There is a widespread belief that in the future some military threats might be quite different from those of the recent past-requiring a response by innovative system and employment concepts. Our present weapon-system acquisition process was designed for a different environment than the one that exists today and seems ill suited to meet demands posed by the apparent expansion of unconventional and asymmetric threats. In response to this new environment, recent calls for reform have placed special emphasis on the need for an acquisition process that is better able to satisfy the need for truly innovative system concepts. We outline a suggested acquisition strategy, process, and organization that would operate in conjunction with the present process, and that is specially designed for effective development of novel and more risky system concepts. We describe this strategy in enough detail to identify its key elements, suggesting how it could work and why we believe it would provide needed capabilities not present in our current acquisition process.
There is a widespread belief that in the future some military threats might be quite different from those of the recent past-requiring a response by innovative system and employment concepts. Our present weapon-system acquisition process was designed for a different environment than the one that exists today and seems ill suited to meet demands posed by the apparent expansion of unconventional and asymmetric threats. In response to this new environment, recent calls for reform have placed special emphasis on the need for an acquisition process that is better able to satisfy the need for truly innovative system concepts. We outline a suggested acquisition strategy, process, and organization that would operate in conjunction with the present process, and that is specially designed for effective development of novel and more risky system concepts. We describe this strategy in enough detail to identify its key elements, suggesting how it could work and why we believe it would provide needed capabilities not present in our current acquisition process.
Monograph of articles on strategic management techniques - covers the study of organizational goals, the personal development of the strategic manager and his recruitment, management development and placement, etc., and includes case studies of strategic management in Hungary, Japan, etc. Diagrams and references.
In Buying Military Transformation, Peter Dombrowski and Eugene Gholz analyze the United States military's ongoing effort to capitalize on information technology. New ideas about military doctrine derived from comparisons to Internet Age business practices can be implemented only if the military buys technologically innovative weapons systems. Buying Military Transformation examines how political and military leaders work with the defense industry to develop the small ships, unmanned aerial vehicles, advanced communications equipment, and systems-of-systems integration that will enable the new military format. Dombrowski and Gholz's analysis integrates the political relationship between the defense industry and Congress, the bureaucratic relationship between the firms and the military services, and the technical capabilities of different types of businesses. Many government officials and analysts believe that only entrepreneurial start-up firms or leaders in commercial information technology markets can produce the new, network-oriented military equipment. But Dombrowski and Gholz find that the existing defense industry will be best able to lead military-technology development, even for equipment modeled on the civilian Internet. The U.S. government is already spending billions of dollars each year on its "military transformation" program-money that could be easily misdirected and wasted if policymakers spend it on the wrong projects or work with the wrong firms. In addition to this practical implication, Buying Military Transformation offers key lessons for the theory of "Revolutions in Military Affairs." A series of military analysts have argued that major social and economic changes, like the shift from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age, inherently force related changes in the military. Buying Military Transformation undermines this technologically determinist claim: commercial innovation does not directly determine military innovation; instead, political leadership and military organizations choose the trajectory of defense investment. Militaries should invest in new technology in response to strategic threats and military leaders' professional judgments about the equipment needed to improve military effectiveness. Commercial technological progress by itself does not generate an imperative for military transformation. Clear, cogent, and engaging, Buying Military Transformation is essential reading for journalists, legislators, policymakers, and scholars.
Dwight D. Eisenhower once quipped, “You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.” Military acquisition and procurement—that is, how a nation manages investments, technologies, programs, and support—is critical to wartime success or failure. When unexpected battlefield problems arise, how do the government, the military, and industry work together to ensure effective solutions? During the American counterinsurgent campaign in Iraq, the improvised explosive device emerged as a disruptive and devastating threat. As Humvees, and their occupants, were ripped apart by IEDs, it was clear that new solutions had to be found. These solutions already existed but had not been procured, highlighting the need for more effective marketing to the military by industry. The ultimate successful response—the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, or MRAP—required years of entrepreneurial marketing by the defense industry. In Securing the MRAP: Lessons Learned in Marketing and Military Procurement, James Hasik explores how these vehicles, which the American military mostly rejected despite the great need for them, eventually came to be adopted as the Pentagon’s top procurement priority. Hasik traces the story of the MRAP from the early 1970s to the future of mine-resistant vehicles on the battlefields of tomorrow. An important contribution to the seemingly disparate fields of marketing and defense policy, Securing the MRAP is an eye-opening revelation to defense industrialists, military officers, and government officials who want to understand how to avoid another IED-Humvee debacle.
