Building A Growth Factory

Introducing the Four Components That Make Innovation Repeatable Even the best-performing companies eventually stall. Sustaining momentum—and remaining a great growth company—takes a system. Scott Anthony and David Duncan call this system a “Growth Factory.” They’ve seen it work in a small set of elite companies that have created environments where innovation is both repeatable and reliable, not relegated to an off-site or isolated division that has no real connection to the organization’s future. In this HBR Single, Anthony and Duncan draw on their extensive experience working with these growth factory organizations—most notably Procter & Gamble and Citigroup. They highlight the four main components that make innovation repeatable and reliable, citing real examples of what P&G, Citi, and even their own firm, Innosight, have gone through to stay firmly on a path toward growth despite huge challenges. They offer practical advice on how you can put their system into action in your own company—whether it’s a large multinational or a small start-up. HBR Singles provide brief yet potent business ideas for today’s thinking professional. They are available digitally at HBR.org and through the Kindle Store, the iBookstore, and other ebooksellers.

Game-changing disruptions will likely unfold on your watch. Be ready. In Dual Transformation, Scott Anthony, Clark Gilbert, and Mark Johnson propose a practical and sustainable approach to one of the greatest challenges facing leaders today: transforming your business in the face of imminent disruption. Dual Transformation shows you how your company can come out of a market shift stronger and more profitable, because the threat of disruption is also the greatest opportunity a leadership team will ever face. Disruptive change opens a window of opportunity to create massive new markets. It is the moment when a market also-ran can become a market leader. It is the moment when business legacies are created. That moment starts with the core dual transformation framework: Transformation A: Repositioning today’s business to maximize its resilience, such as how Adobe boldly shifted from selling packaged software to providing software as a service. Transformation B: Creating a new growth engine, such as how Amazon became the world’s largest provider of cloud computing services. Capabilities link: Fighting unfairly by taking advantage of difficult-to-replicate assets without succumbing to the “sucking sound of the core.” Anthony, Gilbert, and Johnson also address the characteristics leaders must embrace: courage, clarity, curiosity, and conviction. Without them, dual transformation efforts can founder. Building on lessons from diverse companies, such as Adobe, Manila Water, and Netflix, and a case study from Gilbert’s firsthand experience transforming his own media and publishing company, Dual Transformation will guide executives through the journey of creating the next version of themselves, allowing them to own the future rather than be disrupted by it.

Offers lessons for overcoming the challenges and navigating the hidden traps associated with moving an idea to market and provides stories and data from companies and people who have successfully managed the process. 15,000 first printing.

The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of innovation and the birthplace of some of the 20th century’s most influential technologies “Filled with colorful characters and inspiring lessons . . . The Idea Factory explores one of the most critical issues of our time: What causes innovation?” —Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review “Compelling . . . Gertner's book offers fascinating evidence for those seeking to understand how a society should best invest its research resources.” —The Wall Street Journal From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it's hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn't been touched by Bell Labs. In The Idea Factory, Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century's most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history. At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.

Innovation may be the hottest discipline around today, in business circles and beyond. And for good reason. Innovation transforms companies and markets. It is the key to solving vexing social problems. And it makes or breaks professional careers. For all the enthusiasm the topic inspires, however, the practice of innovation remains stubbornly impenetrable. No longer. In this book the author draws on stories from his research and field work with companies like Procter & Gamble to demystify innovation. He presents a simple definition of innovation, breaks down the essential differences between types of innovation, and illuminates innovation's vital role in organizational success and personal growth. This unique hybrid of professional memoir and business guidebook also provides a powerful 28-day program for mastering innovation's key steps: (1) Finding insight, (2) Generating ideas, (3) Building businesses, and (4) Strengthening innovation prowess in workforces and organizations. Using several illustrative case studies and vignettes from a range of companies around the globe, this playbook teaches people how to turn themselves or their companies into true innovation powerhouses.

India is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. However, high economic growth is accompanied by social stratification and widening economic disparity between states. This book illustrates some important aspects of underdevelopment and the process by which the underclass is left behind by focusing on the country's most neglected regions.

This textbook discusses supply chain management and provides a comprehensive overview of all the key activities and issues of supply chain and logistics functions as an integrated discipline. Taking a comprehensive approach, it reviews end-to-end supply chain management from procurement to production to warehousing, distribution and customer service. It explores how each interface can be managed with the ultimate objective of providing superior customer experience to ensure satisfaction at the least cost while delivering incremental value in a competitive environment. This volume: Guides on designing effective development and management of the supply chain network, which is an invaluable source of sustainable, competitive advantage in today’s turbulent global marketplace Examines the complexities and challenges of catering to the flexible and fluctuating customer demand, warehousing, channel distribution and transportation, global logistics value chain management, and performance management Discusses short practical cases to explain the decision-making process with respect to manufacturing decisions and inventory for efficient working capital management, both of which are critical for supply chain performance Explores performance management matrix, maturity models and so on This book will be useful to students, researchers and faculty from the fields of business management, supply chain and logistics management, and mechanical and civil engineering. It will also be an invaluable companion to consultants and business executives working in the field of supply chain and logistics.

This book contains papers presented at the sixth International Conference on Application of Artificial Intelligence in Engineering held in Oxford, UK in was held in Southampton, UK July 1991. The first conference in this series the second in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in 1987, the third in 1986, 1989 in Palo Alto, California, USA in 1988, the fourth in Cambridge, UK in and the fifth in Boston, Massachusetts, USA in 1990. The conference series has now established itself as the unique forum for the presentation of the latest research, development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in all fields of engineering. Consequently, books of conference proceedings provide a historical record of the application of AI in engineering design, analysis, simulation, planning, scheduling, monitoring, control, diagnosis, reliability and quality, as well as in robotics and manufacturing systems, from the early beginnings to mature applications of today. Whilst previously the field was dominated by knowledge-based systems, in this latest volume, for the first time, a significant proportion of papers cover the paradigms of neural networks and genetic algorithms. Learning and self organising behaviour of systems based on these paradigms are particularly important in engineering applications. From a large number of submitted proposals over sixty papers have been selected by members of the Advisory Committee who acted as referees. Pa pers have been grouped under the following headings.