The Smart Organization

Here is an experience-rich book on how companies can create value by becoming "smart organizations". Based on research and consulting engagements with the world's largest R&D-intensive companies, it reveals how senior managers can dramatically improve the return on their companies' investment in R&D and technology.

The Smart Organization bring new perspective to management decision making throughout the organization. It identifies the key practices that enable successful organizations to deliver a stream of winning products, and services. Smart organizations, say the Mathesons, have internalized nine interlocking principles essential in creating corporate cultures that emphasize making the right strategic decisions at the right time. They use best practices to support these decisions and sustain their success. These principles — among them, embracing uncertainty, disciplined decision making, and value creation culture — enable companies to make appropriate choices about their R&R planning, portfolio management, and product strategies.

Drawing on the experiences of R&D-intensive organizations all over the globe, the authors illustrate the book with best practice examples from companies like Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Merck, Procter & Gamble, DuPont, Monsanto, and AT&T. The stress the importance of evaluating trade-offs, investigating alternatives, and getting buy-in across functions to ensure that decisions will be viable from both the technological and the managerial perspective. They show how managers can apply these methods more broadly to create a smart organization. The Mathesons clearly demonstrate hat changing the decision-making process is an efficient means of reforming culture and improving not just R&R but overall company performance.

1. Being Smart
• Part I: Decision Quality
2. Decision Quality
3. The Six Dimensions of Decision Quality
• Part II: Best Practices
4. Best Practices for R&D Decisions
5. Implementing Best Practices
• Part III: Principles
6. Organizational Principles
7. The Nine principles of Smart R&D
8. Organizational IQ
• Part IV: Processes
9. Technology Strategy
10. R&D Portfolio Strategy
11. Project Strategy
• Part V: Beyond R&D
12. The Smart Organization
• Appendix A: Participants in SDG's Benchmark Study
• Appendix B: Organizational IQ Test Scoresheet

This book is really hard to define. It is about strategical product development and is geared towards the practioner. Should be studied carefully.