Industrial Commons

Description

Willy C. Shih:

"A new book, Producing Prosperity , by profs. Gary Pisano and Willy Shih, argues that a manufacturing renaissance is critical to the process-oriented innovation that has contributed to the worldwide dominance of the US economy. The argument presumably extends as well to other countries with developed economies.

Pisano and Shih maintain that their proposals are intended to encourage the regeneration of the "industrial commons" ∼ the "R&D and manufacturing infrastructure, know-how, process-development skills, and engineering capabilities" ∼ resulting from the clustering of universities, suppliers, and manufacturers in industries such as biotechnology, electronic components, and semiconductors in which rapidly-developing innovations in processes and process technologies are taking place.

They are many of the same industries in which constant interaction between R&D and manufacturing are most important, industries where the outsourcing of manufacturing to another country can not only prove to be destructive to the innovative process but to the industrial commons as well. It can lead to the demise of entire industries." (http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7106.html?wknews=09052012)