Invented Here: Maximizing Your Organization's Internal Growth and Profitability [Hardcover]

Bart Victor (Author), Andrew C. Boynton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

Record breaking economic growth, Rapid global expansion, Dizzying technological innovation: As we head toward the new millennium, it seems as if there are more opportunities than ever for your company to create new value, satisfy customers, and make money. But, given today's bewildering array of management methods, how do you determine which path to follow - and how do you adapt your company for the journey? With "Invented Here", authors Victor and Boynton argue that to succeed in a market where consumers increasingly demand customized goods and services, you cannot rely on any one formula. Instead, you must look within your own organization to invent, develop, and deliver the distinctive competencies that ensure growth and profitability. The authors conclude that there are distinct patterns in the way that successful companies manage their internal growth - patterns found in the evaluation and application of organizational knowledge. More important, they provide a workable strategy for emulating these patterns; arguing that any company, in order to more closely satisfy the needs of its customers, can develop the capabilities necessary to evolve from craft work to mass customization, and beyond. With examples from companies such as Beretta, Taco Bell, Dell Computer, Xerox, and Merrill Lynch providing a real-world context, "Invented Here" reveals how managers can determine the best path of change for their company by assessing its existing knowledge base. The book is a pioneering guide to using the knowledge that resides within your company in the actual transformation of work: the nature of what you do, the value that you can create with your customers, and the organizational knowledge to be mined along the way.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Victor and Boynton (management, International Institute for Management Development, Lausane, Switzerland) offer a rare gem among countless "also-ran" management texts. This solid work is filled with insights toward a fundamental understanding of organizations and how best to prepare for the future. Rather than turning to intermittent fads, the authors encourage building on what a firm is already about and explain their concept of a transformation path from craft work through mass production, process enhancement, mass configuration, ultimately to what they term co-configuration. Along this path, the different types of inherent knowledge within companies focusing on these different steps are defined, and practical measures from numerous companies exemplifying these different stages help convey the progression. This excellent work nicely complements John Macdonald's Calling a Halt to Mindless Change (LJ 4/1/98) and John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge's The Witch Doctors (LJ 12/96). Highly recommended for academic libraries supporting a business curriculum.?Dale F. Farris, Groves, TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Those who counsel individuals often first advise to "look within yourself" for answers. Similarly, the authors here suggest that most organizations already possess the internal resources necessary to succeed and grow. Victor and Boynton are both professors at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They argue that rather than adopt each passing management fad, companies should use the organizational knowledge they already have and should regularly assess their existing knowledge base to discover their own unique patterns of managing growth and satisfying customers. The authors assert that there are four organizational capabilities. These are craft work, mass production, process enhancement, and mass customization. Victor and Boynton detail the "knowledge and value propositions" associated with each of the four, and they explain how, after self-analysis, companies can plot the "right path" for moving from one capability--or type of work--to the next. Their ideas are supported by numerous examples resulting from work with the IBM Consulting Group. David Rouse

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875847986
• ISBN-13: 978-0875847986
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,406,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important insights into the learning organization., March 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Invented Here: Maximizing Your Organization's Internal Growth and Profitability (Hardcover)

This book reveals how to use knowledge residing in the company to transform organization and manage growth. It presents a model of organizational learning and development with four steps: craft, mass production, process enhancement, and mass customization. It explores the leveraging of four associated types of knowledge and presents a learning system for developing organizational knowledge. Provides important insights the learning organization.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding primer for managers confronting dramatic change., May 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Invented Here: Maximizing Your Organization's Internal Growth and Profitability (Hardcover)

This book goes beyond the tired cliches of so many current management books. It clearly articulates a reason and a method for mangers to deal with the rapidly changing environment. Moreover, the authors provde both the historic context and the theeoretical underpinnings to support their views.A manager who reads this book will be challenged to rethink how he or she does business and guided along the right path to make the necessary chnages.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The keys to corporate success are in the corporation!, June 29, 1998

By 

R. Blackburn (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Invented Here: Maximizing Your Organization's Internal Growth and Profitability (Hardcover)

Too many managers look to external consultants to provide the keys to their organization's success. Was it quality circles, TQM, or re-engineering you last tried as a way to rejuventate your struggling organzation? Victor and Boynton suggest you save your money and focus within. Their logical process of analysis and implementation will help your firm on the "right path" to organizational success.

The process demands that firms think clearly and carefully about who they are and what business they are in compared to what their customers really want. This analysis helps a firm determine if it should compete on the basis of novelty, commodity, quality, or precision. The choice made suggests that craft work, mass production, process enhancement, or mass customization provides the best strategy to meet those customer demands. Achieving these strategies can only occur as a firm moves from craft work, through mass production and process enhancement to mass customization via the "right path."

In an engaging combination of personal insight and case examples, the authors lead the reader along the "path." They offer numerous stories of organizations around the world that have followed this "path" to organizational success.

Don't let the reletive brevity of their effort mislead you. The ideas they propose should force the thoughful manager into careful and thoughful consideration of the firm's current structure, products, and processes. If the analysis suggests that changes are warranted, then Victor and Boynton's guidebook along the "right path" will prove well worth the initial investment.

A thoughtful, creative tour de force in a field littered with lightweight, feel-good competitors. Enjoy!