The Idea-Driven Organization
Alan G. Robinson & Dean M. Schroeder
In The Idea-Driven Organization, Robinson and Schroeder argue that the employees who interact directly with your customers, make your products, and provide your services are in the best position to see where problems exist and what improvements and new offerings would have the most impact.
Drawing on their work with companies worldwide, they show what’s needed to put together a management team open to grassroots innovation, describing the strategies, policies, and practices that encourage – and those that discourage – employee ideas.
Discover exactly how high-performing idea processes work and how to design one customized for your organization – including advice for teaching people how to come up with new ideas. The best ideas may come from the bottom, but they have to be systematically solicited from the top.
~ Marshall Goldsmith, Author of the New York Times bestsellers Mojo and What Got You
All outcomes measures are influenced by one critical factor: the number of employee ideas implemented by the front-line employees themselves. Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder present research findings in many companies and industries that clearly confirm this, but also explain how great leaders make it happen.
~ John Toussaint, Former CEO of Thedacare, Author of On The Mend and Potent Medicine
No one has captured the rationale of how-tos for achieving business results through front-line involvement as elegantly and convincingly as Schroeder and Robinson have. Learning how to unleash the significant power of ideas is quite possibly the most important leadership skill needed today.
~ Karen Martin, The Karen Martin Group, Author of The Outstanding Organization
Ideas Are Free
Alan G. Robinson & Dean M. Schroeder
Drawing on extensive research and experience in more than 300 organizations around the world, Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder show precisely how to take advantage of the virtually free, perpetually renewable resource of employee ideas.
True excellence and sustainable competitive advantage in every area – from productivity to responsiveness, keeping costs low, quality, and service delivery – is only possible with the attention to detail that comes from getting and implementing large numbers of ideas from employees.
No matter what size or what product or service you provide, you have an opportunity to make major improvements in your business by following the basic guidelines set forth in this book. These changes will be suggested by the people who actually do the work, and the changes will be accepted by everyone because they all had a hand in the selection and implementation. I rate this book 5 1/2 stars, a first in this category. It’s that powerful. Only The Bible and the U.S. Constitution receive 6 stars.
Ideas Are Free is a clear and concise prescription for turning an organization into an idea machine. Filled with real-world stories of how great companies generate, act on, and reward new ideas, Ideas Are Free will inspire any manager who believes, as I do, that only the innovative thrive.
Corporate Creativity
By Alan Robinson & Sam Stern
In Corporate Creativity, Alan Robinson and Sam Stern propose a radically different way to manage for creativity that allows companies to realize their creative potential and significantly improve their competitive position profitability.
Robinson and Stern investigated hundreds of creative acts in organizations around the world to make some surprising discoveries about how innovation and improvement actually happen.
Rich with detailed examples, Corporate Creativity reveals six essential elements that individuals and companies can use to turn their creativity from a hit-or-miss proposition into something consistent that they can count on.
Corporate Creativity argues persuasively that great ideas, more than anything else, fuel corporate growth. The book brims with anecdotes about baggage handlers and part-time accountants whose ideas save companies millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars. Corporate Creativity is worth reading for its fascinating trek through the history of idea-gathering.
I thought I understood creativity and its processes, but Corporate Creativity gave me a whole new insight. I recommend it for pleasure as well as for serious reading.
Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement
By Alan Robinson
Here’s the quickest and most inexpensive way to learn about the pioneering work of Shigeo Shingo, co-creator (with Taiichi Ohno) of just-in-time. It’s an introductory book containing excerpts of five of his classic books as well as an excellent introduction by Professor Robinson.
“According to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement — his 1991 book with Shigeo Shingo, one of the developers of the Toyota Production System – “remains a must-read for anyone interested in lean production”.