Florian Rittiner

The Past, Present, and Future of Organizational Learning Research A Conversation With Professor Linda Argote

We share an interview on the past, present, and future of organizational learning research from the perspective of one of the field’s foundational contributors—Professor Linda Argote (Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University). This interview was held at the 2013 Strategic Management Society (SMS) annual conference in Atlanta, continuing the emerging tradition of bringing the SMS Knowledge and Innovation Group closer to the people who wrote important, foundational papers at the intersection of strategy, knowledge, and innovation.

Out of the Garbage Can? How Continuous Improvement Facilitators Match Solutions to Problems

This chapter builds upon and extends the discussion about knowledge management processes in New Product Development (NPD). We refine Nonaka’s (1994) SECI model by focusing on what and — more specifically — who triggers the transition across the different learning modes, i.e., socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. To do so, this study integrates Nonaka’s distinction between different forms of knowledge — tacit vs. explicit — with Davenport’s (1993) distinction in terms of knowledge content — process knowledge (the knowledge of how to develop products) vs. improvement knowledge (the knowledge of how to improve business processes).

Promoting user-centricity in short-term ideation workshops

Abstract Participating in a short-term ideation workshop – based on design thinking principles – may increase the innovation capability of companies. We show how the persona methodology can be successfully applied to promote user-centricity in such ideation workshops. For this research, we observed 20 design teams of Swiss Small and Medium-sized Enterprises during 2.5-day standardized ideation workshops, and analyzed how they developed and used – in total 81 – personas as a design tool to inform their product and service development activities. We found that an iterative approach, which allows for frequent reality checks during the persona development process, in combination with diversely staffed design teams, who bring a broad range of expertise and experiences together, may compensate for the limited amount of time available for user research during short-term ideation workshops. Moreover, our study revealed two varying persona usage patterns, namely personas used as a reference point versus personas used as a starting point. These findings highlight personas as a valuable design tool to promote user-centricity during short-term ideation workshops in the early development phase of new products, services and business models.

Product Development: Lean Management in der Entwicklung

Die Einfuhrung von Lean Management in der Entwicklung hat ihre Tucken und nur wenigen Unternehmen gelingt es, ein erfolgreiches Lean-Product-Development-System aufzubauen und aufrechtzuerhalten. Diese Schwierigkeiten haben verschiedene Ursachen: Lean Management ist gemeinhin bekannt als eine Prozessoptimierungsmethodik, die im Produktions- und Logistikumfeld zum Einsatz kommt. Dieses Umfeld ist bestimmt durch seine repetitiven Aufgaben und kurze Arbeitszyklen. Die Produktentwicklung hingegen wird als sehr kreatives Umfeld mit hoher Unsicherheit und typischerweise langeren Projektzyklen verstanden. Dieser Artikel portratiert das Unternehmen Hirschmann Automation and Control GmbH – A Belden Brand, dem es gelungen ist, Lean Management in der Produktentwicklung sehr erfolgreich einzufuhren und dabei ein umfassendes LPD-System mit einer Vielzahl von Methoden und Werkzeugen aufzubauen. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf das wichtigste Tool im LPD-System, das Lean Daily Management (LDM) und dessen Kernelement, die Key Performance Indicators (KPI).