Lead on Purpose

OCTOBER 16, 2009

In the late 1990s and early 2000s the word “virtual&# became associated with outsourcing jobs to other countries, so Jack changed the name of his program to “dynamic organization&# and implemented the program at US Cellular.

Review 100

Review Books Ethics Competitive Advantage 100

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 30, 2016

One applications outsourcing team, for example, proposed a clever UX tweak to help optimize a global fulfillment process their company managed for its biggest client. Surely this cheap, customer-centric, and data-driven innovation would impress the client. Their optimization strengths had become innovation weakness.

Process 12

Process Competitive Advantage Outsourcing Supply Chain 12

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 8, 2013

Recently, Thomson-Reuters published its latest list of the Top 100 Global Innovators honoring the leading organizations and companies most responsible for sizeable, influential patents worldwide. First, many of the Top Innovators employ engineers in emerging countries such as India and China. Here are three main reasons why.

Engineering 8

Engineering Globalization Innovation Marketing 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 31, 2012

Plenty of people — including here on Harvard's blog — espouse the theory that big companies can't innovate. A look at any performance measure shows that innovation can come from either size, and that both arguments are oversimplifications. And the CEO sees enabling a culture of collaborative innovation as key.

Operations 16

Operations Innovation Industry CEO 16

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

The most painfully awkward debates I hear in ostensibly innovative organizations revolve around "crazy ideas." Defining those crazy zones is one of the most difficult but more important cultural decisions innovation leadership teams can make. Crazy ideas, of course, can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage.

Outsourcing 14

Outsourcing Management Core Competence Competitive Advantage 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 26, 2012

In the game of innovation, there is next to no time to rest. In the worst cases, it only takes months to move from profitable differentiation to commodity competition. Unfortunately, the advantages accrued from scale are not destined to last. The competitive advantages of scale are being commoditized.

Porter 12

Porter Competitive Advantage Safe Harbor Efficiency 12

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 27, 2017

The bad news: Petabytes of new data and algorithmic innovation assure that “autonomy creep” will relentlessly challenge human oversight from within. The Autonomous Outsourcer. Business process outsourcing becomes business process algorithmization. These distinct approaches enjoy demonstrable real-world success.

Outsourcing 8

Outsourcing Software CAPEX Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

That means cracking down on tax shelters that give some businesses a competitive advantage. That means strengthening regulation where some businesses are putting competitive pressure on others by skimping on safety, by denying workers basic benefits, or by operating with dangerous degrees of leverage.

Class 8

Class Outsourcing Long-term Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2013

In my eyes, the work Steve Blank, Eric Ries, and others have done to provide a cogent, accessible frame around the academic concepts of emergent strategy is one of the most important contributions to the innovation movement over the past few years. Innovation' That''s not right.

Ries 8

Ries Telecommunications Business Model Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 19, 2013

However, most companies require considerable planning and need both a competitive advantage and a solid business plan in order to succeed. Will customers be able to identify and discuss your competitive advantage? Others travel sites outsource their call centers overseas and really push all interactions to be electronic.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Hotels Travel Call Center 8

N2Growth Blog

APRIL 21, 2011

There is also a great opportunity for adding talent leverage via outsourcing, crowdsourcing, and other contract opportunities that provide cost savings and scale. or informal efforts produced via someone else’s R&D or innovation efforts, companies often start projects that they don’t finish.

Real Estate 329

Real Estate Company Brand Operations 329

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2012

These relationships were essential in gaining the confidence of customers who had qualms about outsourcing to IBM. They are innovating in ways that create virtuous circles for a generation or more." He also talked to customers on a daily basis and circumnavigated the globe six times a year to meet customers in person. When the U.S.

Globalization 15

Globalization Golden Parachute Short-term Long-term 15

Strategy Driven

MARCH 18, 2011

Further, they need to limit their focus to, at most, six capabilities, and make those capabilities work together as a mutually reinforcing system that perpetuates competitive advantage. Assets are important, but they are, increasingly, table stakes in most competitive industries; everyone in the game has them.

Resources 52

Resources Industry System Strategy 52

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 23, 2014

What is the business’s value proposition and it sources of competitive advantage? By contrast a compelling value proposition describes succinctly how the company will compete successfully against its competition—and implies the critical activities around which the organization should be designed.

Ulrich 8

Ulrich Cost Efficiency Consultative 8

Strategy Driven

AUGUST 10, 2015

If your firm outsources mobile app development to an agency or design firm, there’s your answer). EVALUATE how StrategyDriven gives you a competitive advantage. Break the Innovation Chokehold: How to Stop Ruling Like a (Not-So-Benevolent) Dictator and Start Encouraging Big Ideas. A monthly recurring subscription of $9.95

Strategy 50

Strategy Succession Software Industry 50

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 27, 2015

Can you think of any business topic that’s been hotter for longer than innovation? In a McKinsey poll , 94% of the managers surveyed said they were dissatisfied with their company’s innovation performance. And yet when it comes to innovation, the gap between aspiration and accomplishment seems as big as ever.

Innovation 8

Innovation Company Engineering Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 13, 2013

"Offers" usefully blurred categorical and cultural distinctions between "product" and "service" innovation. The more people talked, the clearer it became: "offers" was simply a better word and organizing principle for generating more innovative innovation scenarios. Communication Innovation Leadership' Language matters.

Ulrich 8

Ulrich Kaizen Innovation Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 20, 2016

” Rather, this approach recognizes a fundamental shift in the sources of value creation and competitive advantage toward software. But it also means evaluating whether you may be better served by bringing outsourced capabilities back in-house. Consider GE. It is a digital pioneer, actively reinventing itself.

Software 8

Software Company Airlines Business Model 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 24, 2015

Executives are bombarded with bestselling ideas and best practices for achieving competitive advantage, but many of these ideas and practices contradict each other. Should you create a blue ocean, be adaptive, play to win — or forget about a sustainable competitive advantage altogether?

Strategy 8

Strategy Competitive Advantage Environment Execution 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 9, 2013

Manufacturers are therefore faced with a daunting choice: outsource the design and testing to countries where tactile intelligence is still high, or fill the knowledge gap of new hires in the U.S. The second solution requires time and energy but we would argue that it’s worth the investment.

Engineering 8

Engineering Competitive Advantage Knowledge Management Outsourcing 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 19, 2015

Rather than rely on in-house production farms, most businesses will just outsource production to independent printer farms. In some contexts, they add competitive advantage. Everyone will have the same machines and everyone will be down the same learning curve on how to use the machines. In others, they weaken it.

Engineering 8

Engineering Learning Curve Fixed Costs Competitive Advantage 8

Great Leadership By Dan

APRIL 24, 2012

The challenge for business schools will be that most of their faculty don’t have coaching expertise and credentials, so when it’s outsourced, it’s often not fully integrated into the program. One is not better than the other, but having an equal balance of both will give you a competitive advantage. Virtual reality.

Leadership Development 256

Leadership Development Development Leadership Globalization 256