Engaging Leader

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Perhaps it was an idea for a new product or service, or a process change to solve a complex problem. Perhaps it was an idea for a new product or service, or a process change to solve a complex problem. Maybe you’ve tried to bring the idea to life, only to have it turn out to be an expensive, time-consuming failure. We love to know your thoughts about this episode.

Uncertainty 176

Uncertainty Organization Christensen Agility 176

Harvard Business

JUNE 13, 2018

But, what about the application of AI and ML to agile development, testing and even portfolio management? We’re all striving to deliver better products faster to meet customer needs in the marketplace and stay ahead of the competition. For nearly two decades, many companies have utilized the principles within the Agile Manifesto to deliver faster time-to-market than traditional, or linear development models. Click here to learn more.

Agility 47

Agility Content Technology Software 47

Strategy Driven

JUNE 29, 2016

On reflection, though, I find that the evidence does not support competitive advantage as a path to longevity. Instead, longevity is based on entrepreneurial thinking and innovation – in exploring ways to adapt corporate and business strategies in response to market, technological, and social and cultural change. Yet when businesses try to implement entrepreneurial initiatives, these initiatives often fail.

Supply Chain 63

Supply Chain Resistance Real Estate Christensen 63

Mills Scofield

DECEMBER 5, 2014

This guest post by Amir Golan , VP of Business Development at Signals , shows how important it is to look for the small signals and patterns in big data that are easily lost. Once upon a time, before the era of big data analytics, corporations had similarly routine business growth issues and threats: i.e.: after years of being the market leader in a specific product category, they quickly begin to lose market share, they wanted to introduce their product into a new market.

Stage-Gate 103

Stage-Gate Outsourcing Committee Sample 103

Your Voice of Encouragement

MAY 14, 2010

skip to main | skip to sidebar Friday, May 14, 2010 Focus - Concentrate on one thing at a time. When you have a lot to do, it’s tempting to multi-task. But you’ll actually get more done if you concentrate on one thing at a time. In this video I explain why focusing your attention is more productive than trying to handle multiple priorities simultaneously.

Meyer 80

Meyer eBook Morale Blog 80

Harvard Business

MAY 22, 2018

M&A is central to many companies’ growth strategies. It’s been easier to go from big to bigger through M&A than new to big through entrepreneurship. That failure is not due to a lack of trying. Companies dedicate vast amounts of time, money, and effort to organic growth. Once launched, the opportunity is micro-managed to ensure that everything goes according to plan. The second step is to test like an entrepreneur.

Venture Capitalist 47

Venture Capitalist B2B Organization Marketing 47

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Agile methodology has taken the IT industry by the storm, and now it’s spreading to other sectors. Many companies have managed to gain an edge tapping into its transformative power. The benefits linked to adoption are indeed many, but there’s just one problem. There are a bunch of moving parts you need to tie in together. What is more, different teams need to work hand in hand toward shared goals. Even a small misstep can lead to immense problems.

Agility 39

Agility Planning Decentralization Metrics 39

Harvard Business

JUNE 28, 2016

Entrepreneurs have historically taken one of two approaches to IT. They typically hire third parties to help them with IT and never make it part of their core business. Given their capabilities, these entrepreneurs take a “do-it-yourself” approach and develop software to support organizational needs. Importantly, though, entrepreneurs with this perspective are happy to use existing IT building blocks to create those interfaces.

Entrepreneur 44

Entrepreneur Airlines Construction Hotels 44

Harvard Business

AUGUST 9, 2018

From time to time, every leader has to deliver news that is hard for employees to hear. Even when businesses are doing well, organizational and structural change is to be expected , and acquisitions, reorganizations, or policy changes can affect people’s jobs in ways that create feelings of fear, anger, or sorrow. How am I going to get my work done?” Equip all levels of management to explain the context. pm images/Getty Images.

Planning 44

Planning Proposal Middle Management Operations 44

Harvard Business

JULY 8, 2016

Experts continue to debate whether Chinese businesses are truly disruptive. The American textile and apparel industries, for example, will tell you that the evidence can be found in the blood on the floor — their blood, on what used to be their floor. The difference between displacement (outperforming existing market incumbents at their own game) and disruption (changing the game) is strategically important, no matter how similar the pain they cause is.

Business Model 44

Business Model Apparel Pharmaceuticals Drucker 44

Harvard Business

MAY 4, 2018

In 2001, a new approach to technology development was created by a daring group of developers. Agile development laid the intellectual groundwork for the Lean movement in entrepreneurship, which further pushed business leaders to organize their business model and product development work around a series of experiments, testing critical hypothesis along the way. And, once again, business leaders would do well to pay close attention to the strategic implications.

