Books
Faculty Writings of Interest
Experimentation
Matters by Stefan H. Thomke
Becoming a Manager (second edition) by
Linda A. Hill
What Really Works by William Joyce, Nitin Nohria, and
Bruce Roberson
The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton M.
Christensen and Michael E. Raynor
Experimentation Matters
by Stefan H. Thomke (Harvard Business
School Press)
When he talks about his research on the process, economics, and management of experimentation, Associate Professor Stefan Thomke is fond of quoting Thomas Edison’s notion that “the real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.”
“Edison’s genius was in how he organized experimentation,” Thomke told a gathering of colleagues during a recent HBS research symposium. “He knew that if you don’t get rapid feedback on new ideas, they often grow cold and don’t get pursued.”
In his new book, Experimentation Matters: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation, Thomke argues that many companies are not yet making the best use of breakthrough technologies for experimentation — including simulation and computer modeling — to generate and test new product possibilities. “When you ask managers if experimentation is important, they invariably say it is,” relates Thomke, an authority on the management of technology and product innovation. “But when you look at how they actually manage the process, it turns out that most are not giving it very much thought.”
Thomke’s book draws on a decade of research in a broad range of industries — from automotive and semiconductors, to banking and pharmaceuticals. Citing the falling costs of computing and advances in simulation and combinatorial technologies, he urges companies to capitalize on new opportunities for running both more and more complex experiments, exploring “what-if” scenarios early on in the product development process, while the financial and organizational costs of changing course are still relatively low.
In Experimentation Matters, Thomke defines six principles that managers should keep in mind as they rethink their approach to state-of-the-art experimentation, the way their R&D organizations are structured, and their preconceptions about the relationship between experimentation and learning. The principles establish the rationale for frequent and early experimentation, outline proven innovation strategies, and underscore the importance of learning from failures as well as successes.
A final chapter examines how some companies — even whole industries, like integrated circuits — literally have shifted the locus of experimentation to their customers and created billions of dollars of new value. Taking experimentation beyond organizational boundaries in this way holds great promise, Thomke writes, “and may generate innovations that companies simply cannot imagine today.”
Becoming a Manager (second edition)
by Linda A. Hill (Harvard Business School
Press)
First published in 1992, Becoming a Manager: Mastery of a New Identity traces the experiences of nineteen new managers over the course of their first year on the job. Based on six years of intensive field research and data analysis by HBS professor Linda Hill, the book explores the transformation that takes place as star individual contributors learn how to delegate authority, win trust and respect, motivate others, and become leaders.
Hill’s book, which has received wide acclaim, contains numerous insights for prospective and new managers, those responsible for developing new managers, and academics with an interest in managerial behavior. The second edition (subtitled How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership) includes new material intended to guide fledgling managers through specific operational issues, such as dealing with organizational politics, influencing peers and superiors, and leading diverse teams in times of change.
Hill, who is chair of the Organizational Behavior unit and the HBS Leadership Initiative, believes that the process of becoming a manager requires both a significant psychological transition and a considerable amount of on-the-job training. In the second edition of Becoming a Manager, she offers a “prescriptive approach” for those who are tackling their first managerial assignments and valuable advice for the organizations whose futures depend on their success.
What Really Works
by William Joyce, Nitin Nohria, and Bruce Roberson
(HarperBusiness)
You’ve seen all the books that claim to be the bibles of business success, the silver bullets of top performance, the secrets to long-term accomplishment and growth. And you’ve heard all about the importance of information technology, total quality management, and recruiting that star-studded board of directors. Now you can forget all that.
The authors of What Really Works: The 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success spent five years analyzing two hundred well-known and popular business practices to tell you what really works (and, surprisingly, what does not) to get and keep your company on top.
HBS professor Nitin Nohria coauthored the book with Tuck professor William Joyce and former McKinsey partner Bruce Roberson (MBA ’85), after the completion of the Evergreen Project — a massive, statistically rigorous survey that studied the best business practices of 160 companies over a ten-year period.
The goal of the project was to sift through the common management practices that the most successful companies shared. What the authors and their large team of researchers discovered were two distinct sets of practices — four primary and four secondary. All consistently successful companies, they say, excel at four of the primary practices — strategy, execution, culture, and organization — and at least two of the secondary practices — talent, leadership, innovation, and mergers and partnerships. Thus, the “4+2” formula.
The authors give detailed examples of companies they have labeled as Winners, Losers, Climbers, and Tumblers and instructions for employing the 4+2 formula. They also warn readers that although they believe they are offering the most statistically effective approach to achieving the highest performance, it requires a high degree of stamina and vigilance for a company to excel simultaneously at six practices over the long term. Not to worry, the authors thoughtfully provide a chapter on how to do just that.
— Margie Kelley
The Innovator’s Solution
by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor
(Harvard
Business School Press)
When it comes to growing a company, there’s nothing more crucial — or seemingly more risky — than innovation. In business today, in nearly every industry, the imperative to grow has driven managers to try any number of new strategies and technologies to gain an edge. The trouble is, just because you change with the times, it doesn’t mean you’ll survive. Indeed, the very act of innovating — though it may well appear to be the right thing to do — can kill a company.
Innovation, it seems, is not simply a reactive or random activity on the path to growth, but a strategic weapon. Wielded correctly, it can put the competition at bay and create opportunities for growth. So asserts HBS professor Clayton Christensen, who has teamed up with Deloitte Research Director Michael Raynor (DBA ’00) to write The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth.
The book is a follow-up to Christensen’s 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, which sounded the alarm on how disruptive innovations — such as the personal computer and discount retailers — caused many otherwise strong and healthy companies to fail.
The Innovator’s Dilemma looked at the threat. The Innovator’s Solution explores the opportunity. The authors show managers how to use theory — statements of what causes what, why, and when — to make the process of creating new growth businesses more predictable. Using real-life examples of companies from a wide range of industries, the authors illustrate how theory explains what actions make sense in a certain circumstance and what actions promise great peril.
The book shows managers how to use theory to answer critical questions involved in creating new growth businesses, such as whose investment capital will help my company succeed, and whose capital might be the kiss of death? When should CEOs get deeply involved in a new business, and when should they keep their hands off? What customers should we target? What activities should we do internally?
Christensen and Raynor argue that managers who use theory to answer these sorts of questions can harness innovative forces to their competitive advantage. Managers can shape innovations into legitimate disruptive offerings that leave the competition scrambling. They can dramatically increase their odds of creating new growth businesses, again and again.
— Margie Kelley
