Hypertension for managers?
If you are wondering why you may need knowledge management tools to shrink the product design to manufacture cycle and foster collaboration across company boundaries, check out this paper by two Emory University business researchers. The complete paper can be found on the Knowledge@Emory Web site (http://knowledge.emory.edu).
The paper titled "The Rise of Hypercompetition in the U.S. Manufacturing Sector, 1950-2002" by researchers L.G.Thomas and Richard D'Aveni, contends the phenomenon of hypercompetition is rapidly spreading across the U.S. and the globe. Hypercompetition is "an environment characterized by intense and rapid competitive moves, in which competitors must move quickly to build new advantages and [simultaneously] erode the advantages of their rivals."
Extensive globalization, more appealing substitute products, more educated and fragmented consumer tastes, deregulation and the invention of new business models are hypercompetition drivers according to the authors. In addition, hypercompetition is frequently set in motion by innovations that develop outside an industry.
The authors say that business leaders should forget about trying to create sustainable competitive advantages because events are moving too quickly. Instead, they argue that the best strategy is to develop an endless series of strategically unsustainable advantages.
I've been studying PLM (product lifecycle management) tools for an article in the October Automation World. These software collaboration tools are developing to a point where companies can make more responsive and agile business systems. I hope to see further developments toward more enterprise-wide systems in the not-too-distant future.
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