This book clarifies the common misconception that there are no systematic instruments to support ideation, heuristics and creativity. Using a collection of articles from professionals practicing the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), this book presents an overview of current trends and enhancements within TRIZ in an international context, and shows its different roles in enhancing creativity for innovation in research and practice. Since its first introduction by Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller in 1956 in the USSR, the TRIZ method has been widely used by inventors, design engineers and has become a standard element of innovation support tools in many Fortune 500 companies. However, TRIZ has only recently entered the domain of scientific publications and discussion. This collection of articles is meant as a record of scientific discussion on TRIZ that reflects the most interesting talking points, research interests, results and expectations. Topics such as Creative and Inventive Design, Patent Mining, and Knowledge Harvesting are also covered in this book.

This book examines the concept and practice of mentoring, as well as the wider scope and diversity of the mentoring that people can experience in their own life time. With each chapter dedicated to a specific level of mentoring, the book makes clear the impact and value of mentoring not only for the participants themselves but also on the situations in which mentoring occurs and the reverberations, positive and negative, on others outside this relationship. It shows the importance of relationships for people, individually and collectively and clarifies how relationships form the DNA for an inspiring, creative and professional life for the person and the community in which they engage. The book is about how support and skills can be transferred through mentoring to rebuild resilience through positive relationships and community; reconstructing them as we go.

Combining conceptual, pragmatic and operational approaches, this edited collection addresses the demand for knowledge and understanding of IT in the healthcare sector. With new technology outbreaks, our vision of healthcare has been drastically changed, switching from a 'traditional' path to a digitalized one. Providing an overview of the role of IT in the healthcare sector, The Digitization of Healthcare illustrates the potential benefits and challenges for all those involved in delivering care to the patient. The incursion of IT has disrupted the value chain and changed business models for companies working in the health sector, and also raised ethical issues and new paradigms about delivering care. This book illustrates the rise of patient empowerment through the development of patient communities such as PatientLikeMe, and medical collaborate platforms such as DockCheck, thus providing a necessary tool to patients, caregivers and academics alike.

As the size and complexity of a company change in the course of its evolution it experiences predictable stages of growth. During these stages, a company discovers that what worked in the past no longer works. At such times, managers have to juggle the three variables of organizational evolution--the firM's purpose, its business and management processes, and its human resource issues--and keep them in balance as they reinvent new ways of structuring the firm. Typically, tension develops as one variable is stressed at the expense of the others. Managers need to know how to delegate decision making without abdicating overall control of the organization. The model developed here derives from the authors' understanding of how successful firms have managed these tensions.

Fletcher and Taplin deal with teamwork, leadership, and the nature of dynamic change while successfully avoiding the cliches to which many experts in those areas are prone. They discuss teamwork in the context of wider performance and process issues. They address leadership not by talking about personality traits but by examining the tensions within authority structures as senior managers attempt to reconcile organizational logics (history and past practices that have sustained the firm) and their own definition of the challenges that face the firm. The authors argue that such contradictions follow a predictable pattern. Managers can either ignore the underlying instability or confront it in ways that will ease the transition and sustain the organization's dynamic growth.

This book presents a comprehensive introduction to Integrated Business Planning (IBP), building on practitioner's experience and showcasing the value gains when moving from disconnected planning to IBP. It also proposes a road map for the transformation of planning, including technological initiatives, business priorities and organizational processes, and demonstrates how to motivate different IBP stakeholders to work together, when and how to connect strategic (to be understood as long term SC&O), tactical and operational planning and how to leverage functional and data integration features of SAP IBP. Real-world business-process use cases help to show the practical implications of implementing SAP IBP. Furthermore the book explores new capabilities, talent acquisition and retention, career development leadership, IBP Center of Expertise. A discussion of how disruptive technology trends like big data, Internet of Things, machine learning and artificial intelligence can influence IBP now and in the near future rounds out the book.

