Effective strategies, skills, and behaviors for networking success

40 Harvard Business Review | January 2007 | hbr.org

Fr e d R

ix

THE TESTS OF A LEADER | MANAGING YOURSELF

HEN HENRIK BALMER be-

came the production man-

ager and a board member

of a newly bought-out cos-

metics firm, improving his network was

the last thing on his mind. The main

problem he faced was time: Where

would he find the hours to guide his

team through a major upgrade of the

production process and then think

about strategic issues like expanding

the business? The only way he could

carve out time and still get home to

his family at a decent hour was to lock

himself – literally – in his office. Mean-

while, there were day-to-day issues to

resolve, like a recurring conflict with

his sales director over custom orders

that compromised production effi-

ciency. Networking, which Henrik de-

fined as the unpleasant task of trading

favors with strangers, was a luxury he

could not afford. But when a new acqui-

sition was presented at a board meeting

without his input, he abruptly realized

he was out of the loop – not just inside

the company, but outside, too – at a mo-

ment when his future in the company

was at stake.

Henrik’s case is not unusual. Over the

past two years, we have been following

a cohort of 30 managers making their

way through what we call the leader-

ship transition, an inflection point in

their careers that challenges them to re-

think both themselves and their roles.

In the process, we’ve found that net-

working – creating a fabric of personal

contacts who will provide support, feed-

back, insight, resources, and informa-

tion – is simultaneously one of the most

self-evident and one of the most dreaded

developmental challenges that aspiring

leaders must address.

Their discomfort is understandable.

Typically, managers rise through the

How Leaders Create and Use Networks Successful leaders have a nose for opportunity and a knack for knowing whom to tap to get things done. These qualities depend on a set of strategic networking skills that nonleaders rarely possess.

by Herminia Ibarra and Mark Hunter

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hbr.org | January 2007 | Harvard Business Review 41

ranks by dint of a strong command of

the technical elements of their jobs and

a nose-to-the-grindstone focus on ac-

complishing their teams’ objectives.

When challenged to move beyond their

functional specialties and address stra-

tegic issues facing the overall business,

many managers do not immediately

grasp that this will involve relational –

not analytical – tasks. Nor do they easily

understand that exchanges and interac-

tions with a diverse array of current and

potential stakeholders are not distrac-

tions from their “real work” but are ac-

tually at the heart of their new leader-

ship roles.

Like Henrik (whose identity we’ve

disguised, along with all the other man-

agers we describe here), a majority of

the managers we work with say that

they find networking insincere or ma-

nipulative – at best, an elegant way of

using people. Not surprisingly, for every

manager who instinctively constructs

and maintains a useful network, we see

several who struggle to overcome this

innate resistance. Yet the alternative to

networking is to fail – either in reaching

for a leadership position or in succeed-

ing at it.

Watching our emerging leaders ap-

proach this daunting task, we discov-

ered that three distinct but interdepen-

dent forms of networking – operational,

personal, and strategic – played a vital

role in their transitions. The first helped

them manage current internal respon-

sibilities, the second boosted their

personal development, and the third

opened their eyes to new business di-

rections and the stakeholders they

would need to enlist. While our manag-

ers differed in how well they pursued

operational and personal networking,

we discovered that almost all of them

underutilized strategic networking. In

this article, we describe key features of

each networking form (summarized in

the exhibit “The Three Forms of Net-

working”) and, using our managers’ ex-

periences, explain how a three-pronged

networking strategy can become part

and parcel of a new leader’s develop-

ment plan.

Operational Networking All managers need to build good work-

ing relationships with the people who

can help them do their jobs. The num-

ber and breadth of people involved can

be impressive – such operational net-

works include not only direct reports

and superiors but also peers within an

operational unit, other internal players

with the power to block or support a

project, and key outsiders such as sup-

pliers, distributors, and customers. The

purpose of this type of networking is to

ensure coordination and cooperation

among people who have to know and

trust one another in order to accom-

plish their immediate tasks. That isn’t

always easy, but it is relatively straight-

forward, because the task provides focus

and a clear criterion for membership

in the network: Either you’re necessary

to the job and helping to get it done, or

you’re not.

Although operational networking

was the form that came most naturally

to the managers we studied, nearly

every one had important blind spots re-

garding people and groups they de-

pended on to make things happen. In

one case, Alistair, an accounting man-

ager who worked in an entrepreneurial

firm with several hundred employees,

was suddenly promoted by the com-

pany’s founder to financial director and

given a seat on the board. He was both

the youngest and the least-experienced

board member, and his instinctive re-

sponse to these new responsibilities was

to reestablish his functional credentials.

