Going Lean

Going Lean PDF Author: Stephen A. RUFFA
Publisher: AMACOM
ISBN: 0814410626
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Efficient operations and powerful innovations are not limited to seasons of growth and high demand. Going Lean introduces the powerful yet unexpected mind-set that’s reshaping the rules for business competitiveness: Lean Dynamics TM. This approach, based on the now-famous Toyota Production System--empowers companies to thrive in virtually any environment--even when sudden shifts occur or they experience unpredictable conditions. Through a detailed exploration of this approach, readers will learn how to: become broadly effective in creating and sustaining value; set a critical foundation for achieving sustained excellence; identify sources of lag and create robust value streams that thrive in today’s dynamic conditions; describe the underlying techniques to maintain steady and predictable flow; create a system based on “pull,” or external demand that consistently introduces new innovation; strive for perfection; and deliver industry-leading returns. Led by a new breed of companies--Toyota, Walmart, and Southwest Airlines--this innovative mind-set changes the game for businesses everywhere. Going Lean teaches readers how their companies--big or small--can leverage this revolutionary thinking to measure and achieve real results.

Going Lean

Going Lean PDF Author: Stephen A. RUFFA
Publisher: AMACOM
ISBN: 0814410626
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Get Book Here

Book Description
Efficient operations and powerful innovations are not limited to seasons of growth and high demand. Going Lean introduces the powerful yet unexpected mind-set that’s reshaping the rules for business competitiveness: Lean Dynamics TM. This approach, based on the now-famous Toyota Production System--empowers companies to thrive in virtually any environment--even when sudden shifts occur or they experience unpredictable conditions. Through a detailed exploration of this approach, readers will learn how to: become broadly effective in creating and sustaining value; set a critical foundation for achieving sustained excellence; identify sources of lag and create robust value streams that thrive in today’s dynamic conditions; describe the underlying techniques to maintain steady and predictable flow; create a system based on “pull,” or external demand that consistently introduces new innovation; strive for perfection; and deliver industry-leading returns. Led by a new breed of companies--Toyota, Walmart, and Southwest Airlines--this innovative mind-set changes the game for businesses everywhere. Going Lean teaches readers how their companies--big or small--can leverage this revolutionary thinking to measure and achieve real results.

The Uncertainty Mindset

The Uncertainty Mindset PDF Author: Vaughn Tan
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231551878
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Innovation is how businesses stay ahead of the competition and adapt to market conditions that change in unpredictable and uncertain ways. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, high-end cuisine underwent a profound transformation. Once an industry that prioritized consistency and reliability, it turned into one where constant change was a competitive necessity. A top restaurant’s reputation and success have become so closely bound up with its ability to innovate that a new organizational form, the culinary research and development team, has emerged. The best of these R&D teams continually expand the frontiers of food—they invent a constant stream of new dishes, new cooking processes and methods, and even new ways of experiencing food. How do they achieve this nonstop novelty? And what can culinary research and development teach us about how organizations innovate? Vaughn Tan opens up the black box of elite culinary R&D to provide essential insights. Drawing on years of unprecedented access to the best and most influential culinary R&D teams in the world, he reveals how they exemplify what he calls the uncertainty mindset. Such a mindset intentionally incorporates uncertainty into organization design rather than simply trying to reduce risk. It changes how organizations hire, set goals, and motivate team members and leads organizations to work in highly unconventional ways. A revelatory look at the R&D kitchen, The Uncertainty Mindset upends conventional wisdom about how to organize for innovation and offers practical insights for businesses trying to become innovative and adaptable.

