Working Papers

By George Byrne, Dave Lubowe and Amy Blitz

This research (.PDF) and experience shows that the right operations strategy can help companies make innovation a regular occurrence. Such a strategy, if focused not just on efficiency but also on growth, can serve as a foundation for innovation throughout an organization – far beyond operations to products, services, markets and even a company’s underlying business model. Simply put, this sort of strategy is not about doing things better; it is about doing better things.

By Bill Curtis, William E. Hefley, Sally A. Miller

An organization'’s success in its business markets is determined by its success in the talent market. At the very time that business markets are expanding, talent markets seem to be shrinking. As the knowledge required to build products and deliver services increases, the retention of experienced employees becomes critical to improving productivity and time to market. In areas such as software development and nursing, the shortage of talent is so great that companies are beginning to offer incentives that were once only available to executives or professional athletes. In every domain of business, executives know that their ability to compete is directly related to their ability to attract, develop, motivate, organize, and retain talented people. Read More...(.PDF)

By Christian Glahn, Marcus Specht, Rob Koper

This paper(.PDF) focuses on the relevant information for collecting and presenting contextual information, its effects and impact on the learning interaction cycle, and mechanisms of controlling it. The core principle of the learning interaction cycle is the interaction of learners with their learning environment. Previous research highlights that such interaction is important for the experience and progress of learners.

By Steve Borgatti

All knowledge is socially constructed, but some more than others.
In some cases, an individual interacts with a number of others who may be completely unaware of what problem he is trying to solve, and then, with the knowledge gained, the individual goes off by himself and synthesizes a solution.
In other cases, the new knowledge is co-created by interacting individuals who are bouncing ideas off each other and actively integrating their different perspectives.
These two kinds of knowledge creation are supported by different kinds of network structures. Read more...

For the first time in its history, Stanford University is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) expands the Stanford experience to students and educators online. A computer and an Internet connection is all you need. View lecture videos, access reading lists and other course handouts, take quizzes and tests, and communicate with other SEE students, all at your convenience. Read more...

Six Sigma is a rigorous and disciplined methodology that uses data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance by identifying and eliminating "defects" in manufacturing and service-related processes. Commonly defined as 3.4 defects per million opportunities, Six Sigma can be defined and understood at three distinct levels: metric, methodology and philosophy...
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Six Sigma makes use of a great number of established quality management methods that are also used outside of Six Sigma. This document shows an overview of the main methods used.

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
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Learners to day are immersed in an increasingly digital world and we need to understand what the educational implications of this are. Many are suggesting today's learners want richer and more engaging learning experiences but the evidence to support these claims is sketchy at best. Instructors across educational sectors are exploring and sharing innovative ways to use technology to foster interaction, collaboration, and increased excitement for learning. Unfortunately, as any high school student will tell you, this is far less common than most would hope. In response, it is time to take advantage of the new participatory learning culture where learners build, tinker with, explore, share, and collaborate with others online. It is also time exploit free and open educational resources, opencourseware, learning portals, and open source software across educational sectors and income levels. Read more...

Through the OLI project, Carnegie Mellon is working to help the World Wide Web make good on its promise of widely accessible and effective online education. OLI grew out of collaboration among cognitive scientists, experts in human computer interaction and seasoned faculty who have both a deep expertise in their respective fields and a strong commitment to excellence in higher education. The project adds to online education the crucial elements of instructional design grounded in cognitive theory, formative evaluation for students and faculty, and iterative course improvement based on empirical evidence.

By Peter Dalmaris, William P. Hall, Wayne Philp

This paper extends the KBPI to incorporate the idea of the time-value of knowledge, a term we coin and define as a qualification that helps in assessing the applicability of knowledge to solving problems with a variety of time horizons. This examination extends from the simple observation that the knowledge requirements (the knowledge objects, supporting infrastructure and structure, that make up business processes) of the typical knowledge worker, such as a help desk customer support agent, are very different to those of a CEO or an army commander who must to think and/or act now in order to achieve their goals in the future. Read more...

by Tim Brown

Historically, design has been treated as a downstream step in the development process—the point where designers, who have played no earlier role in the substantive work of innovation, come along and put a beautiful wrapper around the idea. To be sure, this approach has stimulated market growth in many areas by making new products and technologies aesthetically attractive and therefore more desirable to consumers or by enhancing brand perception through smart, evocative advertising and communication strategies. During the latter half of the twentieth century design became an increasingly valuable competitive asset in, for example, the consumer electronics, automotive, and consumer packaged goods industries. But in most others it remained a late-stage add-on. Read more...

by Lance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick

We all know that people “hire” products and services to get a job done. Office workers hire word-processing software to create documents and digital recorders to capture meeting notes. Surgeons hire scalpels to dissect soft tissue and electrocautery devices to control patient bleeding. Janitors hire soap dispensers, paper towels, and cleansing fluid to help remove grime from their hands.

While all this seems obvious, very few companies use the perspective of “getting the job done” to discover opportunities for innovation. In fact, the innovation journey for many companies is little more than hopeful wandering through customer interviews. Such unsystematic inquiry may occasionally turn up interesting tidbits of information, but it rarely uncovers the best ideas or an exhaustive set of opportunities for growth. Read more...

By Scott-Jackson, William; Edney, Terry; Rushent, Ceri

This whitepaper contains the results of a study initiated by the Chartered Management Institute, carried out by the Centre for Applied HR Research at Oxford Brookes Business School. The purpose of the study was to analyse the value from on-line learning in management development.

By P. Dillenbourg, M. Baker, A. Blaye, C. O'Malley

For many years, theories of collaborative learning tended to focus on how individuals function in a group. More recently, the focus has shifted so that the group itself has become the unit of analysis. In terms of empirical research, the initial goal was to establish whether and under what circumstances
collaborative learning was more effective than learning alone. Researchers controlled several independent variables (size of the group, composition of the group, nature of the task,
communication media, and so on). However, these variables interacted with one another in a way that made it almost impossible to establish causal links between the conditions and the
effects of collaboration. Hence, empirical studies have more recently started to focus less on establishing parameters for effective collaboration and more on trying to understand the role
which such variables play in mediating interaction. In this chapter, we argue that this shift to a more process-oriented account requires new tools for analysing and modelling interactions. Read more...