Agility 34

Agility Software CTO CIO 34

Harvard Business

MAY 29, 2017

What appears less common is their understanding of the destructive consequences of allowing that to happen. They reflexively grasp for the culture lever, assuming the act of crafting and publishing a set of values actually has the power to do something. People want their company’s values to be sacrosanct. The painful result of widespread misuse of company values, according to one major study , is that only 23% of U.S.

Competitive Advantage 47

Competitive Advantage Workshop Organization Company 47

Strategy Driven

APRIL 2, 2014

But those leaders have had training and experience to succeed in a traditional organization with a C-suite at the top and siloed business units and functions under each executive. The question is, do your executives have the skills and experience to lead a cross-functional process focused organization? This blog focuses on how to motivate, engage, and coach the Executive Sponsor and Process Owner during a Business Process Improvement (BPI) project.

BPM 54

BPM Process Six Sigma Project 54

Harvard Business

JUNE 13, 2018

To be truly competitive in the digital economy, you must be built to change. Companies across the globe are faced with new competitive threats, changing market dynamics, new technology disruption and evolving customer needs, and the pressure is on for companies to be able to sense and respond to those changes and deliver better products and services to customers, faster. Is faster delivery into the market having an impact on your bottom line?

Metrics 30

Metrics Agility Content Technology 30

Harvard Business

DECEMBER 13, 2016

” Without one, it is almost impossible to prioritize effectively. Although we had been a market leader for many years, our new products had been launched several months later than the competition — in fact, our time to market had doubled over the previous three years. The bank was using a project management tool, but the lack of discipline in keeping it up to date made it largely fruitless. What was she meant to do?

Project 47

Project Airlines Objective Efficiency 47

Harvard Business

OCTOBER 18, 2016

This situation exists because, believe it or not, a lot of organizations lack any mechanisms to help them actively manage the evaluation, selection, monitoring, and adjustment of digital investments to achieve clearly defined business results while meeting clear risk and return expectations. In essence, digital investments should be planned and managed according to their current and future contribution to business performance.

Tools 47

Tools Competitive Advantage Operations Software 47

Harvard Business

MAY 22, 2018

Its hierarchical authority, specialized division of labor, and standard operating procedures enabled companies to grow far larger than they had ever been. Today, most people work in some sort of bureaucracy — and according to Gallup, 85% of employees around the world feel disengaged from their work. If so, what can you do to escape the iron cage? ” In these situations, advocating greater patience or more persuasive business cases isn’t likely to help.

Bureaucracy 49

Bureaucracy Agility Energy Constraint 49

Harvard Business

MAY 7, 2018

A lean startup approach, we are told, can empower big companies to innovate rapidly and effectively in the face of continual disruption, potentially even transforming enterprises into centers of continual new growth. Responding to this promise, many companies have started putting these ideas to use: A recent study of 170 organizations with $1 billion or more in revenue found that over 82% are currently using a lean startup approach in some aspect of their business.

Innovation 49

Innovation Metrics Team Execution 49

Harvard Business

AUGUST 20, 2018

The plan is to create 10-minute programs; think YouTube meets Netflix. Will consumers want to watch short-form mobile entertainment? NewTV will depend on partners like telcos to distribute the content. Given Verizon just shut down Go90 , its short-form content video service, it will be interesting to see if Verizon distributes Katzenberg’s offerings.). After the crash, venture capital was scarce to nonexistent. Every startup is in a race against time.

IPO 28

IPO First-mover Advantage Agility PR 28

Harvard Business

JUNE 19, 2017

While initially designed to improve the responsiveness of software development teams, more recently agile has become the default team-based operational model for companies big and small, across industries and sectors, with the promise of a substantial and sustained spike in team productivity and efficiency. The bulk of this agile canon will teach your individual teams to deliver higher-quality code, faster. A Quick Introduction to Agile Management.

Agility 33

Agility Software Incentives Banking 33

Harvard Business

MAY 23, 2016

The widespread deployment of low-cost sensors and their connection to the internet has generated a great deal of excitement (and hype) about the future of manufacturing. But to get beyond the hype, managers need to understand some underlying challenges and paradigm shifts. While there are a multitude of challenges on the road to successful implementation, we think there are four especially important ones. From Time-Triggered to Event-Triggered Control Systems.

