Alan Robinson
Dr. Alan G. Robinson specializes in managing creativity, ideas and innovation, and is the co-author of seven books, which have been translated into more than twenty five languages.
Corporate Creativity (co-authored with Sam Stern) was named "Book of the Year" by the Academy of Human Resource Management, was a finalist in the Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Best Business Book Awards, and has been translated into fourteen foreign languages.
Robinson's book Ideas Are Free (co-authored with Dean Schroeder) was named Reader's Choice by Fast Company magazine and one of the 30 best business books of 2004 by Soundview Executive Books, and was featured on ABC World News and CNN Headline News. A syndicated small business columnist for Scripps-Howard, Paul Tulenko, wrote about Ideas Are Free, "I rate this book 5 1/2 stars, a first in this category. It's that powerful. (Only the Bible and the Constitution receive 6 stars.)".
His 2002 book Vos Idées Changent Tout (co-authored with Isaac Getz) has been translated into seven languages. In his preface to the German edition of this book, Heinrich von Pierer, President and CEO of Siemens, called this "an important book on a topic that is fundamental to every business".
According to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement - his 1991 book with Shigeo Shingo, one of the developers of the Toyota Production System - "remains a must-read for anyone interested in lean".
His latest book, The Idea-Driven Organization, will came out in April 2014. According to Marshall Goldsmith, author of the New York Times bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There, "The Idea-Driven Organizationis so reasonable that the magnitude of its change message is easy to miss. The richness of the examples from all over the world make it fun to read and the authors convincingly demonstrate the power of incorporating front-line line thinking into your organization."
Robinson has advised more than two hundred and fifty organizations in twenty countries on how to improve their performance. Some of his more well-known recent clients include: the Federal Reserve Bank, GE, NBTY, Lucent Technologies, Interbrew, IKEA, Mass Mutual, Kraft, Daneher, UBS, the U.S. Navy, Alcan, Volkswagen, Standard and Poors, Delta Dental, Massachusetts General Hospital, UMass Memorial Healthcare, Conair, Metroland, The Washington Post, Wyeth, Medtronics, Conair, Forest Laboratories, Blue Shield of California, Toyota, Northeast Utilities, Big Y Foods, The U.S. Veteran's Administration, Altana, Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), Millitech, Coor Service Management, Health New England, Cleveland Clinic, Bemis, Pyosa (the Mexican chemical company), AIG, Fanuc (the Japanese robotics company), Schneider Electric, the Japan Industrial Training Association, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fashion Institute of Technology, Raytheon, Allianz, Liberty Mutual and the Applied Physics Laboratory.
He has served on the Board of Examiners of the United States' Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and on the Board of Examiners for the Shingo Prizes for Excellence in Manufacturing.
Dr. Robinson received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A./M.A. in mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a professor at the Isenberg School of the University of Massachusetts.
He has taught at St. Petersburg Technical University in Russia, the Athens Laboratory of Business Administration in Greece (affiliated with INSEAD), the Jagiellonian University in Poland, the University of Porto in Portugal, the Hanoi Business School, and Tianjin University in China.
Dr. Alan G. Robinson specializes in managing creativity, ideas and innovation, and is the co-author of seven books, which have been translated into more than twenty five languages.
Corporate Creativity (co-authored with Sam Stern) was named "Book of the Year" by the Academy of Human Resource Management, was a finalist in the Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Best Business Book Awards, and has been translated into fourteen foreign languages.
Robinson's book Ideas Are Free (co-authored with Dean Schroeder) was named Reader's Choice by Fast Company magazine and one of the 30 best business books of 2004 by Soundview Executive Books, and was featured on ABC World News and CNN Headline News. A syndicated small business columnist for Scripps-Howard, Paul Tulenko, wrote about Ideas Are Free, "I rate this book 5 1/2 stars, a first in this category. It's that powerful. (Only the Bible and the Constitution receive 6 stars.)".
His 2002 book Vos Idées Changent Tout (co-authored with Isaac Getz) has been translated into seven languages. In his preface to the German edition of this book, Heinrich von Pierer, President and CEO of Siemens, called this "an important book on a topic that is fundamental to every business".
According to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement - his 1991 book with Shigeo Shingo, one of the developers of the Toyota Production System - "remains a must-read for anyone interested in lean".
His latest book, The Idea-Driven Organization, will came out in April 2014. According to Marshall Goldsmith, author of the New York Times bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There, "The Idea-Driven Organizationis so reasonable that the magnitude of its change message is easy to miss. The richness of the examples from all over the world make it fun to read and the authors convincingly demonstrate the power of incorporating front-line line thinking into your organization."
Robinson has advised more than two hundred and fifty organizations in twenty countries on how to improve their performance. Some of his more well-known recent clients include: the Federal Reserve Bank, GE, NBTY, Lucent Technologies, Interbrew, IKEA, Mass Mutual, Kraft, Daneher, UBS, the U.S. Navy, Alcan, Volkswagen, Standard and Poors, Delta Dental, Massachusetts General Hospital, UMass Memorial Healthcare, Conair, Metroland, The Washington Post, Wyeth, Medtronics, Conair, Forest Laboratories, Blue Shield of California, Toyota, Northeast Utilities, Big Y Foods, The U.S. Veteran's Administration, Altana, Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), Millitech, Coor Service Management, Health New England, Cleveland Clinic, Bemis, Pyosa (the Mexican chemical company), AIG, Fanuc (the Japanese robotics company), Schneider Electric, the Japan Industrial Training Association, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fashion Institute of Technology, Raytheon, Allianz, Liberty Mutual and the Applied Physics Laboratory.
He has served on the Board of Examiners of the United States' Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and on the Board of Examiners for the Shingo Prizes for Excellence in Manufacturing.
Dr. Robinson received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A./M.A. in mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a professor at the Isenberg School of the University of Massachusetts.
He has taught at St. Petersburg Technical University in Russia, the Athens Laboratory of Business Administration in Greece (affiliated with INSEAD), the Jagiellonian University in Poland, the University of Porto in Portugal, the Hanoi Business School, and Tianjin University in China.
How to unlock the power in bottom-up ideas
Every day, front-line employees see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not. They have plenty of ideas to improve productivity and customer service, to offer new or better products or services, or to enhance their organizations in other ways.
As this presentation will explain, some eighty percent of an organization's potential for improvement lies in front-line ideas. Organizations which are not set up to listen to and act on front-line ideas are...
Secrets to coming up with more and better ideas
In its most basic form, creativity can be divided into two parts: problem-finding and problem-solving. Historically, most people and their organizations have focused on problem-solving. A huge industry has built up around problem-solving, and there are many books, training and certification programs, and tools available for help in this area. At the same time, most people pay little attention to developing their problem-finding skills.
While there are always benefits from...
How to dramatically boost your organization’s innovativeness
All over the world, leaders and managers are struggling with the question of how to make their organizations more innovative.
This presentation begins by explaining why most innovation is bottom-up. According to Curtis Carlson, CEO of SRI International, "Top-down innovation is orderly but dumb, bottom-up innovation is chaotic but smart." But because few managers know how to promote bottom-up innovation, their organizations are much less innovative than they could be.
