“If you strive for more relevant innovation or want to outpace your competition, this book is for you.” —Roger Johnson, Senior Vice President of Product Design and Engineering, Keurig Dr Pepper When a company can get its best ideas to market faster, its leaders can be confident that their most important strategic decisions will be executed faithfully, and their visions for the company’s future will be realized. They are also able to be agile in response to market changes, pursue new opportunities, and achieve ambitious plans for growth. High Velocity Innovation will show how companies accelerate growth with: The strategic elements that pull innovation from their best people A framework for driving innovation that overcomes roadblocks, cultural barriers, and the pressure to sustain the current business Leadership models and metrics for building high accountability and responsiveness into innovation systems A roadmap for accelerating innovation across your business, no matter where you are now Businesses like yours can establish strategies, systems, processes, and tools that build innovation velocity by addressing the root causes that lead to innovation disappointments. To succeed, your best ideas need solid execution without launch delays, budget overruns, or poor product/market fit. Not every idea will succeed—and not every idea should succeed. But a company’s best ideas can be identified and accelerated with High Velocity Innovation.

Generate Better, Faster Results—Using Less Capital and Fewer Resources! “[The High-Velocity Edge] contains ideas that form the basis for structured continuous learning and improvement in every aspect of our lives. While this book is tailored to business leaders, it should be read by high school seniors, college students, and those already in the workforce. With the broad societal application of these ideas, we can achieve levels of accomplishment not even imagined by most people.” The Honorable Paul H. O’Neill, former CEO and Chairman, Alcoa, and Former Secretary of the Treasury “Some firms outperform competitors in many ways at once—cost, speed, innovation, service. How? Steve Spear opened my eyes to the secret of systemizing innovation: taking it from the occasional, unpredictable ‘stroke of genius’ to something you and your people do month-in, month-out to outdistance rivals.” Scott D. Cook, founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit, Inc. “Steven Spear connects a deep study of systems with practical management insights and does it better than any organizational scholar I know. [This] is a profoundly important book that will challenge and inspire executives in all industries to think more clearly about the technical and social foundations of organizational excellence.” Donald M. Berwick, M.D., M.P.P., President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement About the Book How can some companies perform so well that their industry counterparts are competitors in name only? Although they operate in the same industry, serve the same market, and even use the same suppliers, these extraordinary, high-velocity organizations consistently outperform all the competition—and, more importantly, continually widen their leads. In The High-Velocity Edge, the reissued edition of five-time Shingo Prize winner Steven J. Spear’s critically acclaimed book Chasing the Rabbit, Spear describes what sets market-dominating companies apart and provides a detailed framework you can leverage to surge to the lead in your own industry. Spear examines the internal operations of dominant organizations across a wide spectrum of industries, from technology to design and from manufacturing to health care. While he investigates several great operational triumphs, like top-tier teaching hospitals’ fantastic improvements in quality of care, Pratt & Whitney’s competitive gains in jet engine design, and the U.S. Navy’s breakthroughs in inventing and applying nuclear propulsion, The High-Velocity Edge is not just about the adoration of success. It also takes a critical look at some of the operational missteps that have humbled even the most reputable and respected of companies and organizations. The decades-long prominence of Toyota, for example, is contrasted with the many factors leading to the automaker’s sweeping 2010 product recalls. Taken together, these multiple perspectives and in-depth case studies show how to: Build a system of “dynamic discovery” designed to reveal operational problems and weaknesses as they arise Attack and solve problems when and where they occur, converting weaknesses into strengths Disseminate knowledge gained from solving local problems throughout the company as a whole Create managers invested in developing everyone’s capacity to continually innovate and improve Whatever kind of company you operate—from technology to fi nance to healthcare—mastery of these four key capabilities will put you on the fast track to operational excellence, where you will generate faster, better results—using less capital and fewer resources. Apply the lessons of Steven J. Spear and gain a high-velocity edge over every competitor in your industry.

What do Ford Motor Company, Steelcase, Scania, Goodyear, Novo Nordisk, and Philips Electronics have in common? They all need to get their best ideas to market as fast as possible. They need to achieve the mastery of innovation. When these companies needed to accelerate time-to-market, get more new products to customers, and improve their ROI from investments in R&D, they turned to Lean Product Development to help them master the process of innovation. By adapting Lean ideas to their specific product development challenges, they learned how to focus innovation on the problems that would maximize customer and business value, and deliver on their best ideas. Winner of a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award! The Mastery of Innovation: A Field Guide to Lean Product Development describes the experiences of 19 companies that have achieved significant results from Lean Product Development. Their stories show that Lean Product Development delivers results: Ford Motor Company completely reinvented its Global Product Development System and put decades of knowledge about automotive design at its engineers’ fingertips DJO Global, a medical device company, more than tripled the number of products they released to the market and cut development time by 60% Playworld Systems cut time-to-market in half–twice The diverse set of North American and European case studies in this book range from very small product development organizations (three engineers) to very large (more than 10,000). Some of the industries represented include automotive, medical devices, industrial products, consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and aerospace. These companies have generously shared their knowledge about Lean Product Development to help you get your best ideas to market faster.

From knowledge to wisdom -- The foundations of knowledge practice -- Towards a model of knowledge creation and practice -- Judging goodness -- Grasping the essence -- Creating Ba -- Communicating the essence -- Exercising "political" power -- Fostering practical wisdom in others -- Epilogue

In publications such as BusinessWeek and Fast Company, the media have celebrated Whirlpool's transformation into a leading-edge innovator and Nancy Tennant Snyder's role as chief innovation officer. Ten years after this remarkable transformation, Unleashing Innovation tells the inside story of one of the most successful innovation turnarounds in American history. Nancy Tennant Snyder and coauthor Deborah L. Duarte reveal how Whirlpool undertook one of the largest change efforts in corporate history and show how innovation was embedded throughout the company, which ultimately lead to bottom-line results.

Provides advice for business leaders on ways to meet the demands of the fast-paced digital age through new technology and business intelligence.

Rapid Learning Cycles will help you find the shortest distance between you and a new product that your customers can buy.