Customer Reviews

Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Those who have read one or more of Moore's previous books (notably Inside the Tornado, Crossing the Chasm, and Living on the Fault Line) already know what a clear thinker and eloquent writer he is on the subject of high-tech markets, especially in terms of formulating appropriate strategies and tactics at a time when ever-accelerating change is the only constant within those dynamic markets. In Dealing with Darwin, he develops in much greater depth his response to this question: "How do great companies innovate at every phase of their evolution?" He is convinced (as am I) that there is a process of natural selection which determines why some companies prosper and most others do not.

Moore cites the concept of value disciplines which Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema first introduced in their brilliant book, The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market. He then identifies four clusters of innovation zones: Product Leadership, Customer Intimacy, Operational Excellence, and Category Renewal. The challenge for decision-makers in any organization (regardless of its size or nature) is to select innovation zone in which to establish and sustain "break away" separation from its competitive set. Moore suggests that this decision be made in terms of three factors:

1. Core competence: different organizations have different assets to exploit

2. Competitive analysis: different sets of competitors leave different openings to exploit

3. Category maturity: Different stages of the category-maturity life cycle reward different forms of innovation

Moore acknowledges an "odd pairing" of innovation leadership at the top with innovation "bubbling up from the bottom." Initiatives from both must be in proper alignment. Obviously, it is not easy to establish such an alignment and even more difficult to sustain it. Of course, Moore is well aware of that. "Managing innovation requires executives to foster a bottoms-up stream of innovation opportunities...Managing innovation also implies maintaining a portfolio of strategies because different categories will respond to different types of innovation. This creates a level of complexity that can create confusion in the broader organization, with teams being asked to pursue one form of innovation here and another there."

What to do? In Chapter Four, Moore offers an innovation-types model. It can help ensure consistent and effective execution across the portfolio, and help management "to orient the organization to the logic behind the different choices and the importance of keeping them distinct from one another." I presume to add two requirements of management. First, that it facilitate effective communication, cooperation, and collaboration between and among all teams. Also, that it ensure that separate initiatives are consistent with the primary innovation strategy.

Of special interest to me is what Moore has to say about managing inertia in Part Three (Chapters Nine, Ten, and Eleven). First, he analyzes how Cisco extracts resources from context; next, he examines how Cisco repurposes resources for core; finally, he offers observations and recommendations which can help others manage inertia in their enterprise. Here are two brief excerpts.

Cisco's integration of network-related functions "creates an enormous separation between Cisco's offerings and those of its direct competitors. For while those competitors can and do surpass Cisco in point-product performance, they cannot match the overall value proposition of providing an integrated network fabric. Whenever a competitor steals a march on the company, Cisco's engineers set out to catch up, and once their point products are close to parity, the integration-value proposition overshadows whatever feature distinction may remain." (Page 164).

Cisco knows that being the leader in a platform play has only one requirement: followers. "Specifically, the other major players in the ecosystem must voluntarily embrace your platform. Knowing how much power this confers on another company, why would these companies ever do this? The answer is three-fold:

1. They get enormous productivity gains from leveraging your services.

2. They get access to a much broader marketplace.

3. They do not perceive the power you gain coming at their expense.

"Cisco's plan is to deliver on all three points....[It] seeks to leverage its own location advantage by providing services that are noncore to its major partners." (Page 185)

Cisco offers an excellent illustration of what Moore's definition of "core": A word he uses to describe innovation that creates differentiation. "To succeed with core, you must take your value proposition to such an extreme that competitors either cannot or will not follow. That's what creates the separation you seek."

Of course, few other organizations have the resources available to them that Cisco does. Many (if not most) of them have a risk-reduction mentality that encourages everyone involved to shun bold actions that jeopardize existing assets and relationships. "It is based on staying close to norms, thereby leveraging the experience of the herd. As such, it is actually a positive evolutionary response to situations that do not reward differentiation." In a word, "context."

In my opinion, Dealing with Darwin has much wider relevance and greater value than Moore's earlier works because it addresses issues by no means limited to the dynamics of high technology. Hence the importance of Chapter Eleven. In it, Moore recommends what he characterizes as "essential steps" to setting an agenda:

1. Conduct a core/context analysis of your current business.

2. Conduct a resource-allocation analysis to complement your core/context analysis.

3. Set a more ambitious (i.e. more "aggressive") agenda.

4. Plan out your moves as a team.

5. Focus on time to market.

6. Get the gears moving.

7. Keep the gears moving.

Moore also provides with these seven steps practical suggestions as well as a few appropriate caveats. Darwin's influence remains evident in his concluding remarks. "That's what evolution is all about, a continual raising of the bar. It's how countries raise their standard of living. It's why new companies get formed every year. It's why each of us must learn new skills throughout our careers. We may get tired, but we are not likely to get bored. Mostly we just have to perform. Welcome to the race."

Dealing with Darwin is a brilliant achievement.

