inKNOWvations: June 2007

Jun 25, 2007

One of the most critical — but often overlooked — foundations of Toyota’s competitive advantage is its product development engine: its system for conceiving and designing new cars. Working steadily on this since World War II, Toyota has built an extraordinary capability to manage a large, global product development portfolio and consistently deliver winners.

Jun 23, 2007

For a company that looked doomed a decade ago, it has been quite a comeback. Today, Apple is literally an iconic company. Look at your iPod: the company name appears only in the small print. Some of the power of its brand comes from the extraordinary story of a computer company rescued from near-collapse by its co-founder, Steve Jobs, who returned to Apple in 1997 after years of exile, reinvented it as a consumer-electronics firm and is now taking it into the billion-unit-a-year mobile-phone industry. But mostly Apple's zest comes from its reputation for inventiveness.

Jun 21, 2007

Demonstrating ROI has long been the mantra of any good executive. And yet, the metrics used to track new product development are often compartmentalized, limited to only parts of the development process (e.g., ideation, post-launch) and/or are related to departmental / project team goals, rather than being applicable to the entire enterprise.

Jun 20, 2007

If you haven't yet registered, don't miss this latest workshop from Management Round Table and Dr. Robert Cooper, foremost authority on innovation and product development best practices.