HBR.
ORG
From the Editor
Illustrating this month’s Spot-
light package is Josh Keyes, an
Oregon-based multimedia artist
whose work is known for its
often unsettling combinations
of man-made objects and the
natural world.
ABOVE
Detail from Shedding, 2009
acrylic on panel, 30" x 40"
12 Harvard Business Review September 2010
1345 Sep10 FromTheEditor Layout.indd 12
Turning Challenges
into Opportunities
I n a celebrated 2002 article in HBR, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas wrote
that great leaders often emerge out of the depths of adversity. Severe tests
can prompt managers to reflect on their values and beliefs and draw from
their core the skills and perspective needed to become exceptional, inspiring
bosses. The authors called these challenging moments crucibles, “after the
vessels medieval alchemists used in their attempts to turn base metals into gold.”
We are honoring their enduring insight by introducing a department titled
Crucible. Each month we’ll profile a business leader who has undergone a jarring
test and show how it affected him or her and changed the company’s outlook.
This month we examine how NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick, of Hendrick
Motorsports, managed to pick up the pieces after a devastating plane crash
killed his top executives and several of his family members. His resilience and
adaptivity helped propel his auto-racing teams to record achievements.
We also focus in this issue on the growing sphere of entrepreneurship. In our
Spotlight package, we pose a big, audacious question—Can entrepreneurs save
the world?—and look to some big, audacious authors for answers. Increasingly,
the new impresarios of business are turning up in emerging economies. The trick
for governments and Western businesses searching for opportunities in these
markets, say Anne Habiby and Deirdre Coyle, Jr., founders of the international
economic development firm AllWorld Network, is to find these entrepreneurs,
nurture them, and unleash their potential to develop innovative businesses that
can drive global prosperity.
Even more optimistic are Ashoka’s Bill Drayton and Valeria Budinich, who
argue that a coming era of collaboration between corporations and social
entrepreneurs promises to expand and create markets on a scale not seen since
the Industrial Revolution.
Finally, Wharton’s James Thompson and Ian MacMillan offer practical advice
for entrepreneurs trying to build companies in today’s uncertain economic
climate. To succeed, they say, you must launch experiments, learn from them,
and be agile enough to adapt your strategy along the way.
And then who knows? You just might save the world.
Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief
7/29/10 6:07:13 PM
Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009

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