Articles
Important ideas that attack
problems that are complex and invisible to most people tend to get
stalled. Using examples from the medical field, Gawande explains why
social processes are the key to getting good ideas to spread. Using door-to-door and person-to-person
approaches are more effective than mass media information campaigns. Assigning mentors to work with inexperienced
employees and customers is another great way to successfully accelerate the
pace of innovation.
This article examines ways
that Google's Human Resources Department, known as People Operations, uses
analytics to create a more productive and innovative culture. The article
highlights the statistic that shows how Google's analytical team demonstrated
that their top technologists can perform up to 300 times better than the
average employee! This shows how important employee attraction and
retention is for sustained success. Google is now using big data to try
to determine what makes a high-performing team. To be successful, it will
become increasingly important in the future for all HR functions in SMEs and
large companies to develop this analytical competency that Google is
establishing.
Andrew Smart makes a
compelling case about how a strict top-down, planning-oriented company can
smother growth and innovation. He uses the example of ants, which are one
of the most successful species on the planet, to show how “leaderless” colonies
learn and flourish. Randomness is anathema to the standardization mantra
permeating most large industrial organization. Yet, the author believes
it is a key element for new learning. We learn more as people and
organizations when we are surprised. Control oriented companies will slow
innovation and become victimized by smaller, more agile competitors.
Amazon is one of the most
innovative companies in the world due in large part to the leadership of Jeff
Bezos. This article compiles several nuggets of wisdom that can apply to
any business. It’s clear from the quotations cited in this article that
long-term thinking and customer centricity are two important themes to Amazon’s
success. One of the great quotes you’ll read in the article is… “We’ve
had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re
the reason we are successful: Put the customer first. Invent.
And be patient.”
Books
This book has been
described as the Moneyball book for soccer. It
illustrates how some professional soccer teams are using big data and analytics
to improve the performance of their clubs. The statistical analysis
challenges some of the sport’s conventional wisdom such as the importance of
ball control, which is not as critical as limiting turnovers in the defensive
end of the field. The most important lesson from the book that can be
applied to the business environment and new product development teams is the
idea of weak link theory. The authors show that teams
that invest too much of their limited payroll in superstar players without
having adequate supporting players do not perform as well as teams with more
balanced skill levels. The book states that championships are won by the
role players who are often overlooked. Likewise, when constructing a team
or an organization in business, it’s important to remember that you will
require contributions from all individuals and that performance can be greatly
limited by one or two weak links in the structure.
