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Here are five choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms to start off your work week. I'm pointing you to articles about Google and Apple, innovation, improving service, lessons from the Dot-Com Crash, and a hero of agility.

From the NY Times: Apple’s Spat With Google Is Getting Personal
"IT looked like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Three years ago, Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, jogged onto a San Francisco stage to shake hands with Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s co-founder, to help him unveil a transformational wonder gadget — the iPhone — before throngs of journalists and adoring fans at the annual MacWorld Expo. Google and Apple had worked together to bring Google’s search and mapping services to the iPhone, the executives told the audience, and Mr. Schmidt joked that the collaboration was so close that the two men should simply merge their companies and call them “AppleGoo.” “Steve, my congratulations to you,” Mr. Schmidt told his corporate ally. “This product is going to be hot.” Mr. Jobs acknowledged the compliment with an ear-to-ear smile. Today, such warmth is in short supply. Mr. Jobs, Mr. Schmidt and their companies are now engaged in a gritty battle royale over the future and shape of mobile computing and cellphones, with implications that are reverberating across the digital landscape."

Wally's Comment: One problem with innovation that no one talks about is that it can lead you into situations where you're competing with companies that used to be your allies. That's what happened with Google and Apple. Brad Stone and Miguel Helft tell the story.

From Industry Week: Ingersoll Rand Puts Customers First in Drive for Innovation
"To the casual observer, Ingersoll Rand's new R-Series rotary screw air compressors and C-Series centrifugal air compressors seem typical of new product introductions. A list of attributes includes improved reliability, efficiency and productivity. But in fact, these products mark a new chapter in product development for the company's Industrial Technologies Sector as it applies Outcome-Driven Innovation to develop products that help solve customers' needs."

Wally's Comment: Last week I pointed you to an analysis of the innovation playbook at Corning. This week, it's Ingersoll Rand. Always remember that there's more than one kind of innovation.

From SMU: Is the road to service excellence paved with disasters?
"Service is instinctive and emotional. We know how to differentiate, quite naturally, good service from poor service at the point at which we experience it. Lest we forget, service providers also consume service, so they can definitely appreciate the consumers' points-of-view. So why does service persist as such a major challenge for most organisations when it is a universally understood notion?"

Wally's Comment: There are several interesting insights sprinkled through this article. Here's my favorite: "Most customers did not care for service that "exceeded expectations" or the proverbial "extra mile". They simply wanted what they have been promised."

From Globe Investor: Lessons from the tech bust
"They had no idea the party was over. Ten years ago this month, the Nasdaq stock market index hit an all-time high of 5,048.62. Euphoric investors of all stripes, from Wall Street titans to novice retirees, had poured hundreds of billions of dollars into dreams that an unstoppable force of technological innovation was changing everything. However, the combination of exuberance, ignorance and greed that sent technology stocks to impossibly high valuations was slowly breaking down."

Wally's Comment: We've got enough distance on the bursting of the Dot-Com bubble that we should be able to learn a few lessons. Simon Avery outlines some of them for you.

From Don Sull: Heros of agility: Colonel John R. Boyd
"Many people have contributed to our understanding of agility, but few have contributed more than John Boyd. My last post described how U.S. fighter pilots dominated their adversaries during the Korean War despite inferior planes, fewer of them, and less secure bases. The secret of their success remained poorly understood until US Air Force Colonel John Boyd studied the Sabres several years later, while developing a next generation fighter plane.  Boyd, it turns out, was ideal for the job.  By the end he not only cracked the mystery of the Sabres’ success and designed the new plane, but also re-conceptualized combat in a way that highlighted how agility can trump superior resources or position."

Wally's Comment: After Oswald Boelcke formulated his eight rules of combat for fighter pilots in World War I, they remained state-of-the-art for almost half a century. Then John Boyd took fighter pilots two huge steps forward. He analyzed the physics for fighter combat and he codified the maneuvers and counter-maneuvers pilots could use. But his most important influence extends beyond the art and science of aerial combat.

Boyd identified the importance of situational awareness and rapid decision making. He outlined the decision process with his OODA loop (Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action). You'll find his principles applied in the military and in business.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.