This book presents the characteristics and benefits industrial organizations can reap from the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). These characteristics and benefits include enhanced competitiveness, increased proactive decision-making, improved creativity and innovation, augmented job creation, heightened agility to respond to continuously changing challenges, and intensified data-driven decision making. In a straightforward fashion, the book also helps readers understand complex concepts that are core to IIoT enterprises, such as Big Data, analytic architecture platforms, machine learning (ML) and data science algorithms, and the power of visualization to enrich the domains experts' decision making. The book also guides the reader on how to think about ways to define new business paradigms that the IIoT facilitates, as well how to increase the probability of success in managing analytic projects that are the core engine of decision-making in the IIoT enterprise. The book starts by defining an IIoT enterprise and the framework used to efficiently operate. A description of the concepts of industrial analytics, which is a major engine for decision making in the IIoT enterprise, is provided. It then discusses how data and machine learning (ML) play an important role in increasing the competitiveness of industrial enterprises that operate using the IIoT technology and business concepts. Real world examples of data driven IIoT enterprises and various business models are presented and a discussion on how the use of ML and data science help address complex decision-making problems and generate new job opportunities. The book presents in an easy-to-understand manner how ML algorithms work and operate on data generated in the IIoT enterprise. Useful for any industry professional interested in advanced industrial software applications, including business managers and professionals interested in how data analytics can help industries and to develop innovative business solutions, as well as data and computer scientists who wish to bridge the analytics and computer science fields with the industrial world, and project managers interested in managing advanced analytic projects.

This book examines the major business communication theories, delving into their relationships and practical applications. Many business communication studies lack a strong theoretical grounding-a deficit that creates difficulties for researching business communication phenomena and building upon previous studies. The book addresses this issue by cataloging and briefly describing the major business communication theories, as well as giving a typology of these theories to better integrate them. This book provides value to business communication researchers (who can use it to build upon and develop their work), experts in practice (who can apply it to improve business communications), and academics (who can use it to enhance their instructional designs). It also offers insights into new developments on the business communication theory horizon.

This volume focuses on what many see as an iminent crisis in the public sector, and particularly in the federal government-the possibility that, due to the realities of workforce demographics, poor leadership, lack of competitiveness in the labor market, and demotivating worker conditions, the public service will not maintain its capacity to manage programs, execute laws, and effectively deliver services for the American people. Larry Lane and James Wolf examine the significant human resource problems now confronting federal agencies, addressing these issues from a demographic, organizational, political, and cultural perspective. Arguing that the revitalization of the public service demands an effective, responsible, energetic, and committed workforce, they recommend concrete solutions and strategies aimed at stabilizing the current situation and contributing to a stronger and more effective public service over the long term. Following an introductory statement of major issues, Lane and Wolf explore the crucial roles of the public service in a democratic system of governance and assess the factors that now put the system at risk. They then introduce four conceptual lenses that can be used as an analytical tool to understand the problems of the public service and to develop solutions for assuring the supply, preparedness, productivity, and dedication of government employees. The authors first look at employment flow-the problem of maintaining workforce cadres over time. They examine problems of attraction and retention, inadequacies in system personnel policies, and the necessity for workforce planning. Turning to a discussion of competence in the workforce, the authors examine systemicblocks to the development of competence and offer strategies for addressing the competence issue. The next two chapters treat the concepts of energy and commitment, exploring ways to foster an organizational culture that encourages productivity, continuous improvement, and a long-term commitment to public service. The final chapter presents a detailed set of proposals, options, and initiatives for rebuilding the public service. Administrators, policy-makers, personnel officers, and students of public administration will find this work a significant contribution toward understanding and resolving the public sector's intensifying human resource problems.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of role of entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and innovation policy for the achievement of economic development and prosperity in African societies. It adopts a broad innovation systems approach. The book examines entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology commercialisation alongside context-specific factors associated with them. It also provides an interdisciplinary perspective, by discussing the above disciplines in a connected way. This book is presented in three distinct parts. It starts by discussing entrepreneurship and the state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa. It then moves on to present technology commercialisation in Africa, before finally discussing the future directions for entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and innovation policy. This broad picture provided in the book enables the reader to grasp the relevant messages, whilst the detailed analysis applies world-class theories and frameworks to deepen the readers understanding of key concepts and issues examined.

