Top 12 management trends of the decade

When we look back at the ’00s, what will we see as the top shapers of management thinking during this era?  The editors of Harvard Business Review recently assembled a list of the top 12 trends shaping management as we knew it during this rather tumultuous decade.

The decade was full of paradoxes. Companies put the emphasis on greater analysis to drive decisions — while at the same time, sought ways to improve creativity and innovation to get ahead.

The editors admit that some of the concepts are tried-and-true management tenets dating back over the decades, but the backdrop to all this is an explosion of information technology and data that enables managers to look at what they’re doing in a whole new light.

1. Shareholder Value as a Strategy. This eclipsed all else. What about customers?
2. IT as a Utility. The cloud.
3. The Customer Chorus. Brought to you by social networking.
4. Enterprise Risk Management. None too soon.
5. The Creative Organization. Innovation matters.
6. Open Source. Community resources beyond software.
7. Going Private. SOX workaround.
8. Behavioral Economics. Freakonomics, anyone?
9. High Potentials. Nurture, nurture, nurture.
10. Competing on Analytics. Well beyond the gut level.
11. Reverse Innovation. R&D closer to global markets.
12. Sustainability. Green is good.