Acting on a hint from the founder that

the company might go public, Alistair

undertook a reorganization of the ac-

counting department that would en-

able the books to withstand close scru-

tiny. Alistair succeeded brilliantly in

upgrading his team’s capabilities, but he

missed the fact that only a minority of

the seven-person board shared the

founder’s ambition. A year into Alis-

tair’s tenure, discussion about whether

to take the company public polarized

the board, and he discovered that all

that time cleaning up the books might

have been better spent sounding out his

codirectors.

One of the problems with an exclu-

sive reliance on operational networks

is that they are usually geared toward

meeting objectives as assigned, not to-

ward asking the strategic question,

“What should we be doing?” By the

same token, managers do not exercise

as much personal choice in assembling

operational relationships as they do in

weaving personal and strategic net-

works, because to a large extent the

right relationships are prescribed by the

job and organizational structure. Thus,

most operational networking occurs

within an organization, and ties are de-

termined in large part by routine, short-

term demands. Relationships formed

with outsiders, such as board members,

customers, and regulators, are directly

task-related and tend to be bounded

and constrained by demands deter-

mined at a higher level. Of course, an in-

dividual manager can choose to deepen

and develop the ties to different ex-

tents, and all managers exercise discre-

tion over who gets priority attention.

It’s the quality of relationships – the rap-

port and mutual trust – that gives an

operational network its power. None-

theless, the substantial constraints on

network membership mean these con-

nections are unlikely to deliver value

to managers beyond assistance with the

task at hand.

The typical manager in our group

was more concerned with sustaining

cooperation within the existing net-

work than with building relationships

to face nonroutine or unforeseen chal-

lenges. But as a manager moves into a

42 Harvard Business Review | January 2007 | hbr.org

THE TESTS OF A LEADER | MANAGING YOURSELF | How Leaders Create and Use Networks

Herminia Ibarra (herminia.ibarra@insead.edu) is the Insead Chaired Professor of Organizational Behavior at Insead in Fontainebleau, France,

where she also directs the Leadership Transition, an executive program for managers moving into broader leadership roles. Her most recent book

is Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career (Harvard Business School Press, 2003). Mark Hunter (mark.hunter@

insead.edu) is an investigative journalist and an adjunct professor of communications at Insead. He is the author of The Passions of Men: Work

and Love in the Age of Stress (Putnam, 1988).

leadership role, his or her network must

reorient itself externally and toward the

future.

Personal Networking We observed that once aspiring leaders

like Alistair awaken to the dangers of an

excessively internal focus, they begin to

seek kindred spirits outside their orga-

nizations. Simultaneously, they become

aware of the limitations of their social

skills, such as a lack of knowledge about

professional domains beyond their

own, which makes it difficult for them

to find common ground with people

outside their usual circles. Through pro-

fessional associations, alumni groups,

clubs, and personal interest communi-

ties, managers gain new perspectives

that allow them to advance in their ca-

reers. This is what we mean by personal

networking.

Many of the managers we study

question why they should spend pre-

cious time on an activity so indirectly

related to the work at hand. Why widen

one’s circle of casual acquaintances

when there isn’t time even for urgent

tasks? The answer is that these contacts

provide important referrals, informa-

tion, and, often, developmental support

such as coaching and mentoring. A

newly appointed factory director, for

example, faced with a turnaround-or-

close-down situation that was paralyz-

ing his staff, joined a business organiza-

tion – and through it met a lawyer who

became his counsel in the turnaround.

Buoyed by his success, he networked

within his company’s headquarters in

search of someone who had dealt with

a similar crisis. Eventually, he found two

mentors.

A personal network can also be a safe

space for personal development and

as such can provide a foundation for

strategic networking. The experience of

Timothy, a principal in a midsize soft-

ware company, is a good example. Like

his father, Timothy stuttered. When he

had the opportunity to prepare for

meetings, his stutter was not an issue,

but spontaneous encounters inside and

outside the company were dreadfully

painful. To solve this problem, he began

accepting at least two invitations per

week to the social gatherings he had as-

siduously ignored before. Before each

event, he asked who else had been in-

vited and did background research on

the other guests so that he could initi-

ate conversations. The hardest part, he

said, was “getting through the door.”

