The discipline of innovation. 1985

How much of innovation is inspiration, and how much is hard work? The answer lies somewhere in the middle, says management thinker Peter Drucker. In this HBR classic from 1985, he argues that innovation is real work that can and should be managed like any other corporate function. Success is more likely to result from the systematic pursuit of opportunities than from a flash of genius. Indeed, most innovative business ideas arise through the methodical analysis of seven areas of opportunity. Within a company or industry, opportunities can be found in unexpected occurrences, incongruities of various kinds, process needs, or changes in an industry or market. Outside a company, opportunities arise from demographic changes, changes in perception, or new knowledge. There is some overlap among the sources, and the potential for innovation may well lie in more than one area at a time. Innovations based on new knowledge tend to have the greatest effect on the marketplace, but it often takes decades before the ideas are translated into actual products, processes, or services. The other sources of innovation are easier and simpler to handle, yet they still require managers to look beyond established practices, Drucker explains. The author emphasizes that innovators need to look for simple, focused solutions to real problems. The greatest praise an innovation can receive is for people to say, "That's so obvious!" Grandiose ideas designed to revolutionize an industry rarely work. Innovation, like any other endeavor, takes talent, ingenuity, and knowledge. But Drucker cautions that if diligence, persistence, and commitment are lacking, companies are unlikely to succeed at the business of innovation.     

The discipline of innovation

Some innovations spring from a flash of genius. But as Peter Drucker points out in this HBR Classic, most result from a conscious, purposeful search for opportunities. For managers seeking innovation, engaging in disciplined work is more important than having an entrepreneurial personality. Writing originally in the May-June 1985 issue, Drucker describes the major sources of opportunities for innovation. Within a company or industry, opportunities can be found in unexpected occurrences, incongruities of various kinds, process needs, or changes in an industry or market. Outside a company, opportunities arise from demographic changes, changes in perception, or new knowledge. These seven sources overlap, and the potential for innovation may well lie in more than one area at a time. Innovations based on new knowledge, of course, tend to have the greatest effect on the marketplace. But it often takes decades before the ideas are translated into actual products, processes, or services. The other sources of innovation are easier and simpler to handle, yet they still require managers to look beyond established practices. Drucker emphasizes that in seeking opportunities, innovators need to look for simple, focused solutions to real problems. The greatest praise an innovation can receive is for people to say, "This is obvious!" Grandiose ideas designed to revolutionize an industry rarely work. Innovation, like any other endeavor, takes talent, ingenuity, and knowledge. But Drucker cautions that if diligence, persistence, and commitment are lacking, companies are unlikely to succeed at the business of innovation.     

The discipline of teams

Groups don't become teams because that is what someone calls them. Nor do teamwork values by themselves ensure team performance. So what is a team? How can managers know when the team option makes sense and what they can do to ensure team success? In this article, drawn from their recent book The Wisdom of Teams, McKinsey partners Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith answer these questions and outline the discipline that makes a real team. The essence of a team is shared commitment. Without it, groups perform as individuals; with it, they become a powerful unit of collective performance. The best teams invest a tremendous amount of time shaping a purpose that they can own. The best teams also translate their purpose into specific performance goals. And members of successful teams pitch in and become accountable with and to their teammates. The fundamental distinction between teams and other forms of working groups turns on performance. A working group relies on the individual contributions of its members for group performance. But a team strives for something greater than its members could achieve individually. In short, an effective team is always worth more than the sum of its parts. Katzenbach and Smith identify three basic types of teams: teams that recommend things--task forces or project groups; teams that make or do things--manufacturing, operations, or marketing groups; and teams that run things--groups that oversee some significant functional activity. For managers, the key is knowing where in the organization real teams should be encouraged. Team potential exists anywhere hierarchy or organizational boundaries inhibit good performance.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The discipline of building character

