Remove Cost Center Remove Innovation Remove Operations
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How Companies Can Better Work With Startups

The Horizons Tracker

Innovation has scarcely been as popular and trendy as it is today, but as Wired’s David Rowan pithily points out in his latest book, a lot of what passes for innovation is b t smothered in multiple layers of jargon and obfuscation that creates the impression that much is being done, but it’s largely a superficial veneer.

Company 74
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How Corporates Can Best Engage With Startups

The Horizons Tracker

Working with startups is something many organizations strive to do in order to tap into the innovation and ingenuity such partnerships can bring. Not only do sponsors often regard the incubator as proof of their innovation prowess, but startups often regard acceptance into the incubator as job done. Successful partnerships.

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Shadow IT Is Out of the Closet

Harvard Business Review

Slowly but surely, as the little database grew bigger and bigger, the manager would wedge the cost into her operating budget. It's just that they're often busy doing what they've always done, maintaining operational systems while reacting to the demands of an increasingly tech-savvy user community.

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People Are Not Cogs

Harvard Business Review

Yet most organizations still operate much as they did in the industrial age. We manage the measurable, rather than the things that create meaning that fuels creativity, that enables innovative thinking and that helps any company to outpace the market. Nilofer Merchant is a corporate advisor and speaker on innovation methods.

Hamel 16
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Why Verizon's iPhone Could Be Good for AT&T

Harvard Business Review

We call these people Cost Center Consumers, and they come in two flavors. Divas: These are high maintenance consumers who drive costs up after purchase. They tie up your call centers, incur costly returns, and generate other costs that occur below the gross margin line, which is harder to see.

P&L 15
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How Cloud Computing Is Changing Management

Harvard Business Review

The complex calculations of the field known as Operations Research were enabled by mainframe computing. The cloud is also a common repository for the collection and analysis of new data, and the place where an increasing number of artificial intelligence operations, like image and speech recognition, are conducted.

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Social Means Freedom, for Better or for Worse

Harvard Business Review

The seven full time employees form a nucleus, or core group to handle program management, operations, and communications. Typically an in-house cost center, service is usually viewed as a necessary evil and constantly targeted for "efficiency." These experts are highly briefed on the purpose and goals of the SU organization.