Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2017

Business leaders often think of “efficiency” and “productivity” as synonyms, two sides of the same coin. When it comes to strategy, however, efficiency and productivity are very different. Efficiency is about doing the same with less. The benefits from improving efficiency appear to have petered out.

Efficiency 8

Efficiency Productivity Products Company 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2012

Six Sigma , Kaizen , Lean , and other variations on continuous improvement can be hazardous to your organization's health. Looking beyond Japan, iconic six sigma companies in the United States, such as Motorola and GE, have struggled in recent years to be innovation leaders. the United States. Absolutely not!

Six Sigma 17

Six Sigma Kaizen Govindarajan Telecommunications 17

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Leaders and organizations are under more stress than ever to do two things simultaneously: deliver on today’s pressing commitments by troubleshooting and refining processes; and find and invest in innovation opportunities that will create tomorrow’s success. The problem is, this instinct crowds out longer term, innovative thinking.

Budgeting 12

Budgeting Innovation Disruptive Innovation Six Sigma 12

Strategy Driven

APRIL 8, 2011

Brand Relevance provides the tools companies need to generate innovative offerings that can create long-term financial success. The strategy is to engage in incremental innovation to make the brand ever more attractive or reliable, the offering less costly, or the marketing program more effective or efficient.

Brand 56

Brand Aaker Six Sigma Short-term 56

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 13, 2013

American business remains the country's most vibrant source of innovation. Government has traditionally looked to business for tools and techniques to help improve productivity and cut costs through greater efficiency. Business strategies focused on process and efficiency won't help the country manage that.

Efficiency 8

Efficiency Six Sigma Benchmarking Outsourcing 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 13, 2018

health care firm, for example, had over the years stripped a process down to the minimal viable steps to achieve efficiencies. With changes like these, a process enabled by RPA can become much more efficient and effective than a process that is automated but otherwise unchanged.

Process 12

Process Six Sigma Company Technology 12

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

When we applied the techniques of Six Sigma analysis to the CMS data, we found that just 32 hospitals — less than 1% of the hospitals in the data — accounted for about 25% of the excess accepted charges. government and the hospitals themselves should consider engaging in a Six-Sigma-type analysis every year for continuous improvement.

Six Sigma 9

Six Sigma Cost Health Care Analysis 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 13, 2014

Under CEO Jack Welch in the 1980s and 1990s, they adopted operational efficiency approaches (“ Workout ,” “Six Sigma,” and “Lean”) that reinforced their success and that many companies emulated. But, as befits a company that has been around for 130 years, GE is moving on.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Incubator Payback Period Ries 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 24, 2017

In 2014 Jess Jacobs, a director in an innovation lab, started blogging about her experience as she received treatment for two rare diseases. Jess was trained as a Six Sigma Green Belt. So unlike your average patient, she described one 12-hour wait in the ER as having a “7% process cycle efficiency.”

Health Care 11

Health Care Six Sigma Metrics Quality 11

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 7, 2015

I was reminded of this painful memory recently, while reading Jeffrey Rothfeder’s Driving Honda , which examines the company’s innovation culture. But innovators should keep some rules of thumb in mind: All prototypes have limitations and ways in which they are going to bias users and the results.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Sample Innovation Productivity 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

Type 3: Then there are products where input-output efficiency and reliability of the physical components are still critical but digital is becoming an integral part of the product itself (in effect, computers are being put inside products). For that end, they must be able to attract world-class innovators and software engineers.

Industry 8

Industry Software Six Sigma Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 22, 2013

Innovation starts with new and novel ideas. When we surveyed over 300 global executives between 2008 and 2009, one of the primary concerns they expressed was their inability to compete long term without a solid innovation engine that can grow their top line. Finding ideas is never the problem — initially. Use Convergence Thinking.

Skills 8

Skills Power Six Sigma Disruptive Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

The Mayo Quality Academy offers 30 courses, ranging from Lean and Six-Sigma to Human Factors and Change Management. Follow the Leading Health Care Innovation insight center on Twitter @HBRhealth. Leading Health Care Innovation. E-mail us at healtheditors@hbr.org , and sign up to receive updates here.

Quality 8

Quality Mayo System Six Sigma 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

For instance, think of all the zigzags in strategic direction the old Hewlett Packard took as it went through four CEOs in a decade: first, the focus was on technology innovation, then it was on growth through acquisitions, and then on efficiency.

Welch 8

Welch Six Sigma Real Estate Trends 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 24, 2016

More recently, we have focused on the value of Lean, Six Sigma , and diversity. It’s simply more efficient. I’m asking because I want to use your time and my time efficiently. In the 1960s and 1970s, we embraced participative leadership ; in the 1990s, we were lured by the learning organization.

Influence 8

Influence Six Sigma Open-book Diversity 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2015

Mauro Porcini is PepsiCo’s Chief Design Officer—the first to hold the position—where he oversees design-led innovation across all the company’s brands under CEO Indra Nooyi. That’s where our work is really about innovation. I strongly believe that design and innovation are exactly the same thing.

Organization 8

Organization Brand Six Sigma Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 30, 2014

Short-term thinking has been charged with no less than a chronic decline in innovation capability by Clayton Christensen who termed it “the Capitalist’s Dilemma.” ) Corporations continue to focus too narrowly on shareholders , with terrible consequences – even at great companies like IBM. Townes, and Henry L.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Drucker P&L Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 29, 2015

Key selection criteria included experience in innovative software and service (versus product) development, and an ability to manage a start-up in a very large, complex company. Bill and his team set out to develop a system that could bring all GE machines onto one efficient cloud -connected platform. Bill Ruh was selected in 2011.

Software 8

Software Six Sigma Insourcing P&L 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 28, 2013

This failure is not for lack of effort — health systems are making massive investments in new infrastructure, technology, processes and managerial approaches designed to manage change, such as electronic health records, Six Sigma and Lean Management. Make hard decisions without relying on approval from senior leaders.

Health Care 8

Health Care Innovation Six Sigma Consultative 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 23, 2014

Lean innovation is being embraced by everyone — from the smallest start-ups to the largest global organizations. And that’s where the money is in innovation. And that’s where the money is in innovation. Lean innovation embraces a philosophy of not letting progress get in the way of perfection.

Innovation 8

Innovation Six Sigma Productivity Products 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2011

When they set out to turn around processes that have become woefully inefficient or ineffective, most companies choose one of four process improvement "religions": Lean , Six Sigma , Business Reengineering or Business Process Management (BPM). Many companies adopted Six Sigma in the late 1990s. Consider this example.

Six Sigma 14

Six Sigma BPM Process Hammer 14

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

MAY 1, 2017

Accordingly, business leaders sought to improve efficiency by employing Six Sigma, process reengineering, spans and layers, and other tools. And the average long-term ROE is more than 25%, reflecting improved efficiency combined with greater reliance on financial leverage at most companies.

ROE 14

ROE Long-term GDP Six Sigma 14

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Moreover, leaders provide training in potent improvement tools like Lean Six Sigma and Human-Centered Design , and empower the front line to innovate. The idea was selected as a diffusion of excellence initiative, and has been implemented in the VA hospital in El Paso, Texas.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Learning-by-Doing Crisis Kotter 8