The objective of the ISO 56002 standard is to provide a framework on how to build an innovation ecosystem that can be sustained over time. Similar to the quality management system that ISO established decades ago, this standard provides instructions related to best practices on how to establish an Innovative Management System within an organization. However, it does not provide guidance on how to implement and/or use the standard. The ISO Standard 56004 Innovation Management Assessment was designed to g define the maturity level of an organization's Innovation Management System. The primary purpose of most Innovative Management Systems is to process a continuous flow of new and highly creative outputs that will meet external customers’ needs and expectations. The users of ISO 56002 and 56004 know that they are "what to do" documents -- This book, however, shows you how to do it! Both ISO Standard 56002 and 56004 are focused on improving the organization's innovative management system. This book focuses on how to train employees on how to use the system to add value to the organization’s stakeholders. There are no books out on the subject -- this book greatly assists managers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and consultants seeking help in using the innovation management system effectively and efficiently. Essentially, this book presents an effective marriage between the innovative management system and how it will operate when it becomes part of the operating procedures.

It has been estimated that over 75% of the innovative projects that begin through the Innovation Management System (IMS) are either failures or they failed to produce the desired results. The biggest wastes most medium- to large-size organizations face are the waste of money, time, reputation, opportunity, and income that these failures are costing them. Following this book's recommendations could reduce this failure cost by as much as 70%. The purpose of this book is to provide a step-by-step procedure on how to process a medium- or large-size project, program, or product using an already-established IMS that considers the guidance given in ISO 56002:2019 - Innovation Management Systems Standard. Often the most complicated, complex, difficult, and challenging system used in an organization is the IMS. At the same time, it usually is the most important system because it is the one that generates most of the value-adding products for the organization, and it involves most of the key functions within the organization. The opportunity for failure in time and the impact on the organization is critical and often means the difference between success and bankruptcy. Throughout this book, the authors detail the high-impact inputs and activities that are required to process individual projects/programs/products through the innovation cycle. Although this book was prepared to address how medium to large projects, programs, and products proceed through the cycle, it also provides the framework that can be used for small organizations and simple innovation activities. Basically, the major difference between large- and small-impact innovation projects is that the small projects can accept more risks, require less formal documentation, use simpler communication systems, and require fewer resources. It's important to remember that the authors are addressing an existing IMS rather than trying to create an entirely new one. Currently, this is the only book geared for professionals responsible for managing innovative projects and programs using ISO 56002:2019 - Innovation Management - Innovation Management System - Guidance to provide a comprehensive management strategy and step-by-step plan and ISO 56004 Innovation Management Assessment -Guidance. It provides a comprehensive analysis of what is required from the time an opportunity is recognized to the time the customer is using the innovative product. The book also introduces a new Process modeling cloud service that allows you to drill down 5 levels from the system level to the job description level and includes free access to many of the book's best practice Process models.

The objective of the ISO 56002 standard is to provide a framework on how to build an innovation ecosystem that can be sustained over time. Similar to the quality management system that ISO established decades ago, this standard provides instructions related to best practices on how to establish an Innovative Management System within an organization. However, it does not provide guidance on how to implement and/or use the standard. The ISO Standard 56004 Innovation Management Assessment was designed to g define the maturity level of an organization's Innovation Management System. The primary purpose of most Innovative Management Systems is to process a continuous flow of new and highly creative outputs that will meet external customers’ needs and expectations. The users of ISO 56002 and 56004 know that they are "what to do" documents -- This book, however, shows you how to do it! Both ISO Standard 56002 and 56004 are focused on improving the organization's innovative management system. This book focuses on how to train employees on how to use the system to add value to the organization’s stakeholders. There are no books out on the subject -- this book greatly assists managers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and consultants seeking help in using the innovation management system effectively and efficiently. Essentially, this book presents an effective marriage between the innovative management system and how it will operate when it becomes part of the operating procedures.

Building a Career in Opera from School to Stage: Operapreneurship provides early-career singers with an overview of the structure of the opera industry and tools for strategically approaching a career within it. Today's voice students leave the conservatory with better training than ever, but often face challenges to managing their own careers after graduation. This book addresses what singers need to know in order to craft a career path in the contemporary landscape of opera. Readers learn about the opera industry's structure, common pathways and entry points, non-academic training programs, researching and evaluating opportunities, crafting professional documents and media, and what it means to be a professional opera singer. Written by a singer with recent experience in the industry-and particularly the emerging phase-this book is a practical guide for all singers embarking on a career in opera. The author's website, www.OperaCareers.com, hosts additional resources including databases of training programs, guides and templates for creating professional documents, as well as articles addressing current industry issues and interviews with subject matter experts.

