article thumbnail

The Secret History of Agile Innovation

Harvard Business

A more reasonable starting point might be the 1930s, when the physicist and statistician Walter Shewhart of Bell Labs began applying Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles to the improvement of products and processes. So he began by learning everything he could about maximizing organizational productivity.

Agile 28
article thumbnail

Are You A Future-Ready Leader?

Organizational Talent Consulting

It is projected by 2030 in the US and Europe that the time spent during a workweek will on information technology and programming tasks increase the most. While some skills will be less in demand it is important to consider the human leadership skills that remain in the technology-driven workplace. References Acemoglu, D., &

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

A Study of 16 Countries Shows That the Most Productive Firms (and Their Employees) Are Pulling Away from Everyone Else

Harvard Business

The corporate landscape has become increasingly unequal, with the most productive firms thriving and the least productive ones failing to keep up. And second, we are able to link it to firms’ productivity and several measures of labor market policies. The Most Productive Firms Are Pulling Ahead, Across Industries.

article thumbnail

How Software Is Helping Big Companies Dominate

Harvard Business

They’re more productive , more profitable , more innovative , and they pay better. ” For example, productivity has grown dramatically in the retail sector since 1990; inflation-adjusted sales per employee have grown by roughly 50%. Research suggests that the benefits of information technology depend in part on management.

article thumbnail

Where Trump Does (and Doesn’t) Have Leverage with China

Harvard Business

Recent research suggests that Chinese imports, over the 12 years after the country’s WTO entry in 2001, took in excess of an estimated two million jobs out of U.S. made products over the next 10 years. information technology companies to disclose their proprietary source code, which is their core competitive advantage.