High Velocity Innovation

“If you strive for more relevant innovation or want to outpace your competition, this book is for you.” —Roger Johnson, Senior Vice President of Product Design and Engineering, Keurig Dr Pepper When a company can get its best ideas to market faster, its leaders can be confident that their most important strategic decisions will be executed faithfully, and their visions for the company’s future will be realized. They are also able to be agile in response to market changes, pursue new opportunities, and achieve ambitious plans for growth. High Velocity Innovation will show how companies accelerate growth with: The strategic elements that pull innovation from their best people A framework for driving innovation that overcomes roadblocks, cultural barriers, and the pressure to sustain the current business Leadership models and metrics for building high accountability and responsiveness into innovation systems A roadmap for accelerating innovation across your business, no matter where you are now Businesses like yours can establish strategies, systems, processes, and tools that build innovation velocity by addressing the root causes that lead to innovation disappointments. To succeed, your best ideas need solid execution without launch delays, budget overruns, or poor product/market fit. Not every idea will succeed—and not every idea should succeed. But a company’s best ideas can be identified and accelerated with High Velocity Innovation.

Generate Better, Faster Results—Using Less Capital and Fewer Resources! “[The High-Velocity Edge] contains ideas that form the basis for structured continuous learning and improvement in every aspect of our lives. While this book is tailored to business leaders, it should be read by high school seniors, college students, and those already in the workforce. With the broad societal application of these ideas, we can achieve levels of accomplishment not even imagined by most people.” The Honorable Paul H. O’Neill, former CEO and Chairman, Alcoa, and Former Secretary of the Treasury “Some firms outperform competitors in many ways at once—cost, speed, innovation, service. How? Steve Spear opened my eyes to the secret of systemizing innovation: taking it from the occasional, unpredictable ‘stroke of genius’ to something you and your people do month-in, month-out to outdistance rivals.” Scott D. Cook, founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit, Inc. “Steven Spear connects a deep study of systems with practical management insights and does it better than any organizational scholar I know. [This] is a profoundly important book that will challenge and inspire executives in all industries to think more clearly about the technical and social foundations of organizational excellence.” Donald M. Berwick, M.D., M.P.P., President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement About the Book How can some companies perform so well that their industry counterparts are competitors in name only? Although they operate in the same industry, serve the same market, and even use the same suppliers, these extraordinary, high-velocity organizations consistently outperform all the competition—and, more importantly, continually widen their leads. In The High-Velocity Edge, the reissued edition of five-time Shingo Prize winner Steven J. Spear’s critically acclaimed book Chasing the Rabbit, Spear describes what sets market-dominating companies apart and provides a detailed framework you can leverage to surge to the lead in your own industry. Spear examines the internal operations of dominant organizations across a wide spectrum of industries, from technology to design and from manufacturing to health care. While he investigates several great operational triumphs, like top-tier teaching hospitals’ fantastic improvements in quality of care, Pratt & Whitney’s competitive gains in jet engine design, and the U.S. Navy’s breakthroughs in inventing and applying nuclear propulsion, The High-Velocity Edge is not just about the adoration of success. It also takes a critical look at some of the operational missteps that have humbled even the most reputable and respected of companies and organizations. The decades-long prominence of Toyota, for example, is contrasted with the many factors leading to the automaker’s sweeping 2010 product recalls. Taken together, these multiple perspectives and in-depth case studies show how to: Build a system of “dynamic discovery” designed to reveal operational problems and weaknesses as they arise Attack and solve problems when and where they occur, converting weaknesses into strengths Disseminate knowledge gained from solving local problems throughout the company as a whole Create managers invested in developing everyone’s capacity to continually innovate and improve Whatever kind of company you operate—from technology to fi nance to healthcare—mastery of these four key capabilities will put you on the fast track to operational excellence, where you will generate faster, better results—using less capital and fewer resources. Apply the lessons of Steven J. Spear and gain a high-velocity edge over every competitor in your industry.

