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SPOTLIGHT

The leader’s Calendar

Chief executives have tremendousresources at their disposal, but they face an acute scarcity in one criticalarea: time. Drawing on an in-depth 12-year study, this package examines theunique time management challenges of CEOs and the best strategies for conqueringthem.

page 049

how CEOs manage TIME

In 2006, Harvard Business School’s Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria launched a study tracking howlarge companies’ CEOs spent their time, 24/7, for 13weeks: where they were, with whom, what they did, and what they were focusingon. To date Porter and Nohria have gathered 60,000 hours’ worth of data on 27 executives, interviewing them—and hundreds of other CEOs—about theirschedules. This article presents the findings, offering insights not only intobest time-management practices but into the CEO’s roleitself. CEOs need to learn to simultaneously manage the seemingly contradictorydualities of the job: integrating direct decision making with indirect leverslike strategy and culture, balancing internal and external constituencies,proactively pursuing an agenda while reacting to unfolding events, exercisingleverage while being mindful of constraints, focusing on the tangible impact ofactions while recognizing their symbolic significance, and combining formalpower with legitimacy.

What Do CEOs Actually Do?

A look at the data on how CEOsallocated their time among various activities,places, priorities,and constituencies

one CEO’s APPROACH TO managing his calendar

In an interview, Tom Gentile, the CEOof the $7 billion aviation supplier Spirit AeroSystems, shares what he learnedfrom tracking his time in Porter and Nohria’s study—and what he’strying to change as a result.

HBR Reprint R1804B

How I Did It

strategy

the CEO of Levi Strauss on leading aniconic brand back to growth

Chip Bergh | page 037

When the author was tapped to joinLevi Strauss, in 2011, the company’s financial performance had been erratic for a decade. He went on alistening tour, conversing with each of the top 60 executives, asking them whatthree things absolutely must change and what three things must not. He wasn’t surprised to discover that a clear strategy was lacking. But healso saw that a lack of urgency, of financial discipline, and of datadiscipline permeated the culture.

After six months on the job, Berghand his team rolled out a plan consisting of four key pieces: (1) Build our profitable core (80% of profitscome from men’s jeans and Dockers); (2) Expand for more (seize the opportunity inwomen’s clothing); (3) Become a leading omnichannel retailer (growsales in the company’s own stores andonline); (4) Achieveoperational excellence (cut costs, drive cash flow, become more data driven andfinancially disciplined).

The new strategy provided funds forinvestment in the company’s Eureka InnovationLab, which had been colocated with a factory in Turkey. In 2013 a new facilitywas opened four blocks from headquarters in San Francisco. Its biggest successhas been a revamped women’s denim line. A second biginvestment was the purchase of naming rights for the San Francisco 49ers’ new stadium—a 20-year, $220 million deal. Bergh saw that as anopportunity to put the Levi’s brand back at thecenter of the cultural conversation.

HBR Reprint R1804A

FEATURES

Organizational culture

Creating a Purp0se-Drivenorganization

Robert E. Quinn and Anjan V. Thakor | page 088

When employees are disengaged andunderperforming, the reaction of many managers is to try new incentives andratchet up oversight and control. Yet often nothing improves. Why? Because theassumption behind such conventional approaches is that work is fundamentallycontractual and that employees are self-interested agents who will seek tominimize personal effort. And that assumption becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy:Employees do just what is needed to earn a reward or meet a standard, andnothing more.

But there is another way: Rally theorganization behind an authentic higher purpose—an aspirational mission that explains how employees are making adifference and gives them a sense of meaning. If you do that, they will try newthings, move into deep learning, and make surprising contributions. Theworkforce will become energized and committed, and performance will climb.

In this article, Quinn and Thakordescribe how organizations like DTE Energy, KPMG, and Sandler O’Neill have dramatically increased employee engagement afterdiscovering their higher purposes. The authors outline eight steps othercompanies can follow to break free of the conventional thinking about workermotivation, help a higher purpose permeate decisions throughout the company,and set off a positive chain of events.

HBR Reprint R1804E

FEATURES

Health Care

Transforming Health Care from the Ground Up

Vijay Govindarajan and Ravi Ramamurti | page 096

The U.S. health care system needsreform, but too often experts focus on top-down solutions stemming from federalpolicy changes. Such efforts alone, however, cannot fix a wasteful andmisdirected system.

What’s needed is innovation driven by doctors, nurses, administrators,entrepreneurs, and even patients who are devising new solutions to dailychallenges.

This article looks at two examples ofbottom-up innovation, each involving a radical transformation of health caredelivery. The University of Mississippi Medical Center created a homegrowntelehealth network to increase patient access to care; Iora Health developed anew business model that doubled down on primary care to reap large savings insecondary and tertiary care.

These successful initiatives—one from an incumbent health care provider and one from a businessstart-up—demonstrate the potential of creative leadersto reshape the U.S. health system.

HBR Reprint R1804G