Producing Prosperity
Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance
In Producing Prosperity, Harvard Business School professors Gary Pisano and Willy Shih (authors of the award-winning Harvard Business Review article "Restoring American Competitiveness") vividly show the disastrous consequences of years of bad outsourcing decisions and underinvestment in manufacturing capability. They go on to reveal how today's undervalued manufacturing operations often hold the seeds of tomorrow's innovative new products, arguing that companies must reinvest in the collective operational capabilities that underpin new product and process development in the U.S. industrial sector. It is only by reviving this "industrial commons" that we can build both the expertise and the manufacturing muscle to produce tomorrow's hot products—from electronics and appliances to solar panels and next-generation batteries—to regain competitive advantage.
Gary P. Pisano is the Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he has been on the faculty since 1988. His research has focused on the management of innovation, technology and competitive strategy, and outsourcing. Willy C. Shih is a professor of management practice in the Technology and Operations Management unit at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on capability acquisition in Asian firms and the linkage to US competitiveness issues. Prior to coming to HBS, he spent eighteen years in information technology, followed by ten years in the consumer electronics industry.