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. The definitive, fully up-to-date guide to continuous improvement in the workplace"An updated version of a classic book that shares a wealth of new healthcare examples and case studies from around the world. The methods in this book will help you improve quality and safety, reduce waiting times, and improve the long-term financial position of your organization. Highly recommended!" --Mark Graban, author of Lean Hospitals and coauthor of Healthcare Kaizen "Every business faces the iron triangle of quality, cost, and delivery. Conventional thinking claims you cannot have all three. Not only does Mr. Imai turn that thinking on its head, but he shows you exactly how to do it." -- Matthew E. May, author of The Elegant Solution and The Laws of Subtraction "Masaaki Imai has done it again. The second edition of his famous book not only describes all the tools necessary for any type of business to implement a lean strategy but also includes a large number of excellent case studies." -- Art Byrne, author of The Lean Turnaround Written by Masaaki Imai, pioneer of modern business operational excellence and founder of the Kaizen Institute, Gemba Kaizen, Second Edition is an in-depth revision of this renowned, bestselling work. The book reveals how to implement cost-effective, incremental improvements in your most critical business processes. Global case studies from a wide range of industries demonstrate how gemba kaizen has been successfully used to: Maximize capacity and reduce inventory at Unga Limited, one of Kenya's largest flour-milling operations Change the IT culture at Achmea, a large European insurance firm Exceed customer expectations at Walt Disney World in the United States Improve quality at Inoue Hospital in Japan Transform retail processes at Sonae MC, Portugal's largest employer Practice daily kaizen at Tork Ledervin, a weaving plant in Brazil Stamp out muda at Sunclipse, an industrial packaging distributor in the United States Manage quality improvement by total workforce involvement at Xuji Group Corporation, an electrical manufacturer in China Implement gemba kaizen at many other companies worldwide To thrive in today's competitive global economy, organizations need to operate more effectively and profitably than ever before. Developing problem solvers, increasing productivity, improving quality, and reducing waste are essential success factors. Proven strategies for achieving these goals are included in this pioneering guide. This comprehensive resource offers detailed coverage of important gemba kaizen topics, including: Quality, cost, and delivery in the gemba The five steps of workplace organization Identifying and eliminating muda--any non-value-adding activity Visual management Supervisors' roles in the lean workplace Gemba managers' roles and accountability in sustaining high performance Just-in-time and total flow management The CEO's role in leading a kaizen culture The methods presented in Gemba Kaizen, Second Edition reveal that when management focuses on implementing kaizen (incremental, continuous improvement) in the gemba (the worksite) unique opportunities can be discovered for increasing the success and profitability of any organization.

The third edition of this textbook comprehensively discusses global supply chain and operations management (SCOM), combining value creation networks and interacting processes. It focuses on operational roles within networks and presents the quantitative and organizational methods needed to plan and control the material, information, and financial flows in supply chains. Each chapter begins with an introductory case study, while numerous examples from various industries and services help to illustrate the key concepts. The book explains how to design operations and supply networks and how to incorporate suppliers and customers. It examines how to balance supply and demand, a core aspect of tactical planning, before turning to the allocation of resources to meet customer needs. In addition, the book presents state-of-the-art research reflecting the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging, fast-paced developments in the digitalization of supply chain and operations management. Providing readers with a working knowledge of global supply chain and operations management, with a focus on bridging the gap between theory and practice, this textbook can be used in core, specialized, and advanced classes alike. It is intended for a broad range of students and professionals in supply chain and operations management.

A volume in Research in Careers Series Editors S. Gayle Baugh, University of West Florida and Sherry E. Sullivan, Bowling Green State University The first volume of the series, Maintaining Focus, Energy, and Options Over the Career, examines how individuals enact and keep their career vital over their work life. Awarding-winning, internationally renowned researchers, including Daniel Feldman, Jennifer Deal, Phyllis Tharenou, and Terry Beehr examine the dynamic nature of contemporary careers and how careers change as individuals change in response to such factors as aging, learning, experience or contextual changes. Volume 1 includes theoretical perspectives on maintaining personenvironment "fit" over the course of the career, the shifting constellation of developmental relationships over time and place, a new framework for examining midcareer renewal, a reconceptualization of the retirement transition, and potential gender differences in self-initiated international careers. Empirical studies in volume 1 examine provocative questions including: Is the traditional career really dead? Are there significant generational differences in learning and development? Can career plateauing be positive for the individual or the organization? The focus throughout this volume is on how careers unfold over time and how individuals remain productive and successful as they navigate career changes.

