Today’s Wall Street Journal has a periodic special section produced with MIT, Business Insight. Articles listed below and worth your review.

• The New, Faster Face of Innovation
• Erik Brynjolfsson and Michael Schrage
• Finding an Innovation Strategy That Works
• Frank T. Rothaermel and Andrew M. Hess
• Getting Real About Fakes
• Peggy E. Chaudhry and Stephen A. Stumpf
• How to Be a Smart Protégé
• Dawn E. Chandler, Douglas T. Hall and Kathy E. Kram
• Move Over, CEO
• Philip Tulimieri and Moshe Banai
• Lessons From the Developing World
• Jamie Anderson, Martin Kupp and Ronan Moaligou
• Sibling Rivalry
• John Dawes
• The Fans Know Best
• Utpal M. Dholakia and Silvia Vianello
• What Managers Really Do
• An interview with Henry Mintzberg

Rhode Island School of  Design leaders (John Maeda and Becy Bermont) offer a succinct comparison of differences between business and academics, using punctuation marks as the metaphor .  This combination is at the heart of our partnership with Stanford for the SAPM program. The the following quotes capture the essence of their post.  Creative organizations (such as, Apple, IDEO, P&G, or Pixar) and teams continually strive to balance these two frames of reference, depending on the culture and strategy of the organization.

In academia there is the luxury of time. Thus when a thought might start, it doesn’t necessarily have to finish. You can begin … and not necessarily end. It is this kind of open-endedness that makes academia a necessary space of free thought in the world.

In industry we like to hear the virtues of “execution” and “getting things done.” Got an idea? Set a target deadline. When you’re done, package the result and move onto the next task. Don’t think. Just do. And keep on doing.

In industry it’s important to be heard. Speaking up is critical for an individual’s or idea’s survival. “I can’t hear you.” No. I really can’t. So what do you do? YELL. YEEEEEELLLLLL. And you still hope to get heard. By your boss, of course. Or even better by your boss’s boss. 

In academia there’s always a need to think critically. Debate is the starting- and ending-point for all meaningful dialogue. Got an idea? Question it. And question the question while you’re at it.

Culture is not copied but created!

Recently I flew both Southwest Airlines and another airline in the same week–and continue to be amazed at how much better and more efficient…and more fun it is to fly on Southwest.  One might say…why don’t other airlines learn from SW…well it’s the culture stupid! In our Stanford Advanced Project Management Program (SAPM) we talk much about the power of culture and understanding it as a key to strategy execution.  Southwest is a poster child for the importance of this–culture is not copied but created!

Share these two videos with your teams to generate a culture discussion–what can you and your team do to reinforce those strong elements of your culture that support strategy execution in today’s challenging times.:

• Southwest Airlines airline safety announcement as a rap
• Non-GAAP financial statement discussion at SW Airlines Annual meeting

Information Week provides a “rolling review” of Web 2.0 collaboration tools.  A recent post reviewed how PBwiki can be used for small projects.  This is part of a larger effort outlined below.  Provides insights on using Web 2.0 tools in project settings. (more…)