The innovation infrastructure and master plan described in this book offers a detailed and comprehensive approach to one of the most difficult and challenging problems facing entrepreneurs involved in innovation at any scale enterprise: the problem of how to govern your organization's innovation initiatives in the middle of turbulent change. Progress in any field requires the development of a framework, a structure that organizes the accumulating knowledge, enables people to master it, and unifies the key discoveries into a set of principles that makes them understandable and actionable. For starters, successful innovation requires an integrated design process, beginning with integration in the design of the enterprise, the design of the product, along with the design and implementation of new technologies. Such an integrated design effort requires good collaboration and management of the design framework, and should be supported by efficient knowledge management techniques and tools; If innovation is to help a business grow and improve its competitiveness, it is also important to plan the innovation carefully. This book provides a holistic, multidisciplinary framework that will enable your organization and its leaders to take a strategic approach to innovation. The framework combines non-traditional, creative approaches to business innovation with conventional strategy development models. The framework model brings together perspectives from many complementary disciplines: the non-traditional approaches to innovation found in the business creativity movement; multiple-source strategy consulting; the new product development perspective of many leading industrial design firms; qualitative consumer/customer research; future-based research found in think tanks and traditional scenario planning; and organizational development (OD) practices that examine the effectiveness of an organization's culture, processes, and structure. Though some ideas may just "fall from the sky" or "come out of the blue", an organization should also have a strategic vision of how the business and the enterprise will successfully develop. It should not just wait for the innovation to arrive arbitrarily, but rather proactively plan for innovation incorporating market trends, the competitive landscape, new technology availability, and changes in customer preferences and trends in order to create a flexible in-house innovation process. Such an enterprise will also pro-actively manage the knowledge supply chain that supports innovation, as outlined in this book #7 of Management Handbook for Results series. The framework outlined in this handbook consists of a well-integrated cohesive set of practices that inspires imaginative innovation teams to look beyond the obvious and explore a broad range of possibilities to identify significant opportunities and make informed decisions about the most promising paths to pursue. The goal is to create a shared vision for growth, along with defining pragmatic action plans that bridge from the future back to the present, while attempting to align the organization around the requirements for success.

In 2019, ISO Technical Committee 279 released a new international standard on innovation management system called ISO 56002:2019. The objective of this standard is to provide a framework on how to build an innovation ecosystem that can be sustained over time. Similar to the quality management system that ISO established decades ago, this standard provides instructions related to best practices on how to manage innovation activities, projects, and programs. It does not describe detailed activities within the organization, but rather provides guidance at a general level. It does not prescribe any requirements or specific tools or methods for innovation activities. Essentially, the standard does not provide guidance on how to implement and/or use the standard. The standard basically tells you what to do and document - this powerful book tells you how to do it. The techniques in this book are directed at key tasks across the innovative process, such as maximizing quality, productivity, maintainability, usability, and reliability, while focusing on reducing the product cycle time and costs within the innovative process. Currently, there are no other comprehensive books available on how to fully implement this standard in companies. This book is crucial for managers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and consultants looking for help to reap the benefits of an innovation management system. This book takes you step by step through the process of developing an innovation ecosystem. In addition, it provides frameworks, tools, methodologies, cases, and best practices so your organization can experience the full value of the standard.

With an estimated 70 percent of new projects failing to add value to the organization, reducing project failure rate represents one of the biggest improvement opportunities available today. This book highlights proven approaches designed to separate the successful projects from the potential losers before the projects are started. This represents huge savings in manpower, money, and time. The book shows you how to reduce project cycle time and apply resources effectively to maximize results and project success rates. Effective Portfolio Management Systems provides a roadmap for the implementation of an organizational Portfolio Project Management (PPM) system and a model for driving sustainable change. It takes you through the complete project/program management cycle from the submittal of the proposed projects to the management of their implementation. To do this, the authors present an effective, proven, four-phase Organizational Portfolio Management (OPM) system: Phase I: Developing the Organizational Portfolio involves selecting the right mix of projects/programs based upon resource limitations and risks involved. Phase II: Creating the OPM System Implementation Plan is the development of a plan to minimize the resources consumed, reduce cycle time, and increase the ability of the projects to meet their projected value-added content to the organization. Phase III: Implementing the OPM System focuses on the complexity of managing an Organizational Portfolio and keeping it aligned with the organization's goals and objectives. This phase provides a roadmap for the implementation of an organizational PPM system, including sample plans and PMO Implementation/Management Templates. Phase IV: Practical Applications of Project Change Management within the OPM System focuses on overcoming the difficulties related to the continuous changing environment and project

