We often hear that companies must learn to embrace change. This is particularly true of companies that are applying advanced technologies to improve their competitive position. The full advantages of such technologies cannot simply be purchased off the shelf; they are won by patiently and carefully tailoring the technology to fit a given firm’s organizational [...]

Electronic brainstorming (EBS) allows working groups to generate an abundance of ideas anonymously. Our experience with electronic brainstorming in several settings has shown it to be useful for large and small groups, for a variety of topics, for groups that meet face to face and for those that are dispersed, whether throughout a building or [...]

How individual learning is transferred back to the organization is crucial to organizational learning. To this end, the author developed a model linking individual and organizational learning through mental models — the thought constructs affecting how people and organizations operate in the world — presenting a framework to better align the learning process with an organization’s goals, vision and values.

“Japanese manufacturing industry owes its competitive advantage and strength to its subcontracting structure.” — Ministry of International Trade and Industry1
Was Japan’s powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) serious when it made this statement? Is it possible that much of Japan’s competitive advantage can be attributed simply to its subcontracting structure? Indeed, evidence from [...]

More than three years ago, Thomas Lyons et al. noted that U.S. manufacturers and their suppliers were being pushed by world-class competition to develop new styles of relating to one another.1 This changing climate was manifest in:

The emergence of multifunctional teams for the development of cross-technological projects;
The reduction of the total number of suppliers;
The lengthening [...]

During the 1980s, executives learned of the strategic role that information systems (IS) could provide to organizations. Through IS, companies could squelch competition, secure suppliers, obtain customer loyalty, and reduce the threat of new entrants. Executives read about the IS victory stories of American Airlines, American Hospital Supply, and Merrill Lynch as evidence of the [...]

Academics, executives, and consultants are virtually unanimous on the importance of speed as a competitive advantage and the need to achieve more rapid strategic decision making:
Strategy making has changed. . . . The premium now is on moving fast and keeping pace. . . . The best strategies are irrelevant if they take too long [...]

The United States has become the most desirable location in the world to build cars. Despite the revival of the Big Three, new entries continually appear, with two European makers, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, setting up plants in the United States. At the same time, cracks are apparent in the vaunted Japanese manufacturing system. Exports to [...]