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While uncertainty is rampant in today's economy, the authors argue that one thing is clear: public policy to increase innovation is generally not working, and this is due largely to confusion between the terms 'invention' and 'innovation'. While the terms are often used interchangeably, there are important differences in definition, intent and process. They describe these differences and argue that the focus must switch to a particular type of innovation: user-driven innovation. This type of innovation enables users to do something that they could not have done before and can also lower costs for users. They explain how to 'refresh' innovation policy to embrace user driven innovation, putting an end to inventors creating inventions that nobody really wants.

The global financial crisis has caused public trust in institutions to fall to its lowest level in history. The authors begin by defining the three elements of the 'trust failure' that has taken place, and then present six strategies for repairing trust. These include increasing external regulation, changing the way boards function and fostering a culture change. They end by warning that a number of reforms have been put in place to restore institutional trust, but the jury is still out as to whether they will 'stick' over time.

Throughout history, sudden insights across industries and disciplines have had one thing in common: they tend to come at strange times and places, and they tend to happen after an intense, prolonged struggle with a particular problem, followed by a break. The author describes the importance of the break or 'broken pattern' in our day, showing that it comes in two types: breaks that we make and breaks that we take. In both cases, breaks enable us to think differently - and more resourcefully, and those who aspire to creative thinking should make them a regular habit. He provides three approaches to daily breaks: meditation, 'pulsing' and daydreaming walks, all of which enable you to stop looking for 'the answer' - and find it.

Wealthy people don't just have better toys; they have better nutrition and better medical care, more free time and more meaningful labour-more of just about every ingredient in the recipe for a happy life. And yet research consistently shows that they aren't much happier than those who have less. If money can buy happiness, then why doesn't it? The authors argue that five principles apply to the money/happiness equation, including 'buy experiences instead of things' and 'help others instead of yourself'. In the end, they show that money can buy many of the things that make us happy; and if it doesn't, the fault is ours.

New entrepreneurs are in a tough spot: sixty-five per cent of seed-round startups in North America never make it to the next level of funding, and just 12 per cent end up successfully delivering a product or service. Why even try? "Because my idea is better than all the others, and the numbers don't apply to me." We all have such 'necessary illusions' in our minds, says the author. Dangerous delusions, on the other hand, are just that. The question is, how to distinguish between necessary illusions and dangerous delusions? He argues that the answer is to become an experimentalist about one's own life and business, which forces you to take an outsider's view of it.

Frugal innovation' is a new style of innovation that is popular in India and other countries in the global south, where citizens face global challenges such as poverty and climate change with limited resources. The solutions it puts forth must be low-cost, robust and easy to use, and have the potential to be targeted at large populations. However, solutions tend to be developed and used locally, and scaling local innovations presents some key challenges. The authors describe how to go about creating a 'hybrid model' for scaling an innovation, which entails attention to five baseline factors: cost, active demand, a sustainable business model, outcome demonstration and effective leadership.

In an age of dwindling resources, our excessive economic paradigm cannot possibly survive. The author argues that it is time to stop seeing the world as it is, and to begin to see it as it could be. But before this can happen, we must change our notion of what constitutes success. He describes what would be involved in a 'renaissance of human values', touching on our nine core needs as humans and the roles of design and ecology. We will build a new civilization, he says, the way we built the current one: with incentives, social rewards and new ways of meeting our needs.

When it comes to innovative product and service design, quantitative, data-driven methods often lack the design insight and texture that inspires new ways forward. Meanwhile, qualitative behavioral and emotions-based research provides invaluable inspiration for human-centered designers, but the insights unveiled can be fragile if they are not backed by hard numbers. Integrating quantitative research methods with qualitatively methods is a powerful new approach that the author and his colleagues have dubbed 'hybrid insights'. In this article he shows how hybrid insights out-perform conventional market research tools in unveiling significant early-adopter segments

What could a family-run pig farm in France have to teach mainstream business folk about profit, market share and shareholder value? As it turns out, plenty. The author describes the 'artisan's approach' to value creation and the three ways that it differs from the traditional growth-obsessed firm. For one, instead of pursuing scale, artisans remain at a fixed size - but they exert control over the whole process, from end to end, achieving 'holism' over scale. In the end, she shows that the engine that keeps artisans running has a good chance of outlasting faster-burning models, and as such, it presents a working alternative worth considering.

The former Medtronic CEO and current Professor of Management Practice at Harvard describes the importance of following your True North and explains why he refers to the past 10 years as "leadership's lost decade". He describes five types of leaders that often lose sight of their True North and get derailed. He also talks about the importance of leading an "integrated life" and shows that authentic leadership entails a transition from 'I' to 'we'.

