Career Imprints: Creating Leaders Across an Industry

Imagine that you're an extremely bright 28-year-old M.B.A. graduate working for one of the world's largest medical supply firms. You're told on a Friday that you'll be running a division in another country on Monday. Most reasonable people would consider that scenario outrageous and unrealistic. But it happened all the time at Baxter International, which placed young, relatively inexperienced employees in positions of extraordinary responsibility with no warning. Twenty-five years ago, many of those individuals became major players in the then-fledgling biotechnology industry. Harvard Business School professor Monica C. Higgins takes an exhaustive look at how and why a disproportionate number of former Baxter executives became so influential in biotech start-ups. Her extensive research reveals that Baxter was the ideal training ground for innovative thinkers and risk-takers. She sees Baxter as a textbook example of how imprinting corporate culture and values upon an individual can have a career-shaping impact. The book, though more scholarly than entertaining, provides insight into career imprinting and its implications. getAbstract recommends it to anyone interested in learning how individuals and industries are molded.

"Career Imprints" provides an insightful, interesting, well-researched look into how our earliest organizational experiences produce the tacit knowledge of "what work is" that we carry with us throughout our professional lives. Higgins' fascinating chronicle of the Baxter Boys' overwhelming influence on the development of the biotech industry shows how the right career imprint at the right time creates a strong strand of cultural DNA that flourishes and propagates to generate a new breed of industry leaders. Higgins' discerning discussion of the interplay between organizational culture and personal career trajectories makes this a book worth reading - not only to help us all better understand and map our own careers, but also to help HR professionals think systematically about designing appropriate career imprints to instill in our own workforces. This wonderful book is a ground-breaking addition to the management literature - a must read!!

How can one organization transform an entire industry? This fascinating book suggests a new answer -- by spawning a generation of leaders with a distinctive approach to management, who use that approach to start up successful companies in the same industry. Professor Higgins' argument suggests some interesting questions too. For example, why would an organization want to spawn a generation of leaders whose start-ups could potentially challenge and surpass its own success? This book is extremely thought-provoking and will lead you to look with a fresh eye at the industries you are most familiar with. While the argument is grounded in the biotech industry, the implications go far beyond.

I never write reviews but I feel compelled because I was so impressed with this body of knowledge. Professor and now author Higgins offers up explanations of why and how one company is able to consistently churn out their industries future leaders. She shows and proves why Baxter has been so successful in growing their executives and shows us what an organization needs to produce winners and leaders. A great, must read for all industries.