Alice Eagly is the co-author with Linda Carli of Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders.

Our business school professors never mentioned that smoking, drinking, swearing, hunting, fishing, and visits to strip clubs might be keys to rising in the world of high tech. Indeed, were lessons about how to prosper in frat house companies like EMC Corp. included in the MBA curriculum, many women would have dropped out right then and there.

"Why is that?" you might ask. "It’s just boys having a little fun." First, talented women won’t tolerate it. Women quickly realize they can’t get ahead when Animal House antics are a prerequisite for the fast track. And women don’t like facing the choice of waiting in the hall or staying in the room when the strippers come on. And they don’t like working with men whose development has been arrested since college. So what do talented women do? They leave.

What else is the harm? Well, having the company’s post-pubescent culture show up front and center in the Wall Street Journal doesn’t do much for your brand. Readers wonder -- didn’t they learn anything from the Enron and Wal-Mart exposes and the Smith-Barney Boom-Boom Room?

And then there’s the damage to men’s careers. If the EMC’s top management didn’t know about their organization’s culture, they abdicated their responsibility; if they did know, but didn’t do anything about it, they abdicated their responsibility. All in all, the exposure and the lawsuits are exceedingly bad news for the executives in charge.

As Linda Carli and I explain in our book, Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders, stereotyping and disparaging attitudes toward women are more common when they are in a small minority -- as was the case in the EMC sales force -- because token women find it more difficult to exert influence. So what’s the solution? Hire more women, make sure that they have equal access to accounts and perks, and pay them as well as the men. Hire grown-ups of both sexes as executives. Make sure that they are alert enough to pay attention -- not only the bottom line, but also to the culture and sub-cultures present in their organizations. Then there could be some good news to report in the Wall Street Journal.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
How Low Will You Go? (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Required Reading for Executive Women--and the Companies Who Need Them (HBR Article Collection)
Toxic Emotions at Work and What You Can Do About Them (Paperback)
Women in Business Collection: Insights for Executive Women and Their Organizations

With BMW and Daimler accusing Chinese auto makers of copying their designs in the production of new models, yet another commercial risk coming out of China -- the protection of intellectual property -- is back to the fore.

Manufacturing standards. IP theft. Pollution. This list of concerns we may have with China isn't trivial. Nevertheless, China offers cheap labor, a fast-growing industrial infrastructure, and the most attractive emerging consumer market the world has ever witnessed. And now, with the Beijing Olympics less than a year away, the eyes of the world will soon be focused more intently than ever on China -- and on how Western organizations are doing business there.

Here are some free resources to help you keep on top of this fast-moving situation:

Felix Oberholzer: Doing Business in China

John Quelch: How to Run a Recall and How Brand China Can Succeed
Peter J. Williamson: The Real Risks of Chinese Product Recalls
Orit Gadiesh et al: The Battle for China's Good-Enough Market
Elizabeth Economy and Kenneth Lieberthal: Scorched Earth: Will Environmental Risks in China Overwhelm Its Opportunities?

Mark Kramer is the co-author, with Michael Porter, of the McKinsey Award-winning Harvard Business Review article, "Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility."

In his new book “Supercapitalism,” Robert Reich argues that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a dangerous distraction, focusing hyped-up attention on the social interventions of corporations rather than laying responsibility squarely on government, which is the only actor that can actually solve social problems. He has a point, but his perspective on CSR as described in a recent Economist article, is the relic of an earlier era.

Reich still holds the old-fashioned view that CSR is about virtue and generosity rather than social impact and competitive advantage. Why give CSR credit, he asks, when a company does something that increases profits -- like reducing energy consumption -- just because it also happens to have some beneficial impact on the rest of society? In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, he continues, companies can no longer afford the largesse of social responsibility.

To be sure, there are many companies that still think of CSR in terms of "getting credit" and incurring unnecessary costs, but that is not how leading companies frame their CSR strategies today. The world needs to reduce carbon emissions, regardless of who gets the credit or what motivates them. If a company can save -- or make -- money by reducing emissions, all the better; they’ll pursue the initiative more aggressively and stay with it longer than if they did so merely for cosmetic purposes.