Every executive has heard about the importance of Lean as a means of eliminating waste and "fat." However, when operations are novel and complex-as in product development, research, information technology, and many other kinds of projects-cutting out the "fat" turns out to be much more challenging. To understand Lean in an environment characterized by extreme novelty and complexity, we drew on our experiences with a number of processes, and in particular Lockheed Martin's Lean implementation for the F-22 fighter aircraft. Our findings lead to a path that executives and managers can follow to become Lean without compromising innovation

Front-end activities largely influence the outcomes of new product development processes, because it is here that firms create new ideas, give them direction, and set them in motion. We show that the front end can be understood as comprising three core activities: idea/concept development, idea/concept alignment, and idea/concept legitimization, which allow firms to create corroborated product definitions. This article provides important implications for managers interested in front-end management. It devotes specific attention to the differences between incremental and radical front-end development and to the front end in the light of increasingly open innovation processes.

Crowdsourcing is typically associated with the incorporation of company-external stakeholders such as customers in the value creating process. This article proposes a framework for a company-internal application of crowdsourcing methods. It presents a set of five goals companies can pursue employing internal crowdsourcing. The practical approach of an Austrian medium-sized technology company is described in detail, including insights on software design and appropriate procedures.

Strategically aligned and efficiently implemented spare parts logistics can differentiate a business from its competitors, lower costs, increase revenues, and thus help firms generate greater value for customers and ultimately increase profits. Based on multiple case studies with manufacturers in the machine and plant construction industry, this article examines the key components of a superior spare parts logistics strategy. The study suggests that an efficient spare parts logistics strategy can be developed with a three-step model that consists of nine components.

This article looks at the relevance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for engaging employees, including its impact on their motivation, identity, and sense of meaning and purpose. It explores three different ways that companies engage their employees through CSR: a transactional approach, where programs are undertaken to meet the needs of employees who want to take part in the CSR efforts of a company; a relational approach, based on a psychological contract that emphasizes social responsibility; and a developmental approach, which aims to activate social responsibility in a company and to develop its employees to be responsible corporate citizens.

Existing frameworks on growth do not distinguish between the managerial challenges of different growth contexts; they place considerable emphasis on the overall quality of companies' portfolios of strategic units, but less on how different units should be managed according to the growth context they are in. The managerial challenges of generating growth in low-growth contexts are very different from those of managing growth in high-growth contexts. This article introduces a matrix framework that incorporates four growth scenarios, which firm-units can map themselves on to, and then outlines the major barriers they face in each of these scenarios as well as the actions needed to overcome them. The results are based on longitudinal research on cross-national samples of small, medium, and large organizations.

The SpeedSim case study focuses on how mergers and acquisitions work in startup and entrepreneurial environments. It describes how an intelligent East Coast engineer built an extremely frugal company with a goal for acquisition and how the SpeedSim team masterfully executed and maximized their return by starting, growing, and selling a company. The case analyzes how small companies position themselves to be acquired and how an acquirer assesses a company. The case can be used for mergers and acquisition and exit discussions, as well as for culture and organizational behavior discussions for entrepreneurship curriculums.

Protecting 'know-how,' or trade secrets, is a vexing problem for companies doing business in China. Primary threats to the disclosure of proprietary information include deliberate actions of current and former employees, as well as loss of trade secrets in the context of joint ventures or other business arrangements. Because China continues to be an important trading partner and its domestic market has tremendous consumer potential, many companies remain in China. With this in mind, what are the best practices firms should undertake to protect their trade secrets in China to prevent competitors from gaining an unfair advantage? Based on an analysis of Chinese trade secrets law, practical recommendations are offered herein. Although there is no way for employers to 'bullet proof' the workplace from a loss of know-how, carefully crafted policies consistent with current trends in Chinese law will advance arguments in support of trade secret protection.

In today's environment, timing is a critical part of business strategy. Nowhere is this truer than as regards managing intellectual property in an increasingly global marketplace. The creation and protection of intellectual property assets often depends on consistently taking the right legal action at the right time. The consequences of failing to do so can be disastrous but may only be felt at a later time or in other markets. The difficulty for business people lies in the fact that the time-sensitive aspects of intellectual property cannot be managed effectively by relying on intuition or resolving to see a lawyer when the need arises. This article provides a basic primer on the critical role of timing in identifying, creating, and protecting intellectual property assets. It discusses the most common types of intellectual property-patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets-and compares the role of timing in the creation and protection of each asset type. Most importantly, it summarizes the key issues of timing in the creation and protection of intellectual property.

Firms have increasingly been turning to cyber risk insurance in order to better manage cyber threats and any resulting legal liability from data breaches. But how useful is this tactic? Herein, I analyze the impact of cyber attacks on firms, some of the applicable U.S. law shaping private sector responses to data breaches, and the extent to which cyber risk insurance helps mitigate the cyber threat. Ultimately, I argue that firms must take a proactive stance toward managing cyber attacks-not only for their wellbeing, but also to enhance overall cybersecurity and help secure critical national infrastructure.