Creativity is the lifeblood of any business—from fledgling startup to global giant, creativity is what inspires entrepeneurs to take the leap into the unknown, motivates project teams to design faster and better products, drives executives to set their sights on new markets and customers. The Creative Enterprise asks: where do these creative impulses come from, and how can they be channeled into profitable ventures? Contributions from scholars and practitioners around the world integrate insights from the fields of management, economics, technology, psychology, and sociology to shed new light on innovation and how it drives business growth. Volume 1 focuses on innovation strategies, with chapters on developing the new product pipeline, technology transfer, and strategic alliances. Volume 2 considers the individual and organizational aspects of innovation, with chapters on the psychology of creativity and the influences of organizational culture on innovation. Volume 3 covers the infrastructure for promoting and sustaining innovation, with chapters on managing creative teams, selecting and funding projects, and developing effective performance measurement and rewards systems. Create—to make or bring into existence something new, derived from the Latin crescere, to grow. Creativity is the lifeblood of any business—from fledgling startup to global giant, creativity is what inspires entrepreneurs to take the leap into the unknown, motivates project teams to design faster and better products, drives executives to set their sights on new markets and customers. Where does this creativity come from? How can it be channeled into profitable ventures? The Creative Enterprise brings together the most current thinking from academics and practitioners around the world to shed new light on creativity and how it drives business growth. It addresses such topics as: Why are some organizations creative and others are not? What catalyzes new ideas? How can leaders balance short-term financial pressures and long-term creative aspirations? And how can firms maximize the value of their ideas into profitable products and services? While many authors have tackled pieces of the puzzle, this set uniquely integrates insights from the fields of management, economics, technology, psychology, and sociology, to cover the spectrum across individual and organizational innovation. Volume 1 focuses on innovation strategies, with chapters on developing the new product pipeline, measuring the impact of innovation on firm growth, technology transfer, and strategic alliances. Volume 2 considers the individual and organizational aspects of innovation, with chapters on creativity and artwork, idea catalysts and blocks, and the interplay between organizational culture and innovation. Volume 3 covers the infrastructure for promoting and sustaining innovation, with chapters on managing creative teams, selecting and funding projects, and developing effective performance measurement and rewards systems.
Currently, the prime focus for US business plans should not be on the manufacturing process design and delivery processes, but on greatly improving innovation leadership, design engineering capability, and sales and marketing innovation. These three areas have been sadly lacking significant performance improvement during the past 20 years. The magic word for US business is "simplification." Most of the books written to date focus on the solution development aspect of the Innovation System Cycle, which is less than 15% of the total innovative system. Focusing on solution development is only the start -- the rest of the innovation system cycle is what turns an idea into a profitable business. The techniques in this book are directed at key tasks across the innovative process, such as maximizing quality, productivity, maintainability, usability, and reliability, while focusing on reducing the product cycle time and costs within the innovative process. This book uses more than 50 different approaches/concepts, which leads the reader in a very simple method for understanding, establishing, and effectively using an innovative system to provide a significant marketing advantage. Previous books have focused on what to do; however, this book focuses on how to do it. It transforms a complicated complex system into easy-to-use and understand methodology.
Innovation is a time-consuming process that involves invention as a beginning and a marketable service or product as an end. But innovation itself, once concluded, is not necessarily a constructive act as some innovations yield positive and some negative results. The way we recognize and develop innovation—so often a serendipitous and almost invisible act in its beginning—is thus a matter of primary importance in today's world where new thoughts and products play such a crucial role in economies across the globe. Nowhere is the general support structure required for success in innovation more starkly illuminated than in the fields of science and medicine, where human well-being is so manifestly at stake. In this work, which draws together the perspectives of a multidisciplinary group of professionals—medical doctors, innovation policy analysts, and academics in business management—Shantha Liyanage and his colleagues provide a thorough examination of the technology innovation process, and display its critical links with organizational functions, so the innovative capacities of organizations can be better prepared to meet the rapid changes of our age.
In macro-, meso- and micro-economic systems, the concept of innovation involves a variety of resources and functions. It includes all formal and informal institutions, networks and actors that influence innovation and act as innovation boosters within companies, at the territorial level, at the level of innovation networks or in national economies. This book deals with innovation in a globalized context in terms of the entrepreneur, enterprise, territorial and sectoral systems and national systems of innovation in which collective innovation processes are formed.