The Palgrave Handbook of Research Design in Business and Management uses a new state-of-the-art research design typology model to guide researchers in creating the blueprints for their experiments. By focusing on theory and cutting-edge empirical best-practices, this handbook utilizes visual techniques to appease all learning styles.

Utilising technologies, processes, and applications to analyse internal and structured data, business intelligence is a key aspect in the ability of an organization to gather knowledge and develop new opportunities for growth. Principles and Applications of Business Intelligence Research provides the latest ideas and research on the practices and management of business intelligence. Including original research, case studies, and analysis, this comprehensive collection aims to advance the understanding and implementation of business intelligence.

This book explores the intuitive appeal of neural networks and the genetic algorithm in finance. It demonstrates how neural networks used in combination with evolutionary computation outperform classical econometric methods for accuracy in forecasting, classification and dimensionality reduction.
McNelis utilizes a variety of examples, from forecasting automobile production and corporate bond spread, to inflation and deflation processes in Hong Kong and Japan, to credit card default in Germany to bank failures in Texas, to cap-floor volatilities in New York and Hong Kong.
* Offers a balanced, critical review of the neural network methods and genetic algorithms used in finance
* Includes numerous examples and applications
* Numerical illustrations use MATLAB code and the book is accompanied by a website

This book focuses on the use of quantitative methods for both business and management, helping readers understand the most relevant quantitative methods for managerial decision-making. Pursuing a highly practical approach, the book reduces the theoretical information to a minimum, so as to give full prominence to the analysis of real business problems. Each chapter includes a brief theoretical explanation, followed by a real-life managerial case that needs to be solved, which is accompanied by a corresponding Microsoft Excel (R) dataset. The practical cases and exercises are solved using Excel, and for each problem, the authors provide an Excel file with the complete solution and corresponding calculations, which can be downloaded easily from the book's website. Further, in an appendix, readers can find solutions to the same problems, but using the R statistical language. The book represents a valuable reference guide for postgraduate, MBA and executive education students, as it offers a hands-on, practical approach to learning quantitative methods in a managerial context. It will also be of interest to managers looking for a practical and straightforward way to learn about quantitative methods and improve their decision-making processes.

The book presents the first comprehensive account of how economists, engineers and industrialists mapped out the economic future of Greece in the aftermath of civil war devastation. It documents the policy debate that took place among Greece and its sponsors about the future course of the economy, the required investment and their financing. Through historical narrative, archival sources and oral history, this book offers a better understanding of the achievements proclaimed by many economists as an "economic miracle".

The exponential growth of disruptive technology is changing our world. The development of cloud computing, big data, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and other related autonomous systems, such as self-driving vehicles, have triggered the emergence of new products and services. These significant technological breakthroughs have opened the door to new economic models such as the sharing and platform-based economy. As a result, companies are becoming increasingly data- and algorithm-driven, coming to be more like "decentralized platforms". New transaction or payment methods such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, based on trust-building systems using Blockchain, smart contracts, and other distributed ledger technology, also constitute an essential part of this new economic model. The sharing economy and digital platforms also include the everyday exchange of goods allowing individuals to commodify their surplus resources. Information and innovation technologies are used in order to then match these resources with existing demand in the market. Online platforms such as Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon reduce information asymmetry, increase the value of unused resources, and create new opportunities for collaboration and innovation. Moreover, the sharing economy is playing a major role in the transition from exclusive ownership of personal assets toward access-based exploitation of resources. The success of online matching platforms depends not only on the reduction of search costs but also on the trustworthiness of platform operators. From a legal perspective, the uncertainties triggered by the emergence of a new digital reality are particularly urgent. How should these tendencies be reflected in legal systems in each jurisdiction? This book collects a series of contributions by leading scholars in the newly emerging fields of sharing economy and Legal Tech. The aim of the book is to enrich legal debates on the social, economic, and political meaning of these cutting-edge technologies. The chapters presented in this edition attempt to answer some of these lingering questions from the perspective of diverse legal backgrounds.

