THE HARPER REPORT ARCHIVES

By Pamela S. Harper and D. Scott Harper

Go to any trade show, and the sheer volume of opportunities available, including software applications, devices, instruments, and equipment available to expand your company’s innovation is staggering. So what makes the difference between organizations where this new technology realizes its promise of a brighter more exciting future and those where the new technology goes unused and gathers dust in the corner of the room?

The answer starts with strong leadership.Read More

By Pamela S. Harper and D. Scott Harper

From time to time, leaders of even the most sophisticated and innovative organizations must take control of an issue that almost everyone sees but no one wants to face, otherwise known as the “elephant in the room.” While these issues may be daunting, there are ways to take control.

Organizational elephants often are born and grow from good intentions. These can include the desire to avoid unnecessary conflicts and maintain important relationships, or to be seen as a team player. However, when left unresolved, organizational elephants produce a situation where people become focused on preserving an illusion that erodes trust, wastes time, drains resources, robs you of talent, and steals opportunities. The sooner you take control of an organizational elephant by spotting it and freeing it, the less power it has over your company’s success.Read More

Strategic alliances come complete with their own special set of advantages and challenges. Certainly the benefits of gaining access to knowledge, skills, and systems your organization doesn’t have without an equity investment makes these relationships compelling – especially given the rapidly changing business environment. Yet numerous studies indicate that less than 50% of all strategic alliances live up to original expectations. The good news is that there are enormous opportunities for improved outcomes. Recognizing and adapting to the unique characteristics of each alliance can dramatically increase the likelihood of powerful results for everyone involved.Read More

Recently, we’ve been hearing more executives talk about “watching and waiting” for conditions to return to normal as a strategy for navigating the unpredictable business environment, rather than looking to create new opportunities. However, since combinations of big and little changes in technology, workforce demographics, customer needs, and legislation are happening every day, waiting for things to return to the way they were at an earlier time often leads to bigger problems and missed opportunities.

In fact, “business as unusual” is the new normal, and whole industries are changing in response to a series of unprecedented demands and issues in the business environment.  While we can’t always control circumstances and events, there are things we can do to minimize problems and leverage new opportunities for growth and profitability.Read More

Many of the CEOs and senior executives we meet consider innovation to be a critical strategic priority. However, they often tell us that despite adopting best practices to increase and streamline innovation, success can often seem elusive and even haphazard. The most promising new products and services can have disappointing results in the market, while other products with lower expectations can provide an unexpectedly high return on investment.

Over 50% of executives feel that innovation programs cost too much, take too long, and have an unpredictable return on investment. With so much effort being directed to improving and reaping benefits from innovation, the seemingly erratic distribution of success can be mystifying.

It’s easy to see when a new product or service succeeds and when it fails. However, unlocking the secrets to gaining sustainable control and making innovation more predictably successful is considerably more challenging.Read More

With all the often-contradictory information swirling around in the business environment, it can be challenging to know which trends could signal emerging opportunities for revenue and profitability. 
For example, how many of us would have predicted only five years ago that both Facebook and Twitter would become such dominant forces for marketing products and services?  Many of those who were able to sense the signs of their potential impact on the business environment early on were able to ride their wave to higher levels of success. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that your organization develops the ability to more quickly and effectively sense new cues that important changes are on the way.Read More

An old German proverb, roughly translated, states “to change and to change for the better are two different things.” Over our years of helping organizations of all sizes deal with a vast array of changes, we’ve seen that the skepticism embodied in this proverb runs wide and deep. Resistance to change can emerge even when the advantages may seem obvious, such as in the case of a move to new, improved facilities. The skepticism and resistance can be especially strong when the change is viewed as one being imposed by an external “them,” whether “they” are management, regulatory bodies, or even peer groups.

Focus on Commitment Over Compliance

Whether you’re dealing with restructuring, new regulations, new customer requirements such as quality certifications, or even a hostile takeover, changes based upon compliance are the most challenging ones to implement because of the natural resistance we tend to have to situations we didn’t initiate.Read More

Recently, we met with the CEO and senior executives of a company that was preparing to receive FDA approval of a number of new drug applications. Despite the prospect of imminent success after years of investment and waiting, these savvy leaders recognized that they needed to be ready to head off a possible crisis: effectively bringing a number of new products to market all at once while balancing their current product portfolio.

In fact, these executives are not alone in recognizing the challenges that success can bring. We’ve learned over the years that regardless of the size of a company, success can provoke its own type of crises. After the initial celebration subsides, it can be an unpleasant surprise to realize that the world really has changed and that long-established operations must also change – sometimes dramatically – in order to accommodate growth and new expectations from customers, employees, and other stakeholders.Read More