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The Risky Business of Diversification
Innovation Magazine ArticleOn the basis of a sample from the top 200 of the Fortune “500” and data from the PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategies) project, this author gives some guidelines for established companies on what to expect from new ventures. He points out that it takes an average of 10 to 12 years before the […] -
Approach Your Data with a Product Mindset
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Digital ArticleKeep end users top of mind. -
Look to Consumers to Increase Productivity
Personal productivity Magazine ArticleWhen productivity is a problem in manufacturing, managers turn to the R&D department or operations for help. In services, however, especially ones where there is a lot of contact with the customer, such in-house groups cannot by themselves improve productivity. Because services involve the customer in production, are labor intensive, and are time-bound, consumer behavior […] -
Why Innovation Labs Fail, and How to Ensure Yours Doesn’t
Incubators Digital ArticleSetting up a research hub is easy. Setting it up to succeed is harder. -
Why Crowdsourcing Often Leads to Bad Ideas
Technology & Operations ResearchAnd what to do about it. -
It’s Time to Stop Treating R&D as a Discretionary Expenditure
Innovation Digital ArticleFor digital companies, it’s an essential part of operations. -
When Presenting Your Data, Get to the Point Fast
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleFocus on the meaning behind the numbers. -
The Knowledge-Creating Company
Innovation Magazine ArticleEditor’s Note: This 1991 article helped popularize the notion of “tacit” knowledge—the valuable and highly subjective insights and intuitions that are difficult to capture and share because people carry them in their heads. Years later, the piece can still startle a reader with its views of organizations and of the types of knowledge that inform […] -
Will Tim Cook Ever Escape Steve Jobs's Shadow?
Innovation & Leadership Digital ArticleYesterday's extravaganza is a cause for concern. -
4 Elements of a Successful Brand Refresh
Organizational Development Digital ArticleFocus on products, narrative, pop culture, and customer needs. -
Designing Breakthrough Products
Innovation Magazine ArticleHow companies can systematically create innovations that customers don’t even know they want -
Teaching Hospitals Are the Best Place to Test Health Innovation
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Digital ArticleNew technologies get tested in the real world. -
The Power of Product Integrity
Product development Magazine ArticleSome companies consistently develop products that succeed with customers. Other companies often fall short. What differentiates them is integrity. Every product reflects the organization and the development process that created it. Companies that consistently develop successful products—products with integrity—are themselves coherent and integrated. Moreover, this coherence is distinguishable not just at the level of structure […] -
Marketing Performance—What Do You Expect?
Project management Magazine ArticleA good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I Special Report When trying to assess performance, there is no business function top executives worry about more than marketing. Most of them look at the marketers in their companies as something between vacuum-cleaner salespeople […] -
American Idol, Open Source, and the Million-Dollar Idea Inside You
Managing yourself Digital ArticleMaybe it’s the ongoing popularity of American Idol. Or perhaps it’s the tale of Paul Potts, who went from mobile-phone salesman to global celebrity with his victory on Britain’s Got Talent. Whatever the reason, more and more people believe that they too possess some “hidden genius” — a flair for design, a knack for writing, […] -
Design Secrets of the iPhone and BlackBerry
Product development Digital ArticleWhy is it that we can get into a rental car and know what 43 out of the 45 buttons do, but we can’t figure out how to use call forwarding on the 12-button phone that has been sitting on our desk for 10 years? This wonderful question was raised many years ago by Donald […] -
Can Building Great Products Help You Build Great Teams?
Innovation Digital ArticleSeven guidelines for people management from the product design world. -
How to Engage Physicians in Innovative Health Care Efforts
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Digital ArticleThe American Medical Association has identified some best practices. -
Organizing for High-Tech Marketing
IT management Magazine ArticleFor many established companies, becoming more effective marketers is a matter of fine tuning—increasing expenditures on promotion and advertising or reorganizing the sales force. For high-technology companies, becoming effective marketers is often a matter of starting from scratch. Such companies typically derive their initial strength from the innovations provided by the research and development function. […] -
Don’t Cut Your Marketing Budget in a Recession
Customer experience Digital ArticleResearch shows that when firms reallocate it, they have more success.