Whether one looks at changing consumer tastes, regulatory policy, or litigation, the social consequences of corporate activities are a steadily increasing factor in financial success. The companies that get out ahead of these trends not only save money, they gain a competitive advantage over their sleepier competitors. Rather than being a detriment in today’s global competition, factoring social considerations into corporate strategy is a necessity.

Reich is correct in suggesting that many problems require government intervention and that corporate lobbying has diverted our government from acting in the public interest. It is particularly galling to find companies that proclaim their CSR virtue while quietly lobbying against the very reforms they espouse. AccountAbility and the World Wildlife Fund published a disheartening study of corporate lobbying transparency, finding that such contradictions are far from rare. Yet companies are finding that this two-faced strategy carries its own penalties. American car companies have done a magnificent job lobbying to prevent higher mileage and lower emission requirements for two decades, only to face near-bankruptcy as Toyota’s wildly successful Prius fills the very niche they have spent so much money to avoid.

Promoting government intervention as the only solution to social problems is overly simplistic in today's complicated global economy. After all, which of the many governments involved is the one that should intervene? When US companies set labor conditions in their suppliers’ third-world factories, they impose social considerations that the local government considers unnecessary. And when the EU sets carbon emission regulations, it affects US companies that compete overseas.

Although social issues are indeed the purview of government, in reality, global corporations are creating a de facto set of international standards that collectively rise above the social obligations imposed by any one government – and to compete in the global economy, companies are finding that they must abide by this emerging code of conduct.

Government intervention is required for America to solve its major social problems -- whether in education, health care, or the environment -- but consumer tastes and political will are ultimately inseparable. If US consumers don’t care about global warming, they won’t buy a Prius -- but they also won’t demand that politicians tax carbon emissions either. It is the attitudes of our consumer-citizens that drive both politics and profits.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility (HBR Article)
Mainstreaming Corporate Social Responsibility: Developing Markets for Virtue (CMR Article)
Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility (HBR Article Collection)

Joseph Pine and James Gilmore are the authors of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want

So Steve Jobs recently announced that Apple is reducing the price of the iPhone to $399. And shortly thereafter, following many consumer complaints, Apple offered to refund $100 -- half the amount of the price reduction -- to everyone who bought the phone (and all the hype) right out of the gate. Maybe Apple should have thought differently about this one.

The immediate effect on supply-and-demand is not the only issue at stake when it comes to this (or any other) price-cutting decision: it also impacts the perception of authenticity. In our forthcoming book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, we treat Apple as an exemplar of what we call "original authenticity." Almost everything Apple designs -- from its gorgeous computers and sleek iPods to its retail experiences -- seeks to stimulate in customers a sense of discovery and self-exploration. But what this decision seems to do -- and what the reaction from early iPhone adopters bears out -- is lessen the originality of the concept. It's clearly a swing for the masses, leaving behind those who saw themselves in the uniqueness of the design. It says the iPhone is a commodity like any other phone, not original enough even in its own designer's eyes to maintain a premium price. We thought the real Apple was better than that.

Jobs is being a bit disingenuous when he says, "This is life in the technology lane." No, such an immediate price decrease is highly unusual, smacking of desperation. Perhaps the iPhone isn't really the original breakthrough that Apple says it is -- but an iPhony! In this lies a lesson for all businesses: don't sacrifice long-term authenticity of your brand or your business for short-term revenue gain, as sustaining revenue over time hangs in the balance.

