Last spring Arthur D. Little convened six colloquia – stretching from northern California to southern Florida – to which we invited executives from some of the world's most innovative companies. It was an experiment in collaborative learning. We asked the executive participants, working with a team of Arthur D. Little consultants, to tackle the toughest problems currently facing managers of several critically important business processes: new product development, supply chain management, customer service provision, manufacturing, information management, and safeguarding the environment. For each process, the goal was to identify and document best practices, anticipate the next set of critical challenges and opportunities, and create a body of insights – thought leadership – that would help other executives improve their operations.