Harvard Business Review Announces 54th Annual McKinsey Award Winners

John P. Kotter’s “Accelerate!” Recognized as Top Article of 2012

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Harvard Business Review is pleased to announce that John P. Kotter is the McKinsey Award winner for his November 2012 article “Accelerate!” Kotter is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, co-founder of Kotter International, and the author of 17 books, including Leading Change and The Heart of Change.

“The New Science of Building Great Teams.”

The annual McKinsey Awards, judged by an independent panel of business and academic leaders, commend outstanding articles published each year in Harvard Business Review. The awards were established in 1959 to recognize practical and groundbreaking management thinking by determining the two best articles each year. This year’s announcement appears in the April issue of the magazine, available online today and hitting newsstands March 26.

In “Accelerate!” Kotter argues that traditional organizational hierarchies and processes, while effective at handling the operational needs of most companies, are too rigid to adjust to the quick shifts in today’s marketplace. Kotter offers a second, parallel “operating system” companies can use to develop and implement strategy with greater agility, speed, and creativity.

“The old ways of setting and executing a strategy are failing, in part because companies can no longer keep up with the pace of change,” said Adi Ignatius, editor in chief of Harvard Business Review. “Kotter’s framework offers an innovative way for companies to respond to rapid change and set themselves up for long-term success.”

This year’s McKinsey Awards also recognizes Alex “Sandy” Pentland as the second place winner for his April 2012 article “The New Science of Building Great Teams.” Pentland is a professor at MIT, the director of MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory and the MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program, and the chairman of Sociometric Solutions. His article shares his research findings on why some teams consistently deliver high performance while other, seemingly identical teams struggle. Pentland identifies three key communication dynamics (energy, engagement, and exploration) that affect team performance and based on these three factors, shows how anyone can engineer a great team.

The 2012 award winners were selected by a distinguished panel of leaders:

Angela Ahrendts
CEO, Burberry

Lubov Azria
Chief Creative Officer, BCBG Max Azria Group
Max Azria
Chairman and CEO, BCBG Max Azria Group

Regina Dugan
Senior Executive, Google

Jim Gibbons
President and CEO, Goodwill Industries International

Fred Hassan
Chairman, Bausch & Lomb

Mark Hurd
Copresident and Director, Oracle

About the McKinsey Awards

Since 1959, the McKinsey Foundation for Management Research has presented awards recognizing the best articles published each year in Harvard Business Review. Past winners include such notables as Peter Drucker, Clayton M. Christensen, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, George Stalk, Michael E. Porter, and Mark R. Kramer.

About Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review is the leading destination for smart management thinking. Through its flagship magazine, 11 international licensed editions, books from Harvard Business Review Press, and digital content and tools published on HBR.org, Harvard Business Review provides professionals around the world with rigorous insights and best practices to lead themselves and their organizations more effectively and to make a positive impact.