What is the difference between an ethical decision and what the author calls a defining moment? An ethical decision typically involves choosing between two options: one we know to be right and another we know to be wrong. A defining moment challenges us in a deeper way by asking us to choose between two or more ideals in which we deeply believe. Such decisions rarely have one "correct" response. Taken cumulatively over many years, they form the basis of an individual's character. Defining moments ask executives to dig below the busy surface of their lives and refocus on their core values and principles. Once uncovered, those values and principles renew their sense of purpose at the workplace and act as a springboard for shrewd, pragmatic, politically astute action. Three types of defining moments are particularly common in today's workplace. The first type is largely an issue of personal identity. It raises the question, Who am I? The second type concerns groups as well as individuals. It raises the question, Who are we? The third kind involves defining a company's role within society. It raises the question, Who is the company? By learning to identify each of those three situations, managers can learn to navigate right-versus-right decisions successfully. The author asks a series of practical questions that will help managers take time out to examine their values and then transform their beliefs into action. By engaging in this process of self-inquiry, managers will be gaining the tools to tackle their most elusive, challenging, and essential business dilemmas.     

The value of fiscal discipline for oil-exporting countries

The value of fiscal discipline is assessed by analyzing the role of fiscal policy as a transmission mechanism of oil price shocks in oil-exporting small open economies. Fiscal policy is an important propagation channel. Taking policy as given by the data, the model can successfully explain the responses of key macroeconomic variables, but it is unable to explain these responses under counterfactual fiscal frameworks. Interestingly, fiscal policy also seems capable of regulating the size of pass-through. Furthermore, fiscal policies that insulate the economy from oil price shocks seem to be welfare improving over procyclical ones.     

Enlightened experimentation. The new imperative for innovation

The high cost of experimentation has long put a damper on companies' attempts to create great new products. But new technologies are making it easier than ever to conduct complex experiments quickly and cheaply. Companies now have an opportunity to take innovation to a whole new level--if they're willing to rethink their R&D from the ground up.     

The innovation catalysts

A few years ago the software development company Intuit realized that it needed a new approach to galvanizing customers. The company's Net Promoter Score was faltering, and customer recommendations of new products were especially disappointing. Intuit decided to hold a two-day, off-site meeting for the company's top 300 managers with a focus on the role of design in innovation. One of the days was dedicated to a program called Design for Delight. The centerpiece of the day was a PowerPoint presentation by Intuit founder Scott Cook, who realized midway through that he was no Steve Jobs: The managers listened dutifully, but there was little energy in the room. By contrast, a subsequent exercise in which the participants worked through a design challenge by creating prototypes, getting feedback, iterating, and refining, had them mesmerized. The eventual result was the creation of a team of nine design-thinking coaches--"innovation catalysts"--from across Intuit who were made available to help any work group create prototypes, run experiments, and learn from customers. The process includes a "painstorm" (to determine the customer's greatest pain point), a "soljam" (to generate and then winnow possible solutions), and a "code-jam" (to write code "good enough" to take to customers within two weeks). Design for Delight has enabled employees throughout Intuit to move from satisfying customers to delighting them.     

The innovation value chain

The challenges of coming up with fresh ideas and realizing profits from them are different for every company. One firm may excel at finding good ideas but may have weak systems for bringing them to market. Another organization may have a terrific process for funding and rolling out new products and services but a shortage of concepts to develop. In this article, Hansen and Birkinshaw caution executives against using the latest and greatest innovation approaches and tools without understanding the unique deficiencies in their companies' innovation systems. They offer a framework for evaluating innovation performance: the innovation value chain. It comprises the three main phases of innovation (idea generation, conversion, and diffusion) as well as the critical activities performed during those phases (looking for ideas inside your unit; looking for them in other units; looking for them externally; selecting ideas; funding them; and promoting and spreading ideas companywide). Using this framework, managers get an end-to-end view of their innovation efforts. They can pinpoint their weakest links and tailor innovation best practices appropriately to strengthen those links. Companies typically succumb to one of three broad "weakest-link" scenarios. They are idea poor, conversion poor, or diffusion poor. The article looks at the ways smart companies - including Intuit, P&G, Sara Lee, Shell, and Siemens- modify the best innovation practices and apply them to address those organizations' individual needs and flaws. The authors warn that adopting the chain-based view of innovation requires new measures of what can be delivered by each link in the chain. The approach also entails new roles for employees "external scouts" and "internal evangelists," for example. Indeed, in their search for new hires, companies should seek out those candidates who can help address particular weaknesses in the innovation value chain.     

