Mario De Meyer
Improving the Practice of Management — Then and Now
September 19, 2022
Summary.
It’s been a full century since the first issue of Harvard Business Review was released. What can we learn from the most pressing issues facing leaders then — and what’s changed? In this essay, two HBR editors outline the original purpose of the magazine and explore how “a proper theory of business” has evolved to include a broader definition of management — and of who a leader can be. They also introduce components of the Big Idea series that this piece is part of, including articles on what makes great leaders, organizations, and jobs.
In October 1922, the very first essay in volume 1, number 1 of Harvard Business Review laid out the purpose of the brand-new journal. “It is pertinent to inquire how the representative practises [sic] of business men generally may be made available…and how a proper theory of business is to be obtained,” wrote Harvard Business School dean Wallace B. Donham. Without such a theory, “business will continue unsystematic, haphazard, and for many men a pathetic gamble.” To remedy that situation, HBR would seek to provide “a better theoretical basis for executive action.”