The high velocity global economy of today drives rapid consumer, business, industrial and marketplace change. The fast paced world around us is relentless and unforgiving. It drives increased customer and business partner expectations, requires faster innovation, and necessitates a faster more complex response to rapidly changing circumstances. That's why you need to learn how to innovate when faster is the new fast - by getting into a mindset where you're prepared to figure out a solution to a problem, almost before you know you have a problem.

From knowledge to wisdom -- The foundations of knowledge practice -- Towards a model of knowledge creation and practice -- Judging goodness -- Grasping the essence -- Creating Ba -- Communicating the essence -- Exercising "political" power -- Fostering practical wisdom in others -- Epilogue

Innovation, in economic activity, in managerial concepts and in engineering design, results from creative activities, entrepreneurial strategies and the business climate. Innovation leads to technological, organizational and commercial changes, due to the relationships between enterprises, public institutions and civil society organizations. These innovation networks create new knowledge and contribute to the dissemination of new socio-economic and technological models, through new production and marketing methods. Innovation Economics, Engineering and Management Handbook 1 is the first of the two volumes that comprise this book. The main objectives across both volumes are to study the innovation processes in todays information and knowledge society; to analyze how links between research and business have intensified; and to discuss the methods by which innovation emerges and is managed by firms, not only from a local perspective but also a global one. The studies presented in these two volumes contribute toward an understanding of the systemic nature of innovations and enable reflection on their potential applications, in order to think about the meaning of growth and prosperity.

"Diane Stegmeier's landmark findings on workplace behavior in the corporate setting will prove vital in determining workplace strategy over the next ten years." —Prentice Knight, CEO of CoreNet Global "The author takes a truly comprehensive approach to understanding the business barriers to the successful implementation of physical space design. The Critical Influence methodology identifies areas of resistance to change and addresses them, enabling the architectural and design firm to do what they do best—create the appropriate workplace solution." —from the Foreword by Greg Bendis "One of the most difficult aspects of facility management is the inability to link environmental improvements with measurable productivity results. Stegmeier’s observations in this area are based on hard facts and real research, not just abstract theories. Her work is an essential tool for any professional looking to justify facility improvements that can actually support and advance the mission of the organization." —Heidi Schwartz, Editor-in-Chief of Today's Facility Manager Magazine This definitive book on innovations in interior office design offers vital lessons on preventing workplace strategy failure for architects, interior designers, facility managers, and business leaders. It fully explains the author's research on the fifteen Critical Influences on behavior in the workplace, and introduces a practical approach to integrate an organization’s cultural, operational, and environmental elements fostering the desired behaviors to support the company’s business goals when designing an office. The book includes case studies of good design in contemporary interior offices illustrating collaborative workplaces that work.

The proceedings of this conclave include invited talks from nearly a dozen persons of eminence from across the country including the Industry, academia and the Government organisations. This Conclave Brought together all the stake-holders, viz., Industry, Academic, Innovators, Entrepreneurs, R&D organisations, and Policy makers to synergistically discuss, share, display and learn about the cutting edge innovations and technologies that can help enhancing the productivity, improve quality of production, enhance self-reliance and act as a catalyst to the economic growth of the country.

Is it time to innovate on a project level? Are you facing a project problem that your current practices and technology cannot solve? Are the time horizons of your projects getting shorter but the means to accomplish it have not changed? If you answered yes to either question, then you need to innovate on the project level. Why? Your company wants to be more competitive and will reduce the timelines of projects to fit more within the fiscal year. Your customers need to have more flexible solutions from the companies they do business with. Or, your industry is moving in a direction that your company is not heading in. These situations require the project leader to become adept at managing grass roots innovation on their projects. Books and blogs abound on the corporate innovator and how your company can have the next hot thing. But there is very little in the way of writing regarding bottom up innovation, and there is very little material out there for the project leader to navigate this path of innovation. This book takes the conversation to a new level, to one where the largest impact of innovation is felt; at the project level. We will discuss innovation through the eyes of the project leader and the project team since this book was written for project leaders by a project leader!