Ashridge “Fit” Matrix
Creating a Successful Shared-Services Organization
Over the last several years, many businesses have adopted the concept of shared services as a means of controlling costs while improving the quality of internal services. The basic idea is to put the provision of these services on a more business-like “customer-supplier” basis, in which the using organization contracts with the shared-services organization for a given level of service at a competitive (market) price. … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: David J. Barker, Nigel Godley, Robert M. Curtice | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Management, Strategy
Strategic Alliances: Finding the Hidden Leverage for Success
This article takes a “big picture” look at how alliances work, discusess three principle hurdles cross-organizational relationships must overcome, and offers seven principles critical to alliance success.
Content: Article | Authors: Jennifer M. Kemeny, Joel Yanowitz | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy
Reinventing Customer Management – Lessons from the Best of the Best
At the invitation of Arthur D. Little, executives representing the “Best-of-the-Best” companies in customer management met to discuss their vision of the future customer-driven company, as well as the challenges that lie in the path toward that ideal.
While most companies recognize the need for a stronger external orientation, few have been able to realize it in practice. They know the value of customer loyalty. They … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Marc D. Rubin | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Customer Related, Management
Remediation Management: Improving Performance and Getting Results
Remediation programs have historically given companies little satisfaction while costing them millions. Leading companies today, however, are finding ways to gain increased control over their remediation programs and greater value from their expenditures. These programs go beyond the largely reactive approaches of the past to build longterm company value by emphasizing a business focus and strategic action. They achieve consensus for realistic solutions through better … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: David E. Langseth, Robert N. Lambe | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)
Practical Knowledge Management: A Model That Works
The building blocks of knowledge management represent activities that are directly knowledge-related. Their arrangement in the model follows certain principles. An inner cycle consists of the building blocks of identification, acquisition, development, distribution, preservation, and use of knowledge. An outer cycle consists of all these activities plus goal-setting and measurement. This feedback cycle clarifies the importance of measuring the measurable variables in order to focus … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Gilbert J. B. Probst | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Knowledge Management
Innovation Management: Traditional
Innovation Management: Contemporary
Organizing on the Edge: Meeting the Demand for Innovation and Efficiency (.pdf)
The redesign of organizations to become more capable of change and innovation while improving operating efficiencies has become an urgent priority for leaders of companies all over the world. So, where do we turn for help? As we have searched the business world for examples of a new form of organization suited to the rapidly emerging, new context, we have realized what should have been … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Arun N. Maira, Robert J. Thomas | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Organizational Behavior
Preparing for Strategy in Times of Change (.pdf)
Arthur D. Little has developed a new strategy development approach called “Wishes, Weapons, War Zones” (WWW). WWW is an easy-to-use navigational tool that helps companies prepare for strategy formation by guiding the search for insight and facilitating effective dialogue among the many parties whose input is necessary for successful strategy. The WWW process can yield a snapshot of the reality of a given situation, providing … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Annie Galliano, Kathie Neal | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Strategy
Toward Sustainable Innovation: A Progress Report
As part of our ongoing research, Arthur D. Little has explored many of the key barriers, enablers, and drivers for innovation management in a wide variety of companies and industries. The firm has also examined many of the key dimensions of the next-generation enterprise, from cross-functional teams and global networks to external sourcing and partnering.
The key findings can be clustered around six critical pathways … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Arun N. Maira, Ron Jonash, Tom Sommerlatte | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Innovation
A Strategy for Supporting Innovation and Growth in Times of High Uncertainty (.pdf)
Creating strategy today requires a new toolkit. This article discusses the development of the Ambition-Driven Strategy approach, which supports innovation and growth – and a few thoughts on why traditional strategic planning isn’t working very well.
Content: Article | Authors: Friedrich Bock, Hubertus M. Mühlhäuser, Marc-Milo Lube, Martin Hellweg | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Strategy
Connecting Across Boundaries: The Fluid-Network Organization
The principal strategic challenge for global companies is the reconciliation of seemingly conflicting goals: thinking long-term while delivering short-term results, developing global scale while being locally responsive, and investing in innovation while increasing operational efficiency. In each aspect of this challenge there is a tension between two necessary but apparently opposing goals, which needs resolution.
The solution to both kinds of tension is to convert … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Arun N. Maira | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Organizational Behavior
Creating Change Through Strategic Storytelling
The use of strategic storytelling as an agent for change in business organizations is quite new . But its impact is increasingly clear.
Storytelling’s success in helping effect change comes from its ability to open lines of communication and enhance understanding of systemic integration, while actively involving the personal dimension, which is a crucial element in motivating people. Storytelling can be a powerful clarifier: of … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Arm N. Maira, Michael Shanahan | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Consulting / Analytical Tools
The Four Stages of Dialogue Marketing
Product-driven vs. customer-driven organizational structures
The Role of Metrics in Sustainable Development: A Progress Report
Companies that have embarked on sustainable development initiatives recognize that measuring progress is critical to success. Companies are exploring not only why and how to reach sustainable development goals, but also how to calibrate how well they are doing. The challenge is that, for many facets of sustainable development, there is no agreed-upon context or consensus for measurement. When a company sets its sights on … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Eric Turner, Jonathan Shopley, Virginia Morris | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)
Sustainable Innovation and Change: The Learning-Based Path to Growth
For companies that want to make sustainable development a reality, building organizational learning capabilities can be invaluable. Organizational learning has proven very effective in bringing about lasting change and fundamental innovation. In fact, every company interested in capturing growth through innovation and change has needed to develop critical organizational learning capabilities to meet its goals.
When these approaches take hold in an arena such as sustainable … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Bryan Smith, Joel Yanowitz | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Social Responsibility (ESG)
Sustainable Development: The Next Generation of Business Opportunity
Industry is showing unprecedented interest in the business potential of sustainable development, an approach to developing long-term prosperity by integrating strategies for economic success, environmental quality, and social equity. In a recent Arthur D. Little survey on business and sustainable development/ for example, 95 percent of companies responding viewed sustainable development as genuinely important, and 83 percent saw business value in implementing sustainable initiatives. At … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Gilbert Hedstrom, Peter Stroh, Stephen Poltorzycki | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)
Innovation Metrics: A Framework to Accelerate Growth (.pdf)
In the past, competitive advantage rested on factors such as quality, productivity, access to low-cost resources, and customer service. Today, these factors have become threshold competencies-keenly important, but unlikely by themselves to provide sustainable competitive advantage. Yet many organizations still gauge overall performance by measuring these threshold factors.
Organizations that continue to rely on such traditional measures are locked into the old-and dangerous-paradigm that past success … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Darren Smith, John Collins | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subject: Innovation