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How the Internet Saved Handmade Goods

Harvard Business Review

Some old technologies, after being rendered obsolete by better and cheaper alternatives (indeed even after whole industries based on them have been decimated), manage to “re-emerge” to the point that they sustain healthy businesses. Who are these makers if not the revivers of dying or, in some cases, long extinct technologies?

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Reflections on Dr. Deming’s Hospital Notes – What Has Changed Since 1990?

Deming Institute

Lean methods, such as value stream mapping and improvement projects carried out by cross-functional teams can break down barriers and increase understanding. They know their own work, but they don’t understand the connections to other departments (or even to others performing different roles within their same department). Care gets delayed.

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Is the End of GE Capital Good News for Ecomagination?

Harvard Business Review

We need dramatic improvements in energy and water efficiency, and massive rollouts of renewable energy and clean transportation technologies. At times, I’ve been critical about the sometimes-loose definition of what GE “counts” as an ecomagination project (making oil sands production a bit cleaner, really?).

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The Comprehensive Business Case for Sustainability

Harvard Business Review

Today’s executives are dealing with a complex and unprecedented brew of social, environmental, market, and technological trends. Sustainable businesses are redefining the corporate ecosystem by designing models that create value for all stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, supply chains, civil society, and the planet.

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Entrepreneurs Take On Manufacturing

Harvard Business Review

Examples of this trend include the Pebble , a Kickstarter-funded project that has now sold over one million smart watches (and which predated Google’s Android Wear smart watch and the Apple Watch). As a result, software-enabled manufacturing start-ups are poised to have a large economic impact.

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Top 10 Sustainable Business Stories of 2012

Harvard Business Review

Over one-third of the world's largest companies surveyed by the Carbon Disclosure Project are already seeing the impacts of climate change on their business. The green supply chain gets some teeth: Walmart changes incentives for buyers. This year, Walmart finally added a key element to its impressive green supply chain efforts.

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People Are Angry About Globalization. Here’s What to Do About It.

Harvard Business Review

Simply put, business is the 800-pound gorilla where this issue is concerned: 80% of global trade is orchestrated by supply chains of multinational firms. A 2013 Pew Research survey found that business executives ranked ninth out of 10 professions in terms of social contribution, only placing ahead of lawyers. Perhaps U.S.