“In the emerging technology world, two capabilities are essential to long-term survival: organizational vigilance and senior management’s ability to adapt to change. Before innovations are recognized broadly, they often appear at the periphery of a business or market. This is why companies need to cultivate the capability to sense, interpret and act on weak signals of threats and opportunities.”

— Day and Schoemaker, “Innovating in Uncertain Markets: 10 Lessons for Green Technologies.”

“There are a lot of things that I as the CTO of India’s largest software company should be looking at. Obviously, I don’t have the bandwidth to look at all of them. So I’m asking my readers to help me find out what am I missing.”

— K. Ananth Krishnan, interviewed in “Leveraging the Social Web Within the Enterprise.”

“Companies need to balance the costs of foregoing good opportunities on the one hand and the costs of implementing bad ideas on the other. How managers accomplish that will differ from company to company.”

— Reitzig, “Is Your Company Choosing the Best Innovation Ideas?”

“Toyota’s stumbles are a powerful reminder that there is no such thing as corporate DNA, and that superior production systems, important as they are, cannot be taken for granted.”

— Cole, “What Really Happened to Toyota?”

“Just as product branding creates awareness and sustains value in the minds of an organization’s external customers, shareholders and constituents, a brand mindset can empower a project leader to develop strategically timed messages to create visibility and engagement among key targets.”

— Brown et al., “Why Every Project Needs a Brand (And How to Create One).”

“Arguably, it is relatively ‘easy’ for senior executives to acquire CRM resources. … It is far harder to build capabilities to manage customers better; the time frame is uncertain, and it requires organizational learning and the will to change.”

— Maklan et al., “Why CRM Fails — and How to Fix It.”

“‘It is not a crime to find child labor in your supply chain,’ said Dan Rees, former Ethical Trading Initiative director. ‘What is important is what you do about it when you find out.’”

— Smith et al., “How Gap Inc. Engaged With Its Stakeholders.”

“I can’t think of anything more important than building an agile company, because the world changes so quickly and unpredictably.”

— Michael Cusumano, interviewed in “How to Innovate When Platforms Won’t Stop Moving.”

“Disney has dramatically shifted its business model over the last 20 years from renting physical assets like theme parks … to licensing intellectual property …, with clear investor buy-in for this strategic shift.”

— Weill et al. “The Business Models Investors Prefer.”

(Reprint #:52499)