Mitch Beaumont, Ben Thuriaux-Alemán, Prashanth Prasad and Chandler Hatton
According to the authors research, Agile approaches are increasingly being deployed successfully alongside phase-gate processes in engineering and R&D functions outside software…
Abstract
Purpose
According to the authors research, Agile approaches are increasingly being deployed successfully alongside phase-gate processes in engineering and R&D functions outside software, with a very positive result.
Design/methodology/approach
An Agile approach to product development has been a mainstay of the software industry since the turn of the century. In recent years, some non-software product-based companies have successfully combined both Agile and non-Agile methods in a complementary way to pursue breakthrough innovation. The article reports on how to make this combination work.
Findings
The study found companies adopting two general approaches when trying to introduce Agile into an existing phase-gate process: integrating Agile into a single innovation process or adding a partly parallel Agile path.
Practical implications
As a measure of Agile’s potential, the software industry has consistently produced patents at three times the level of the next-most prolific sectors.
Originality/value
Arthur D. Little’s research reveals that companies that have successfully added Agile methods to their toolboxes and tailor their innovation approaches by the type of innovation – incremental or breakthrough–perform significantly better than those that stick to single phase-gate approach.
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Chandler Hatton, Michael Kolk, Martijn Eikelenboom and Mitch Beaumont
Offer a new model for identifying effective approaches to gathering, understanding and synthesizing information related to new product needs of B2B customers.
Abstract
Purpose
Offer a new model for identifying effective approaches to gathering, understanding and synthesizing information related to new product needs of B2B customers.
Design/methodology/approach
Arthur D. Little, together with the Eindhoven University of Technology, conducted in-depth interviews with over 30 product development leaders in 15 companies across multiple sectors.
Findings
When the team interacting with customers is structured appropriately the research showed that “getting it right” can lead to doubling of innovation success rates and have significant impact on R&D effectiveness.
Practical implications
By identifying the degree to which B2B customer needs are clear (expressed) or unclear (latent) and the degree to which technology needs are known (expressed) or unclear (latent), we can start to characterize the most appropriate skill set that a multifunctional product development team will need in order to develop a winning product.
Originality/value
Companies can use an innovative analysis framework to help make informed decisions about how best to organize their teams. The four approaches can be mapped to the four quadrants of a “Customer Needs/Technology Needs” matrix. The study concludes that the benefits are both strategically and financially significant.
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The current neo-liberal trend in the United States insists that citizens must be self-supporting and are free to choose how they will involve themselves in the labor market…
Abstract
The current neo-liberal trend in the United States insists that citizens must be self-supporting and are free to choose how they will involve themselves in the labor market. However, with the hardening of poverty in the inner cities, it is difficult to maintain the idea that everyone can choose to work. The collision between neo-liberal ideologies and economic crisis is evidenced by contemporary prison labor. The incarceration boom and use of prison labor suggests that work and unemployment is a matter of character, thus helping to maintain the idealization of labor as a marker of rationality, disciplined free will, and hence citizenship.
Ever since human society developed, environmental and social changes have led to major challenges that must be dealt with. Some of these major challenges are seen as “disasters,”…
Abstract
Ever since human society developed, environmental and social changes have led to major challenges that must be dealt with. Some of these major challenges are seen as “disasters,” for which a definition that is frequently used is similar to “A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources” (UNISDR, 2004; see, e.g., Quarantelli, 1998, and Furedi, 2007, for discussions on the meaning(s) of “disaster”). From witnessing disasters and being forced to work through the aftermath, humanity has been shifting toward trying to reduce disasters’ impacts or to avert them entirely. This field has the modern-day interpretation of “disaster risk reduction,” defined as “The conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development” (UNISDR, 2004).
Angeliki Paidakaki and Frank Moulaert
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of “resilience” by disentangling the contentious interactions of various parameters that define and guide resilience…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of “resilience” by disentangling the contentious interactions of various parameters that define and guide resilience trajectories, such as the physical infrastructure, socio-spatial inequalities, path dependencies, power relationships, competing discourses and human agency. This socio-political reconstruction of “resilience” is needed for two reasons: the concept of resilience becomes more responsive to the complex realities on the ground, and the discussion moves toward the promotion of more dynamic recovery governance models that can promote socially just allocated redundancy in housing actions, which could be seen as a key to incubating resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper that mobilizes theories of urban political ecology, social innovation and housing with the aim to examine the tensions between various discourses that steer housing production during post-disaster recovery processes, and put a spotlight on the heterogeneity in the transformative capacity of the various actors, institutions and visions of housing systems that preexist or emerge in the post-disaster city. This heterogeneity of actors (i.e. growth coalitions, neighborhood associations and housing cooperatives) consequently leads the discussion toward the investigation of “new” roles of the state in formulating relevant disaster governance models and housing (re)construction systems.
Findings
The initial stress produced by a natural event is often extended because of long-term unmet housing needs. The repercussion of this prolonged stress is a loss of social progress partly due to the reiterated oppression of alternative housing production propositions. In this paper, the authors conclude that an asset-based community development approach to recovery can provide an antidote to the vicious cycles of social stress by opening up diverse housing options. This means that the recovery destiny is not predetermined according to pre-set ideas but is molded by the various bottom-up dynamics that democratically sketch the final socially desirable reconstruction outcome(s).
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is twofold. By using theoretical insights from urban political ecology, housing studies and social innovation, the paper first builds up onto the current reconstruction of the notion of disaster resilience. Second, by identifying a heterogeneity of “social resilience cells”, the paper leads the discussion toward the investigation of the “new” role of the state in formulating relevant recovery governance models. In this respect, the paper builds a narrative of social justice in terms of the redistribution of resources and the cultivation of empowerment across the various housing providers who struggle for their right to the reconstruction experiment.