More from these Authors

• Book | 2012

  How Will You Measure Your Life?

  Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth and Karen Dillon

  Citation:

  Christensen, Clayton M., James Allworth, and Karen Dillon. How Will You Measure Your Life? HarperBusiness, 2012.

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• Book | 2011

  The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators

  Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregersen and Clayton M. Christensen

  Some people are just natural innovators, right? With no apparent effort, they discover ideas for new products, services, and entire businesses. It may look like innovators are born, not made. But according to Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clay Christensen anyone can become more innovative. How? Master the discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers. In The Innovator's DNA, the authors identify five capabilities demonstrated by the best innovators: (1) Associating: drawing connections between questions, problems, or ideas from unrelated fields; (2) Questioning: posing queries that challenge common wisdom; (3) Observing: scrutinizing the behavior of customers, suppliers, and competitors to identify new ways of doing things; (4) Experimenting: constructing interactive experiences and provoking unorthodox responses to see what insights emerge; and (5) Networking: meeting people with different ideas and perspectives. The authors explain how to generate ideas with these skills, collaborate with "delivery-driven" colleagues to implement ideas, and build innovation skills throughout your organization to sharpen its competitive edge. They also provide a self-assessment for rating your own innovator's DNA. Practical and provocative, this book is an essential resource for all teams seeking to strengthen their innovative prowess.

  Keywords: Competency and Skills; Disruptive Innovation; Competitive Advantage;

  Citation:

  Dyer, Jeffrey H., Hal B. Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen. The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2011.

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2011

  Baria Planning Solutions, Inc.: Fixing the Sales Process

  Steven C. Wheelwright and William Schmidt

  Baria Planning Solutions (BPS) is a consulting firm that specializes in using spend analysis to help companies identify savings through reduced procurement costs and improved supplier performance. Management is concerned about the disappointing performance of the sales team in attaining new clients and renewing existing ones. The Sales directors feel they do not get the help they need from Sales Support to close new deals, while the Sales Support directors believe they could provide better support by organizing into industry-specific divisions. The consulting industry is becoming increasingly competitive and inefficiencies in the sales process at BPS may interfere with the company's ability to win new business. The recently hired director of North American Sales Support must analyze the current process flow for Sales Support and identify the problems facing the sales organization. The president of the company has asked her to present a proposal for improving the performance of the entire group.

  Keywords: Quantitative analysis; technology; operations management; Product lines; manufacturing; capacity planning; Production Planning; Measurement and Metrics; Production; Management Practices and Processes; Supply Chain Management; Service Operations; Salesforce Management; Planning; Consulting Industry; North and Central America;

  Citation:

  Wheelwright, Steven C., and William Schmidt. "Baria Planning Solutions, Inc.: Fixing the Sales Process." Harvard Business School Brief Case 114-568, May 2011.

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