In my own research into quality management I, like many others, was intrigued by the apparent dominance of Japanese companies.

All the studies I came across in the early 1990s emphasised the importance of understanding how Japanese companies had successfully learned the lessons of implementing improvement based on teamwork, using statistical process control, obsession with customer satisfaction and constant development of products and service through innovation.

The lexicon of management started to include expressions such as excellence and the quest to become 'World Class'. Significantly, commentators acknowledged, as far as the latter was concerned, it was Japanese companies that dominated any list of the top companies.

The message to others was that you must get better or get beaten and that Japanese companies had cracked the secret of success.

Recent announcements by two Japanese companies, Toyota and Sony, show that success is never permanent and that you have to work hard to remain 'the best'.

In the case of Toyota there is a belief that after a number of recent crises it is well on the road to recovery and will continue to be regarded as one of the world's most successful car makers.

However, Sony's misfortunes seem to be continuing and it has just announced record losses. Sony has discovered that the dominance it once enjoyed has gone and that competitors are outpacing it in terms of innovation and excellence.

What has gone wrong and what does it tell us about the relevance of Japanese management techniques that were once proposed as a sure-fire way to achieve success?

In the new edition of The Harvard Business Review (April 2012), Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Steve Jobs; The Exclusive Biography (Little Brown, 2011), provides a distillation of the reasons why the influence of one man was so crucial in making Apple currently the world's most valuable company.

As Isaacson describes, the rise from founding Apple in his parent's garage in 1976 to its current success has been incredible. There can hardly be anyone in the developed world who can claim to be unaware of the influence of Jobs through his products.

Isaacson states that under Jobs leadership seven industries have been transformed: personal computing, animated movies, music, mobile telephones, tablet computing, retail stores and digital computing. Consequently, Isaacson believes, Jobs 'belongs in the pantheon of America's great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Walt Disney'.

So how did Jobs do it and what can we learn?

Yesterday, the issue of media standards finally jumped the shark. Or rather, it loaned the horse.

News International's former boss Rebekah Brooks, stunt double for Pixar's heroinein forthcoming movie 'Brave', was purportedly the recipient of a loaned police horse from Scotland Yard.

Twenty-seven minutes before mainstream media broke the news of Whitney Houston's death last Saturday the story was on Twitter.

The news was first tweeted by @ajaDiorNavy, with a mere 14 followers at the time, who's "Aunt Tiffany", an employee of Whitney's, found the diva dead in her bath.  An hour later it had been re-tweeted 2.5m times.

I'm often asked by companies for advice on how to tackle a new market and among the many routes to market, Licensing is definitely worth considering.

Licensing is essentially the granting of a 'Right' by the owner of the intellectual property to another business or individual to do something that, without that permission, would infringe the owner's Intellectual Property Right.

It's particularly useful for those who recognise the value in their intellectual property (IP) be it inventions, trademarks, industrial or even architectural designs. Or creative products such as music, art or film. These can all provide income for a company by giving others permission to use its IP in return for a royalty payment.

Today's business world is fast changing and many companies that seek new markets for their products face constraints within their own organisations - such as lack of skill sets or resources to meet market opportunities, little local knowledge of these markets, shortage of capital to invest in the venture, or simply not enough time in the day!

Licensing is relatively quick to set up and can generate rapid revenue streams - all with the added attraction that it is a relatively 'hands off' solution.

There are all sorts of licensing arrangements depending on who you want to use your IP and where.

One of the joys of being involved in teaching and research into organisations and management is the ability to consider the application of concepts in practical situations.

The analysis of case studies can be especially illuminating and much can be gleaned from exploring the reasons why success or failure occurred.

As students discover, the corporate world is replete with examples of the latter.

The case of Kodak, which because of its market dominance until the 1990s was the one of the world's top five most valuable brands will probably become a classic case study in what can go wrong.

Last Thursday was national 'unfriend' day on Facebook, in the US at least! Although instigated by a comic, the now annual event has gained some resonance.

I, for one, am old enough to recall the real meaning of the word "friend" and know that having any more than six real friends is a right pain.

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When we talk about innovative technologies and high growth businesses, we tend to think of software services, mobile phone technologies and ipads.

It's perhaps less well known, that here in the West Midlands, one of our biggest technological success stories is in the fields of gaming and digital media.

We have a wealth of gaming companies across the region which develop and produce innovative apps and games used by commercial and retail markets worldwide.

Yet many of these small, innovative companies are not maximising their potential and selling direct to the likes of Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and other international customers.