Wellsprings of Knowledge

Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation

Dorothy Leonard

Publisher: Harvard Business School, 1998 , 334 pages

ISBN: 0-87584-859-1

Synopsis:

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Why are some companies better at managing innovation than others? With her pioneering book on knowledge management, Dorothy Leonard was among the first to probe the relationship between successful innovators and the way they create, nurture, and grow the experience and accumulated knowledge of their organization. Now available for the first time in paperback, Wellsprings of Knowledge, illustrated with examples of both successes and failures in new product development, will provide managers with the key knowledge-building activities they need to guide, control, and inspire.

Table of Contents:

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• Part One: The Nature of Core Capabilities and Rigidities
1. Core Capabilities
2. Core Rigidities
• Part Two: Key Innovation Activities
3. Shared Problem Solving
4. Implementing and Integrating New Technical Processes and Tools
5. Experimenting and Prototyping
6. Importing and Absorbing Technological Knowledge from outside of the Firm
7. Learning from the Market
• Part Three: Growth and Renewal
8. Transferring Product Development Capabilities into Developing Nations
9. Continuous Wellsprings