The book introduces the reader to game-changing ways of building and utilizing Internet-based services related to design and manufacture activities through the cloud. In a broader sense, CBDM refers to a new product realization model that enables collective open innovation and rapid product development with minimum costs through social networking and negotiation platforms between service providers and consumers. It is a type of parallel and distributed system consisting of a collection of inter-connected physical and virtualized service pools of design and manufacturing resources as well as intelligent search capabilities for design and manufacturing solutions. Practicing engineers and decision makers will learn how to strategically position their product development operations for success in a globalized interconnected world.

This essential book takes students and instructors through steps undertaken in a start-to-finish engineering project as conceived and presented in the engineering capstone course. The learning experience follows an industry model to prepare students to recognize a need for a product or service, create and work in a team; identify competition, patent overlap, and necessary resources, generate a project proposal that accounts for business issues, prepare a design, develop and fabricate the product or service, develop a test plan to evaluate the product or service, and prepare and deliver a final report and presentation. Throughout the book, students are asked to examine the business viability aspects of the project. The Engineering Capstone Course: Fundamentals for Students and Instructors emphasizes that a design must meet a set of realistic technical specifications and constraints including examination of attendant economics, environmental needs, sustainability, manufacturability, health and safety, governmental regulations, industry standards, and social and political constraints. The book is ideal for instructors teaching, or students working through, the capstone course.

A volume in I.S.C.E Book Series: Managing the Complex Series Editors Kurt Richardson and Michael Lissack, ISCE Research It seems as if attempts to use knowledge to understand and manage social networks are everywhere. Millions, if not billions, of dollars are being spent in an attempt to derail terrorist networks, with much of it being invested in making sense of massive data streams. There is growing concern that much of this money is being squandered on approaches that will never deliver on their promises. Our armed forces are being prepared to combat terrorist threats by the introduction of "network centric approaches" and "digital battlefields" - basically attempts to provide warfighters with a complete picture of the battlespace. However, the experience of practitioners suggests that the "data smog" this creates is actually counterproductive. From the arena of politics, the recent invigorating battle between senators Clinton and Obama has thrown the spotlight on the deficiencies in political polling (Economist, 2008b). Changes in the structure of the situation (e.g. high turnouts) have thrown the whole industry into chaos. Complexity is being discounted and the results are stark. The conclusion formed in the media was that the situation was wildly unpredictable (so anyone's to win), and ended up having real consequences for the Democratic challenger in November 2008 (Baldwin, 2008). Turning to business, we find that Societe Generale recently lost $7.2bn as the result of a single rogue trader making a series of bogus transactions amid turbulent markets in 2007 and 2008. There has been much speculation on what was known, when it was known, and who knew it. In other words, we have speculation that this is an example of the role of knowledge in the mismanagement of social networks - with spectacular effect. At a glance, the problems highlighted above seem positively overwhelming. Where do you start? But start we must. Simple "causal and effect" thinking doesn't seem to be able to cut the mustard. There is broad agreement that even if the Kyoto targets were fully met, on schedule, by 2100 it would only delay the warming of the planet by six years (Parry et al., 1998). We need to utilize knowledge in new ways...or maybe uncover insights from old ways. It is hard to think of something more worthy of attention that the role of knowledge in the management of complex systems. In Volume 4 of the Managing the Complex Series we have brought together seventeen essays from authors around the globe to explore the complex systems view of knowledge and its role in social networks. Contributors explore such topics as: the limitations to our knowledge of complex systems, the transfer of knowledge from local to global levels, collaborative knowledge generation, decision making in complex multi-stakeholder situations, organizational learning and innovation, all through the lens of the emerging field of complexity science. The editors hope that this volume will give theorists further avenues to explore in their attempts to understand knowledge creation, maintenance and distribution, and also provide practitioners with new tools to apply in the complex and messy real world.

This book is devoted to the customization design of product/service system (PSS), making use of a systematic design process and a number of methods, especially Industrial Customer Activity Cycle Analysis, Service Quality Function Deployment, Service Function and Attribute Analysis, Modified Service Blueprint, Multi-Objective Optimization and Multi-Criteria Recommendation Method. The book is especially valuable in manipulating the problems of PSS requirements analysis, design conflict, design reuse and proactively response to customer. The methods in the book facilitate modular design of customized solutions and enhance PSS design efficiency. Presenting case studies, this book helps researchers and practitioners to understand the customization process and methods in the early development of PSS.