Using the Internet as a platform for customer collaboration on innovation has its limitations. Thus, companies need to complement this through process of indirect, or mediated, innovation known as innomediation and through third-party actors at the center of this process, known as innomediaries. The authors identify three distinct types of innomediary, observe how each one can help acquire different forms of customer knowledge, and suggest how companies exploit the power of these emerging intermediaries.

Often, process-enabling information technology fails to dramatically improve corporate performance. The fundamental problem, the author says, is that implementing managers usually follow what amounts to a universal checklist, leaving the executive in charge to wonder which findings apply, under what circumstances and why. This article offers a synthesis that can aid in implementation, highlighting how big IT implementations differ and how managers should handle the differences.

In light of recent corporate scandals, businesses struggle to reconcile increased regulation with corporate strategic goals. To succeed, companies must understand the games business and government play and the roles of each in making and enforcing the rules while developing hybrid strategies to shape the rules. The author identifies two major types of games, believing that the most effective businesses combine different approaches from each, which in turn helps to shape how governments regulate future corporate activity.

President Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security confirmed what thoughtful analysts have known for years: Without substantial reforms, Social Security will not be able to pay the benefits promised to U.S. citizens — at least not without a substantial increase in Social Security taxes, which, of course, would hinder the ability of U.S. businesses and [...]

Product innovation strategy requires an understanding of how technical modularity affects R&D. The trade-off between predictability and innovation in technology innovation can be visualized as a technology landscape, and companies seeking to innovate should first locate themselves on this terrain — from the gentle slopes of incremental product improvements, to the craggy peaks based on breakthrough inventions — choosing the one that suits them best and developing the appropriate strategy for navigating that topography.

Few companies realize that a corporate global mind-set must be incorporated into an organization’s processes so that everyone knows how to handle the tug-of-war between local responsiveness and corporate efficiency. IBM has embraced a more flexible approach, adopting global-policy-development teams, worldwide knowledge networks and appropriate performance measures. The authors show how managers can determine when an issue calls for a locally adaptive response, when it calls for a globally consistent response and when both elements are needed.

Sometimes large-scale operational efficiencies can mask opportunities. In their research, the authors found that small-scale operations provide significant advantages in four areas. Using case studies, the authors illustrate how companies in a wide variety of industries have found the hidden benefits of small-scale approaches, concluding that executives who learn when it is better to think small can have a potentially huge impact on their companies’ long-term success.

In technology-driven industries, cultural changes often occur when the primary source of customer value shifts from product to business innovation. Many leaders of technology-driven companies are uncomfortable with the invisible, difficult-to-measure nature of culture and its stubborn resistance to quick fixes. The author outlines ways to proactively guide the development of a company’s culture from one best suited for early entrepreneurship to one capable of enduring industry leadership.

Brand management has evolved from a dialogue between manufacturers and customers into a multilogue with a host of parties. To that end, the authors have developed a theoretical framework that helps companies to better manage brands, proposing the concept of a brand space, based on whether the brand has become independent from its associated product and whether the brand focuses more on the meaning of a product or its functionality.

When an industry’s business model is overthrown by disruptive strategic innovations, many established companies contend that adopting it may damage the existing business because attackers utilize strategies contrary to industry leaders’. Research into established companies’ responses suggests five current approaches to responding these innovations, depending on two main factors: motivation and ability. At least, the authors say, just appreciating that new ways of competing are not inherently superior is half the battle.

Companies that actively manage a wide range of sustainability indicators are better able to create long-term value for all stakeholders.