Spring and Fall Conferences

How to Cultivate Innovation for the Long Run

Here’s a generalization we feel pretty safe making: Every successful company achieves its success by figuring out how to deliver a particular product or a service better than anyone else previously has. Here’s another one: Unless that company can keep figuring out how to do that, its success is going to be short-lived. It’s only as strong as its ability to stay ahead of the next new thing.…Read More

For Best Customer Insights, Ask Them How They Feel. But Don’t Actually Ask Them.

Richard Thorogood

How Technology is Transforming Market Research   Take a typical adult to an ice cream parlor, says Richard Thorogood, and before making a choice they’ll weigh as many factors as there are flavors. “Well, I kind of want strawberry,” they’ll think, “but I always get strawberry, so maybe I should…Read More

Why Established Firms Should Keep an Eye on Kickstarter

Ethan Mollick

Crowdfunding has exploded in popularity since 2009, and its pace shows no signs of slowing. Funded researcher Ethan Mollick argues that this trend poses important implications for established firms as well as entrepreneurs.…Read More

Your Customers Notice

Our longtime corporate partners at Teradata are frequent and enthusiastic participants at our yearly conferences. One attendee, Monica Mullen, recently shared her key takeaways from our recent Fall Conference. Her post originally appeared in the company’s Industry Experts blog. I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. J. David Power…Read More

Cultivating Growth and Disrupting Proactively

Mack Institute Fall Conference 2013

Mack Institute events don’t typically include references to farming techniques, but the Fall Conference 2013 was a rare exception. In this video summary of his presentation, Takeshi Yamaguchi describes how Nissan’s approach to advanced technical development resembles the cultivation of an orchard. Instead of a linear approach, Nissan achieves successful…Read More

John Paul MacDuffie on Converging Industries

PVMI Director John Paul MacDuffie

What happens when two industries with fundamentally different clockspeeds converge within a single product? In a recent Knowledge@Wharton article, Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation Director John Paul MacDuffie discusses the challenges of integrating IT-based technology, such as computer-based collision avoidance systems, into automobiles. MacDuffie highlights the tight integration of…Read More

J.D. Power III’s Impact on the Auto Industry

How J.D. Power III Transformed the Auto Industry Through the collection of consumer feedback on cars, J.D. “Dave” Power III revolutionized the automobile industry in 1968. In this Knowledge@Wharton interview conducted by PVMI director John Paul MacDuffie, Power discusses the founding and early years of his firm, J.D. Power and…Read More

Reflections on the 2013 PVMI Researchers Meeting and Fall Conference

In addition to hosting the 2013 Fall Conference with the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation (PVMI), the Mack Institute also held a PVMI Researchers Meeting on November 21, 2013. Both events focused on the theme of disruptive technologies and value migration. In this guest blog post, PVMI veteran Dan Whitney of…Read More

A Glimpse into the Future through Integration and Innovation

The Mack Institute hosted its annual Fall Conference on November 22, 2013 with the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation (PVMI) on the topic of “When Disruptive Technologies Meet Integrated Systems: Who Captures the Value?” This guest post by three PVMI researchers summarizes key takeaways from the conference, including the…Read More