Rita Gunther Mc Grath - Business Publications

Business Publications

McGrath, R.G., How the Growth Outliers Do It. Harvard Business Review, 2012. 90(1): p. 110-116.

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive research project in which 4,793 firms (all publicly traded, with market capitalizations of over $1 Billion US)were examined. Only 10 of these firms were able to drive net income growth by at least 5% per year over a ten-year period. The paper presents lessons from these 'growth outliers' finding that they skillfully combine incredible stability with enormous dynamism.

Sargut, G. and R.G. McGrath, Learning To Live with Complexity. Harvard Business Review, 2011. 89(9/10): p. 68-76.In just a short time, most businesses have gone from complicated to complex: they contain numerous diverse, interdependent parts. This makes managers' jobs much more difficult. They can't predict what will happen when various parts of the business interact; the same starting conditions may hyield different results. Seemingly simple actions produce unintended consequences. Cognitive limits mean we can't grasp the whole system. Rare events can be more significant than average ones - and may occur more often than we think. Managers can navigate these difficulties by making fundamental changes to how they approach key tasks:

• Forecasting
• Mitigating risks
• Making Tradeoffs
• Ensuring diversity of thought

Cliffe, S. 2011. When Your Business Model Is in Trouble: An Interview with Rita Gunther McGrath. Harvard Business Review, 89: 96-98.

Changes in business models have become one of the most significant sources of competitive pressure on firms today. And yet, few firms are skillful at assessing when a business model change might be in order. Three issues can be clues that a good, close, look might be necessary: When it gets harder to maintain competitive differentiation for the same investment; when alternatives that didn't exist before spring up; and of course when customers start to defect.

McGrath, R. G. 2011. Finding Opportunities in Business Model Innovation. The European Financial Review(June–July, 2011): 14-17. McGrath, Rita Gunther. 2011. Failing By Design. Harvard Business Review. April 2011.

Sargut, Gökçe and Rita Gunther McGrath. 2010. Managing under Complexity: Where is Einstein when you really need him? Ivey Business Journal, June, 2010.

McGrath, R.G., A Better Way to Plan Your Next IT Innovation. Ivey Business Journal Online, 2009.

McGrath, R. 2010. Business Models: A Discovery Driven Approach. Long Range Planning, 43(2/3): 247.

McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 2009. How To Rethink Your Business During Uncertainty. Sloan Management Review, 50 (3) pp. 24–30.

McGrath, R. G. 2009. Early Warnings of a Pending Disruption in an Existing Business Model: A Leader's Responsibility. In D. Dotlich & P. Cairo & S. Rhinesmith & R. Meeks (Eds.), The 2009 Pfeiffer Annual Leadership Development: 264-276. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

McGrath, R. G. 2009. The Trap of Conventional Thinking: Obvious, Intuitive and Wrong. IESE Business Insight, First Quarter 2009(1): 12-16.

McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 2009. Why Uncertainty Means Every Business is a Start-Up. Sloan Management Review, Forthcoming.

McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 2009. How to Get Unstuck. Harvard Business Review, Forthcoming.

McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 2009. Discovery Driven Growth: Averting risk, saving money and growing anyway. American Management Association Journal, Forthcoming.

Pall, G. S. & McGrath, R. G. 2009. Institutional Memory Goes Digital. Harvard Business Review, 87(2): 27.

McGrath, R. G. 2008. And the winner takes it all? Necessary conditions and entry strategies in Winner-Take-All Markets. In R. Galavan & J. Murray & C. Markides (Eds.), Strategy, Innovation and Change: 57-68. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McGrath, R. G. & Keil, T. 2007. The Value Captor's Process: Getting the Most Out of Your New Business Ventures. Harvard Business Review, 85(5): 128-136.

MacMillan, I. C. & McGrath, R. G. 2007. Managing Growth through Corporate Venturing. In M. P. Rice & T. G. Habbershon (Eds.), Entrepreneurship: The Engine of Growth, Volume 3 Place, Vol. 3: 21-48. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing.

McGrath, R. G., Keil, T., & Tukiainen, T. 2006. Extracting value from corporate venturing. Sloan Management Review, 48(1): 50-56.

MacMillan, I. C., Putten, A. B. v., McGrath, R. G., & Thompson, J. D. 2006. Using Real Options Discipline for Highly Uncertain Technology Investments Research Technology Management, 49(1): 29-38.

McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 2005. Market Busting: Strategies for Exceptional Business Growth. Harvard Business Review, 83(3): 81.

MacMillan, I. C. & McGrath, R. G. 2002. Crafting R&D Project Portfolios. Research-Technology Management, 45(5): 48-59.

MacMillan, I. C., Van Putten, A., & McGrath, R. G. 2003. Global Gamesmanship. Harvard Business Review, 81(5): 62-71.

MacMillan, I. C. & McGrath, R. G. 2004. Nine new roles for technology managers. Research-Technology Management, 47(3): 16-26.

MacMillan, I. C. & McGrath, R. G. 2000. Assessing technology projects using real options reasoning: The STAR approach. Research-Technology Management, July–August: 35-49.

MacMillan, I. C. & McGrath, R. G. 1996. Discover your products' hidden potential. Harvard Business Review, 74(3): 58-68.

MacMillan, I. C. & McGrath, R. 1997. Discovering new points of differentiation. Harvard Business Review, 75(4): 133-145.

McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 1993. Technology and the CEO: Seeking tomorrow's edge. Chief Executive(82): 64.

McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 1995. Discovery Driven Planning. Harvard Business Review, 73(4): 44-54.