Business

Why management innovation is so hard

Bold innovations often take time. That’s why progress must be judged both in relation to the starting point as well as the final destination. For example, in America’s space program, the first successful docking of two orbiting spacecraft, the Gemini VIII capsule and the unmanned Agena target vehicle, took place on March 16, 1966. While this was an important milestone, it was still just an intermediate step in the long journey to land a human being on the moon. While the commander of Gemini VIII, Neil Armstrong, would ultimately walk on the moon, that wouldn’t happen until 1969. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 17 Dec 2010 by Gary Hamel

Your ideas are your assets: Jim Whitehurst on 21st century value

20th century companies defined success by their hard assets. In contrast, 21st century businesses are based around information and ideas. In this video, Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO of Red Hat, explores how we add value in today's contemporary business, and, by extension, as a society.

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0 CommentsPosted 16 Dec 2010 by Kim Jokisch (Red Hat)

Discovering desire lines: How to break down barriers and let paths emerge

The story is told like this: A university constructs several new buildings on its campus. But rather than build sidewalks between buildings, they plant grass, let people walk, and wait. Pedestrians choose the most efficient paths--and over time the lines worn in the grass reveal where sidewalks should be.
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2 CommentsPosted 15 Dec 2010 by Jonathan Opp

Conflicts in open source business models

I can't imagine a world in which compromise and collaboration could be more important than in an open source business model. The model itself opens a Pandora's Box of issues that create a minefield that must be navigated on a daily basis and makes those concepts critical to success. Think, for an instance, about a world in which one or many of the possible points of differentiation are freely shared—and some even given away—without condition to parties whose interests are naturally misaligned with yours. » Read more

3 CommentsPosted 10 Dec 2010 by Joe Anglim (Red Hat)

Recap: "Building a Better Boss" webcast with Bob Sutton and Polly LaBarre

Polly LaBarre introduced Bob Sutton for the "Building a Better Boss" webcast in the context of the MIX dream: to build organizations that are fit for the future and fit for human beings. That undertaking isn't the job of any one individual or organization, so the MIX offers a platform for sharing those stories and challenges, called Management Moonshots, which are designed to focus the energies of management innovators. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 9 Dec 2010 by Ruth Suehle (Red Hat)

Corporate change: Contributing to open source

About five years ago I was hired by a software company that specialized in database security. Some of our software was used to protect databases in military assets and major banks. But a lot of development was very remote from top-secret weapons or classified information. For example, we wrote a small command line utility for driving virtual machines for integration testing. It helped us eradicate failures during installs and upgrades. Was I going to have to write that again at my next job? How could I share it with my friends working at other organizations? » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 8 Dec 2010 by Daniel Doubrovkine

Does WikiLeaks damage the brand image of wikis?

Over the past few weeks, the world has been consuming the newest set of revelations via WikiLeaks. The uproar caused by the release of the first set of diplomatic cables from a batch of 251,000 in WikiLeaks' possession is enough to take your breath away.

A disclaimer: in this post it is not my intention to analyze the positive or negative consequences of the actions of the WikiLeaks organization—there is plenty of that coverage, just check your favorite news reader every five minutes or so to see the latest. » Read more

8 CommentsPosted 8 Dec 2010 by Chris Grams

How Red Hat democratized our corporate citizenship program

Community contribution has long been an important topic at Red Hat. After all, our company was built on the open source software development model and much of the code our software developers write is contributed back to the open source community. For many years, Red Hat also funded a modest US charitable giving fund--appropriate for our size, while allowing us meet our commitments to our stakeholders.

Then in 2008, a contrasting set of events changed our entire approach to charitable giving. Namely, the economic recession and the good fortune of Red Hat.
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2 CommentsPosted 6 Dec 2010 by DeLisa Alexander (Red Hat)

Creating a context for creativity

My experience as a manager – and in particular, as the leader of a company – has been shaped by two quotes that have helped frame my thinking about that role. One is from Harold Geneen, who oversaw the growth of ITT into the first modern conglomerate:

"The skill of management is achieving your objectives through the efforts of others."

This view of management suggests the classic manager, somebody who figures out » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 6 Dec 2010 by Tim O'Reilly

De-bucketizing the org chart

Over the years, I’ve picked up an unhealthy understanding of the language of business. Years of sitting in big corporate meetings will do that to you, unfortunately.

Here at New Kind, my business partners will still call me out for talking about “action items,” saying something is in our “wheelhouse,” or jumping straight to the “net-net.” » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 6 Dec 2010 by Chris Grams