2. The HBR Manager’s Discussion
Series was a periodic Live
Meeting series that brought
together a leading business
author with Microsoft
managers to discuss the
author’s recently published
article in the Harvard
Business Review.

3. In 2008, Chris Weber, National Vice President of Sales and
Industry, EGP Segment, invested in a subscription to the
Harvard Business Review for each of the US managers.
The purpose of the HBR Discussion Series was to provide
structure and support for reading that publication and
the opportunity to leverage publication content to
expand the thinking of Microsoft sales managers.

4. The HBR Discussion series was accessible by invitation only
and was targeted exclusively to US EPG sales managers and
unit managers who had subscriptions to the HBR. The last
presentation was opened up to managers from the SMS&P
Segment.

6. Teaming Up to Crack Innovation Shaping Strategy in a World of
Robert Morison is vice president and Teaming Up to Crack Innovation
Constant Disruption In 1997 Nick Vitalari co-founded The
director of research with nGenera
Corporation. Co-chairman, Deloitte Touche focusing Concours Group, where he remains an
on strategic management and executive and directs nGenera’s
He is co-author of Workforce Crisis: operational performance improvement Enterprise 2.0 and Government 2.0
How to Beat the Coming Shortage of using information technology as a key Insight programs. His work focuses on
Skills And Talent (Harvard Business enabler. driving new levels of productivity
School Press, 2006) through redefined employee
computing.

7. 1 Week Presentation Week
2 Weeks
HBR reminder
3 Weeks Schedule dates for Confirm takeaways for
to participants.
4 Weeks Contact author technology check, slides and surveys.
Technology
and confirm pre-meeting call, Pre-meeting call
Chris
Check
availability and Live Meeting. between Chris and the
selects an
article to author(s)
Mail Live Meeting
discuss invitation
7

8. • Live Meeting format. The presentation was one hour
long with a pre-meeting between Chris and the
author to discuss content and objectives.
• The Live Meeting had closed microphones, so the
moderator took audience questions and passed
them along to Chris who wove them into the
discussion.
• Following the discussion group, Chris integrated
takeaways into his language and memos.
• We posted the unedited audio recording of the
discussion for 90 days where it was available
only to the Microsoft community.

9. A Consensus Survey was created and the link was
mailed to all attendees. Based on a 23% response
rate…
• 87.5 % gained information that will influence how they market, sell,
or service partners and customers.
• 90% broadened their business knowledge in a way that will
advance their career.
• 90% think they can use this information to strengthen their team.
• 75% agree that a monthly event is the best schedule for this
amount of content and the interactive nature of the series.
• 92.5% agree that the Live Meeting Technology is a good choice for
this series.

10. Chris Weber, EPG National Vice President, Sales and Industry is the host.
His role is to become familiar with the article and lead the discussion. He
also fields questions from participating managers and uses them to
further the discussion.
Tony Caruso, EPG Field Readiness Manager, is the liaison to Chris Weber
and the EPG community.
Will Flash is the moderator and spokesperson for SMSGR (Sales,
Marketing, and Services Group Readiness). His role is to keep the
discussion on time and on track, and conduct audience polling. He also
makes technology arrangements with the authors.
Jan Lohmann, MSNA Field Communications Manager, is liaison to the
Harvard School of Business and HBR authors.