The innovation management classic returns for today's fully digitized world When legendary business thought leaders C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan first published The New Age of Innovation, the book was instantly lauded as one of the most forward-looking business guides of the year. Now, ten years later, their predictions that advanced technologies would transform every business in every industry have been borne out. And their lessons for managing the software revolution are more critical today than ever. The New Age of Innovation provides the insights and practices you need to drive profits and growth in today's interconnected, software-dominated world-a world where companies partner with customers to create value. You'll learn how to: *Align all software systems within your company *Measure individual behavior using smart analytics *Continuously improve customer-facing and back-end processes *Make every stakeholder a unique partner in your mission *Work seamlessly across cultures and time-zones *Create teams that drive high-quality, low-cost solutions The ubiquity of software and digitization introduce valuable opportunities for personalized value creation and global resource partnership. Manage them well and you'll seize the competitive edge in no time. The New Age of Innovation provides everything you need to by leveraging the tools at your disposal to transform their business and dominate your industry.

In this McKinsey Award-winning article, first published in May 1989, Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad explain that Western companies have wasted too much time and energy replicating the cost and quality advantages their global competitors already experience. Canon and other world-class competitors have taken a different approach to strategy: one of strategic intent. They begin with a goal that exceeds the company's present grasp and existing resources: "Beat Xerox"; "encircle Caterpillar." Then they rally the organization to close the gap by setting challenges that focus employees' efforts in the near to medium term: "Build a personal copier to sell for $1,000"; "cut product development time by 75%." Year after year, they emphasize competitive innovation--building a portfolio of competitive advantages; searching markets for "loose bricks" that rivals have left underdefended; changing the terms of competitive engagement to avoid playing by the leader's rules. The result is a global leadership position and an approach to competition that has reduced larger, stronger Western rivals to playing an endless game of catch-up.

The Multinational Mission, based on six years of research utilizing internal company documents and interviews with over 500 top executives in more than twenty global firms provides an explicit logic and a basis for top management to act. Using a comprehensive training framework called a responsiveness-integration grid authors C.K. Prahalad and Yves L. Doz show step by step how to formulate and implement strategic decisions that provide a winning innovative approach.

New competitive realities have ruptured industry boundaries, overthrown much of standard management practice, and rendered conventional models of strategy and growth obsolete. In their stead have come the powerful ideas and methodologies of Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, whose much-revered thinking has already engendered a new language of strategy. In this book, they develop a coherent model for how today's executives can identify and accomplish no less than heroic goals in tomorrow's marketplace. Their masterful blueprint addresses how executives can ease the tension between competing today and clearing a path toward leadership in the future.