What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services

What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services PDF Author: Anthony Ulwick
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071501126
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
A world-renowned innovation guru explains practices that result in breakthrough innovations "Ulwick's outcome-driven programs bring discipline and predictability to the often random process of innovation." -Clayton Christensen For years, companies have accepted the underlying principles that define the customer-driven paradigm--that is, using customer "requirements" to guide growth and innovation. But twenty years into this movement, breakthrough innovations are still rare, and most companies find that 50 to 90 percent of their innovation initiatives flop. The cost of these failures to U.S. companies alone is estimated to be well over $100 billion annually. In a book that challenges everything you have learned about being customer driven, internationally acclaimed innovation leader Anthony Ulwick reveals the secret weapon behind some of the most successful companies of recent years. Known as "outcome-driven" innovation, this revolutionary approach to new product and service creation transforms innovation from a nebulous art into a rigorous science from which randomness and uncertainty are eliminated. Based on more than 200 studies spanning more than seventy companies and twenty-five industries, Ulwick contends that, when it comes to innovation, the traditional methods companies use to communicate with customers are the root cause of chronic waste and missed opportunity. In What Customers Want, Ulwick demonstrates that all popular qualitative research methods yield well-intentioned but unfitting and dreadfully misleading information that serves to derail the innovation process. Rather than accepting customer inputs such as "needs," "benefits," "specifications," and "solutions," Ulwick argues that researchers should silence the literal "voice of the customer" and focus on the "metrics that customers use to measure success when executing the jobs, tasks or activities they are trying to get done." Using these customer desired outcomes as inputs into the innovation process eliminates much of the chaos and variability that typically derails innovation initiatives. With the same profound insight, simplicity, and uncommon sense that propelled The Innovator's Solution to worldwide acclaim, this paradigm-changing book details an eight-step approach that uses outcome-driven thinking to dramatically improve every aspect of the innovation process--from segmenting markets and identifying opportunities to creating, evaluating, and positioning breakthrough concepts. Using case studies from Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, AIG, Pfizer, and other leading companies, What Customers Want shows companies how to: Obtain unique customer inputs that make predictable innovation possible Recognize opportunities for disruption, new market creation, and core market growth--well before competitors do Identify which ideas, technologies, and acquisitions have the greatest potential for creating customer value Systematically define breakthrough products and services concepts Innovation is fundamental to success and business growth. Offering a proven alternative to failed customer-driven thinking, this landmark book arms you with the tools to unleash innovation, lower costs, and reduce failure rates--and create the products and services customers really want.

Sustainable Innovation

Sustainable Innovation PDF Author: Andrew Hargadon
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804795029
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
If we can carry in our pockets more computing power than the Apollo program needed to put a man on the moon, why can't we solve problems like climate change, famine, or poverty? The answer lies, in part, in the distinctive challenges of creating innovations that address today's pressing environmental and social problems. In this groundbreaking book, Andrew Hargadon shows why sustainable innovation—the development of financially viable products that support a healthy environment and communities—is so difficult when compared to creating the next internet ventures or mobile apps that disregard these criteria. While other books treat innovation across sectors equally, Hargadon argues that most effective innovation strategies hinge on attention to the context in which they are pursued. Instead of relying on a stale set of "best practices," executives must craft their own strategies based on the particulars of their industries and markets. But, there are some rules of the road that foster a triple bottom line; this book provides a research-based framework that outlines the critical capabilities necessary to drive sustainable innovation: a long-term commitment, nexus work, science and policy expertise, recombinant innovation, and robust design. Sustainable Innovation draws on a wide range of historical and contemporary examples to show business readers and their companies how to stand on the shoulders of successful pioneers.

Uncertainty Advantage

Uncertainty Advantage PDF Author: Gary S. Lynch
Publisher: Archway Publishing
ISBN: 1480839388
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Risk and uncertainty may sound scary, but todays best business leaders are navigating both to gain strategic advantage over competitorsand you can, too. This guide for business leaders examines risk and opportunity through the lens of some of the worlds most respected visionaries, including Howard Schultz, Andy Grove, Peter Huntsman, John Krafcik, Peter Leibinger, Doug Hepper, and many more. These visionaries looked beyond financial performance to see opportunitiesand they did so by understanding uncertainty. Then, they decisively acted to create measurable results that coincided with the future they envisioned. Find out how they did it, and learn how to: identify, define, and convert uncertainty into value; become more opportunistic when facing uncertainty; develop the skill to spot where advantages are likely to emerge; and create an environment where managers and leaders complement each other. Filled with case studies on companies such as Hyundai, Starbucks, Roche, and Intel, this guide delivers proven ways to create value and leverage uncertainty. It is the culmination of a decade of research and interaction with dozens of companies and growth leaders who prove that pursuing a market driven strategy to navigating uncertainty will gain measurable market advantage.

Innovation and Product Management

Innovation and Product Management PDF Author: Kurt Gaubinger
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3642543766
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Marketplace complexity and dynamics create an environment that increases the uncertainty of innovation activities. In this context systematic management of innovation and product management are increasingly important for company success. This book presents the fundamentals of innovation and product management and introduces the reader to a holistic process model with particular focus on innovation and uncertainty. This integrated consideration of innovation management and product innovation within an interdisciplinary approach represents a unique characteristic of this book. The book is designed to address the needs of managers who want a practical but well-researched guide to innovation and product management. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students would also find the chapters in this book particularly useful.