The call for innovation

To help promote innovation in health care, nursing and finance leaders can: Begin by asking the "why" and "why not" questions. Earmark dollars for experimental care models. Advocate for eliminating legal and regulatory barriers that prevent innovation.     

The customer-centered innovation map

We all know that people "hire" products and services to get a job done. Surgeons hire scalpels to dissect soft tissue. Janitors hire soap dispensers and paper towels to remove grime from their hands. To find ways to innovate, it's critical to deconstruct the job the customer is trying to get done from beginning to end, to gain a complete view of all the points at which a customer might desire more help from a product or service. A methodology called job mapping helps companies analyze the biggest drawbacks of the products and services customers currently use and discover opportunities for innovation. It involves breaking down the task the customer wants to accomplish into the eight universal steps of a job: (1) defining the objectives, (2) locating the necessary inputs, (3) preparing the physical environment, (4) confirming that everything is ready, (5) executing the task, (6) monitoring its progress, (7) making modifications as necessary, and (8) concluding the job. Job mapping differs substantively from process mapping in that the goal is to identify what customers are trying to get done at every step, not what they are doing currently. For example, when an anesthesiologist checks a monitor during a surgical procedure, the action taken is just a means to the end. Detecting a change in patient vital signs is the job the doctor is trying to get done. Within each of the discrete steps lie multiple opportunities for making the job simpler, easier, or faster. By mapping out every step of the job and locating those opportunities, companies can discover new ways to differentiate their offerings.     

不创一流不立名——工行河北省张家口分行桥东解放支行建设现代金融企业工作纪实

工商银行张家口桥东解放支行，位于张家口市繁华地段，已有50余年的历史。和着时代前进的节拍，乘着改革开放的春风，解放支行不断成长壮大，在山城金融界树起了闻名遐迩的“老字号”金招牌：连续三次被团中央、人总行授予全国“青年文明号”，三次被河北省工行评为省级“巾帼文明示范岗”，1999年被河北省政府命名为先进集体和优质文明服务先进单位，2000年荣获工总行“最佳支行”，2001年荣获工总行“巾帼文明示范岗”称号，2004年被市妇联命名为全市十大“巾帽文明标兵岗”，2005年，又荣获全国妇联“巾帼文明岗”。     

论金融理论的创新

把金融看成是与货币流通相关的经济活动有它的合理性；把货币流通和信用活动包含在金融定义之内，强调金融是货币资金融通，有其合理性和局限性，把金融定义为“资本市场的运营、资本资产的供给与定价”是由融资活动的发展变化推进的；从方法论的角度说有从横向考察金融和从纵向考察金融；新近出版的博迪、莫顿合著的《金融学》在什么是金融、为会么要研究金融及怎样研究金融等方面都有创新。     

金融创新应该做些什么?

中国工商银行董事长姜建清讲述了一个故事:2006年早些时候,我曾经与日本软银集团的的孙正义谈起中国互联网经营,说工商银行今后4年内将把50%的业务移转到网上银行,10年内可能达到70%.孙正义讲,那时候工商银行将是世界上最大的互联网企业.听了他的讲话,我确实有些震动,世界上最大的银行之一能和世界上最大的互联网企业之一划等号吗?但是我又想,为什么不能呢?姜建清认为:     

扬思想建设之帆 走创新发展之路——工行北京市方庄支行思想政治工作点滴

工行方庄支行地处北京南城城乡结合部，经营区域从南二环至南五环，南北宽、东西窄，整个区域呈现“三多一少“的特点，即居民多、流动人口多、批发市场多，大中型企业相对较少。面对相对匿乏的市场资源，支行在党委书记、行长曲琐带领下，始终坚持将思想政治工作贯穿于全行中心工作，体现在理念创新、业务发展和队伍建设中，在创新上下功夫，在结合上做文章，促进支行在经营管理各个方面取得可軎的成绩。去年上半年，在支行行长绩效考评中由去年的第18名上升到第4名，绩效等级由B＋＋上升为A级。     

