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Will China Bring Your Firm New Owners, Partners, or Competitors?

Harvard Business Review

and other developed markets? During the global financial crisis, Robert Remenar, CEO of Nexteer, a Michigan-based automotive steering firm, deliberately searched for potential new Chinese owners. In 2010, Chinese firm AVIC Automotive purchased Nexteer for $465 million. But what happens when China goes West? In the U.S.,

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Many Companies Still Don’t Know How to Compete in the Digital Age

Harvard Business Review

Every industry, no matter how traditional — agriculture, automotive, aviation, energy — is being upended by the addition of sensors, internet connectivity, and software. Kodak accepted the pain of shuttering plants and laying off tens of thousands of film-factory workers. Today, it is occurring at the level of ecosystems.

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What Is a Robot, Anyway?

Harvard Business Review

For Westerners at least, our working cultural definition owes a lot to robots in stories and film, as well as real-life robots past and present. million industrial robots are in use or available in various industries including automotive, electronics, rubber and plastics, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage.

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Tomorrow’s Factories Will Need Better Processes, Not Just Better Robots

Harvard Business Review

When people think of the automotive Factory of the Future, the first word that comes to mind is automation. But the reality is that any major leap forward on cost and efficiency will no longer be possible through automation alone, since most of the tasks that can be automated in an automotive factory have already been tackled.