Flexible Innovation

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Michael J.C. Martin

"While innovation may be the lifeblood of technology based industry, it does not guarantee success to the individual firm within it. The ability to bring useful and desirable products to market in a timely, cost-effective fashion requires the unique talents of managers armed with an arsenal of modern principles and methodologies specifically geared to the technology invention and innovation process. But even in technology based firms, many managers have only scant technical background, while scientists and engineers may have little or no management training. And courses on managing technology based firms are currently taught only in a meager handful of universities." "This book grew out of Michael J.C. Martin's experiences developing and teaching courses in managing technological innovation-entrepreneurship to business, engineering, and science students. It provides a dynamic framework within which managers from virtually any professional background can develop efficient, highly productive work systems guaranteed to maximize a high-tech firm's competitive edge. Throughout, the emphasis is on leveraging a company's strategic advantage. To that end, the author provides a host of "battle-tested" tools of the trade, including technology development programs, industry- and market-specific strategic plans, R & D project planning techniques, socioeconomic forecasting and market analysis techniques, and techniques for matching company capabilities with customer and product demands." "All of the tools and techniques presented are applicable to the development of a broad range of products, from small high-tech consumer goods to large and complex systems such as aircraft and heavy weapons technology." "An indispensable survival tool in today's hypercompetitive international high-tech marketplace, Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Technology Based Firms is must reading for industrial engineers, project managers, and R & D managers."--Jacket.

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Fred Phillips

Our understanding of technology's role in modern regional economic development has not kept pace with the rush of governments, civic organizations and NGOs to launch new technology based economic development ("TED") initiatives. This book advances our understanding of TED from a practical, applied viewpoint and is enriched by short contributions from other key figures in Austin's and Portland's technopolis efforts. Focusing on the Austin (Texas) and Portland (Oregon) experiences, but drawing from a wealth of other regional examples, this volume shows how to achieve successful TED and demonstrates through case studies the ten principles that no TED initiative can afford to ignore. Once mastered, these principles can enable regions to become new centres of economic activity for the new century.

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Patrick McGovern

This book is the first major in-depth study of the impact of contemporary management practices on a rapidly expanding set of white-collar occupations, namely technical workers. It investigates whether HRM policies, such as employee appraisals and performance-related pay, have changed technical employment to the point where it is no longer based on a 'service contract'. In doing so, it provides a detailed examination of the nature of managerial control over employees who, by virtue of their commitment, present their employers with problems that are often ignored by prescriptive models of HRM. The empirical evidence features case studies of matched pairs of hi-tech firms in the Irish Republic. The author examines recent debates about the nature of employment and the role of multinational corporations within the so-called 'Celtic Tiger' Irish economy. HRM, Technical Workers and the Multinational Corporation will be essential reading for advanced students and researchers in human resource management, the sociology of work, organization studies and economic geography.

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Geoffrey A. Moore

Crossing the Chasm (1991; rev. 1999) demonstrates the existence of distinct marketing challenges for each market segment in the life cycle of new technology-based products. A significant gulf -- the "chasm" -- exists between the market made up of early adopters and the markets of more pragmatic buyers. To cross the chasm, a product team must identify the needs of pragmatic buyers and deliver a "whole product" that more than meets those needs. This landmark book, part of the HarperBusiness Essentials series, shows just how to do that.