Babson College Professors Thomas H. Davenport and Bala Iyer are the authors of “Reverse Engineering Google’s Innovation Machine,” which has been selected as lead article in the April ’08 publication of the Harvard Business Review.

According to HBR, the article looks at the rapid, profuse innovation of Google.  Much of what the company does is rooted in its legendary IT infrastructure, but technology and strategy at Google are inseparable and mutually permeable—making it hard to say whether technology is the DNA of it strategy or the other way around.

Iyer and Davenport believe Google may well be the internet-era heir to such companies as General Electric and IBM as an exemplar of management practice.  Among the subjects covered in the article: corporate culture, creativity, data management, experimentation, innovation, organizational design, and process innovation.

At Babson, Iyer is Associate Professor, Technology Operations and Information Management Division.  Davenport holds the President’s Chair in IT and Management, and also leads the Process Management and Working Knowledge Research Centers at Babson Executive Education.