Value proposition, an old concept, is taking on new significance in today's innovation-driven environment. Business focus has shifted from developing many creative ideas to developing only those that will successfully flow through the product cycle and fulfill a customer need. The old approach resulted in less than a 10 percent success rate for concepts that started through the product cycle; this can no longer be tolerated. This new book on value propositions outlines a systematic approach to making an early evaluation of potential projects and programs so you can determine if they can add real value to your organization or its customers potentially saving you millions of dollars and months of valuable time. Focusing on the necessary data collection efforts, Maximizing Value Propositions to Increase Project Success Rates will help you identify easy opportunities for improvement and will guide you through the process of creating value propositions for the ideas that will drive the organization's future profits. It outlines a four-stage approach to creating value propositions and explains how to create effective value proposition documents. The book illustrates the role of the opportunity center in capturing new ideas, describes how to present value propositions to management, and includes an example of a new product value proposition. Detailing a method for continuous review of the improvement process, it will help you foster an entrepreneurial mind-set within your employees and encourage them to actively search and document value-adding ideas. Through the effective use of value propositions it is completely possible for your organization to increase the number of new products/services it offers to your customers by over 100 percent. It is not unusual for this to result in more than a 40 percent increase in profits per year. Adopting the approach outlined in the text for using value propositions can save your

Project Management for Performance Improvement Teams (or, PM4PITs, for short) provides practical guidance based on innovative concepts for project teams -- especially Performance Improvement Teams (PITs)-and their Project Managers on how to successfully complete individual projects and programs using an ingenious and scalable framework based on an innovative foundation fusing together elements of Project Management, Innovation Management, and Continual Improvement. This book lays out how Project and Program Managers and their teams can "do those right projects the right way," one project at a time. It details what continual improvement, change, and innovation are, why they are so important, and how they apply to performance improvement-both incremental and transformative. The authors examine the four types of work and workforce management in organizations, Strategic, Operations, Projects, and Crises, using four common comparative variables: Proactive/Preventive versus Reactive/Corrective, Temporary/Unique versus Ongoing/Repetitive, Innovative versus Maintaining the Status Quo, and Schedule Focus: Fiscal Year versus Short Term versus Long Term. These comparisons set the stage for the uniqueness of the third type: Projects (and Programs) that are fundamentally change-driven.

Change Management: Manage Change or It Will Manage You represents a substantial core guidance effort for Change Management practitioners. Organizations currently contend with increasingly higher levels of knowledge-driven competition. Many attempt to meet the challenge by investing in expensive knowledge-driven change management systems. Such systems are useless, and sometimes even harmful, for making strategic decisions because they do not distinguish between what is strategically relevant and what is not. This Management-for-Results Handbook focuses on identifying and managing the specific, critical knowledge assets that your organization needs to disrupt your competitors, including tacit experience of key employees, a deep understanding of customers needs, valuable patents and copyrights, shared industry practices, and customer- and supplier-generated innovations. The authors present two aspects of Change Management: (1) traditional Change Management as it impacts the project management team's activities and (2) a suggested new approach to Change Management directed at changing the culture. The focus is to prepare the people impacted by the project and change activities to accept and adapt to the new/changed working conditions. The first half of the book deals with traditional Change Management, which covers the topics of remembering, understanding, and applying. The second half presents the authors new approach to changing the culture, which deals with analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

Improved communication in business means higher profits. Improved communication in government means happier citizens. Improved communication in healthcare means quicker recoveries, fewer lawsuits, and happier nurses and patients.Closing the Communication Gap can help readers improve communication by closing the gap between what the communicator means and what the listener actually understands. It supplies a complete overview of the various elements and dimensions of effective communication needed to stop talking and start communicating.Defining and discussing both the formal and the informal communication systems within an organization, the book demonstrates the importance of good communication and details the four types of poor-quality communication. It explains how to create a climate of communication in your organization. It describes how this climate of communication encourages the development of quality relationships as well as what it takes to maintain this culture of communication.After reading this book, you will understand how to be a better listener, how to use social media in marketing, how to deal with difficult people, and helpful tips for public speaking. You will gain valuable insights on how to talk to your employees, how to talk to your boss, and the best ways to communicate with a corporation.This book can be read for personal growth or it can be used by a company to teach employees the importance of quality communication. Quality assurance departments will find this book useful in lowering errors and waste in the workplace. The book is also suitable as a communication textbook or supplemental text at the introductory university level.If a corporation were a person, communication would be the bloodstream.Lee Iacocca, Former CEO, Chrysler Corporation

