Invented Here

By Bart Victor and Andrew C. Boynton

Argues that to succeed in a market where consumers demand customized goods and services, you cannot rely on any one formula. Providing examples from companies such as Taco Bell, Dell Computer, Xerox, and Merrill Lynch, this book reveals how managers can determine the best path of change for their company by assessing its existing knowledge base.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875847986
• ISBN13: 9780875847986
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Learning From Others

The importance of organization design on the success of a business, be it that of a service company or a product supplier, is often underestimated. Strategy alone is not enough.The great value of this book lies in 3 areas :i) Use of illustrating failure as well as success - better to learn from someone else's mistakes so that you can, hopefully, avoid them.ii) Identifying in meaningful terms where to position your organisation for your product/service e.g. if you need a great mass production machine, that is how you should organize; when your customers need more, don't hide from it - just do it well.iii) The style is refreshingly alive. You feel you can relate to real people solving real problems. Too often, books like this feel like they belong only in libraries - this one offers genuinely practical insight. It's up to you to apply it.If I have one (minor) criticism, it is the title. Don't let it mislead you. This book is a very helpful guide to many aspects of organizational design and a better title, in my opinion, would be something like:- "Optimizing Your Organization For Your Customers"

Important insights into the learning organization.

This book reveals how to use knowledge residing in the company to transform organization and manage growth. It presents a model of organizational learning and development with four steps: craft, mass production, process enhancement, and mass customization. It explores the leveraging of four associated types of knowledge and presents a learning system for developing organizational knowledge. Provides important insights the learning organization.

Wakes you up to the importance of Knowledge Management.

A well written book to help you understand how to develop your company's business along the "right path"to deliver higher customer value. The format and language of the book make it a joy to read. The concrete examples from both service and product industries are very useful.

The keys to corporate success are in the corporation!

Too many managers look to external consultants to provide the keys to their organization's success. Was it quality circles, TQM, or re-engineering you last tried as a way to rejuventate your struggling organzation? Victor and Boynton suggest you save your money and focus within. Their logical process of analysis and implementation will help your firm on the "right path" to organizational success. The process demands that firms think clearly and carefully about who they are and what business they are in compared to what their customers really want. This analysis helps a firm determine if it should compete on the basis of novelty, commodity, quality, or precision. The choice made suggests that craft work, mass production, process enhancement, or mass customization provides the best strategy to meet those customer demands. Achieving these strategies can only occur as a firm moves from craft work, through mass production and process enhancement to mass customization via the "right path." In an engaging combination of personal insight and case examples, the authors lead the reader along the "path." They offer numerous stories of organizations around the world that have followed this "path" to organizational success. Don't let the reletive brevity of their effort mislead you. The ideas they propose should force the thoughful manager into careful and thoughful consideration of the firm's current structure, products, and processes. If the analysis suggests that changes are warranted, then Victor and Boynton's guidebook along the "right path" will prove well worth the initial investment.A thoughtful, creative tour de force in a field littered with lightweight, feel-good competitors. Enjoy!

Outstanding primer for managers confronting dramatic change.

This book goes beyond the tired cliches of so many current management books. It clearly articulates a reason and a method for mangers to deal with the rapidly changing environment. Moreover, the authors provde both the historic context and the theeoretical underpinnings to support their views.A manager who reads this book will be challenged to rethink how he or she does business and guided along the right path to make the necessary chnages.