Koichi Shimizu talks about Toyota and it's use of kaizen in order to increase it's efficiency. Looking at it's processes, Toyota observed and used different kaizen techniques in order to increase production speed and to manage production efficiency. Looking at three different types of kaizen Toyota is able to maximize their efficiency and quality of their products.
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by in Harvard Business Review on December 01, 2007
Kevin P. Coyne, Patricia Gorman Clifford, and Renée Dye convey different ways to come up with ideas in the business setting. Instead of going into an ideation session and asking your team to think outside the box or breaking apart the current box to create new ideas, a good way to encourage new and useful ideas from your team include making a new box. Using some additional tools, along with creating a new box, allows a company to create many new and useful ideas.
by in Forbes Magazine on November 12, 2007
Stephen Wunker and George Pohle talk about the innovation process and the four different archetypes a company can fall under. Each archetype involves a successful innovation environment including CEO involvement, staff support and different innovation processes. In all four archetypes there are big name companies that have defined themselves as successful innovators.
by in Harvard Business Review on June 01, 2010
In this article Freek Vermeulen, Phanish Puranam and Ranjay Gulati talk about the downfalls of a business with little to no change. By comparing an unchanging business to high cholesterol three major non-changing areas were discussed and ways to execute change were exhibited. These areas include silos, repeated changes and over powering groups in a business. Using different change techniques in a company and keeping departments a little uncomfortable keeps resources going to the areas that need it and productivity at high levels. A business that is comfortable and unchanging is one that is not obtaining it's full potential.
by in TED on July 01, 2005
In this video Charles Leadbeather talks about innovation directed toward specific communities. When this technique is applied the consumers of the products turn into producers that help further the innovation in the community basically building the idea that was introduced. As we build innovation today many of the most successful ideas are not coming from the corporations, instead they are coming directly from the consumers and then adopted by the corporations.
by in Wired Magazine on October 19, 2009
Clive Thompson talks about mental wondering and the possibilities of it being a good thing. Over the last couple of years the wondering mind has been though of as unproductive, but recent research has shown otherwise. Some experts are saying the mind wandering is not just a good task but and necessary one. When the mind wanders it's actually performing important tasks in both the temporal lobes and prefrontal cortex.
by in The McKinsey Quarterly on February 01, 2007
Lenny T. Mendonca and Kevin D. Sneader interviews Bill Campbell on the topic of innovation. A big part of being an innovative company is having the right environment for your innovation team. Bill Campbell talks about the many strategies he has used in order to obtain that innovative environment.
by in The McKinsey Quarterly on November 02, 2006
In this article Scott C. Beardsley, Bradford C. Johnson and James M. Manyika talk about the positive effects of, and how to properly manage tacit interactions in a company. In the current business market, tacit interactions are increasingly important because they create competitive advantage if supported with the right management techniques. Unlike production lines and other processes where variables are indications that the process is improvable, tacit interactions constantly change making the process a challenge to deal with. Training somebody takes experience and apprenticeship, but the training is worth it because the resulting competitive advantage is increasingly hard to match.
by in Harvard Business Review on March 01, 2006
Larry Huston and Navil Saddab explain the method behind connect and develop. The general idea behind it is to use an external R&D sources to find solutions to your innovation problems. Instead of solely relying on your internal R&D department, external sources can be used providing a reduction in cost while increasing productivity.
by in The McKinsey Quarterly on May 16, 2006
John Seely Brown and John Hagel Ill give details on the concept of creation nets and open innovation. Innovation is commonly accepted in the current business world as a growth strategy, but many companies are weary about introducing open innovation due to the amount of uncertainty involved. This article discusses creation nets as a strategy to bring structure into open innovation allowing businesses to introduce this innovation strategy into their company with confidence.