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Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details The launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was enthusiastically received by millennial consumers, a cohort that had previously eluded JPMorgan... -
Idea Generation and Selection: The Alternative Use Exercise, Handout
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Handout supplement for case UV7313. -
Sony Computer Science Laboratories: Sustaining a Culture and Organization for Fundamental Research
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details In late 2019, Dr. Hiroaki Kitano, the president and director of research at Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Sony CSL), had decided he would be stepping... -
The Service Activity Sequence, SAS
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details The SAS describes the activities to transform an idea to a service delivery reality that is in constant change. It acknowledges a service as an unfinished... -
Clocky: The Runaway Alarm Clock
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details Gauri Nanda is the creator of an innovative new product: an alarm clock named Clocky that, in addition to ringing, rolls around the room in order to force... -
The Business Model of a University Research Lab
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details This case study teaches students how to think through the management of open innovation in the context of a different setting such as a university research... -
Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (A)
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details Alessio Alessi, head of distribution at family-run Alessi S.p.A., is facing price and brand confusion among customers and is considering reorganizing... -
Herman Miller (A): Innovation by Design
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Gary Van Spronsen, president of Miller SQA, has been asked to leave the thriving subsidiary he helped to reinvent to join Herman Miller's corporate initiative... -
Lady Gaga (B)
Sales & Marketing Case Study5.00View Details In March 2011, Troy Carter, manager of pop star Lady Gaga, reflects on decisions made regarding his artist's concert tour and faces a new set of challenges... -
Designing Channels of Distribution
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details This note addresses the issues that arise and the complexities that must be addressed when designing a channel of distribution. Content includes the definition... -
Polaroid-Kodak
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details Describes Kodak's long-awaited challenge to Polaroid in the field of instant photography. Provides technological and company background of both Polaroid... -
Changing Corporate Identity: The Case of a Regional Hospital
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details Facing competitive pressure from local health care suppliers and a shift in patient demand, the hospital's executive management team develops a strategic... -
Oscar Mayer: Strategic Marketing Planning
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details The marketing director of Oscar Mayer faces a series of strategic marketing options regarding established and new products, including budget and capacity... -
Innovation at 3M Corp. (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Describes how 3M Corp. introduces and learns a new and innovative methodology called Lead User research to understand future customer and market needs.... -
Keurig at Home
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details In February 2003, President and CEO Nick Lazaris faces critical decisions on Keurig's launch of a new consumer coffee brewing system. Keurig has successfully... -
The Langer Lab: Commercializing Science
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Professor Robert Langer's laboratory at MIT is the source of an unusually large number of published papers, patents, and technology licenses to start-up... -
Idea Generation and Selection: Word Charades, Handout
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Handout supplement for case UV7313. -
Safecast: Bootstrapping Human Capital to Big Data
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details On March 11, 2011, at 2:46pm, a 9.1-on-the-Richter-scale, six-minute long earthquake unleashed a tsunami that ravaged the Tohoku region of Japan, damaging... -
William Levitt, Levittown and the Creation of American Suburbia
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details Demand for low-cost housing after World War II far exceeded supply. Was this a profitable new market? New York developer William Levitt had to decide.... -
BP's Office of the Chief Technology Officer (B): Driving Open Innovation through an Advocate Team
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Supplement case for KEL366.
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Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details The launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was enthusiastically received by millennial consumers, a cohort that had previously eluded JPMorgan... -
The Risky Business of Diversification
Innovation Magazine ArticleOn the basis of a sample from the top 200 of the Fortune “500” and data from the PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategies) project, this author gives some guidelines for established companies on what to expect from new ventures. He points out that it takes an average of 10 to 12 years before the […] -
Approach Your Data with a Product Mindset
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Digital ArticleKeep end users top of mind. -
Idea Generation and Selection: The Alternative Use Exercise, Handout
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Handout supplement for case UV7313. -
Sony Computer Science Laboratories: Sustaining a Culture and Organization for Fundamental Research
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details In late 2019, Dr. Hiroaki Kitano, the president and director of research at Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Sony CSL), had decided he would be stepping... -
The Service Activity Sequence, SAS
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details The SAS describes the activities to transform an idea to a service delivery reality that is in constant change. It acknowledges a service as an unfinished... -
Look to Consumers to Increase Productivity
Personal productivity Magazine ArticleWhen productivity is a problem in manufacturing, managers turn to the R&D department or operations for help. In services, however, especially ones where there is a lot of contact with the customer, such in-house groups cannot by themselves improve productivity. Because services involve the customer in production, are labor intensive, and are time-bound, consumer behavior […] -
Why Innovation Labs Fail, and How to Ensure Yours Doesn’t
Incubators Digital ArticleSetting up a research hub is easy. Setting it up to succeed is harder. -
Why Crowdsourcing Often Leads to Bad Ideas
Technology & Operations ResearchAnd what to do about it. -
It’s Time to Stop Treating R&D as a Discretionary Expenditure
Innovation Digital ArticleFor digital companies, it’s an essential part of operations.