The best time to stop projects or programs that will not be successful is before they are ever started. Research has shown that the focused use of realistic business case analysis on proposed initiatives could enable your organization to reduce the amount of project waste and churn (rework) by up to 40 percent, potentially avoiding millions of dollars lost on projects, programs, and initiatives that would fail to produce the desired results. This book illustrates how to develop a strong business case which links investments to program results and, ultimately, with the strategic outcomes of the organization. In addition, the book provides a template and example case studies for those seeking to fast-track the development of a business case within their organization.Making the Case for Change: Using Effective Business Cases to Minimize Project and Innovation Failures provides executive teams and change agents with the information required to make better business case decisions. This book can be used throughout the life cycle of the project to assist with gaining a better understanding of the following key knowledge areas for developing a business case: Understanding the present problem/improvement opportunity Documenting how the project, program, or initiative will add value to the organization Validating the data and the assumptions that the projected improvements are based upon Calculating the level of confidence that can be placed upon the conclusions that are reached Assessing the alternative solutions that were considered Weighing the costs vs. the benefits of the proposed initiative Analyzing and mitigating the risks to completing 100 percent of the project's goals Eliciting and prioritizing the requirements of key stakeholders and subject matter experts Identifying the key people that are involved in the proposed project and the skil

Many organizations are looking for that magic tool or methodology that will suddenly transform them into outstanding organizations. Unfortunately, there is no one right answer for all organizations or even for a single organization. Successful organizations skillfully integrate the appropriate improvement approaches with honesty, commitment, and constancy of purpose across all levels of management.This book, part of The Little Big Book series, discusses the most common set of tools and methodologies used in managerial, strategic planning, project selection, and organizational improvement projects that are referred to throughout The Little Big Book series. It presents, in a concise no-nonsense format, the concepts and techniques that must be mastered by project managers and anyone tasked with managing an improvement project.The tools covered in this book include affinity diagrams, brainstorming, cause-and-effect diagrams, the Kano model, organizational process improvement, Pareto analysis, project management, risk management, root cause analysis, storyboarding, value propositions, and workflow diagrams.Because of the large number of tools and techniques covered, the book supplies concise operating guidance for each tool that is adequate to prepare readers to understand and use that tool. It also includes examples of how the tools are used.The book provides a basic understanding of the tools you need to improve the processes you are currently using to manage your organization and, ultimately, to improve the quality, productivity, and agility of the products or services you are delivering to your customers.The tools presented in this book are the essential tools that all organizations should be using. By understanding and using the tools covered in this book, you will possess a better overall understanding of the way your organization needs to function in today's increasingly competitive environment.This

Organizations around the world are rating their improvement efforts as not producing the desired long-term results. Dr. Harrington's research indicates that this occurs because organizations are using the latest improvement tools and approaches without first defining how they want to change their organization's culture, environment, and key performance drivers.Organizations must first define what controllable factors drive business results. They then must define how they want to change these key performance drivers and behavioral patterns. Only then can they select a customized set of tools and approaches that will bring about the desired transformation.The first book in the Little Big Book Series, Performance Acceleration Management (PAM): Rapid Improvement to Your Key Performance Drivers, explains how to accelerate the rate of change and improvement in your organization to exceed your customers expectations. It introduces the PAM approach to accelerated performance improvement and explains how to use it to bring about significant change to your organization's long-term performance. Supplying answers to commonly asked questions, the book provides you with the understanding to: Conduct an improvement requirements assessment Define key drivers and develop vision statements for each Define desired behavioral patterns and performance goals Develop individual key performance driver (KPD) transformation plans Develop and implement a five-year combined PAM plan Obtain approval from the executive team Delving into more than 50 years of experience helping organizations implement improvement approaches, H. James Harrington highlights key opportunities to add value to your organization. With over 1,400 different improvement tools available today, this book provides a set of tools to define how you want to change your organization's key performance drive

