Given the interest in an earlier post on engineering outsourcing its timely to think about the steps of engineering outsourcing and keep in mind that what goes out must come back! Here are the most basic steps of the engineering outsourcing process: Core competence: As discussed in several articles innovation and intellectual property is bestContinue reading “Steps in Engineering Outsourcing : What goes out – must come back”
Category Archives: Knowledge Work
New Service Development involves experimentation
New Service Development involves experimentation unlike the development stage approach of new product development. Recently a financial services industry executive mentioned that there was no real need for them to develop a prototype, do a product use test and then go into large scale manufacturing followed by market testing and product launch. Here was theContinue reading “New Service Development involves experimentation”
Innovation: Product Innovation Charter (PIC) helps prevent scope creep in technology and market
A Product Innovation Charter (PIC) can help prevent scope creep for both the technology and market dimensions. The PIC is supposed to have guidance from top management to the innovation team about the market focus and the technology focus that the multi-disciplinary team should try to maintain. Here is how both these focus points are derived:
Why is execution so difficult and strategy so easy?
Why is execution so difficult and strategy formulation so easy? This is one of those perennial management and leadership questions. A question that legendary managers like Jack Welch emphasizes and thought leaders like Ram Charan have been writing about. Somehow execution is equated with “tactics” and numerous budding managers and leaders are constantly told about being more strategic- as if great strategy alone will get things done. Here are some thoughts on bridging the strategy to execution challenge:
Understanding the Supply Chain in the knowledge age of search and social media
Thinking of the supply chain in a manufacturing setting is easy but understanding the supply chain in the knowledge economy of search and social media is more difficult. For example, if you make cars, you need to either make or buy its components. The sourcing of tires by an auto manufacturer is the classic B2BContinue reading “Understanding the Supply Chain in the knowledge age of search and social media”
Innovation in tracking marketing results: GM dares to withdraw Facebook and Superbowl advertising
GM marketing folks seem to be innovatively tracking marketing results- and doing so really well. You would recall that on the eve of the Facebook IPO the marketing folks at GM committed at least a minor transgression by declaring that advertising on Facebook was not working for them and they were going to stop advertisingContinue reading “Innovation in tracking marketing results: GM dares to withdraw Facebook and Superbowl advertising”
A stitch in time: pick innovation winner ideas at the early stages
Picking innovation winners early in the stages of the innovation process is like a stitch-in-time. In an earlier post we had talked about how top leaders are involved less in the early parts of the innovation process viz. idea generation, concept development and testing. They seem to realize only in the development,manufacturing and launch phasesContinue reading “A stitch in time: pick innovation winner ideas at the early stages”
Connecting passion : the Google Knowledge Graph Innovation
If you are passionate about a topic, cause or effort and your organization puts out some digital content on the web Google Knowledge Graph is an innovation that is about to connect you to people interested in what you have to offer. As pointed out in an earlier post, Google is interested in serving theContinue reading “Connecting passion : the Google Knowledge Graph Innovation”
Google Rankings: more about being true to the searcher than popularity
This blog has closed comments for some time being deluged by spammers whose primary purpose is to try and get their link to appear in the comments section. This is the infamous part of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry that is able to post comments from IP addresses originating in interesting places like RussiaContinue reading “Google Rankings: more about being true to the searcher than popularity”
Innovation : top management need to get involved in the first three stages
It’s sort of amazing when top management in a variety of industries from high tech aerospace to comparatively low tech outer packaging seem to be disengaged and “hands off” in the first three stages of of innovation (see previous post on the 5 stages). Top leaders start taking interest when the product is in serious development(Stage 4) and many top managers become alert and awake as the product is getting launched(Stage 5). At this time things are too far ahead to change except at high cost. These include airfreight when sea freight might have worked on the supply chain side, customer apathy in the market because concept testing was not done well and there was no time to do product and market testing because top management was so un-involved that the budgets were not approved when the New Product team had put them up.