I have always enjoyed Geoffrey Moore's books which unfortunately trounced over the same old ground of the technology adoption cycle from different perspectives. This book starts out the same way, but unlike most business books gets better as it moves on.

Overall, parts two and three of this book should be required reading for anyone in Product Strategy, Product Marketing or General Management. Why, well these chapters provide a complete review of the major strategies and tactics involved in managing a business.

Section two talks about innovation strategies based on your company and the state of the market. The clear delineation of strategies for growth, mature, and declining markets provides a framework for plotting the structure and intent of your strategy.

In growing markets: disruptive, application, or product innovation.

In mature markets: Line extension, value engineering, enhancement, integration, marketing experiential, process or value migration innovation.

In declining markets: Organic renewal, acquisition renewal, or harvest and exit.

The clarity of Section II is a breath of fresh air as many strategy books either focus on only one of these types of innovation, or try to talk over your head with the idea that if you don't understand what they are saying, then you must not be strategic enough. This section is clear, directive, filled with examples and a great way to look at strategic direction and choice.

However, Section III of this book has the real gems and the culmination of Moore's ideas and thinking. Here Moore addresses the topic of how to reallocate and evolve the enterprise to achieve its strategy and innovation goals. This is not your typical discussion of change management and change readiness. While Moore refers to them, he jumps right to the hard management decisions required to release, reallocate and reduce resource investments (money, people, attention) required to grow top and bottom line. Moore's idea and description of how to 'recycle' resources gives a fresh approach to how everyone in the company can win in a time of change.

Section III is the best part of the book and the one where I made the most notes about what my company can do to be successful. While these ideas are not unique to Moore, you would have to read at least four or five separate books and integrate their ideas to create a similar explanation and reference found in Section III.

Most business books tail off rapidly as the chapters move on. In fact, the first section of this book was so much of a repeat of Moore's other books I almost put it away. This book however gets better as you move through it. If you have not read Moore's other books, then I would suggest reading the whole book. If you are familiar with his work than read the prologue, first chapter and then jump to section II and III.

Ever see a book in the bookstore that catches your attention and you realize it was a best-seller sometime in the past? You realize you never picked it up to read it and decide that you should?

That's what happened when I ran across this book.

I heard about this book when it was released in 2005 and always meant to read it...but just never did. Whilst perusing the local Half-Price Books, I decided I'd pick it up and read it...because I'm a book nerd, there is a dinosaur on the cover and I saw what I thought were fractals in the book! :)

I got the book home and started reading...and I made it to page xii in the preface to the paperback edition before realizing I may have made a mistake buying this book. What happened?

I read this passage:

"The key message is simple. In order to achieve competitive advantage in a commoditizing market, one must innovate so dramatically as to create definitive seperation between your offers and those of the low-cost commoditizers. That means selecting a vector of innovation that can set you apart and investing intensely along that vector..."

Huh? The key message is simple but the author makes the message difficult to understand.

Why didn't Mr. Moore just say: To gain competitive advantage, you need to separate yourself from your competitor by choosing an innovation path and investing in that path.

After reading this passage, I was very very skeptical about the rest of the book. Especially after this passage immediately following the above one:

"Extract resource from context to fund core."

What does that mean?

There are some great ideas in this book but those ideas are often overshadowed by verbosity (as shown above) and/or using contextual language that makes little sense outside of the context of the book.

The book does do a good job of outlining the different types of innovation (e.g., disruptive, product,platform, etc). The author does a good job of describing the process of looking at the marketplace to determine how to attack innovation. The framework that Moore lays out is very useful and intriguing and is worth studying in further detail. Again, the author does know his stuff.

That said, the book is a difficult read. If you are serious about innovation and competitive advantage, you should read this book..but be prepared to re-read many pages/sections. I found myself stopping every few paragraphs and trying to comprehend what I just read.

Is there anyone out there that has read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it? Am I being to harsh on this book? Could it be that I'm getting cranky in my old age? :)

This is a good big picture review of where the marketplace is today. After several decades of new product and new category introductions (especially in the high-tech area) we've reached a point where there aren't a lot of new new things. This is especially true in enterprise software where I make a living (www.beagleresearch.com). So the question begs to be asked, "What's next?" meaning if we aren't introducing new categories, how do we get customers interested in what we have to offer. Moore brilliantly answers the question with an array of innovation strategies which, while not as definitive as disruptive innovation, are nevertheless important. Our understanding of how and why product lines are extended, for example, is improved and with that Moore brings to close a circle that started with "Crossing the Chasm". Definitely worth reading if you are in business and have responsibility for charting what's next or if you are a customer and want to understand the next moves by your favorite vendor.

I found the framework he introduced to be useful, but then it just went on with more models & examples that just made it painful to read.

I'm a real fan of Moore and his work, but seems like this one is just a weak line extension of his prior work.

