''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'')
is a general
management magazine published by
Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned
subsidiary of
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. ''HBR'' is published six times a year
[ and is headquartered in Brighton, ]Massachusetts
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.
''HBR'' covers a wide range of topics that are relevant to various industries, management functions, and geographic locations. These include leadership
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
, negotiation, strategy, operations, marketing, and finance.
''Harvard Business Review'' has published articles by Clayton Christensen
Clayton Magleby Christensen (April 6, 1952January 23, 2020) was an American academic and business consultant who developed the theory of "disruptive innovation", which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century. ...
, Peter F. Drucker, Michael E. Porter, Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Rosabeth Moss Kanter (born March 15, 1943) is the Ernest L. Arbuckle professor of business at Harvard Business School. , John Hagel III, Thomas H. Davenport, Gary Hamel
Gary P. Hamel (born 1954) is an American management consultant. He is a founder of Strategos, an international management consulting firm based in Chicago.
Biography
Hamel graduated from Andrews University in 1975, and from Ross School of Bus ...
, C. K. Prahalad, Vijay Govindarajan
Vijay Govindarajan (born 18 November 1949), popularly known as VG, is the Coxe Distinguished Professor (a Dartmouth-wide chair) at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business and Marvin Bower Fellow, 2015–16 at Harvard Business School. He ...
, Robert S. Kaplan, Rita Gunther McGrath
Rita Gunther McGrath (born July 28, 1959 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American strategic management scholar and professor of management at the Columbia Business School. She is known for her work on strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship, in ...
and others. Several management concepts and business terms were first given prominence in ''HBR''.
''Harvard Business Review''s worldwide English-language circulation is 250,000. HBR licenses its content for publication in thirteen languages besides English.
Background
Early days
''Harvard Business Review'' began in 1922 as a magazine for Harvard Business School. Founded under the auspices of Dean Wallace Donham, ''HBR'' was meant to be more than just a typical school publication. "The paper 'HBR''is intended to be the highest type of business journal that we can make it, and for use by the student and the business man. It is not a school paper," Donham wrote. Initially, ''HBR''s focus was on macroeconomic trends, as well as on important developments within specific industries.
Following World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, ''HBR'' emphasized the cutting-edge management techniques that were developed in large corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...
s, like General Motors, during that time period. Over the next three decades, the magazine continued to refine its focus on general management issues that affect business leaders, billing itself as the "magazine for decision makers." Prominent articles published during this period include " Marketing Myopia" by Theodore Levitt and "Barriers and Gateways to Communication" by Carl R. Rogers and Fritz J. Roethlisberger.
1980s through 2009
In the 1980s, Theodore Levitt became the editor of ''Harvard Business Review'' and changed the magazine to make it more accessible to general audiences. Articles were shortened and the scope of the magazine was expanded to include a wider range of topics. In 1994, Harvard Business School formed Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) as an independent entity.
In 2002, a management and editorial staff shakeup occurred at the publication after the revelation of an affair between editor-in-chief Suzy Wetlaufer and former General Electric CEO Jack Welch. The two met while Ms. Wetlaufer was interviewing Mr. Welch while researching an article for the research-based magazine. Two senior ''Harvard Business Review'' editors left complaining the affair initiated during Wetlaufer's work with Welch for an article had broken ethical standards and cited an unfair office climate. Shortly after the resignations, Wetlaufer resigned on March 8, 2002 amid further rebuke by remaining staff. Three months later, the publisher, Penelope Muse Abernathy, was also forced out.
Between 2006 and 2008, HBP went through several reorganizations but finally settled into the three market-facing groups that exist today: Higher Education, which distributes cases, articles, and book chapters for business education materials; Corporate Learning, which provides standardized on-line and tailored off-line leadership development courses; and Harvard Business Review Group, which publishes ''Harvard Business Review'' magazine and its web counterpart (HBR.org), and publishes books (Harvard Business Review Press).
Redesign
In 2009, ''HBR'' brought on Adi Ignatius
Adi Ignatius (born in Burbank, California) is editor-in-chief of ''Harvard Business Review''. He joined the magazine in January 2009.
Biography
Previously, he was deputy managing editor for ''Time (magazine), Time'', where he was responsible for ...
, the former deputy managing editor of ''Time'' magazine, to be its editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
. Ignatius oversees all editorial operations for Harvard Business Review Group. At the time that Ignatius was hired, the United States was going through an economic recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by variou ...
, but ''HBR'' was not covering the topic. "The world was desperate for new approaches. Business-as-usual was not a credible response," Ignatius has recalled. During this period the frequency of ''HBR'' switched from ten times per year to six times per year.
As a result, Ignatius realigned ''HBRs focus and goals to make sure that it "delivers information in the zeitgeist that our readers are living in." ''HBR'' continues to emphasize research-based, academic pieces that would help readers improve their companies and further their careers, but it broadened its audience and improved reach and impact by including more contemporary topics.
As part of the redesigned magazine, Ignatius also led the charge to integrate the print and digital divisions more closely, and gave each edition of ''HBR'' a distinct theme and personality, as opposed to being a collection of academically superlative, yet mostly unrelated articles.
''HBR'' won the 2020 Webby Award for Business Blog/Website in the category Web.
McKinsey Awards
Since 1959, the magazine's annual McKinsey Award has recognized the two most significant ''Harvard Business Review'' articles published each year, as determined by a group of independent judges. Past winners have included Peter F. Drucker,[ who was honored seven times; Clayton M. Christensen; Theodore Levitt; Michael Porter; ]Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Rosabeth Moss Kanter (born March 15, 1943) is the Ernest L. Arbuckle professor of business at Harvard Business School. ; John Hagel III; and C. K. Prahalad.
Reference
External links
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Harvard Business Review Poland
HBR Magazine
HBR Case Study Solutions
{{Harvard
1922 establishments in Massachusetts
Bimonthly magazines published in the United States
Business magazines published in the United States
Harvard Business Publishing magazines
Magazines established in 1922
Magazines published in Massachusetts
Ten times annually magazines