The HBR Manager’s Discussion

Series was a periodic Live

Meeting series that brought

together a leading business

author with Microsoft

managers to discuss the

author’s recently published

article in the Harvard

Business Review.

In 2008, Chris Weber, National Vice President of Sales and

Industry, EGP Segment, invested in a subscription to the

Harvard Business Review for each of the US managers.

The purpose of the HBR Discussion Series was to provide

structure and support for reading that publication and

the opportunity to leverage publication content to

expand the thinking of Microsoft sales managers.

The HBR Discussion series was accessible by invitation only

and was targeted exclusively to US EPG sales managers and

unit managers who had subscriptions to the HBR. The last

presentation was opened up to managers from the SMS&P

Segment.

Teaming Up to Crack Innovation Robert Morison is vice president and

director of research with nGenera Corporation.

He is co-author of Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills And Talent (Harvard Business

School Press, 2006)

Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption

Co-chairman, Deloitte Touche focusing on strategic management and

operational performance improvement using information technology as a key

enabler.

Teaming Up to Crack Innovation In 1997 Nick Vitalari co-founded The

Concours Group, where he remains an executive and directs nGenera’s

Enterprise 2.0 and Government 2.0 Insight programs. His work focuses on

driving new levels of productivity through redefined employee

computing.

7

4 Weeks

Chris

selects an

article to

discuss

3 Weeks

Contact author

and confirm

availability

2 Weeks

Schedule dates for

technology check,

pre-meeting call,

and Live Meeting.

Mail Live Meeting

invitation

1 Week

HBR reminder

to participants.

Technology

Check

Presentation Week

Confirm takeaways for

slides and surveys.

Pre-meeting call

between Chris and the

author(s)

• Live Meeting format. The presentation was one hour long with a pre-meeting between Chris and the author to discuss content and objectives.

• The Live Meeting had closed microphones, so the moderator took audience questions and passed them along to Chris who wove them into the discussion.

• Following the discussion group, Chris integrated takeaways into his language and memos.

• We posted the unedited audio recording of the discussion for 90 days where it was available only to the Microsoft community.

A Consensus Survey was created and the link wasmailed to all attendees. Based on a 23% response rate…

• 87.5 % gained information that will influence how they market, sell, or service partners and customers.• 90% broadened their business knowledge in a way that will advance their career.• 90% think they can use this information to strengthen their team.• 75% agree that a monthly event is the best schedule for this amount of content and the interactive nature of the series.• 92.5% agree that the Live Meeting Technology is a good choice for this series.

Chris Weber, EPG National Vice President, Sales and Industry is the host. His role is to become familiar with the article and lead the discussion. He also fields questions from participating managers and uses them to further the discussion.

Tony Caruso, EPG Field Readiness Manager, is the liaison to Chris Weber and the EPG community.

Will Flash is the moderator and spokesperson for SMSGR (Sales, Marketing, and Services Group Readiness). His role is to keep the discussion on time and on track, and conduct audience polling. He also makes technology arrangements with the authors.

Jan Lohmann, MSNA Field Communications Manager, is liaison to the Harvard School of Business and HBR authors.