In today's fast-moving, high-technology environment, the focus on quality has given way to a focus on innovation. From presidents of the United States to presidents of Fortune 500 companies, it is clear that everyone thinks innovation is extremely important. The challenge is that few people stop to define why innovation is important-to understand what's driving the need for more innovation. We all agree that more frequent innovation is important, even necessary. There is actually a growing body of evidence that indicates that looking outside of your company (rather than purely looking internally) and to customers' needs, using the tools in this Handbook, will lead to more innovative ideas. Responding to customers' needs is the key to a successful business. You can use these tools to talk to customers-satisfied ones, unsatisfied ones, potential customers, people who would never buy your product or service, and also people you have never considered as a potential customer. In addition, these tools will help you ask your competitors' customers about what makes them happy with the current businesses and offerings in the industry, why they buy or do not buy from you, your competitors, and other industries. These tools will help you understand the steps in the customer journey they need to take, what delights and frustrates them, and what their pain points are. The three volumes of The Innovation Tools Handbook cover 76 top-rated tools and methods, from the hundreds available, that every innovator must master to be successful. Covering evolutionary and/or improvement innovative tools and methodologies, Volume 2 presents 23 tools/methodologies related to innovative evolutionary products, processes, and services, or the improvement of existing ones. For each tool, the book provides a definition, identifies the user of the tool, explains what phases of the innovation process the tool is used, describes how the tool is used, supplies examples of the outputs from the tool, identifies software that can maximize its effectiveness, and includes references and suggestions for further reading. Ideation is about developing ideas on how to seize identified opportunities. What are the possible answers to your breakthrough questions? Having a deep understanding about the customer, their needs and pain points, as well as the existing solutions (i.e. business models in the industry) will naturally lead to new ideas. How seriously you do your discovery homework using the tools in these Handbooks will determine not only how fast you create ideas, but about how likely these ideas are to succeed. Tools and methodologies covered include: 5 why questions, Affinity diagrams, attribute listing, brainwriting 6-3-5, cause-and-effect diagrams, creative problem solving model, design for tools, flowcharting, force field analysis, Kano analysis, nominal group technique, plan-do-check-act, reengineering/redesign, reverse engineering, robust design, SCAMPER, simulations, six thinking hats, social networks, solution analysis diagrams, statistical analysis, tree diagram, and value analysis. The authors believe that by making effective use of the tools and methodologies presented in this book, your organization can increase the percentage of creative/innovative ideas by five to eight times its present performance level.

Many organizations are looking for that magic tool or methodology that will suddenly transform them into outstanding organizations. Unfortunately, there is no one right answer for all organizations or even for a single organization. Successful organizations skillfully integrate the appropriate improvement approaches with honesty, commitment, and constancy of purpose across all levels of management. This book, part of The Little Big Book series, discusses the most common set of tools and methodologies used in managerial, strategic planning, project selection, and organizational improvement projects that are referred to throughout The Little Big Book series. It presents, in a concise no-nonsense format, the concepts and techniques that must be mastered by project managers and anyone tasked with managing an improvement project. The tools covered in this book include affinity diagrams, brainstorming, cause-and-effect diagrams, the Kano model, organizational process improvement, Pareto analysis, project management, risk management, root cause analysis, storyboarding, value propositions, and workflow diagrams. Because of the large number of tools and techniques covered, the book supplies concise operating guidance for each tool that is adequate to prepare readers to understand and use that tool. It also includes examples of how the tools are used. The book provides a basic understanding of the tools you need to improve the processes you are currently using to manage your organization and, ultimately, to improve the quality, productivity, and agility of the products or services you are delivering to your customers. The tools presented in this book are the essential tools that all organizations should be using. By understanding and using the tools covered in this book, you will possess a better overall understanding of the way your organization needs to function in today's increasingly competitive environment. This book is designed to supplement and provide additional direction in the use of the methodologies defined in the other books in The Little Big Book series

