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For the companies that accept how time operates on their target markets and customers, time scarcity and attention scarcity will provide one of the best paths for innovation in the future. This article, by a former HP executive, examines how time spent shopping has remained constant over the past decades, even while the number of products has increased. It also discusses the Time-Value Framework and five modes of Time-Value Innovation, including Time Magnets and Time Slicing.

Many companies have embraced open innovation and not met success. But some of these companies are unfit for open innovation because they lack the capabilities needed to promote and leverage internal and external collaboration. These authors describe three innovation strategies — need seeker, technology driver, and market reader — and four steps for establishing open innovation. The article concludes with an interview with the chief technology officer of 3M, one of the world’s most innovative companies.

The executive director of British Columbia’s Neonatal Services Program was thinking about her last meeting with the officials at the British Columbia Ministry of Health Services (MHS). Following a report indicating that from 2007 to 2008 the province sent 98 expectant mothers and newborns to the United States for treatment, the province was considering adding more neonatal intensive care capacity. Political pressure was mounting after one of Canada’s national newspapers covered the problem in a front-page story. The MHS asked the executive director to suggest bed allocations and other improvements to address the situation.

A market research company has collected a large dataset on brand equity for the fast food and travel sectors. It has come up with a way of measuring brand equity. Various statistical techniques are used to assess the concept of brand equity. These include descriptive statistics, crosstabs, ANOVA, and MANOVA.

Emerging findings in neuroscience research suggest why inspiring and supportive relationships are important — they help activate openness to new ideas and a more social orientation to others. Insights such as these may move a leader’s actions away from a results orientation and toward a relationship orientation. This article considers sophisticated research such as a study with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in order to explore building relationships, emotional contagion and empathy, and helping and inspiring others.

Millions of vehicles recalled due to quality problems, multiple lawsuits, government investigations, and a very public apology from the company’s president have seriously damaged Toyota’s once-unassailable reputation. What do these problems say about the famed Toyota Production System? What will these problems and the wider economic crisis bring for the country’s automotive industry more generally? These authors recently visited Toyota and a number of automotive systems suppliers in Japan. Their observations and assessments of how the industry will fare in the years ahead are the basis for this article, which details the internationalization of the Japanese motor industry, the increasing use of temporary workers at motor plants, compensation systems, and lifetime employment.

Although not all firms invest in sustainability, firms that do have happier customers, employees, and investors and are no worse off financially. These authors met with some of the leading practitioners of sustainability and identified how organizations can start building sustainability into everything from supply chain activities to HR practices. After defining business sustainability and explaining the process for identifying the top reasons why businesses aren’t more sustainable, the article details these reasons — such as confusion over how to measure sustainability, and lack of incentive from governments — and remarks on the approaching paradigm in which society and business are no longer separate.

Leadership, an act or series of acts that moves people in a certain direction, is not merely the domain of CEOs and heads of state. This article argues that we need to recognize that leadership can arise from anyone who displays it, even as an occasional, discrete act of influence. It explores the fixation on the traditional concept of the ideal leader and explains how providing direction — which can come from many sources — is the essence of leadership. Finally, it shows how leadership within an organization can be provided by employees who don’t necessarily decide a new direction but rather influence others to accept one.

Organizations that understand the key capability of social technologies to enable employees to connect with others to boost job and organizational performance will realize significant benefits. Accordingly, organizations need to think strategically about using these technologies to help transform themselves into truly collaborative workplaces. This article provides the background on MITRE — an R&D consulting firm with U.S. government clients — and explains the value proposition of social technologies at MITRE and how building social technologies at MITRE resulted in higher performance. Finally, it lists four key lessons learned from social technology, including integrating social technologies into existing work practices and experimenting with various technologies.

The powerful combination of youth, technology, and rising consumerism across the globe is creating opportunities and challenges for companies looking for new customers. This article stresses the importance of markets with young populations and explores the phenomenon of wikibrands, or products, services, and brand identities co-created with customers. It ends with some caveats on wikibranding, including risk and uncertainty in young markets.

Chinese companies are not the standard setters when it comes to corporate social responsibility. But contrary to many published reports, they are implementing and following best practices, some of which Western companies have been using for some time. This article offers an up-to-date assessment of the successes and frustrations of corporate social responsibility in China. In doing so, it examines the country’s governmental and industrial forces, as well as pressures from communities, media, civil society, and unions.