Once inside, his interest in the conver-

sations helped him forget himself and

master his stutter. As his stutter dimin-

ished, he also applied himself to net-

working across his company, whereas

previously he had taken refuge in his

technical expertise. Like Timothy, sev-

eral of our emerging leaders success-

fully used personal networking as a rel-

atively safe way to expose problems and

seek insight into solutions – safe, that is,

compared with strategic networking, in

which the stakes are far higher.

Personal networks are largely exter-

nal, made up of discretionary links to

people with whom we have something

in common. As a result, what makes a

personal network powerful is its refer-

ral potential. According to the famous

six degrees of separation principle, our

personal contacts are valuable to the ex-

tent that they help us reach, in as few

connections as possible, the far-off per-

son who has the information we need.

In watching managers struggle to

widen their professional relationships

As a manager moves into a leadership role, his or her

network must reorient itself externally and toward the future.

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hbr.org | January 2007 | Harvard Business Review 43

in ways that feel both natural and legit-

imate to them, we repeatedly saw them

shift their time and energy from opera-

tional to personal networking. For peo-

ple who have rarely looked outside

their organizations, this is an important

first step, one that fosters a deeper un-

derstanding of themselves and the en-

vironments in which they move. Ulti-

mately, however, personal networking

alone won’t propel managers through

the leadership transition. Aspiring lead-

ers may find people who awaken new

interests but fail to become comfort-

able with the power players at the level

above them. Or they may achieve new

influence within a professional commu-

nity but fail to harness those ties in the

service of organizational goals. That’s

why managers who know they need to

develop their networking skills, and

make a real effort to do so, nonetheless

may end up feeling like they have

wasted their time and energy. As we’ll

see, personal networking will not help

a manager through the leadership tran-

sition unless he or she learns how to

bring those connections to bear on or-

ganizational strategy.

Strategic Networking When managers begin the delicate tran-

sition from functional manager to busi-

ness leader, they must start to concern

themselves with broad strategic issues.

Lateral and vertical relationships with

other functional and business unit man-

agers – all people outside their imme-

diate control – become a lifeline for fig-

uring out how their own contributions

fit into the big picture. Thus strategic

networking plugs the aspiring leader

into a set of relationships and informa-

tion sources that collectively embody

the power to achieve personal and orga-

nizational goals.

Operating beside players with di-

verse affiliations, backgrounds, objec-

tives, and incentives requires a manager

to formulate business rather than func-

tional objectives, and to work through

the coalitions and networks needed to

sell ideas and compete for resources.

Consider Sophie, a manager who, after

rising steadily through the ranks in lo-

gistics and distribution, was stupefied

to learn that the CEO was considering a

radical reorganization of her function

that would strip her of some responsi-

bilities. Rewarded to date for incremen-

tal annual improvements, she had failed

to notice shifting priorities in the wider

market and the resulting internal shuf-

fle for resources and power at the

higher levels of her company. Although

she had built a loyal, high-performing

team, she had few relationships outside

her group to help her anticipate the

new imperatives, let alone give her

ideas about how to respond. After she

argued that distribution issues were her

purview, and failed to be persuasive, she

hired consultants to help her prepare a

counterproposal. But Sophie’s boss sim-

ply concluded that she lacked a broad,

longer-term business perspective. Frus-

trated, Sophie contemplated leaving

the company. Only after some patient

coaching from a senior manager did she

understand that she had to get out of

her unit and start talking to opinion

leaders inside and outside the company

to form a sellable plan for the future.

What differentiates a leader from a

manager, research tells us, is the ability

to figure out where to go and to enlist

the people and groups necessary to get

THE THREE FORMS OF NETWORKING

Managers who think they are adept at networking are often operating only at an operational or personal level. Effective leaders learn to employ networks for strategic purposes.

Operational

Getting work done efficiently; maintaining the capacities and functions required of the group.

Contacts are mostly internal and oriented toward current demands.

Key contacts are relatively nondis- cretionary; they are prescribed mostly by the task and organiza- tional structure, so it is very clear who is relevant.

Depth: building strong working relationships.

Personal

Enhancing personal and profes- sional development; providing referrals to useful information and contacts.

Contacts are mostly external and oriented toward current interests and future potential interests.

Key contacts are mostly discre- tionary; it is not always clear who is relevant.

