Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity [Hardcover]

Rita Gunther McGrath (Author), Ian C. Macmillan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 16, 2009

You've been charged with growing your business. Incremental growth can no longer deliver the results you need. You need truly dynamic growth - and you need to achieve it without risking a hugely expensive gamble. How can you encourage innovative new ventures and pursue ambitious growth while minimizing risk?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rita Gunther McGrath is Associate Professor of Management at Columbia Business School. Ian C. MacMillan is the Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. They are coauthors of MarketBusters and The Entrepreneurial Mindset.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; First Edition edition (March 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591396859
• ISBN-13: 978-1591396857
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.9 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rita Gunther McGrath, a Professor at Columbia Business School, is a globally recognized expert on strategy in uncertain and volatile environments. Her thinking is highly regarded by readers and clients who include Pearson, Coca-Cola Enterprises, General Electric, Alliance Boots, and the World Economic Forum. She is a popular instructor, a sought-after speaker, and a consultant to senior leadership teams. She was recognized as one of the top 20 management thinkers by global management award Thinkers50 in 2011. She's also been recognized as one of the top ten business school professors to follow on Twitter. In 2009, she was inducted as a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society, an honor accorded those who have had a significant impact on the field. In 2013 she will serve as Dean of the Fellows.

McGrath is the author of the upcoming book The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business and has co-authored three previous books: Discovery Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity (2009); MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth (2005); and The Entrepreneurial Mindset (2000), all published by Harvard Business Review Press. MarketBusters has been translated into ten languages and was named one of the best business books of 2005 by strategy+business. It was featured by Bill Gates at the 2005 Microsoft CEO Summit, whose theme, "New Pathways to Growth," was derived from the book's main topic.

McGrath has written many Harvard Business Review articles, including the best-selling "Discovery Driven Planning" (1995), recognized now as an early articulation of today's "lean" startup movement. She is also a highly respected researcher whose work has won awards from the most prestigious management journals.

McGrath appears regularly on television and radio and is often cited in the press, having been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Businessweek, Fast Company, and Inc., among others.

McGrath joined the faculty of Columbia Business School in 1993. Prior to life in academia, she was an IT director, worked in the political arena, and founded two startups. She received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has degrees from Barnard College and the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She is married and proud to be the mother of two grownups!

For more information on McGrath visit www.ritamcgrath.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How to develop and execute business cases in an environment of uncertainty June 11, 2009

By J. Groen VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a very enlightening book that builds on the authors' HBR article of July-August, 1995 called Discovery-driven planning. Instead of the typical approach for evaluating innovative projects of complex, risk adjusted financials, that results in analysis paralysis, and reduces judgement, the authors suggest an innovative approach that focuses more on the assumptions and generates the results by backing into the financial justification with reverse financials. The assumptions based planning approach is very rich and powerful, and having used it myself a number of times with teams, I can tell you that it results in a very motivated team developed plan and business case. Then, instead of using the potentially bureaucratic "stage-gate" processes for governing execution that are in place today in most companies (but often don't work well with highly uncertain projects, by the way, due more to the mechanics than the process), they recommend an assumptions driven conversation based upon the completion of deliverables (of course, this could work with stage-gates but not the way that these are typically used today). The whole approach, I think, can be highly liberating for organizations today that are trying to get more collaborative and enabling. At the end of the book, through their experiences, they recommend approaches to getting the discovery driven approaches implemented. Consequently, I highly recommend this book for any innovation champion who wants to work on eliminating the burden that they feel in trying to get things done. I can't wait to use these tools myself.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing in Uncertain Times - A valuable resource to make it possbile March 29, 2009

By R. Pierantozzi

Format:Hardcover

In my former role as Air Products and Chemicals Director of New Business Development, I was responsible for finding and implementing the very best tools for innovation that we could find to grow the company. Discovery Driven Planning has since been at the core of our successful efforts to incubate new businesses and innovate, while containing risks. Our Chief Financial Officer at Air Products is a huge fan of the technique, because for the first time he's found a solution to either constraining innovation projects with planning methodologies that aren't appropriate for high-uncertainty ventures, or letting projects go forward without discipline. The approach has been used in our company to test ideas for new technologies, to plan our entry into new markets and to decide when a project needs to be redirected, or even shut down. It has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars by helping detect issues early and take corrective action before the big, expensive investments have been made.

The book, Discovery Driven Growth, distills the lessons McGrath and MacMillan have learned working with dozens of companies like ours into a practical, useful and easy to follow bible for organizations intent on driving growth and renewal, but reluctant to take on big risks in doing so. Our experiences are described in the book, as are applications of the book in companies as diverse as Nokia, Microsoft, IBM and small entrepreneurial ventures. One of the things I like best about the book is that it operates at both the strategic level and the level of individual initiatives. As a CEO or senior team member, you can use its concepts to think through the broader questions of strategic direction and portfolio resource allocation that must be determined at the top of the organization. As a Division head, you can use the disciplines to make decisions consistently and with a strong basis of facts (where there are facts) and good assumptions (where the data don't yet exist). As a project leader or someone directing an uncertain venture, the book contains detailed tools and templates that you can apply immediately, supported with downloadable software that is available on the web site to get you up to speed quickly. I also appreciated that the book discussed the implementation and ongoing leadership challenges that face innovation leaders, pointing out that no two companies will implement these techniques the same way and providing examples of how firms have done it.

Had "Discovery Driven Growth" been available when Air Products started its innovation thrust, we could have moved even faster to drive our growth trajectory. In today's uncertain times, we need the kind of fresh thinking and new tools that the book provides. You won't regret buying it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process To Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity June 1, 2009

By Kenneth F. Carter

Format:Hardcover

Initially, Discovery-Driven Growth was a little disappointing. The underlying premise was not new ground, but basically a reverse-engineering process for developing new growth products and services. However, once you get over the fact that you know how the story is going to end, you begin to appreciate the way the process is laid out. It's what I call the answer to: OK, it's a great idea, but what do we do Monday morning? DDG provides that answer by laying out the 1-2-3 process for reverse engineering an idea from target revenue/profit backwards to the individual steps and costs that will be encountered. You can follow the process on a back-of-napkin analysis to quickly determine whether the project is worth the time and resources to pursue. OK, sure, you already knew how to do this. But, have you formalized the process? Worth the read. Ken Carter