| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Innovation is a basic element of business growth and success. Yet how and why some companies are far more innovative than others is often different than common perception. A brand new book, Making Innovation Work, challenges the prevalent misconceptions about innovation and lays out the tools and processes necessary for an organization to harness and execute innovation. The book has been published by Wharton School Publishing.
Book Authors
Tony Davila, Professor, Stanford University
Mark Epstein, Professor, Rice University and Harvard Business School
Robert Shelton, Director, PRTM |
| | |
|
This book challenges the prevalent misconceptions about innovation and lays out the tools and processes necessary for an organization to harness and execute innovation. Innovation is all about good management. Making Innovation Work provides three important perspectives for senior managers.
First. Innovation, like many business functions, is a management process that requires specific tools, rules and discipline. It is not mysterious. Execution is simple once it is clear how the pieces fit together.
Company executives typically complain that they cannot get innovation done in their organizations. Making Innovation Work presents an integrated framework, formal processes, and tools that all managers can use to create top- and bottom-line growth from innovation. The authors describe how to use these standard management tools (i.e., strategy, organizational design and structure, management systems, performance evaluation, people, incentives, etc.) to dramatically increase the payoffs from innovation investments.
Second. Innovation requires measurement and incentives to deliver sustained, high yields.
Remember the saying "You can't manage what you can't measure?" That certainly holds true for innovation, but many managers have only paid lip service to this crucial aspect. Many companies measure the wrong things and provide incentives for behavior that corrodes the systems and processes that support innovation. Making Innovation Work shows how to use metrics and incentives to manage every facet of innovation from creating the ideas, through selecting and forming the prototype innovations and all the way through to commercialization. The book has metrics and incentives that can be used by companies of all sizes, complexity, and in all types of industry.
Third. Companies can use innovation to redefine an industry by employing combinations of business model innovation and technology innovation.
This book shows how to integrate changes in the existing business model and technology
to redefine the competitive environment of an industry, the way Apple Computers
did with the sequential introduction of iPod (a technology change) and iTunes
(a business model change). Most companies are significantly better at one
or the other, but few have a truly integrated capability for both significant
business model and technology innovation. Making Innovation Work presents
a unique framework that allows management to harness the power of business
model innovation and technology innovation and by combining them, to create
competitive advantage, grow, and significantly affect the direction of the
industry |
| | |
|
The truth is that not much is truly new about innovation. The basics have not changed for centuries. However, we have gotten smarter about innovation. By analyzing what has worked really well and what has not, Making Innovation Work provides new insights into how to execute innovation. It breaks things into manageable pieces that can be applied in any company.
There is no silver bullet for innovation. No one formula or structure for innovation will work for every organization. However, our research has shown that there are clear ways in which companies can improve their innovation results, create value, and grow.
Making Innovation Work goes beyond ideas and inspiration to offer practical, tested advice on how to
create value from the innovation investment on the level of day-to-day processes,
as well as at the strategic level. It describes how to maximize your company's
value by integrating the different types of innovation (incremental, semi-radical
and radical) and creating a balanced portfolio of innovations. The book covers
the entire chain of innovation tools from A through Z, so it is possible to troubleshoot
your company's situation and identify what needs to be improved to maximize value
for your company's particular situation and need.
According to Shelton, Davila, and Epstein, there are many half-truths and myths
surrounding innovation that have made it appear more complex than it is. Making Innovation Work replaces the myths and half-truths with clear direction on how to manage and
execute innovation in any company, business unit, nonprofit organization,
or government entity. |
| |
| |
| |
|