Where should companies source the knowledge and new ideas that will keep them at the forefront of innovation? The answer, according to an extensive study of 18,000 UK firms, depends in large part on the in-firm characteristics of the company—notably in terms of productivity and resources. Productivity is measured as the difference between a company’s […]
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Terms such as ‘volatility’ and ‘disruption’ are often used to describe a world in which competitive advantage is increasingly difficult to maintain. The extent of such volatility and disruption is quantified in a Boston Consulting Group study that examined the performance record, relative to their competitors, of 20,000 companies over a period of 40 years. […]
As described by Copenhagen Business School professors Torben Juul Andersen and Carina Antonia Hallin, companies in today’s turbulent environment must react quickly to continuous changes and events in their marketplace to maintain their competitive edge. Managers and employees on the front lines are in the best position to experience and respond in real time to […]
Read More… from Fast-Slow Strategy-Making in Adaptive Organizations
How important is corporate culture to the success of a company, and what factors play into developing an effective or ineffective culture? A team of researchers from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School explored these questions through an extensive survey of 1348 CEOs and CFOs, followed up by in-depth interviews with […]
Read More… from Corporate Culture: A Key Drivers of a Firm’s Value
CEOs are responsible for knowing what is going on in their companies. No matter how large, complex or global the organization, CEOs do not have the luxury of pleading ignorance; it is their job to keep abreast of all the important facts and developments: what their employees and competitors are doing, what big new ideas […]
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Expatriate assignments are great opportunities for employees and managers assigned overseas to not only increase their personal knowledge, but also share knowledge across units. In a study on the knowledge benefits from expatriate experiences, Sebastian Reiche, a professor at IESE Business School, showed that there are two types of such knowledge benefits. The first is […]
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Online communities can be the source of staggering feats of pooled knowledge creation, with volunteers from around the world combining their expertise. Think of Wikipedia, or of Linux, or even the online community helping NASA to map craters on Mars. “Open-source software development creates products that are as good (some say, even better) as those […]
It is not easy to motivate subsidiaries of multinational companies to create competence that can be useful to other subsidiaries, and for good reason. Developing competence, including know-how and technological expertise for example, takes time and money. Subsidiaries are responsible for maintaining their own bottom lines, so why should they worry about other subsidiaries? Parent […]
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Professionals in an organization — technical experts in a service organization, for example — will acquire best practices, solutions, resources, ideas and other knowledge as they develop responses to the needs of their clients. In organizations where professionals work in a single location, the professionals will gather regularly to discuss what they have learned about […]
Read More… from Launch Intentional Communities of Practice in Global Companies
In a world of business in which cooperation is often the key to success, many companies overlook the damage that infighting, extreme competition or knowledge hoarding by employees can cause to sales, profits and effectiveness. At the opposite end of the scale are the organizations that encourage and facilitate employee cooperation and generosity. Employees look […]
Read More… from Ways to Encourage Employees to Help Each Other
