Harvard Business Review

JUNE 28, 2016

A second set of entrepreneurs focus on information goods and think of IT as the product. But today there is a third approach, one that will become the dominant path for most entrepreneurs, especially those building information products. It has several key benefits: Speeds time-to-market. Take a company like Airbnb.

Entrepreneur 9

Entrepreneur Airlines Construction Short-term 9

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Called "Why US Productivity Can Grow Without Killing Jobs," it takes as a given that this would strike readers as counterintuitive. Could it really be that businesses could become more productive and yet not find themselves with excess workers standing around? What a conundrum! Well of course we know it is not one.

McKinsey 14

McKinsey Efficiency Long-term Analysis 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 5, 2012

CEOs should encourage R&D teams to move away from pursuing over-engineered "perfect products" — which today's thrifty customers find too expensive, hard to use, and eco-unfriendly — and focus instead on developing "good enough" solutions. By "good enough," we don't mean stripped-down versions of existing high-end products.

CEO 15

CEO Innovation Restructuring Incentives 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 19, 2016

On one hand, pure cost-based strategies are now rarely viable because the forces of automated production, mass customization, global supply chains, direct channels, networked devices, etc., Innovation cycles speed up and time-to-market goes down, and the resulting changes in the value chain compound customer demand for quality.

CEO 8

CEO Supply Chain Disruptive Innovation P&L 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 5, 2012

CEOs should encourage R&D teams to move away from pursuing over-engineered "perfect products" — which today's thrifty customers find too expensive, hard to use, and eco-unfriendly — and focus instead on developing "good enough" solutions. By "good enough," we don't mean stripped-down versions of existing high-end products.

CEO 8

CEO Innovation Restructuring Incentives 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 9, 2013

To date, the trend has been associated with fairly standard products, such as customer relationship management software, web servers, or SQL databases, but the theory of the innovator''s dilemma suggests that it will most likely move up the stack in the future. Innovations were virtually prevented by stifling complexity.

Technology 8

Technology CIO Agility Software 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 27, 2017

Everyone understood that being the flagship client for startups at this stage in their development would attract top startups and give BMW first access to cutting-edge technology, product customization advantages, time-to-market, and pricing, while reducing the risk profile of traditional corporate venturing.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Meyer Innovation Fixed Costs 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

Physical product customizers such as Nike iD and Moto Maker have earned strong customer followings, but they’re still closer to “designed for me” than the “designed by me” experience we’ve been promised. Would you pay more for this kind of customized experience?

Offshoring 8

Offshoring Productivity Products Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 2, 2016

They ignore the realities of how global manufacturing now works — how it has evolved into a complex network of interlinked factories that together build many of the products sold today. Generally, what we see is the country where the final assembly of a product took place. A big reason is technological complexity.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Globalization Cost Efficiency 8