Breadth: reaching out to contacts who can make referrals.

Strategic

Figuring out future priorities and challenges; getting stakeholder support for them.

Contacts are internal and external and oriented toward the future.

Key contacts follow from the strategic context and the organi- zational environment, but specific membership is discretionary; it is not always clear who is relevant.

Leverage: creating inside-outside links.

Purpose

Location and tem- poral orientation

Players and recruitment

Network attributes and key behaviors

Strategic networking can be difficult

for emerging leaders because it absorbs

a significant amount of the time and

energy that managers usually devote

to meeting their many operational de-

mands. This is one reason why many

managers drop their strategic network-

ing precisely when they need it most:

when their units are in trouble and only

outside support can rescue them. The

trick is not to hide in the operational

network but to develop it into a more

strategic one.

One manager we studied, for exam-

ple, used lateral and functional contacts

throughout his firm to resolve ten-

sions with his boss that resulted from

substantial differences in style and stra-

tegic approaches between the two. Tied

down in operational chores at a distant

location, the manager had lost contact

with headquarters. He resolved the sit-

uation by simultaneously obliging his

direct reports to take on more of the

local management effort and sending

messages through his network that

would help bring him back into the

loop with the boss.

Operational, personal, and strategic

networks are not mutually exclusive.

One manager we studied used his per-

sonal passion, hunting, to meet people

from professions as diverse as stone-

masonry and household moving. Al-

most none of these hunting friends had

anything to do with his work in the con-

sumer electronics industry, yet they all

had to deal with one of his own daily

concerns: customer relations. Hearing

about their problems and techniques

allowed him to view his own from a

different perspective and helped him

define principles that he could test in

his work. Ultimately, what began as a

personal network of hunting partners

became operationally and strategically

valuable to this manager. The key was

his ability to build inside-outside links

for maximum leverage. But we’ve seen

others who avoided networking, or

failed at it, because they let interper-

sonal chemistry, not strategic needs,

determine which relationships they

cultivated.

44 Harvard Business Review | January 2007 | hbr.org

THE TESTS OF A LEADER | MANAGING YOURSELF | How Leaders Create and Use Networks

there. Recruiting stakeholders, lining up

allies and sympathizers, diagnosing the

political landscape, and brokering con-

versations among unconnected parties

are all part of a leader’s job. As they step

up to the leadership transition, some

managers accept their growing depen-

dence on others and seek to transform

it into mutual influence. Others dismiss

such work as “political” and, as a result,

undermine their ability to advance

their goals.

Several of the participants in our

sample chose the latter approach, justi-

fying their choice as a matter of per-

sonal values and integrity. In one case,

Jody, who managed a department in

a large company under what she de-

scribed as “dysfunctional” leadership,

refused even to try to activate her ex-

tensive network within the firm when

internal adversaries took over key func-

tions of her unit. When we asked her

why she didn’t seek help from anyone

in the organization to stop this coup,

she replied that she refused to play “stu-

pid political games….You can only do

what you think is the ethical and right

thing from your perspective.” Stupid or

not, those games cost her the respect

and support of her direct reports and

coworkers, who hesitated to follow

someone they perceived as unwilling to

defend herself. Eventually she had no

choice but to leave.

The key to a good strategic network

is leverage: the ability to marshal infor-

mation, support, and resources from

one sector of a network to achieve re-

sults in another. Strategic networkers

use indirect influence, convincing one

person in the network to get someone

else, who is not in the network, to take

a needed action. Moreover, strategic

networkers don’t just influence their re-

lational environment; they shape it in

their own image by moving and hiring

subordinates, changing suppliers and

sources of financing, lobbying to place

allies in peer positions, and even re-

structuring their boards to create net-

works favorable to their business goals.

Jody abjured such tactics, but her adver-

saries did not.

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Just Do It The word “work” is part of networking,

and it is not easy work, because it in-

volves reaching outside the borders of

a manager’s comfort zone. How, then,

can managers lessen the pain and in-

crease the gain? The trick is to leverage

the elements from each domain of net-

working into the others – to seek out

personal contacts who can be objective,

strategic counselors, for example, or to

transform colleagues in adjacent func-

tions into a constituency. Above all,

many managers will need to change

their attitudes about the legitimacy and

necessity of networking.

