Uploaded June 2021 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Tepper Talks With Faculty hosted Saturday, April 17, during Tepper Virtual Reunion 2021. Esteemed Tepper School faculty presented brief, but impactful 15-minute talks, plus Q&A, on important aspects of their research as it relates to business and society.
The Critical Path: How "Knowing-What-to-Do" Separates the Winners From the Losers.
In his previous research on star performers, Professor Kelley only got the answer to ongoing high-performance half-right. It is not just how the stars do their jobs that separates them from their average peers; the stars also distinguish themselves by what they work on. They identify what makes a difference for the company’s economic success, i.e the critical path, and then they apply their star work strategies to those tasks. By not getting on the critical path, too many employees make themselves average and dispensable. In contrast, stars align with and add value to the critical path, thus making themselves indispensable.
Tepper Talks With Faculty hosted Saturday, April 17, during Tepper Virtual Reunion 2021. Esteemed Tepper School faculty presented brief, but impactful 15-minute talks, plus Q&A, on important aspects of their research as it relates to business and society.
The Critical Path: How "Knowing-What-to-Do" Separates the Winners From the Losers.
In his previous research on star performers, Professor Kelley only got the answer to ongoing high-performance half-right. It is not just how the stars do their jobs that separates them from their average peers; the stars also distinguish themselves by what they work on. They identify what makes a difference for the company’s economic success, i.e the critical path, and then they apply their star work strategies to those tasks. By not getting on the critical path, too many employees make themselves average and dispensable. In contrast, stars align with and add value to the critical path, thus making themselves indispensable.
