The Shortest Distance Between You And Your New Product

Rapid Learning Cycles will help you find the shortest distance between you and a new product that your customers can buy.

“The most thorough, accurate, user-friendly, well-organized and inspiring guide for writers on the market today. Period.”—Richard Carlson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff This expert guide has put the dream of acquiring a publisher within reach for thousands of writers. Whether your book idea is a completed manuscript or still in the planning stages, The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book offers comprehensive, industry-savvy guidance on the steps to take to sell your book to a major publisher. Literary agents often advise their clients to read this book as their first step. Susan Page is the author of several bestselling self-help books, and a veteran of the publishing industry. Here, she’ll guide you step-by-step through the roadblocks that stall other writers and help you toward a publishing strategy that gets results. You’ll find in-depth information on the early steps to take, writing title ideas, developing winning book proposals, finding an agent, understanding publishing contracts, promoting your book, and more. Throughout the process, Page coaches you through both the emotional and practical obstacles you’re likely to face. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in a career as a published author. “Page, as her subtitle claims, really does tell you what you need to know to get happily published. This self-help author (If I’m So Wonderful, Why Am I Still Single?) knows what she’s talking about, whether she’s advising on how to write a book proposal, find an agent or promote one’s book . . . This is one of the more instructive guides to read before writing your book.”—Publishers Weekly

This book offers new insights into the complex set of activities and decisions of product innovation management. It provides concepts, methods, and tools that can help accelerate the introduction of successful products to the market in an increasingly competitive and changing business landscape. It also offers examples and case studies, and it is the result of more than 20 years of study, research, and consulting carried out by the two authors in the field of innovation management. The book discusses the demanding challenges of product innovation and offers practitioners guidance on how to respond to these challenges. It presents a three-level framework (the “innovation pyramid”), which reflects the core components of a firm’s innovation capability: first, intelligence - absorbing information and knowledge from the outside world by looking beyond the familiar territories of the current market, technology, and customers; second, discovery - exploring opportunities for innovation through creative ideation and technology experimentation; and third, development - transforming opportunities into profitable new products and services.

Lean is an essential way of working in a world that is accelerating and becoming more complex. It revalues the human dimension in the company by encouraging individual thinking and initiative and gives meaning to teams that are more and more challenged by competitiveness and innovation. This book is designed as a travel guide. The first part includes all the traditional sections from the ‘front end’ of a travel guide, including some basic vocabulary, tips, and a historical section about some of the pioneers of Lean in Engineering. The journey begins in the second part, which explains a number of Lean Engineering practices in some detail and the best itineraries to develop better products, discussing the underlying intentions and offering advice for implementation. Numerous concrete cases illustrate this part with case material drawn from the authors’ own experiences. Part Three is a brief guide to where and how to get started. Currently, there are no books on Lean Engineering written by practising engineers who have themselves experienced the adjustment of Lean principles to the business and challenges of new product development. The authors describe tools and practices that have already been widely tested and improved by many engineers with different cultures and skills in the Thales Group and other companies. Lean Engineering as we describe it has thus been able to demonstrate its effectiveness for several years. In addition, the authors describe new unique practices invented within the framework of their activities and which thus do not exist anywhere else (e.g., causal influence diagram (CID), Pull-Scheduling Board).

“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.

What do Ford Motor Company, Steelcase, Scania, Goodyear, Novo Nordisk, and Philips Electronics have in common? They all need to get their best ideas to market as fast as possible. They need to achieve the mastery of innovation. When these companies needed to accelerate time-to-market, get more new products to customers, and improve their ROI from investments in R&D, they turned to Lean Product Development to help them master the process of innovation. By adapting Lean ideas to their specific product development challenges, they learned how to focus innovation on the problems that would maximize customer and business value, and deliver on their best ideas. Winner of a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award! The Mastery of Innovation: A Field Guide to Lean Product Development describes the experiences of 19 companies that have achieved significant results from Lean Product Development. Their stories show that Lean Product Development delivers results: Ford Motor Company completely reinvented its Global Product Development System and put decades of knowledge about automotive design at its engineers’ fingertips DJO Global, a medical device company, more than tripled the number of products they released to the market and cut development time by 60% Playworld Systems cut time-to-market in half–twice The diverse set of North American and European case studies in this book range from very small product development organizations (three engineers) to very large (more than 10,000). Some of the industries represented include automotive, medical devices, industrial products, consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and aerospace. These companies have generously shared their knowledge about Lean Product Development to help you get your best ideas to market faster.

Why is it executives with great pedigree, great work ethic and great products lead teams that often under perform? Why is it some without the advantages of others seem to outperform the competition, get promoted more rapidly with far greater results? The answer is like most answers, it is right in front of your nose, but from an early age we have been socialized to ignore it to ensure acceptance.Once you have read through this articulate and inviting short work, you will be surprised this has not been driven home before...and once you understand this key piece to success both you and your company will be far more impactful and effective.The authors present, in a very down to earth and compelling manner the insights they have from distinctly different perspectives. One is a leading consultant who brings the unusual combination of a traditional MBA with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. The second is an individual who was promoted through the ranks of one of America's best led Multi-national corporations to the role of president and COO.Any aspiring executive and indeed any current executive looking to hone their route to success will find this delightfully written book with its many examples a refreshing, if counter-intuitive look in the mirror. And if you are like most, will say "I knew that, and it gave me a powerful reminder of a basic principle responsible for many of the issues I face in my business and personal life."