Innovative products and services are winners and innovation remains among the highest strategic priorities across industry. However, executives are increasingly dissatisfied with their companies’ performance around innovation and the rate of investment in innovation seems to be slowing. These are the paradoxical results from Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) latest study of innovation, released in August 2008 (“Innovation 2008: Is the Tide Turning”). The BCG research reveals that the percentage of respondents who say that they are satisfied with their firm’s return on innovation spending has decreased steadily, from 52 percent in 2006, to 46 percent in 2007, to 43 percent in 2008. At the same time, a considerable percentage (43%) of respondents claim that innovation is among their company’s three highest strategic priorities, while nearly one-quarter (23%) report that innovation is their firm’s single, most important strategic priority.

In an August 2008 audio conference, software development expert Mary Poppendieck explained the hallmarks of lean software development and discussed how lean concepts derived from hardware projects might translate to the software domain. Author of the book Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit, Poppendieck’s work applies Toyota Production System (TPS) methods to software development and project management. Her work applying TPS beyond the shop floor has influenced the adaptation of lean tools to diverse development environments. In this audio session, she explained why and how software development must manage change and complexity, examined how concepts from lean hardware development might apply to software, and discussed issues related to the broader context in which software programs are embedded.

What is the difference between teams that perform very well and teams that don't? To answer this straightforward question, MIT’s Deborah Ancona and her colleagues have been studying teams for a quarter of a century – hardware teams, software teams, consulting teams, top management teams, manufacturing teams, sales teams – a host of teams in different organizations.  Ancona’s research shows that by focusing only on their own internal processes and characteristics, teams are fighting only half the battle.  Such internal factors as clear roles and responsibilities, crisply defined goals, the right membership, and effective leadership, are vital, but these qualities alone do not predict success. Why? “Because these teams can build a barrier,” responds Ancona, “a wall between themselves and the external environment.”  The alternative is what Ancona calls X-Teams – teams that are externally active.  X-Teams create a broad network of connections that enable them to keep pace with shifts in the marketplace, to place their fingers on the pulse of technologies, and to better understand their competitors.

Dr. Ike Nassi is an Executive Vice President at SAP, one of the largest software companies in the world. He is responsible for Research in the Americas and China. Dr. Nassi and his group explore advanced, new enterprise technologies and applications for use in the emerging multinational corporate environment of the 21st century. In 2007, Nassi addressed a Management Roundtable (MRT) conference on the topic of building a research organization in China. In a July 2008 e-mail exchange, Nassi updated MRT briefly on the progress over the past year.

Sekar Sundararajan is Senior VP for Business Development at Home Meridian International a developer of furniture for a number of markets. Sundararajan has spent more than 100 days in China over the last several years developing reciprocal, long-term collaborations. Reporting to the CEO, he is responsible for such functions as supply chain management, quality management, and new product development systems. As the furniture industry has moved its manufacturing offshore, Sundararajan and his colleagues have gained valuable experience regarding what it takes to succeed in China. This piece describes how Home Meridian fostered long-term relationships and also presents lessons learned from this experience.