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

Victor, Bart; Boynton, Andrew C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875847986 ISBN 13: 9780875847986

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 1998

Synopsis

Calling on the examples of Dell Computer, Taco Bell, Xerox, Merrill Lynch, and other companies, a guide shows executives how to build on the skills and technical know-how their employees already possess to meet the challenges of the contemporary marketplace.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Reviews

Those who counsel individuals often first advise to "look within yourself" for answers. Similarly, the authors here suggest that most organizations already possess the internal resources necessary to succeed and grow. Victor and Boynton are both professors at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They argue that rather than adopt each passing management fad, companies should use the organizational knowledge they already have and should regularly assess their existing knowledge base to discover their own unique patterns of managing growth and satisfying customers. The authors assert that there are four organizational capabilities. These are craft work, mass production, process enhancement, and mass customization. Victor and Boynton detail the "knowledge and value propositions" associated with each of the four, and they explain how, after self-analysis, companies can plot the "right path" for moving from one capability--or type of work--to the next. Their ideas are supported by numerous examples resulting from work with the IBM Consulting Group. David Rouse

Victor and Boynton (management, International Institute for Management Development, Lausane, Switzerland) offer a rare gem among countless "also-ran" management texts. This solid work is filled with insights toward a fundamental understanding of organizations and how best to prepare for the future. Rather than turning to intermittent fads, the authors encourage building on what a firm is already about and explain their concept of a transformation path from craft work through mass production, process enhancement, mass configuration, ultimately to what they term co-configuration. Along this path, the different types of inherent knowledge within companies focusing on these different steps are defined, and practical measures from numerous companies exemplifying these different stages help convey the progression. This excellent work nicely complements John Macdonald's Calling a Halt to Mindless Change (LJ 4/1/98) and John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge's The Witch Doctors (LJ 12/96). Highly recommended for academic libraries supporting a business curriculum.?Dale F. Farris, Groves, TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0875847986
• ISBN 13: 9780875847986
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272