Of course, such a price-reduction announcement could have been used to further render the authenticity of Apple in the eyes of consumers. First, refunds for past purchases should have been offered simultaneously with the announcement. Not just for the full refund for past purchases, but for more than the $200 difference. That would have been true to Apple and a real reward to those who stood in line to be one of the iPhone's first buyers. And it would have solidified Apple's positioning as the purveyor of different, original thought in a technological sea of sameness.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Pricing It Right: Strategies, Applications, and Pitfalls (HBS Press Chapter)
The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage (Hardcover)
Has Apple Hit the Right Disruptive Notes? (Strategy & Innovation Article)

Apple's reaction to its angry customers has been swift. Responding to a flood of complaints from early iPhone buyers over a $200 drop in the still-new product's price, Steve Jobs responded by:

1. Recognizing that customers were upset
2. Recognizing that customers had a right to be upset
3. Explaining why Apple chose to drop the price -- and doing so in a way that appears legitimate and honest
4. Offering reparations to early adopters in the form of a $100 credit

No, Jobs didn't satisfy each and every disgruntled iPhone owner but, like JetBlue's response to its meltdown last winter, Apple recognized it had created a potentially big problem with its core customers and took swift and open measures to address it.

Would your company do the same thing or would it try to bury or obfuscate the problem? Not sure? Consider these ideas from Harvard Business Review to brush up on your approach to customer relations:

Want to Perfect Your Company’s Service? Use Behavioral Science
Why Satisfied Customers Defect
Companies and the Customers Who Hate Them
Manage Your Human Sigma
Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
CRM--the Right Way, 3rd Edition (HBR Article Collection)
CRM: Profiting from Understanding Customer Needs (Business Horizons Article)
The Mismanagement of Customer Loyalty (HBR Article)

For openers, Chrysler's new owner, Cerberus Capital Management, recruited former management superstar Robert Nardelli to run the show. Now, Nardelli has snagged current Toyota superstar Jim Press to serve as a top lieutenant. There's no doubt that Press brings a very impressive track record to the table and his hiring has been called a coup for Nardelli and Chrysler. But will the George Steinbrenner approach to staffing pay off for Chrysler and Cerberus? Hiring stars is tempting, especially for executives who are new to an industry. But managing them is a tricky business.

Top performers often resemble comets more than stars, note Boris Groysberg, Ashish Nanda, and Nitin Nohria in their Harvard Business Review article "The Risky Business of Hiring Stars." Once they’re lured to another firm, their performance plummets by as much as 20%—permanently. That’s because just 30% of a star’s performance stems from individual capabilities. 70% derives from resources and qualities specific to the company that developed him—such as reputation, information technologies, leadership, training, and team chemistry.

So how does Chrysler ensure it gets the best from stars like Press—and how do you get full value from your top talent? Groysberg et al say it's critical to give star performers the right support network.

• Systems and processes. Establish procedures and routines that fuel individuals’ success.
• Leadership. Even talented employees need coaching and mentoring to excel. Encourage people to forge relationships across functions; they’ll deliver better results.
• Training. Offer programs that accelerate talented employees’ development.
• Teams. Working with smart colleagues sparks ideas that stimulate productivity. Encourage high performers’ teammates to counsel and coach them. Ingrain a team mentality: legendary Goldman Sachs coleader John Whitehead once cautioned an analyst that “at Goldman Sachs, we never say ‘I.’”

Of course, there's another approach you can take when it comes to established stars: don't hire them. Instead, look within your organization for those who have the potential for greatness. Consider Jim Collin's portrait of the "Level 5" leader—an executive who blends personal humility with intense professional will. In Collins' view the most effective leaders possess an unusual and seemingly pardoxical combination of skills and personality traits: humility, will, ferocious resolve, and the tendency to give credit to others while assigning blame to themselves. Rarely do we think of this combination of traits when we think of stars, but the executives who possess Level 5 qualities may offer the brightest upside of all. Using Collins' formula as a filter for reviewing your own talent pool offers an attractive alternative—or perhaps an effective complement—to the pursuit of outside stars.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Hiring the Right Leaders (HBR Article Collection)
Ego Makes the Leader, 2nd Edition (HBR Article Collection)
Aligning the Stars: How to Succeed When Professionals Drive Results (Hardcover)

Apple's announcement yesterday that it's slashing $200 off the price of the iPhone, coming just a few months after the product's much ballyhooed release, is as notable as the firm's introduction of its sexy new iPod models.