Value proposition, an old concept, is taking on new significance in today s innovation-driven environment. Business focus has shifted from developing many creative ideas to developing only those that will successfully flow through the product cycle and fulfill a customer need.
The old approach resulted in less than a 10 percent success rate for concepts that started through the product cycle; this can no longer be tolerated. This new book on value propositions outlines a systematic approach to making an early evaluation of potential projects and programs so you can determine if they can add real value to your organization or its customers potentially saving you millions of dollars and months of valuable time.
Focusing on the necessary data collection efforts, Maximizing Value Propositions to Increase Project Success Rates will help you identify easy opportunities for improvement and will guide you through the process of creating value propositions for the ideas that will drive the organization s future profits. It outlines a four-stage approach to creating value propositions and explains how to create effective value proposition documents.
The book illustrates the role of the opportunity center in capturing new ideas, describes how to present value propositions to management, and includes an example of a new product value proposition. Detailing a method for continuous review of the improvement process, it will help you foster an entrepreneurial mind-set within your employees and encourage them to actively search and document value-adding ideas.
Through the effective use of value propositions it is completely possible for your organization to increase the number of new products/services it offers to your customers by over 100 percent. It is not unusual for this to result in more than a 40 percent increase in profits per year. Adopting the approach outlined in the text for using value propositions can save your organizations millions of dollars and much time. What could be better than reducing costs "while" increasing sales?"

The best time to stop projects or programs that will not be successful is before they are ever started. Research has shown that the focused use of realistic business case analysis on proposed initiatives could enable your organization to reduce the amount of project waste and churn (rework) by up to 40 percent, potentially avoiding millions of dollars lost on projects, programs, and initiatives that would fail to produce the desired results. This book illustrates how to develop a strong business case which links investments to program results and, ultimately, with the strategic outcomes of the organization. In addition, the book provides a template and example case studies for those seeking to fast-track the development of a business case within their organization. Making the Case for Change: Using Effective Business Cases to Minimize Project and Innovation Failures provides executive teams and change agents with the information required to make better business case decisions. This book can be used throughout the life cycle of the project to assist with gaining a better understanding of the following key knowledge areas for developing a business case: Understanding the present problem/improvement opportunity Documenting how the project, program, or initiative will add value to the organization Validating the data and the assumptions that the projected improvements are based upon Calculating the level of confidence that can be placed upon the conclusions that are reached Assessing the alternative solutions that were considered Weighing the costs vs. the benefits of the proposed initiative Analyzing and mitigating the risks to completing 100 percent of the project's goals Eliciting and prioritizing the requirements of key stakeholders and subject matter experts Identifying the key people that are involved in the proposed project and the skills needed to implement the proposed change Obtaining consensus on the decision to move forward, as well as on the methods used and the conclusions specified in the analysis Ideal for executives and project/initiative managers seeking approval of an activity, initiative, program, or project, the book presents proven tips, advice, suggestions, and recommended courses of action for developing effective business cases. In addition, suggestions for recruiting a responsible senior officer or sponsor for the project and for engaging an audience are provided. The authors combine their own experience in business case development with approaches used by world-class organizations. They provide a general range of assessment criteria that can be applied to almost any type of project business cases. The text discusses each of the 8 activities and the 35 tasks that make up the business case development process. This process supplies you with a proven approach for creating comprehensive and well-constructed business case evaluations that will either ensure the success of your project, or eliminate unsuccessful projects, programs, and initiatives before they start.

In the same way that a well-defined approach is needed to develop an effective strategic plan, an equally well-designed approach is needed to support the alignment of your organization's structure, management concepts, systems, processes, networks, knowledge nets, training, hiring, and reward systems. Examining top-down, bottom-up, and core planning and execution processes, The Organizational Alignment Handbook: A Catalyst for Performance Acceleration provides a systematic approach for establishing the infrastructure needed to support a successful transformation and make your strategic plan a reality. Bridging the gap between macro and micro approaches with a single unified theory, the book provides the understanding needed to assess the effectiveness of your organization's current management system. It explains how to identify potential projects, introduce new practices, plan for resource allocation, and define and recommend decision governance. Identifying the capability constraints you must resolve in order for your company to thrive in an increasingly competitive business environment, the book explains: How the organizational master plan fits into alignment activities How strategic planning process and outcomes can be made part of the performance plan for individuals How to use controllable factors as the foundation for your master plan How to develop a set of vision statements that defines how your organization will function in the future The management skills your organization currently possesses might be effective in today's environment, but are they the skills needed to meet strategic objectives in the future? This book outlines a step-by-step approach for achieving organization-wide alignment of processes, applications, and systems, and to ensure acceptance of the results by all stakeholders. It includes examples of organizations implementing the strategies discussed as well as a review of the activities you need to follow to minimize the time it takes to reach your performance objectives today and in the future.