System 44

System Supply Chain Engineering Efficiency 44

Harvard Business

JULY 27, 2017

Gimmy’s task was clear but highly demanding: to reimagine the way BMW innovates. At the time, BMW had no dedicated, company-spanning unit to leverage the creative power of startups. To fill the void and build such a new BMW startup unit, Gimmy partnered with an experienced innovation manager from BMW, Matthias Meyer. From 2012 to 2015, the number of global corporate venture capital deals almost doubled, and their investments quadrupled, to $29.1

Venture Capitalist 30

Venture Capitalist Meyer IPO CRM 30

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 24, 2013

But Palmer Luckey, now 20, is taking his own sweet time to market — which he’s free to do since his funding comes strings-free from Kickstarter. It would be irresponsible for me to say when we'll have consumer products," he tells this enthusiast from Popular Mechanics , since the device still lacks sound — and who knows what else? How Humans Keep Time (Smithsonian

Incubator 12

Incubator Document Magazine Globalization 12

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

The main effect of higher productivity is to make labor more valuable; therefore it stands to reason that employers would — in the classic logic of "if you liked it that price, you'll love it at this one" — snap up more of it. it's a fallacy to suggest that there's a trade-off between unemployment and productivity." Yet, as obviously logical as that finding turns out to be, McKinsey was right to frame it as counterintuitive.

McKinsey 16

McKinsey Efficiency Analysis Productivity 16

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 4, 2012

Many firms struggle to exploit the innovation potential of their global networks. To get the most from dispersed innovation, managers need a different playbook. Here are three ways to set up and manage global innovation for success: 1. Assign oversight and support responsibility to a senior manager. This hands-off approach works because on-site executives can rely on informal communication and feedback mechanisms to maintain oversight.

Project 17

Project Six Sigma Tacit Knowledge First-mover Advantage 17

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 4, 2012

Many firms struggle to exploit the innovation potential of their global networks. To get the most from dispersed innovation, managers need a different playbook. Here are three ways to set up and manage global innovation for success: 1. Assign oversight and support responsibility to a senior manager. This hands-off approach works because on-site executives can rely on informal communication and feedback mechanisms to maintain oversight.

Project 17

Project Six Sigma Tacit Knowledge First-mover Advantage 17

Harvard Business

DECEMBER 13, 2017

” The role of a Product Manager (PM) is often referred to as the “CEO of the Product.” Performing market assessments. Translating business-to-technical requirements, and vice versa. These PMs excel at reflecting on where each of these competencies contributed to the success or failure of their products and continuously adjust their approach based on customer feedback. These PMs also know when to take a breath and step away if needed, to regroup.

Engineering 30

Engineering Core Competence CTO Productivity 30

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 5, 2014

Makes teams better” is fast-becoming both an essential ingredient to getting hired and a mission-critical skill-set worth measuring. What combinatorial characteristics of high-performers empower everyone else to over-perform? But this was the first time attending the event where so many of the top-tier athletic luminaries—particularly coaches and managers—spoke so wistfully and ambitiously about the analytic alchemy that can turn teammates into champions.

Sports 12

Sports Franchising Conference Early Adopters 12

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 23, 2015

When companies want to address fragmented cultures, they do some of the oddest things. For example, we’ve seen at least 15 corporations put “one” in front of their name (as in, “One Acme”), as they launched campaigns to dramatically increase interconnection across the organization. Here are the three most lethal “faux-hesion” culprits that do more to undermine unity than create it. Using values to cover up cultural deficits.

Mission Statement 12

Mission Statement McKinsey Committee Report 12

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 25, 2011

We were in a meeting to review the roadmap for the company's new product. I wanted to accept the consensus as a sign that the company had rounded the corner on its 3-year slog to be more relevant in their market. I knew that the new head of engineering and the head of product management had worked through a ton of issues to get to this review meeting prepared. Maybe the company was (ahem) finally going to make products that were competitive.

Consensus 17

Consensus CEO Engineering Review 17

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 9, 2013

In 2008, RIM tried to match the new competitor. However, the new handset, its software, and the available applications all failed to excite critics and customers. When it comes to innovation in industries with strategically narrow windows of opportunities, speed is everything. RIM is just the latest company to learn this lesson. This quickening pace — what academics and journalists have called innovation on steroids — is beginning to reach IT departments.

CIO 12

CIO Agility Project Telecommunications 12

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 5, 2012

CEOs of large companies face a conundrum: they are confronted with a growing number of frugal consumers clamoring for affordable solutions, yet their existing corporate culture and incentive systems are designed to support a "bigger is better" business model — not to deliver more with less. As the Age of Austerity dawns, however, corporate leaders will have no choice: they will have to bite the bullet and infuse their organizations with a frugal mindset.

