself)
  
  The Real Reason People won’t Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Change Management )
  
  What Great Managers Do by Marcus Buckingham (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Managing People)
  
  The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution by Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin, and Elisabeth Powers (HBR’S 10 Must Reads On Strategy)
  
  “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes “ Peter F. Drucker
  
  “The ability to change constantly and effectively is made by high-level continuity.” Michael E. Porter
• 
  Annie

  Only a few of the articles were interesting but not "must reads" for a business person. Perhaps the articles were novel at the time they were published. Since then, many of the insightful topics have been expanded into books. A business person would recognize some of the authors like Peter F. Drucker ("The Effective Executive"), Jim Collins ("Good to Great"), and Daniel Goleman ("Emotional Intelligence").
• 
  César

  Imaginem um almoço buffet feito pelos cozinheiros com mais estrelas do guia Michelin. É isso mesmo.
• 
  Arjen

  My boss invited me to join the firm's "Marketing & Strategy" team. Don't do that to me. I get excited, hit Amazon and order a pile of books on the subject. This is one of the books that came in a Harvard Business Review box set and seamed like a good place to start filling my brain with business related theory.
  
  It's ten essays / articles bundled under the title 'Essentials' and that's exactly what it is. Read this and you'll be able to hold your ground among the wannabe CEO/CTO/CFO/CwhateverrocksyourboatO of any company.
  
  Good stuff.
  
  If you're into the whole business kind of thing.
  
  Actually, when you're not into the whole business kind of thing, read this as well so you know what you're not into.
• 
  Elita Lahm

  It was my first book of HBR'S 10 Must Reads. I did struggle with quite a few articles, but some I really enjoyed. The few topics I did enjoy and I guess they haven't aged as much were on Emotional Intelligence, Change and Leadership, many of concepts discussed in those articles still apply today. However, Innovation, Marketing Myopia, Balance Scorecard, though great to look at historically, I was just not convinced many of those concepts are still relevant or used today. 6 of these articles were written in 1990, one in 1960, and the two most recent ones in 2006. 30 years in a business world, especially during the time of internet emerging in its glory, is a lot of years, a lot of change, and many things that used to be relevant in 1990 definitely gained a totally new perspective along a 30-year period.
  
  So 4 stars only because in my opinion, even published in 2011, some of the articles were in need of replacing (unfortunately) nevertheless - great material, very interestingly displayed to a reader and I definitely learnt something from every one of each. If they will have a new edition with more recent articles on the same topics I would definitely be interested to read it!
• 
  Rodrigo Ramos

  Coleção interessante de artigos da HBR sobre Business
• 
  Sepideh Hosseinian

  Awesome book if you want to learn how to move into a management role without going to business school (which is a waste of time anyway).⠀
  ⠀
• 
  David

  Yeah... no. So, I got this as part of a boxed set. The HBR 10 Must Reads series are basically reprints of articles from HBR. The Essentials contain articles from the other books in the same boxed set - there are duplicates. Kind of a bummer. Also, yes, some articles transcend time, but some don't, and these are really showing their age.
• 
  Stephan Pire

  A good way to get a glimpse at Kaplan Norton.
  
  Not a big fan of the 2 first summaries: "Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change" and "Competing on Analytics", they tend to turn out obsolete
• 
  Michael Bolls

  My first introduction to HBR's 10 Must Reads and I have to say I'm quite impressed. There is a wide-ranging selection of ideas and articles that added real value to many business discussions I've had.
  
  There seem to be some slight variations in articles based on the edition of this book. The version I had had the following 10 articles.
  
  (1) Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Overdorf
  (2) Competing on Analytics by Thomas H. Davenport
  (3) Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker
  (4) What Makes a Leader? by Daniel Goleman
  (5) Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
  (6) Innovation: The Classic Traps by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
  (7) Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail John Kotter
  (8) Marketing Myopia by Theodore Levitt
  (9) What is Strategy by Michael E. Porter
  (10) The Core Competence of the Corporation by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel
  
  The articles tended to be more focused on those in management and senior management positions. There were many ideas on how to structure a team and organization which I found fascinating. Yet, there were enduring ideas that I didn't know were in theory for such a long time.
  
  Most of the articles are from the 60s-90s yet are still relevant today. Ideas such as Marketing Myopia, Balanced Scorecard, Strategy, and EIQ were all things that I learned before but it was nice to see the thought process explained in further detail.
  
  I learned many things from each. Some articles were a bit rather duller to read through while others were refreshing. It's really a grab bag of HBR articles. This is something I plan on keeping on my shelf for a while for future rereadings.
  
  4.5/5. Rounded to a 5. Focused more on those in management. If not in management, it can be a bit irrelevant but fun if you're into business books.
• 
  Mike

  The Drucker article is four stars, the others 1–3. Some ok stuff on innovation, but this material is covered more clearly and fully in The Innovator's Dilemma (
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...). Scattered good ideas around what makes company strategy successful (increasing mutual fit of differentiating behaviors, investing in core competencies) that were probably revelatory in the 80's and 90's but are now conventional wisdom you'll pick up in your first few years in industry. Skip the balanced scorecard article.
• 
  Alvaro Alcocer Sotil

  Para un principiante en cuestiones de la gestión y administración de empresas como yo, es un libro esencial dado la experiencia y conocimiento de los autores. Puedo concluir que ante todo una persona debe mantenerse en sus principios y valores éticos, ademas de abrirse su mente y ver el bosque y no solo quedarse en un árbol. Totalmente recomendado.
• 
  Amy Young

  So few of the articles are relevant, with the average published +20 years ago. Peter Drucker’s “Managing Oneself” and Daniel Goleman’s “What Makes a Leader” will likely be the most helpful to others, since they don’t suffer from timeliness or lack the of, but if you’re picking up HBR’s Must Reads, stick to more recent publications.
• 
  Jeff

  A collection of HBR's top reads from the past 20 (yes 20) years. I'm fortunate that through my work I've already come across much of the content - for those less familiar, this will be a much more engaging read than it was for me. 3.5 stars if I could.
• 
  Azael Capetillo

  Plenty of concrete practical lessons.
  
  Although some articles are over 30 years old, they still carry valuable insights. Nevertheless, their validity in current times needs to be question and analysed.
• 
  Timothee

  The articles can go back to the 60s-80s but they are still super valuable!
  I would say this is a great read, though, if you can get just the articles you are interested in, you might be better off :)
  Always good food for thoughts!
• 
  Mike Fowler

  Good introductory essays on several core management ideas however they are somewhat dated. One gem written in 1960, "Marketing Myopia", is rather prescient given the current focus on customers although the oil industry somehow rages on.
• 
  Vinicius Oyama

  The content is good and still valid today.
  
  It's a good book for a macro view on *management* strategies and characteristics for big compaines.
  
  Would not recommend for someone who wants to learn more about business overall or enterpreunership to start something.
• 
  Steve

  Interesting stuff. Some of the material did feel a bit dated, but overall it was a decent broad introduction to some key business concepts and ways of thinking.
• 
  Mark

  Academically intriguing!
• 
  Dr Mohamed Ibrahim, MBA, Ph.D

  Before going reading this, you may need to watch this excerpt:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbIkb...
• 
  Attila

  Some foundational timeless articles definitely worth a read, but there is content in there that shows a slight age.
• 
  x

  Interesting, not revolutionary.
  Just good food for thought before starting a business role