Currently, the prime focus for US business plans should not be on the manufacturing process design and delivery processes, but on greatly improving innovation leadership, design engineering capability, and sales and marketing innovation. These three areas have been sadly lacking significant performance improvement during the past 20 years. The magic word for US business is "simplification." Most of the books written to date focus on the solution development aspect of the Innovation System Cycle, which is less than 15% of the total innovative system. Focusing on solution development is only the start -- the rest of the innovation system cycle is what turns an idea into a profitable business. The techniques in this book are directed at key tasks across the innovative process, such as maximizing quality, productivity, maintainability, usability, and reliability, while focusing on reducing the product cycle time and costs within the innovative process. This book uses more than 50 different approaches/concepts, which leads the reader in a very simple method for understanding, establishing, and effectively using an innovative system to provide a significant marketing advantage. Previous books have focused on what to do; however, this book focuses on how to do it. It transforms a complicated complex system into easy-to-use and understand methodology.

Building a Career in Opera from School to Stage: Operapreneurship provides early-career singers with an overview of the structure of the opera industry and tools for strategically approaching a career within it. Today's voice students leave the conservatory with better training than ever, but often face challenges to managing their own careers after graduation. This book addresses what singers need to know in order to craft a career path in the contemporary landscape of opera. Readers learn about the opera industry's structure, common pathways and entry points, non-academic training programs, researching and evaluating opportunities, crafting professional documents and media, and what it means to be a professional opera singer. Written by a singer with recent experience in the industry-and particularly the emerging phase-this book is a practical guide for all singers embarking on a career in opera. The author's website, www.OperaCareers.com, hosts additional resources including databases of training programs, guides and templates for creating professional documents, as well as articles addressing current industry issues and interviews with subject matter experts.

Dr. H. James Harrington and Frank Voehl have gathered together the thoughts and ideas of more than 20 of the most creative innovation thought leaders from business, professional practice, and academia in this compelling book. The thought leaders look at innovation from almost every angle - their statements offer an unparalleled view of innovation and provide a depth of insight that is extraordinary. Harrington and Voehl's reflection on each chapter, and on the sections within the book, provides useful links between themes and reinforces the relationships between many of the ideas. Anyone interested in innovation (practitioner or researcher) will benefit from this global thought collection. The contributors' multiple perspectives, models, practical examples, and stories provide a sense of innovation that no single writer could ever capture. A company's future growth will only come through successful innovation. This book is organized around Dr. Harrington's innovation pyramid, which consists of the 16 building blocks required to bring about significant improvements in an organization's ability to deliver creative products. It highlights the principles and recommendations in ISO's new innovation standard 56002 and provides many new concepts that are not included in the standard. It includes a free, powerful, and valuable online customized innovation maturity analysis. Following three unassailable facts will strike you as soon as you read this book: 1. Innovation is the new mantra; whether you're involved in a not-for-profit, for-profit, service sector, or governmental organization. 2. Understanding that innovation and creative activities penetrate into every part of an organization requiring multiple perspectives that drive a new way of thinking and working that impacts the organization's culture, social operations, and commercial context that impacts the total organization, and not just new products or services. 3. Innovation is an exciting adventure. Total Innovative Management Excellence (TIME): The Future of Innovation (978-0-367-43242-3, 340635) draws on insights from around the globe in order to be competitive in fast-moving technologies.

