April 2012, Govindarajan, Vijay, 120-123:
When we hear about innovative companies, Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Google usually come to mind immediately, and with good reason. However, have you heard of Harman International? Me neither-until I read this Harvard Business Review article. Read on for a summary and click on the link to read the full article:
Harman International is a U.S based businesses makes very sophisticated dashboard and audiovisual systems for cars that was designed by German engineers. Their innovation? Harman developed a significantly less expensive, and simpler methods to create products in new markets and adopted new practices in the West. Harman accomplished this with a 2 part approach:
Radical change from below and Superior Leadership
- Setting stretch goals
- Implementing a new approach to their engineering processes
- Overcame doubt
- Created new organizational design
- Concentrated on Branding
- Focused on emerging markets
To Read the Full Article, Click Here
