Manager's Tool Kit. Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan note that even smart companies incur huge losses when they enter unknown territory new alliances, new markets, new products, or new technologies. In HBR's first Manager's Tool Kit, the authors take readers step-by-step through "Discovery-Driven Planning," a practical tool that acknowledges the difference between planning for a new venture and planning for a more conventional line of business.

Thinking About... Management tools that strive for constant improvement paradoxically may be destroying what holds organizations together. In "The Power of Predictability," Howard H. Stevenson and Mihnea C. Moldoveanu argue that managers cannot ignore this basic human need.