Yves Doz is Professor of Strategic Management and the Timken Chaired Professor of Global Technology and Innovation at INSEAD, and Visiting Professor at the Helsinki School of Economics. He was Dean of Executive Education (1998-2002) and Associate Dean for Research and Development (1990-1995) at INSEAD. He has also taught at the Harvard Business School, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Seoul National University, and Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. <br><br>This interview touches on globalization, Chinese and Korean companies, the decline in U.S. business influence, and innovation.

There has long been the need for a theory of leadership built on a scientific foundation. This author’s new book, Driven to Lead: Good, Bad, and Misguided Leadership, seeks to provide such a theory using neuroscience and evolutionary biology. This article discusses the evolution of decision making, the four basic drives of humans, and how firms can keep their decision-making processes on track.

The case illustrates the challenges faced by a marketing manager when designing, implementing and evaluating trade promotion schemes in a highly competitive, fast moving, consumer goods multinational company in the emerging Asian market of India. The purpose of the case is to provide exposure to the complexities and dynamic context of Asian consumer goods marketing and learn how to design, implement and evaluate trade promotion schemes that are aligned with the branding, marketing communication and marketing strategy of the product/brand. The case illustrates marketing decisions and their implementation in the Indian market for snack foods, where factors such as products at small price points, constant product and brand innovation, and effective design of trade promotion and merchandising schemes are critical in gaining and retaining market share.

Lamont, a private golf club, had survived another year, but things weren't like the good old days, when waiting lists to join were long, environmental issues were not front and centre, and outside tournaments as a source of revenue were plentiful. The general manager has to work through a changing environment and the current situation at Lamont to set a new direction for the club. How is the club to grow, given old and new clubs drawing existing and potential members away from Lamont, declining corporate budgets to support golf outings, and competition for charity tournaments and events such as weddings? How could the general manager deliver the expected profits with costs increasing by at least 10 per cent per year?

Various mergers and acquisitions in the Indian information technology (IT) sector had resulted in the newly formed Mahindra Satyam (Mahindra) and the recently appointed chief compliance officer (CCO) was to develop a corporate governance structure that would address and repair previous mismanagement of the company. The CCO also functioned as the chief operating officer (COO) with profit centre responsibility for business verticals. His largest task as the CCO was to restore trust in the company and solidify its future among various stakeholders by bringing back integrity and transparency to the business. The CCO had to consider several criteria: What should his priorities be? What processes could be developed that would ensure corporate governance? What were the metrics with which the company could track the progress in corporate governance?

This case introduces Canada's IT-reliant healthcare system, using three real vignettes: an unconscious emergency room patient whose electronic health record (EHR) may have saved his life; a patient whose health problems and complex drug plan was effectively and holistically managed by pharmacists using a shared information system; and a bone marrow transplant patient who was able to remain in his remote community, and retain his quality of life, thanks to a Telehealth videoconferencing system. Discussion questions invite students to consider how IT plays a role in healthcare, the nature of deep integration', and why it takes so much time and money to develop effective IT for complex systems such as healthcare.

This case opens with a fictitious yet common situation of a corporate executive who is uncertain how to respond to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. It provides some anecdotes and statistics relating to DDoS attacks, and then briefly tells the story of Michael Calce, nicknamed Mafiaboy, who as a young teen effectively launched attacks that shut down companies such as Amazon, CNN, Dell, eBay and Yahoo! The basic DDoS process is explained, and then students are invited to evaluate whether Calce's punishment fit his crime, the relatively low level of computer expertise required to launch a damaging attack, potential risks to traditional (non IT-focused) firms, and whether doing business on-line is too risky.

This case focuses on Open Text, a Canadian software development firm that offers enterprise class, knowledge management tools. Three major customer implementations of Open Text software tools are described: Hyatt Hotels created an effective centralized meeting platform and improved customer service; Siemens AG dramatically improved its routine workflow processes; and EnCana sped up information access using a map-based interface to its document repository. Discussion questions invite students to consider the difficulties in managing unstructured information, the organizational benefits of effectively managing knowledge, and the potential risks of missing out on the information revolution.

This case describes a real scenario in which an elderly couple's vehicle is stranded in a remote location, causing emergency services to be dispatched at significant effort and cost, whereas an inexpensive tow truck dispatch would have completely resolved the problem. To prevent these kinds of false alarm situations, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) has developed a free iPhone application called CAA Roadside, which takes advantage of location-based technology that is built into the iPhone. Discussion questions invite students to consider the business benefits of developing mobile apps, tradeoffs involved in choosing one development platform over another, and long-term positive and negative impacts of the diffusion of mobile location-based technologies.