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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 innovation at 3M, the Toyota recall, the iPad," walled gardens" make a comeback, and the organization as a living being.

From SMU: From Post-its to Face-bras: How 3M puts innovation into practice
"Go ahead and experiment with your idea. But what if I fail, you may ask. It is okay, said Geoff Nicholson, a former senior executive with multi-product manufacturer 3M, famous for its wide range of innovative products for both consumers and businesses.

Wally's Comment: Even though they seemed like they lost their mojo for a while, 3M has been an exemplar of innovation since the days of William McKnight. You may also want to read about how 3M is pioneering the use of customer innovation centers, or read about the Honeybee Network, a totally different kind of innovation process.

From Wharton: Under the Hood of Toyota's Recall: 'A Tremendous Expansion of Complexity'
"In the wake of complaints about sudden acceleration problems that have led to the recall of millions of Toyotas over the past few months, the automaker has faced criticism over everything from the design of its cars to the failure of company executives to acknowledge and address the issue head on. Perhaps most damaging is the hit to Toyota's overall reputation for quality. Wharton management professor John Paul MacDuffie recently sat down withTakahiro Fujimoto -- an economics professor from the University of Tokyo and a leading authority on the Toyota production system and automotive product development -- for his views on what caused the crisis, how Toyota has handled it, and how other car companies should react to Toyota's predicament."

Wally's Comment: There's a tendency to understand Toyota's problems as solely the result of the pursuit of growth. This article takes a more nuanced approach.

From HBS Working Knowledge: iPads, Kindles, and the Close of a Chapter in Book Publishing
"Two days ago, the first buyers of Apple's iPad began putting it through its paces, playing games, navigating the Internet, and downloading electronic books. That groan you heard was from dozens of book publishers across the United States, reeling from yet another onslaught against their bread and butter: the paper book. First it was Books on Tape, followed by books on phones, and then the king of business model killers, Amazon.com's Kindle."

Wally's Comment: What will become of print publishing? This article has one view, sparked by the release of the iPad. Other perspectives are in "Reinventing Print Media" and Clay Shirky's post, on "The Collapse of Complex Business Models."

From the New York Times: Rethinking a Gospel of the Web
"FOR about a decade now, ever since it became clear that the jungle of the World Wide Web would triumph over the walled gardens of CompuServe, AOL and MSN, a general consensus has solidified among the otherwise fractious population of People Who Think Big Thoughts About the Internet. That unifying creed is this: Open platforms promote innovation and diversity more effectively than proprietary ones."

Wally's Comment: This a fascinating article by Steve Johnson. He seems to be to be confusing "open platforms" with "open systems." Nevertheless, this is a great read and it will get you thinking about business models in the Digital Age and about Apple's model in particular.

From Strategy + Business: The Organization Is Alive
"Over the past 30 years, management thinkers have largely come to accept the idea that organizations are not machines; they are as unpredictable, unruly, self-organizing, and even sentient as any living beings. Gareth Morgan, Arie de Geus, Peter Senge, Meg Wheatley, and others have written eloquently about this. Even those who don’t buy the idea of organizations being literally alive are bound to agree when writers such as Jon R. Katzenbach and Zia Khan (in their book, Leading Outside the Lines: How to Mobilize the Informal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results [Jossey-Bass, 2010]) suggest that hard-nosed, engineering-oriented leaders need to develop virtuosic skill at managing the informal, personal aspects of a company. In other words, although organizations may not literally be alive, when it comes to running and changing them, they might as well be."

Wally's Comment: When I left the Marines in 1968 and went into business, the dominant model for thinking about management was Professional Manager as Organizational Engineer. Planning had pride of place. That was followed by a shift to a computer-like model, with emphasis on process, but with planning still the dominant discipline. Now I think we're moving toward more biological and anthropological models. Either of those would involve less planning and more adapting.

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.