Mind your mind-set. In our ongoing discussions with managers learning to

improve their networking skills, we

often hear, “That’s all well and good,

but I already have a day job.” Others,

like Jody, consider working through

networks a way to rely on “whom you

know” rather than “what you know” –

a hypocritical, even unethical way to

get things done. Whatever the reason,

when aspiring leaders do not believe

that networking is one of the most im-

portant requirements of their new jobs,

they will not allocate enough time and

effort to see it pay off.

The best solution we’ve seen to this

trap is a good role model. Many times,

what appears to be unpalatable or un-

productive behavior takes on a new

light when a person you respect does it

well and ethically. For example, Gabriel

Chenard, general manager for Europe

of a group of consumer product brands,

learned from the previous general man-

ager how to take advantage of branch

visits to solidify his relationships with

employees and customers. Every flight

and car trip became a venue for catch-

ing up and building relationships with

the people who were accompanying

him. Watching how much his boss got

done on what would otherwise be

downtime, Gabriel adopted the practice

as a crucial part of his own manage-

ment style. Networking effectively and

ethically, like any other tacit skill, is a

matter of judgment and intuition. We

You can’t outrun change, but you can outthink it.

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learn by observing and getting feed-

back from those for whom it’s second

nature.

Work from the outside in. One of the most daunting aspects of strategic net-

working is that there often seems to be

no natural “excuse” for making contact

with a more senior person outside one’s

function or business unit. It’s difficult

to build a relationship with anyone, let

alone a senior executive, without a rea-

son for interacting, like a common task

or a shared purpose.

46 Harvard Business Review | January 2007 | hbr.org

THE TESTS OF A LEADER | MANAGING YOURSELF | How Leaders Create and Use Networks

Some successful managers find com-

mon ground from the outside in – by, for

instance, transposing a personal interest

into the strategic domain. Linda Hen-

derson is a good example. An invest-

ment banker responsible for a group of

media industry clients, she always won-

dered how to connect to some of her se-

nior colleagues who served other indus-

tries. She resolved to make time for an

extracurricular passion – the theater – in

a way that would enhance her business

development activities. Four times a

year, her secretary booked a buffet din-

ner at a downtown hotel and reserved

a block of theater tickets. Key clients

were invited. Through these events,

Linda not only developed her own busi-

ness but also learned about her clients’

companies in a way that generated

ideas for other parts of her firm, thus

enabling her to engage with colleagues.

Other managers build outside-inside

connections by using their functional

interests or expertise. For example, com-

munities of practice exist (or can easily

be created on the Internet) in almost

every area of business from brand man-

agement to Six Sigma to global strategy.

Savvy managers reach out to kindred

spirits outside their organizations to

contribute and multiply their knowl-

edge; the information they glean, in

more cases than not, becomes the “hook”

for making internal connections.

Re-allocate your time. If an aspiring leader has not yet mastered the art of

delegation, he or she will find many rea-

sons not to spend time networking. Par-

ticipating in formal and informal meet-

ings with people in other units takes

time away from functional responsibil-

ities and internal team affairs. Between

the obvious payoff of a task accom-

plished and the ambiguous, often de-

layed rewards of networking, naive

managers repeatedly choose the for-

mer. The less they practice networking,

the less efficient at it they become, and

the vicious cycle continues.

Henrik, the production manager and

board member we described earlier, for

example, did what he needed to do in

order to prepare for board meetings but

did not associate with fellow board

members outside those formal events.

As a result, he was frequently surprised

when other board members raised is-

sues at the heart of his role. In contrast,

effective business leaders spend a lot

of time every day gathering the infor-

mation they need to meet their goals,

relying on informal discussions with a

lot of people who are not necessarily in

charge of an issue or task. They network

in order to obtain information continu-

ally, not just at formal meetings.

FROM FUNCTIONAL MANAGER TO BUSINESS LEADER: HOW COMPANIES CAN HELP

Executives who oversee management development know how to spot critical inflection points: the moments when highly successful people must change their perspective on what is important and, accordingly, how they spend their time. Many organizations still promote people on the basis of their performance in roles whose requirements differ dramatically from those of leadership roles. And many new leaders feel that they are going it alone, without coaching or guidance. By being sensitive to the fact that most strong technical or functional managers lack the capabilities required to build strategic networks that advance their personal and professional goals, human resources and learning professionals can take steps to help in this important area.