Staying Power

Staying Power PDF Author: Michael A. Cusumano
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191641405
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
As we continue in an era of simultaneous innovation and commoditization, enabled by digital technologies, managers around the world are asking themselves "how can we both adapt to rapid changes in technology and markets, and still make enough money to survive - and thrive?" To provide answers to these important and urgent questions, MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Michael Cusumano draws on nearly 30 years of research into the practices of global corporations that have been acknowledged leaders and benchmark setters - including Apple, Intel, Google, Microsoft, Toyota, Sony, Panasonic, and others in a range of high-technology, services, and manufacturing industries. These companies have also encountered major challenges in their businesses or disruptions to their core technologies. If we look deeply enough, he contends, we can see the ideas that underpin the management practices that make for great companies, and drive their strategic evolution and innovation capabilities. From his deep knowledge of these organizations, Cusumano distils six enduring principles that he believes have been - in various combinations - crucial to their strategy, innovation management practices, and ability to deal with change and uncertainty. The first two principles - platforms (not just products), and services (especially for product firms) - are relatively new and broader ways of thinking about strategy and business models, based on Cusumano's latest research. The other four - capabilities (not just strategy or positioning), the "pull" concept (not just push), economies of scope (not just scale), and flexibility (not just efficiency) - all contribute to agility, which is a mix of flexibility and speed. Many practices associated with these ideas, such as dynamic capabilities, just-in-time production, iterative or prototype-driven product development, flexible design and manufacturing, modular architectures, and component reuse, are now commonly regarded as standard best practices. These six enduring principles are essential in a new world dominated by platforms and technology-enabled services.

Uncertainty

Uncertainty PDF Author: Jonathan Fields
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591845661
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Jonathan Fields knows the risks-and potential power-of uncertainty. He gave up a six-figure income as a lawyer to make $12 an hour as a personal trainer. Then, married with a 3-month old baby, he signed a lease to launch a yoga center in the heart of New York City. . . the day before 9/11. But he survived, and along the way he developed a fresh approach to transforming uncertainty, risk of loss, and exposure to judgment into catalysts for innovation, creation, and achievement. In business, art, and life, creating on a world-class level demands bold action and leaps of faith in the face of great uncertainty. But that uncertainty can lead to fear, anxiety, paralysis, and destruction. It can gut creativity and stifle innovation. It can keep you from taking the risks necessary to do great work and craft a deeply-rewarding life. And it can bring companies that rely on innovation grinding to a halt. That is, unless you know how to use it to your advantage. Fields draws on leading-edge technology, cognitive science, and ancient awareness-focusing techniques in a fresh, practical, nondogmatic way. His approach enables creativity and productivity on an entirely different level and can turn the once-tortuous journey into a more enjoyable quest.

Innovation Tournaments

Innovation Tournaments PDF Author: Christian Terwiesch
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422133389
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Managers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists all seek to maximize the financial returns from innovation, and profits are driven largely by the quality of the opportunities they pursue. Based on a structured and process-driven approach this book demonstrates how to systematically identify exceptional opportunities for innovation. An innovation tournament, just like its counterpart in sports, starts with a large number of candidates, with opportunities as the players. These opportunities are pitted against each other until only the exceptional survive. This book provides a principled approach for the effective management of innovation tournaments - identifying a wealth of promising opportunities and then evaluating and filtering them intelligently for greatest profitability. With a set of practical tools for creating and identifying new opportunities, it guides the reader in evaluating and screening opportunities. The book demonstrates how to construct an innovation portfolio and how to align the innovation process with an organization's competitive strategy. Innovation Tournaments employs quirky, fresh examples ranging from movies to medical devices. The authors' tool kit is built on their extensive research, their entrepreneurial backgrounds, and their teaching and consulting work with many highly innovative organizations.

Introduction to Innovation Policy

Introduction to Innovation Policy PDF Author:
Publisher: Cybellium
ISBN: 1836793219
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Welcome to the forefront of knowledge with Cybellium, your trusted partner in mastering the cutting-edge fields of IT, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Business, Economics and Science. Designed for professionals, students, and enthusiasts alike, our comprehensive books empower you to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital world. * Expert Insights: Our books provide deep, actionable insights that bridge the gap between theory and practical application. * Up-to-Date Content: Stay current with the latest advancements, trends, and best practices in IT, Al, Cybersecurity, Business, Economics and Science. Each guide is regularly updated to reflect the newest developments and challenges. * Comprehensive Coverage: Whether you're a beginner or an advanced learner, Cybellium books cover a wide range of topics, from foundational principles to specialized knowledge, tailored to your level of expertise. Become part of a global network of learners and professionals who trust Cybellium to guide their educational journey. www.cybellium.com