managing the right tension

Harvard Business Review
December '06

There are three fundamental tensions with which most companies and executives struggle: profitability versus growth, short term versus long term, and the whole of a company versus its parts.

Few companies manage these competing objectives successfully at the same time. But there is a way to do so. The key is finding the common bond that enables reconciliation of these seemingly irreconcilable objectives.

For any company one tension is always more critical to unlocking better performance than the rest—that is the one to manage.

 

Subscribers to HBR can read online (external website)

For a customized reprint of this article, or to learn more about how we can help you bring the ideas in this article to your business, please contact us.