Jumping the Curve: Innovation and Strategic Choice in an Age of Transition (Jossey-Bass Management) - Tapa blanda

"If I were to recommAnd that my managers read just one business book this year, Jumping the Curve would be it. The authors' historical analysis offers a fresh perspective on the challenges facing business today. And for anyone who wants to stay on the cutting edge, their insights on innovation and their advice on how to "look a customer ahead" show exactly what needs to be done on Monday morning." --Charles R. Schwab, chairman and CEO, The Charles Shwab Corporation "A must read. Captures the guiding principles that drive business success: an orientation toward creative vigilance, an understanding of the need for unified consistency, and most importantly, a realization that customers define satisfaction." --Paul J. Orfalea, founder and chairperson, Kinko's Copy Centers "A great guidebook for those who have discovered that the world has changed overnight. The recommAndation to build the organization around the software and the software around the customer provides insights every manager should ponder." --Paul Saffo, director, Institute for the Future

Foreword by Tom Peters Internationally known management consultants Nicholas Imparato and Oren Harari connect the big picture of our changing civilizations with the specific practical actions that managers have to take to produce results today. All organizations are faced with the same challenge: the need to jump the curve to make significant, discontinuous leaps in their thinking, whether about product, technology, or management style. The alternative to follow current practices all the way to their inevitable decline is unacceptable. The authors show us that it is also unnecessary. Drawing on numerous personal interviews with innovative leaders around the world, as well as research and first-hand observation, Imparato and Harari identify the four strategic imperatives--innovation, intelligence, coherence, and responsibility--that will enable companies to successfully jump the curve and thrive in the emerging epoch. And they show how cutting-edge companies and leaders are translating these imperatives into action. Not since the dawn of the Modern Age some five hundred years ago has civilization undergone the kind of profound, rapid-fire changes we're experiencing today. Even organizations that are adapting, growing and innovating have the gnawing sense that obsolescence is right around the corner. Jumping the Curve offers perspective and guidance for doing business at this unique moment in time. It connects the big picture of our changing world with the practical actions managers must take now to position their organizations for success in a new epoch we can't yet fully see or understand.