"Of all possible resources that a firm might posses, its knowledge base has perhaps the greatest ability to serve as a source of sustainable differentiation and hence competitive advantage."

Vijay Govindarajan Education See all quotes by Vijay Govindarajan →

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More by Vijay Govindarajan

“Govindarajan's Blog at the Harvard Business Review”

“Inside a big experiment, there are little experiments.”

“The more you hardwire a company on total quality management, it is going to hurt breakthrough innovation... The mindset that is needed, the capabilities that are needed, the metrics that are needed, the whole culture that is needed for discontinuous innovation, are fundamentally different.”

“The innovation leader’s job is to execute a disciplined experiment.”

“A reverse innovation is any innovation that is adopted first in the developing world.”

“Organizations are not designed for innovation. Quite the contrary, they are designed for ongoing operations.”

Resonant Thoughts

"I don’t think Father Hugo is any more mistaken than the most learned theologian and he might be closer to the truth. Jacob, I don’t think anyone knows Who’s in charge."

— Robert A. Heinlein

Literature1907–1988

#knowledge

"I wish. I don’t know what I wish. That you were less I were more, perhaps. Yes, just possibly that’s it"

— Alice Borchardt

Literature1939–2007

#knowledge

"No one wants their personal emails made public, and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy."

— Hillary Clinton

Politics1947

#knowledge

"We don't seem to be overflowing with luck." "You make your own. I put no faith in gods, Lake. Never have. If they exist, they care very little—if at all—about ordinary mortals. I put my faith in me, a…"

— David Gemmell

Journalism1948–2006

#knowledge