So what's behind the price drop? Is it a long-planned strategic move to pick up a second wave of customers following those early adopters for whom price was no object? An act of desperation to boost disappointing sales? The market certainly didn't seem to be all that enthused, as Apple's stock dropped more than 5% even after Steve Jobs showed off the new iPod Touch and video iPod Nano.

Whatever the thinking, the price-drop is a reminder of just how critical a strategic issue pricing is. Need to brush up on your own approach to pricing? Here are some resources to help. Our price? Free.

Pricing and the Psychology of Consumption
Measure Costs Right: Make the Right Decisions
How to Fight a Price War

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Using Pricing Strategy to Create Competitive Advantage--It's Time to Change the Game (CD-ROM)
Pricing It Right: Strategies, Applications, and Pitfalls (HBS Press Chapter)
Pricing: Design and Implementation (Case Note)

Even as Chinese officials announce a “special war” to crack down on poor-quality products, worries over Chinese-manufacturing relationships continue to undulate throughout industry. Mattell's announcement of a third recall certainly hasn't helped calm the waters. As you consider you own situation, here is some recent content from Harvard Business Online to help fuel your thinking:

John Quelch on How to Run a Recall
Executive Briefing: How Exposed Is Your Supply Chain to a China Backlash?
Executive Briefing: The Chinese Trade Surplus
Peter J. Williamson on The Real Risks of Chinese Product Recalls

According to a just-released report on employee loyalty from Walker Information, 36% of U.S. workers say they plan to leave their current organization within the next two years, a spike of five percentage points from 2005. And almost a quarter more feel trapped in their jobs.

Pretty alarming statistics, and it doesn't get much better deeper in the report: Four in ten Gen Y'ers, those twenty-somethings who represent the future, are at high risk of leaving their companies.

The price of decreasing loyalty is steep. According to Walker, loyal employees are significantly more likely to work to make their organization successful, execute the company's strategy, and help colleagues with heavy workloads.

So how to make sure you're adequately addressing the key drivers of loyalty in your organization? Begin by making your employees feel more involved in developing and executing your strategy. And then consider these ideas:

1. Combating job misery. In this week's HBR IdeaCast, best-selling author Patrick Lencioni, parses the key drivers of job dissatisfaction and how managers can address them.

2. Engaging Gen Y'ers. In another recent HBR IdeaCast, Chris Resto, author of Recruit or Die, offers his advice for how keep the youngest component of your workforce happy, engaged, and productive.

3. Boosting retention and loyalty. Here are several additional free resources to help fuel your thinking:

Managing Middlescence: A look at how to keep those burned out, bottlenecked, and often bored midcareer workers focused and fulfilled.

What It Means to Work Here: Companies that have developed a "signature experience" and have stories that bring it to life have a leg up in both recruiting and retaining top talent.

How Great Managers Manage People: The secret to boosting employee engagement lies in rejecting conventional wisdom in four core areas of managing people: selection, expectation setting, motivation, and development.

Is employee loyalty a problem at your company? What techniques are working for you?

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Debriefing Dianne Durkin: Secure Your Employees' Devotion (HMU Article)
Loyalty Rules!: How Today's Leaders Build Lasting Relationships (Paperback)
The New Loyalty: Make It Work for Your Company (HMU Article)

Harvard Business School professor Joseph L. Bower is the author of "The CEO Within: How Inside Outsiders Are the Key to Succession Planning."

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an interesting story about CEO succession at GlaxoSmithKline . I've just finished a book reporting research about CEO succession, and several aspects of the Glaxo situation strike me as fascinating. To begin, the incumbent CEO has set up what is known in business jargon as a "horse race." The company's chairman, Sir Christopher Gent, announced to the world in 2005 that Glaxo would select an insider to replace CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier when he retired, and not long thereafter three internal candidates were publicly identified.

The decision to make succession planning at Glaxo so very public is somewhat surprising. First and foremost, there is a lot of competitive behavior in the run up to succession -- and making the race public tends to intensify it. Part of the challenge in managing a company during this period is to maintain enough comity in the corporate hallways that business goes on in a cooperative fashion. One wants the candidates to keep their focus on beating the other companies, not the other candidates. It's hard enough to keep people focused when succession is an internal matter. When the process is public the distractions are only more plentiful.

