Invented Here: Maximizing Your Organization's Internal Growth and Profitability

Description

Record breaking economic growth, Rapid global expansion, Dizzying technological innovation: As we head toward the new millennium, it seems as if there are more opportunities than ever for your company to create new value, satisfy customers, and make money. But, given today's bewildering array of management methods, how do you determine which path to follow - and how do you adapt your company for the journey? With "Invented Here", authors Victor and Boynton argue that to succeed in a market where consumers increasingly demand customized goods and services, you cannot rely on any one formula. Instead, you must look within your own organization to invent, develop, and deliver the distinctive competencies that ensure growth and profitability. The authors conclude that there are distinct patterns in the way that successful companies manage their internal growth - patterns found in the evaluation and application of organizational knowledge. More important, they provide a workable strategy for emulating these patterns; arguing that any company, in order to more closely satisfy the needs of its customers, can develop the capabilities necessary to evolve from craft work to mass customization, and beyond. With examples from companies such as Beretta, Taco Bell, Dell Computer, Xerox, and Merrill Lynch providing a real-world context, "Invented Here" reveals how managers can determine the best path of change for their company by assessing its existing knowledge base. The book is a pioneering guide to using the knowledge that resides within your company in the actual transformation of work: the nature of what you do, the value that you can create with your customers, and the organizational knowledge to be mined along the way.

Bart Victor is a professor of management and director of the program for executive development at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Lausanne, Switzerland, and a professor of management in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.