IMO, this would have made a better white paper or article, than to drag out the concept into a full fledge book

As an employee of a small company faced with the challenge of selling a relavitvely new product in a evolving niche it is clear to me the only way to out-compete the five or six other companies with a similar product is to follow Moore's advice and take the product to a niche market we can dominate in order to get out of the "chasm." I like his detailed explanation of "core" vs. "context" and especially liked the detailed suggestions for innovation at every stage of the technology life cycle. He offers step by step instructions to choose an innovation "vector" and gain acceptance in your organization. I found this book helpul to put a framework around our competitive challenges and market opportunities.

Dealing with Darwin by Geoffrey Moore

This book is the third in a series of Crossing the Chasm, and Inside the Tornado. To start this author down right fascinates me with this ability to pick tremendous management concepts and explain them to great effect; I also very much envy his simple and persuasive writing style, I guess that is a result of his Ph.D in English. In this book he presents four models and presents them with strong arguments and illustrative examples of real companies. Being a Ph.D in business I very much believe that these models should be taught in every Corporate strategy course to MBA, and be the base of every Product Development class. In all this is a gem of a book and a recommend reading for any top executive and top innovation strategist!

The first concept presented is the Complex-System vs. Volume Operations Models. Here he basically says that best practices for say Wal-Mart are not compatible with say Cisco, because they both fundamentally do business in different ways. Wal-Mart, Dell, British-Petroleum, and others are considered volume operation because they make money of the small margin over a large volume of sales and are organized to do such; where as, complex-system companies, IBM, Cisco, McKinsey, and the countless other consulting, and integration companies, make high margins on a low number of sales and are organized to do so. The two are mutually excusive and getting stuck in the middle is a horrible position.

The second concept is that of the Category-Maturity model and takes the crossing the chasm model, and Tornado model and ads on to the life-cycle for mature and declining markets. This understanding is very valuable for investors and business men, because the position in the maturity has more to do with the company strategy than the board of executives often chooses to admit. All managers should understand this fundamental model!

The third concept is the fifteen innovation vectors which relate directly to the position in the maturity of the market. For example, if the market is highly mature, one should concentrate on process innovation and value-engineering to help reduce costs. This understanding of innovation is invaluable; once you understand this framework you can step back and really focus your company's innovation efforts on one or two main directives to great effect!

Finally, the last concept is that of the core-context model, which really tell you that resource allocation should be done not as a function of last years operating budgets but instead be done with a deep understanding of what markets and products are 1) mission critical or non-mission critical and which are 2) core to future success or context (supporting) of success. They use this simple understanding to create a valuable four quadrant model of Invent, Deploy, Optimize, and Offload which explains in great detail how to manage your product portfolio and market strategy. Again, I highly recommend this book!

Cheers
Dr. Brian Glassman
Ph.D in Innovation Management and Management from Purdue University
[...]

One of the problems with business books is that it sometimes seems as if the title of a given book is written before the book itself, which can result in a shoehorning effect as the author crams the content to fit inside the title. That's sort of the feeling you walk away with after reading - Dealing With Darwin. The thesis of the book is that innovation, coping with external economic inertia and internal organizational cycles (as well as other sub-points) define the fittest organizations and ensure their ultimate survival. Maybe. However, the book doesn't adequately address organizations that do all those things yet fail; or those that might not exhibit all of those traits yet continue to survive against the odds; nor the role that personnel, regulation or dumb luck sometimes play in spawning success. The biggest problem of using the clichéd evolutionary model to describe business functions is the glacial pace at which unguided micro-evolution occurs in nature versus the frenetic pace of human-directed decisions within the marketplace - it's a stretch to bring the two concepts together and detracts from positive points that the author does make early in the text. This book may have been better served had it been modeled after the hit reality show "Survivor" where the winners must "Outlast. Outwit. And Outplay" the other competitors. Regardless, Soundview recommends this read for anyone interested in the genesis of some creative water cooler conversation.

I am by no means an expert in change management. In fact, I have just taken one course in this topic and chose to review this book as an assignment because of the catchy name. However, this book was very informative and reader friendly. Geoffrey Moore writes about innovation as a means to keep up with an ever changing business environment. Furthermore, he backs up each idea with a myriad of examples that reveal why certain companies have been able to thrive amidst a dismal economy. Before reading this book, I knew little of this field of management. Now, I can look at companies differently and appreciate how they have been able to deal with Darwin and survive.

In a competitive, capitalist economy, nothing is more prized than the whiz-bang invention, the why-didn't-I-think-of-that product or service that defines a market, delights consumers and gushes profits. Yet for all the ink spilled over innovation, remarkably few businesspeople understand exactly how to mint revolutionary new products. Innovation expert Geoffrey A. Moore delves under the hood of the new economy to create this roadmap to creative thinking. Although the text at times bogs down in jargon and a dizzying degree of detail, he cites plenty of sharp real-world examples, including an inside view of Cisco Systems. We recommend this user's manual to innovation to anyone who thinks that survival is not an end goal, but just a place to get started.