A directly related risk of the public approach is that for the "winner," succession becomes the end of an exhausting process, rather than the beginning of something new and exciting. “Losers,” meanwhile, are that much more likely to depart when their fitness for leadership is “tarnished” publicly by their loss. Or emotionally, they may simply feel spent. This will be especially true if the long competitive process has bred unpleasant political battles.

But the current head of Glaxo has indicated that he wants the members of Glaxo’s board to get to know what the candidates are all about and that this public acknowledgement that "the race is on" will help that process. Certainly other companies have had this same objective. But they usually accomplish it with less fanfare -- often through board visits to the different facilities where the candidates' divisions or groups are located.

Reg Jones of GE ran a horse race like this in the years running up to his selection of Jack Welch, but the business media only picked up the action in the final stretch when, as I recall, one or two of the candidates began to use the outside press as a way to promote themselves. Welch, in turn, ran a horse race leading to the picking of Jeff Immelt, but that process really only became public after their successors as leaders of GE businesses were announced – about 6 months before succession. At Glaxo, the horse race may be into year three by the time the new CEO takes office.

None of this is to say that what Glaxo is doing is wrong. It just provides lots of questions that one might ask Glaxo’s present CEO if one had the opportunity.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
The CEO Within: How Inside Outsiders Are the Key to Succession Planning (Hardcover)
Hire the Right CEO (HBR Article Collection)
Strategy Maps for CEO Succession Planning
Irrational Succession: The Role of the Board in CEO Selection (CD-ROM)

Ben Bernanke forcefully came out of Alan Greenspan's shadow this week with two strong and distinguishing moves as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Though Bernanke has been in his leadership role for more than a year, it is only now that he is establishing his own identity.

Following on the heels of a successful or high profile leader isn't easy -- whether you're heading the Federal Reserve Bank or the division of a software maker -- but it's essential for all new leaders to make the jobs their own. If you don't, you'll never get true buy-in from your followers.

Here are four resources from Harvard Business Review to help leaders establish their identities and get off to a strong start:

Leadership That Gets Results
Seven Surprises for New CEOs
Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?
A Survival Guide for Leaders

Even if you are not a serious sports fan, it would have been hard to escape at least some of last week’s news coverage of a spying scandal involving one of the leading teams in professional sports. The largest fines and the most severe penalties in the history of the sport were levied in connection with the unauthorized acquisition and gathering of information about one team by another. To those of you who have immediately filled in the name of Coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots of the National Football League, think again.

The penalties described above were actually assessed last week against the McLaren Mercedes Formula One Racing Team, to the tune of $100 million. That’s not a misprint. At least in quantitative terms, it makes the $750,000 in fines and loss of a few potential draft picks levied against the Patriots pale by comparison.

It is likely that in neither case did the individuals involved think about their legacies when they engaged in the behavior in question. Let’s be realistic. Leaders are, all too often, overtaken by the need to win the current battle. That’s how they frame the question of their survival. But if we can take anything away from these and other recent episodes, we can see that such a frame is far too narrow. Our greatest leaders broaden the measures, knowing that while victory in last night’s game, or the recent race, or even last quarter’s results are the most immediate indicators, they are not the ones for which they will ultimately be remembered. Those leaders know that their true performance will be questioned or judged on how well they have built, sustained and, yes, even repaired what their efforts have wrought.

Those are questions for all leaders, regardless of the stadium in which we play. The spotlight shines brightly on all of us, doesn’t it?

Editor's note: For insights on how leaders can more effectively build and protect their legacies, please listen to this HBR IdeaCast interview with Rob Galford:

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Your Leadership Legacy: Why Looking Toward the Future Will Make You a Better Leader Today (Hardcover)
Ego Makes the Leader, 2nd Edition (HBR Article Collection)
Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters (Hardcover)
The Ethical Mind: A Conversation with Psychologist Howard Gardner (HBR Article)