Professor profile
Morten T. Hansen is a management professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Information, and at Insead.
1. What area of research are you currently working on?I am doing a big study with Jim Collins, author of
Good to Great. The next study is how to understand how people and companies can become truly great in an uncertain and unforgiving world that is out to rip you apart—just the kind of world we are entering the next couple of decades. We have been at this for 6 years and are writing the book now.
And also, I have just published a ranking of the best-peforming CEOs in the world in Harvard Business Review, with colleagues Herminia Ibarra and Urs Peyer at INSEAD. It's an analysis of 2000 CEOs of the largest public companies in the world. We did this study because we want the world to change how it judges CEOs--from quarter and annual results to long-term results. So we judged them on the financial performance of their company during their entire time in office. And that created some real surprises on the list (see hbr.org).
2. A management book you think highly of. Why?I am a big fan of Jim Collins'
Good to Great. Some of my academic colleagues have criticized its methods, but that's because they don't (want to) understand it.
The one I am reading right now is
Nudge (Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, Penguin, 2009) which looks really great. It's about how small changes can get people to change behaviors. It's based on the field of behavioral economics, a great new discipline.
3. A very recent business or management title you read, and its significant lessons.I recently read Don Sull's
The Upside of Turbulence (HarperBusiness, 2009). Sull is a professor at the London Business School and has for many years studied how companies navigate changing conditions in industries (or fail to do so). His deep understanding of this problem comes through really well in the book. Rather than seeing change as a threat, Sull compels managers to see it as an opportunity, and he shows us how to do that. A great read.
4. What is one of your well-liked teaching moments (case, discussion topic, …)?One time in an executive education program, a manager responded to a point I made; "I completely disagree with you" (and then he gave the reasons). I asked the other participants what they thought. Someone said, "I disagree with you and also Professor Hansen." And from there we had a deep and fruitful debate, from which we all learned a great deal, including me. It's a vigorous debate over ideas--constructive conflict--that leads to great learning. We all have to be open, push, and engage.
5. What was your most interesting consulting assignment? Why?Years ago I worked for Boston Consulting Group in Stockholm. We went around to clients and talked to them about a great idea--"time based competition." It was a simple idea: if you could cut time out of your processes and do them faster, you could gain a huge competitive advantage. Old wine by now, but not back then. It was the best kind of consulting--lead with a big idea and create great new performance for clients. Nowadays consulting seems to lack big ideas. I don't see that many big ideas coming out of management consulting companies these days. That's something they need to change.