Technical innovation and industrial development : 1. The new causality

The author argues that the nature and importance of technical change in industry in the OECD countries began to alter in the 1970s. Statistical evidence suggests that investment activities embodying process innovations were the main motor of technical change in the 1960s. In the 1970s, however, there are signs that innovative activities (research, development, and design) resulting in product and systems innovations grew in importance. If the trend continues, countries and industries with strong capacities for industrial innovation will have higher living standards and industrial employment than those without. In this article the author discusses the nature of, and the evidence for, the changes taking place. In the next article he will discuss the policy implications.     

绿色产业创新三部曲

第一场专题对话的主题为"产业升级与投资创新".国务院发展研究中心资源与环境政策研究所所长助理、研究员程会强为本场对话的主持人.参与本场对话环节的贵宾有:中科招商投资管理集团联席总裁李伟群,中国并购公会秘书长、北京尚融资本合伙人董贵昕,北京祥德投资管理有限公司并祥德国际投资管理(新加坡)有限公司董事总经理刘秉军,世界自然基金会中国可持续金融项目总监孙轶颋,中银国际投资银行部总经理丁盛亮,以及"绿色创新企业"代表——新疆国力源投资有限公司(简称:国力源)执行总裁余发强和商丘瑞新通用设备制造股份有限公司(简称:瑞新通用)董事长刘建波.     

The World Bank's innovation market

Large, tradition-bound organizations can make space for radical, low-cost (and therefore low-risk) innovations. Just ask executives at the World Bank. The story of this best practice begins in 1998, when a young new-products group at the international funding agency proposed holding an Innovation Marketplace to capture novel ideas within the Bank for alleviating poverty. The forum, which eventually was opened to external participants, let people informally present their antipoverty ideas to potential funding sources. Funders could move among hundreds of booths and evaluate proposals for, say, a program that would provide postdisaster reconstruction insurance in developing countries or a vaccination development initiative. The marketplace truncated the Bank's standard project-review processes, which often stretched to a year or more, and gave funders permission to make commitments in the tens of thousands of dollars, rather than in the tens of millions more typical of Bank-financed projects. The marketplace concept met with some skepticism at the beginning. Some senior executives at the Bank felt no group had the right to spend the agency's money without following its well-established resource allocations process. But the marketplace team believed an open process for allocating grants would produce more breakthrough ideas in the long run than a centralized one. In this article, the authors describe how the new-products team brainstormed to create a market for ideas, how it got senior management's support, and how it has expanded on the original concept for these innovation marketplaces. The program's success, they contend, offers hope both for the world's poor and for business leaders looking to find new ideas under the hard crust of corporate dogma, conformance, and bureaucracy.     

Political connections and depositor discipline

We examine the effects of political connections on depositor discipline in a sample of Turkish banks. Banks with former members of parliament at the helm enjoy reduced depositor discipline, especially if the former politician's party is currently in power – less so if the former politician served as a minister. Banks with structural problems are more likely to appoint former politicians, but our results remain robust after controlling for selection effects. Ministers may reduce depositor discipline less because they signal severe problems and because the additional government deposits they bring to the bank during their term tend to leave with them.     

Market discipline and bank efficiency

This paper investigates whether depositors and market investors exert disciplinary pressure on bank management in terms of efficiency improvement. We find that banks with more outstanding deposits are more cost-efficient, although little effect is found with respect to profit efficiency. This implies that depositors, the primary providers of funds to banks, likely play an important role in disciplining bank management, at least in terms of enforcing efficient use of inputs. Market discipline has garnered increasing attention as a mechanism to ensure bank soundness. Our results imply that depositors, the largest creditors to banks, may be of primary importance in this mechanism.