Low-Cost versus Innovation - Contrasting Outsourcing and Integration Strategies in Manufacturing is a great breakdown on two outsourcing strategies; low-cost-oriented outsourcing and innovation-oriented outsourcing. Pro’s and cons are discussed and empirical evidence evaluated at a number of firms. An excellent breakdown!
Communication between R&D and company leadership can be difficult as they speak almost different languages but there are ways to mitigate and smooth the waves to focus on ROI creation. The Politics of Creativity - Four Domains for Inquiry and Action by Leaders in R&D identifies 4 key domains that will lead to a more efficient dialogue between the roles and promote productivity.
For studies in sustainability, Consumer Product Attachment - Measurement and Design Implications cannot be a better primer. Detailing the issue of what shapes long term attachments between consumers and durable goods. Identifying and evaluating seven factors, the author concluded that enjoyment was most important in short term ownership of objects and memories was most recognized factor in longtime ownership. In a disposable product society, it is intriguing to read an article encouraging long-term ownership.
An excellent study on Cross-Functional Cooperation with Design Teams in New Product Development we can see empirically that there are 11 critical factors for success in new product development process empathizing the positive relationship of these factors with cross-functional teamwork for an excellent model on how to make it all work together.
Innovation diffusion is about the adoption of technology and the distribution of usable artifacts. It is successful when it has an international reach and global impact. Nevertheless, these innovations can be used for positive or negative ways as innovation diffusion is really a diffusion of choice. But is also this unpredictable influence that these innovations have which gives the greatest influence on contemporary culture around the world - only for the risk takers.
The Rendered Image – Designers Necessity details how today we are starting to supplant photography and photography is mimicking renderings with super cleaned and stylized images used for advertising and promotional use. The trend towards ‘hyper real’ has created images that are more like illustrations that reflective of the actual object.
Radical innovation has become an important element in new product development and the management of innovation teams is increasingly important in order to maximize performance. How is it done? Creating, Growing and Sustaining Efficient Innovation Teams describes various structures for innovation teams and the results that each achieve further examining a profile study in order to illustrate the empirical evidence. Excellent.
It’s not easy to use an equation model to evaluate the validity of creative potential versus practiced creativity, but Creative Potential and Practised Creativity - Identifying Untapped Creativity in Organizations shows you exactly how this can be done inside your organization by quantifying several necessary practices and provides a managerial guide to tapping this resources within a company.
Who is Charles Simonyi? Possibly one of the worlds greatest programmers and a disenchanted soul for contemporary software programming who discusses his breakthrough: intentional software and the MIT article detailing all the specifications. A fascinating read for any programmer, NPD expert or designer.
Legos are a design icon and still hold dominance in the toy market. Part of this is due to its precision in design (form and materials used) but also due to the enduring appeal of the possibilities it offers for ‘play’. But how did this all come about? Lego the icon explains this revolution.
How do we identify and codify specific design direction? How to Rate 100 Visual Stimuli Efficiently explores perceptual mapping by assessing two different approaches to sorting computer-based rating data. Using the hierarchical method and the divide-and-conquer method to evaluate consumer’s perceptions we see how there are strengths to both approaches including speed of processing the information versus interpretation of information gathered. Not to mention ROI based on outcomes.
How are innovations in design lead by clusters of associated companies that are unified through their close geographical proximity to one another valued? By pulling collectively on local resources and knowledge base, these companies work together and are able to compete on a regional and global stage. Design Thinking and the Experience of Innovation details the mechanism to make that work for your firm and industry.