What does it take to succeed as a business while doing well by your employees?

Harvard Business School professor emeritus Michael Beer has studied companies who invest in building long-term social value, and he says they offer some key lessons for other firms.

In this episode, he breaks down how these companies set their strategies for new products and services. As he explains: “One of the key disciplines they have is what we called forging a strategic identity. So what does that mean? It means that they, first of all, start the process of deciding what they’re going to do, what services or products they’re going to offer…what markets they will go into…by first asking themselves, ‘Who are we?’ They start from the inside out…rather than from the outside in.”

Michael Beer is also the coauthor of Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value.

Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Higher Ambition Leadership (2011)
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