Although Lean and Six Sigma appear to be quite different, when used together they have shown to deliver unprecedented improvements to quality and profitability. The Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook: Tools and Methods for Process Acceleration explains how to integrate these seemingly dissimilar approaches to increase production speed while decreasing variations and costs in your organization.
Presenting problem-solving tools you can use to immediately determine the sources of the problems in your organization, the book is based on a recent survey that analyzed Six Sigma tools to determine which are the most beneficial. Although it focuses on the most commonly used tools, it also includes coverage of those used a minimum of two times on every five Six Sigma projects.
Filled with diagrams of the tools you ll need, the book supplies a comprehensive framework to help you for organize and process the vast amount of information currently available about Lean, quality management, and continuous improvement process applications. It begins with an overview of Six Sigma, followed by little-known tips for using Lean Six Sigma (LSS) effectively. It examines the LSS quality system, its supporting organization, and the different roles involved.
Identifying the theories required to support a contemporary Lean system, the book describes the new skills and technologies that you need to master to be certified at the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB) level. It also covers the advanced non-statistical and statistical tools that are new to the LSSBB body of knowledge.
Presenting time-tested insights of a distinguished group of authors, the book provides the understanding required to select the solutions that best fit your organization's aim and culture. It also includes exercises, worksheets, and templates you can easily customize to create your own handbook for continuous process improvement.
Designed to make the methodologies you choose easy to follow, the book will help Black Belts and Senseis better engage their employees, as well as provide an integrated and visual process management structure for reporting and sustaining continuous improvement breakthroughs and initiatives.
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For visionary leaders, an Organizational Master Plan and associated technologies have become essential components of strategic decision making. Written for leaders, planners, consultants, and change agents, The Organizational Master Plan Handbook: A Catalyst for Performance Planning and Results explains how to merge the four planning activities that compose the Organizational Master Plan to manage, improve, and maximize organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Written by recognized leaders in applying Performance Improvement methodologies to business processes and entire organizations, this book defines the makeup and highlights the differences in the operating plan, strategic business plan, strategic improvement plan, and the organization's business plan. It defines each and explains how to link them to reduce costs and cycle times. Describing how to use controllable factors as the foundation for constructing your Organizational Master Plan, it demonstrates how the plan fits into organizational alignment activities. Examines all the plans that should go on within an organization and details the purpose of each Unveils a novel approach for preparing a Strategic Improvement Plan Lays out a well-defined roadmap of the Organizational Master Plan process Explaining how to make the strategic planning process a part of performance plans for individuals within your organization, the text incorporates sufficient flexibility so you can adapt and revise the plans discussed according to changing business needs and marketplace opportunities. It explains how to develop a set of vision statements to define how your organization will function five years in the future as well as how to develop the strategies needed to make the required transformation a success. Praise for the Book: Harrington and Voehl present the most comprehensive and effective approach to optimizing an organization's performance developed to date. -Tang Xiaofen, President of the Shanghai Association for Quality & President of the Shanghai Academy of Quality Management Compulsory reading for all leaders to maximize efficiency and effectiveness while navigating business in this risky global economy.-Acn. Shan Ruprai President APQO, National Chairman Australian Organisation for Quality, and Chairman AIBI Australia A Note from the Authors: Organizational Master Plans are tangible and often visible statements of where the organization is now, what it should be in the future and what is required to get there. While processes for developing them vary, master plans are most successful when they represent a vision that brings together the concerns of different interest groups, and their recommendations create a ground swell of business community and political support. Good Organizational Master Plans are flexible, and have involved the business leaders and other stakeholders from the outset, giving the plan a legitimate base, and a better chance to come to fruition. While circumstances vary from place to place, the decision to develop a master plan is often determined by the need to understand the current conditions of the marketplace, to generate and build stakeholder interest and participation, to create a new and common vision for the future, and/or to develop a clear and solid set of recommendations and implementation strategy. Susan Rademacher, executive director of the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, had this to say about the process of developing Louisville's Organizational Master Plan: . . .When we got started with our master plan, there were a few important things that we focused on. One was that we started with a belief in the native intelligence of this community, from 1888 forward. And we invited the public to really dream about what these parks could be, what they remembered the parks as, and we tried to change expectations in that way. Typically in the past, ...the little changes that come about in parks are politically motivated to get a big bang in the short term for the next election. And ... our parks were suffering from that. So when we invited the community to dream large, we changed the expectations and also changed the expectations of what the public sector was looking to do.

People with ideas are dreamers. People who get things done are doers. One doer is worth eight dreamers. There are three kinds of people who make up an innovator. There are inventors (people who have new and unique ideas), problem solvers (people who have ideas about how to correct a previous error) and entrepreneurs (people who transform ideas into realities). Put them altogether they spell "innovator." Most innovative books today focus on ways to create new and unique ideas; some of them also address problem-solving, but this is less than 10% of the methodologies that the innovator needs to master. The approaches used in this book transform an idea into reality, or to put it another way, deliver innovative products to make a profit for the organization and instill pride in its employees. This means that every step in the process needs to have innovation applied to it in order to meet the expectations and demands of today's sophisticated customer. This book is designed to help the reader and their organization complete the complex process of bringing a new product to market by presenting what is expected at each step in the cycle and providing step-by-step instructions on what to do at each specific step. In large to mid-sized organizations this book is designed to help each individual understand how they fit into the innovative cycle and explains why they should be more creative related to the work they do and more conscious of the contributions they can make. It emphasizes the importance of every individual contributing to the organization's innovative process. The book is designed to help the organization understand its Innovation Systems Cycle. In the early part of the cycle it focuses on weeding out projects that do not have the potential to produce value-added results to the stakeholders. By using the guidelines outlined in this book, an organization can reduce its new project failure rate by as much as 50% which should result in almost doubling the organization's new product output thereby increasing profits by as much as 15%.