Restructuring 17

Restructuring Incentives Engineering Brand 17

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 18, 2013

Imagine a team at a ski company that's faced with a big problem: When skiers make sharp turns at high speeds, the edges of their skis lift from the snow, causing the skiers to sometimes lose control. The team needed to lessen the vibrations of its skis. In some violins, they discovered, there's a special layer — a metal grid — that helps to stabilize the instrument, and reduce unwanted vibrations. But for a long time they weren't easy to find.

Software 12

Software Sharpe Efficiency Objective 12

Harvard Business Review

JULY 11, 2011

A lot of business literature advocates teaming up wherever possible to open the doors to new ideas, draw on the unique strengths of others, and speed time to market. Look for example at Lytro , a company whose impact on photography might turn out to be on par with the digital camera. Advanced algorithms process these inputs to enable features such as 3D effects or focusing on different parts of the image after the photo has already been taken.

Contract Manufacturing 13

Contract Manufacturing Licensing Retail Incentives 13

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

In 2008, Dr Reddy's acquired Chirotech, Dow Chemical's R&D unit, for $32 million, and in April 2011 relocated it to a new 33,000 sq. Dr Reddy's plan is to leverage Chirotech's scientific capabilities to optimize drug development processes, thus lowering manufacturing costs and speeding time-to-market. In recent years, Indian firms such as Dr Reddy's have also started globalizing their R&D footprint by moving into Western markets.

Globalization 16

Globalization Decentralization Biotechnology Groupthink 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 14, 2015

Not nearly enough attention has been paid to this question. As a practitioner of a design-led form of product development, and in my own research and writing about an empathetic approach to product design, I’m overtly critical of the Lean manifesto. The two methodologies may appear to share much in common on the surface, but if you dig deeper, there are fundamental differences in process that lead to very different outcomes. Our current silver bullet is Lean.

Reis 13

Reis Hammer Constraint Process 13

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 5, 2012

CEOs of large companies face a conundrum: they are confronted with a growing number of frugal consumers clamoring for affordable solutions, yet their existing corporate culture and incentive systems are designed to support a "bigger is better" business model — not to deliver more with less. As the Age of Austerity dawns, however, corporate leaders will have no choice: they will have to bite the bullet and infuse their organizations with a frugal mindset.

Restructuring 12

Restructuring Incentives Engineering Brand 12

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 26, 2013

With a tsunami of new digital technologies all converging simultaneously — social, mobile, cloud, analytics and embedded devices — there has been, once again, a cry for corporate IT to radically change to enable the digital transformation of businesses. There is no time for complacency. Cloud-based services are also now being bought directly by functions like HR and marketing, resulting in IT losing its control over technology purchase within the organization.

CIO 11

CIO CTO Agility Budgeting 11

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

Since at least the early ’90s, we’ve been hearing that Mass Customization is going to change the consumer landscape, but by and large, we still buy manufactured goods the way we have since the middle of last century. 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. The tools to do this are already here.

Offshoring 12

Offshoring Competitive Advantage Loyalty Process 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 17, 2015

This seems to be a key question on the minds of not just marketers, but company strategists these days. We have shifted from a competitive landscape in which companies are more exclusively focused on external forces affecting their industries and sectors, to one that has become significantly more customer-centric. Yet wanting to be closer with customers, and knowing what actual, operational pathways to take in order to achieve this are two very different things.

Customer Intimacy 12

Customer Intimacy Software CTO Gilbert 12

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 29, 2015

Is your company ready to compete in a world of smart, connected products ? For some time now we’ve been living into a smarter world filled with Big Data and analytics, and a more connected one that’s been described as “ the internet of things.” ” In this world, customers expect their suppliers to surround their products with data services and digitally enhanced experiences. General Electric turns out to be an excellent case in point.

Insourcing 12

Insourcing Software Six Sigma Incubator 12

Harvard Business

MAY 2, 2016

election year, presidential candidates in both parties have tied the loss of American manufacturing jobs to “unfair” trading practices and pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While executives of American exporters cite the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as an agreement that will be of enormous benefit to American workers, for politicians, it is another third-rail issue that few wish to support. sources continues to steadily decline.

Supply Chain 44

Supply Chain Cost Automotive Efficiency 44

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 8, 2013

There is widespread agreement that if the United States is to achieve sustainable levels of health care spending, it must make greater use of payment mechanisms that reward physicians, hospitals, and health systems for the results achieved. The vexing question is how best to make this transition. And because it focuses on acute episodes, REBP acts as a necessary complement to payment and care-delivery models designed to improve prevention and chronic-care management.

Health Care 12

Health Care Cost Pharmaceuticals Analysis 12