History of Big Ideas

I learnt a lot by reading recent Business Week about the Game changing ideas for business. The list of articles talk about what & how the companies are testing few ideas in the market place. Some of the most powerful and lasting management methods were launched during the tough times, when companies needed to manage costs and grow. The following is a list of biggest ideas over the past 100 years -

1910	The Assembly Line – With demand soaring for his Model T, Henry Ford took cues from brewers’ conveyor systems and slaughterhouses’ overhead trolleys to build his assembly line, increasing annual production from 78,000 cars in 1910 to 2 million by the 1920s.
1920	Market Segmentation – General Motors CEO Alfred P. Sloan managed GM’s car models through loosely monitored “divisions,” which operated as separate companies with Sloan’s oversight, laying the groundwork for today’s corporation.
1931	Brand Management – After Procter & Gamble began targeting soap brands to different demographics, it set up brand management, an organizational structure that makes individual managers responsible for each brand’s success.
1943	Skunk Works – To build a new fighter jet in just 143 days, Lockheed created an organization called Skunk Works, which used small groups and advance funding to work with little interference from its corporate parent.
1950s	Lean Manufacturing – After a 1950 strike, Toyota workers were given lifetime employment. Manager Taiichi Ohno developed ways to up efficiency without cutting jobs, leading to “pull production” in 1954 and “Total Quality Control” in 1961.
1969	Scenario Planning – The practice involves envisioning multiple future events and developing plans for responding to them. Shell first experimented with scenario planning in 1967, helping it navigate the oil shock of the 1970s.
1973	360-degree Reviews – Getting feedback from peers, managers, and underlings may be the scourge of time-strapped managers. But when companies first adopted these reviews (DuPont was first in 1973), they were seen as a leap ahead.
1987	Six Sigma – Invented at Motorola, the process, designed to reduce defects and increase efficiency, is most associated with General Electric. Widely used today, the jargon-laden tool has been the butt of recent jokes on TV sitcoms such as 30 Rock
1989	Outsourcing – While the practice of hiring outside tech services dates to the 1960s, outsourcing took root later. In 1989, IBM landed a deal to manage Kodak’s data-processing needs. By the 1990s, much of that work started moving offshore.
1990	Reengineering – Technically defined as a radical rethinking of processes, the fad was often associated with the layoffs it spurred and with consultant Michael Hammer, who cited Ford in his 1990 article “Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate.”
2000s	Open Innovation – Many companies are ditching fears of “not invented here.” Instead, they are buying or licensing inventions and collaborating with companies and customers. Procter & Gamble aims to capture half of its innovations from outsiders.

Tagged as: 360-degree Reviews, Brand Management, Lean Manufacturing, Market Segmentation, Open Innovation, Outsourcing, Reengineering, Scenario Planning, Six Sigma, Skunk Works, The Assembly Line