For example, Genesis Park, an innovative in-house leadership development program at PricewaterhouseCoopers, focuses explicitly on building networks. The five-month program, during which participants are released from their client re- sponsibilities, includes business case development, strategic projects, team build- ing, change management projects, and in-depth discussions with business leaders from inside and outside the company. The young leaders who participate end up with a strong internal-external nexus of ties to support them as their careers evolve.

Companies that recognize the importance of leadership networking can also do a lot to help people overcome their innate discomfort by creating natural ways for them to extend their networks. When Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn sought to break down crippling internal barriers at the company, he created cross-functional teams of middle managers from diverse units and charged them with proposing solu- tions to problems ranging from supply costs to product design. Nissan subse- quently institutionalized the teams, not just as a way to solve problems but also to encourage lateral networks. Rather than avoid the extra work, aspiring leaders ask for these assignments.

Most professional development is based on the notion that successful people acquire new role-appropriate skills as they move up the hierarchy. But making the transition from manager to leader requires subtraction as well as addition: To make room for new competencies, managers must rely less on their older, well-honed skills. To do so, they must change their perspective on how to add value and what to contribute. Eventually, they must also transform how they think and who they are. Companies that help their top talent reinvent themselves will better prepare them for a successful leadership transition.

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Ask and you shall receive. Many managers equate having a good net-

work with having a large database of

contacts, or attending high-profile pro-

fessional conferences and events. In

fact, we’ve seen people kick off a net-

working initiative by improving their

record keeping or adopting a network

management tool. But they falter at the

next step – picking up the phone. In-

stead, they wait until they need some-

thing badly. The best networkers do ex-

actly the opposite: They take every

opportunity to give to, and receive

from, the network, whether they need

help or not.

A network lives and thrives only

when it is used. A good way to begin

is to make a simple request or take the

initiative to connect two people who

would benefit from meeting each other.

Doing something – anything – gets the

ball rolling and builds confidence that

one does, in fact, have something to

contribute.

Stick to it. It takes a while to reap the benefits of networking. We have seen

many managers resolve to put network-

ing at the top of their agendas, only to

be derailed by the first crisis that comes

along. One example is Harris Roberts,

a regulatory affairs expert who realized

he needed a broader network to achieve

his goal of becoming a business unit

manager. To force himself into what felt

like an “unnatural act,” Harris volun-

teered to be the liaison for his business

school cohort’s alumni network. But six

months later, when a major new-drug

approval process overwhelmed his cal-

endar, Harris dropped all outside activ-

ities. Two years later, he found himself

out of touch and still a functional man-

ager. He failed to recognize that by not

taking the time to attend industry con-

ferences or compare notes with his

peers, he was missing out on the strate-

gic perspective and information that

would make him a more attractive can-

didate for promotion.

Building a leadership network is less

a matter of skill than of will. When first

efforts do not bring quick rewards,

some may simply conclude that net-

working isn’t among their talents. But

networking is not a talent; nor does it

require a gregarious, extroverted per-

sonality. It is a skill, one that takes prac-

tice. We have seen over and over again

that people who work at networking

can learn not only how to do it well

but also how to enjoy it. And they tend

to be more successful in their careers

than those who fail to leverage exter-

nal ties or insist on defining their jobs

narrowly.

Making a successful leadership tran-

sition requires a shift from the confines

of a clearly defined operational net-

work. Aspiring leaders must learn to

build and use strategic networks that

cross organizational and functional

boundaries, and then link them up in

novel and innovative ways. It is a chal-

lenge to make the leap from a lifetime

of functional contributions and hands-

on control to the ambiguous process of

building and working through net-

works. Leaders must find new ways of

defining themselves and develop new

relationships to anchor and feed their

emerging personas. They must also ac-

cept that networking is one of the most

important requirements of their new

leadership roles and continue to allo-

cate enough time and effort to see it

pay off.

Reprint R0701C; HBR OnPoint 1727

To order, see page 127.

Savvy managers reach out to kindred spirits outside their

organizations to contribute and multiply their knowledge;

the information they glean, in more cases than not,

becomes the “hook” for making internal connections.

“Managers who want to ‘get’ the new innovation paradigm should

check out [Rotman’s] MBA

programs.” (BusinessWeek online, March 7, 2005)

— Bruce Nussbaum, Assistant Managing Editor, BusinessWeek

Find out what thought leaders

already know.

Order your free copy of The Best of Rotman Magazine,

Volume 2

www.rotman.utoronto.ca/best E: best@rotman.utoronto.ca

T: 416-946-0103

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