Qualities of an Innovator

These days, the “innovation thing” is something of a no-brainer. Indeed, it seems that any company worth its low-salt lunch has identified innovation as a core competency worth developing. Who in their right mind (or is it right brain?) can deny the value of improving things? Isn’t this what human beings — those grand inventors of the microchip and the chocolate chip — are supposed … [ Read more ]

Why Do Intranets Fail?

Despite the plethora of failed intranets, some shining exceptions prove that devoting the appropriate resources and attention to internal websites can really pay off in the form of greater efficiency, knowledge sharing, employee productivity and cost savings. Now that corporate penny-pinching is back in vogue, such benefits are more appealing than ever. Here’s a look at many of the common pitfalls of intranet development. … [ Read more ]

A Meme’s Eye View: How Organisational Cultures Evolve

Organisations can be examined within an evolutionary framework of reproduction, selection, and variation. Professors John Weeks and Charles Galunic propagate a memetic theory of the firm to conclude that organisations are fundamentally cultures that provide a natural balance between the needs of retaining the information set that constitutes the organisation and recombining them to meet new challenges.

Now, Discover Your Strengths

Amazon.com’s Best of 2001
Effectively managing personnel–as well as one’s own behavior–is an extraordinarily complex task that, not surprisingly, has been the subject of countless books touting what each claims is the true path to success. That said, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton’s Now, Discover Your Strengths does indeed propose a unique approach: focusing on enhancing people’s strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Following up … [ Read more ]

Assessing Your Organization’s Innovation Capabilities

This is an excellent article from the author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. It discusses his Resources-Processes-Values (RPV) framework for evaluating an organization’s ability to innovate successfully. The author argues that most organizations focus too heavily on the most flexible variable – the resources whereas the less flexible processes and values have a greater importance on the success of new business initiatives.

Editor’s … [ Read more ]

Global R&D: Reaping the Benefits

When it comes to globalizing R&D operations there is no one “right” model. But companies across a spectrum of industries are realizing significant advantages through global R&D by using a variety of structures, processes, and methods of aligning resources. Here’s how some of those companies are doing it.

Lee Coker

The members of Lee Coker’s team have varying degrees of experience and successes. How can he best manage this mixed group so that each person achieves his or her goals, as well as the milestones of the overall organisation? Professor Jean-Francois Manzoni and Research Fellow Jean-Louis Barsoux illustrate the challenges of operational management in this case study.

Ya-Who? A Modern Ethical Dilemma

Consider the ethical debate of cyber responsibility – who carries the weight in an unaccountable environment? A French court asked the question in 2000, when Nazi memorabilia was being auctioned on Yahoo!’s Internet site. Professor Marc Le Menstrel, Mark Hunter and Professor Henri-Claude de Bettignies delineate the legal, technical, philosophical, and managerial perspectives as they examine how firms handle the sometimes difficult social consequences of … [ Read more ]

Outsourcing – Timing is Everything

Although outsourcing is an extremely valuable business tool, it’s no different from other tools. An understanding of when and why to outsource is crucial.

Fighting the Enemy Within

Recessionary times can be murder on office politics— especially when devious practices and backstabbing are rampant. Resuscitate teamwork and find solutions with this Harvard Management Update article.

Nonverbal Communication

A very interesting introduction to and look at nonverbal communication. Not entirely sure of its applicability in a business sense, but still worth a read in this editor’s humble opinion.

How to Make Meetings Work

Four Classic Motivation Theories

This series of articles describes the four main theories of motivation. These are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Dual-Factor Theory, The Need for Achievement and David McClelland’s work and Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of motivation.

Culture of Collaboration

The biggest challenge of getting employees to work together online isn’t a technological problem–it’s a cultural and organizational one. Here are 10 recommendations for getting employees to adopt collaborative tools and use them in an effective way.

Creative Leadership

Leading creative people in today’s world requires leaders not just to be innovative themselves, but to be receptive and open to surprise.

Abba Eban (Israeli statesman)

Men and nations behave wisely, once they’ve exhausted all other alternatives.