Fourth Generation R&D: Managing Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation [Hardcover]

William L. Miller (Author), Langdon Morris (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471240931 | ISBN-13: 978-0471240938 | Publication Date: August 16, 1999 | Edition: 1

Praise for Fourth Generation R&D "A sweeping and insightful analysis of an architecture for innovation in the knowledge economy. Technologists, strategists, and organizational architects will all find this book worth reading, as will students of the modern organization." --John Seely Brown Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation "The new realities of competition beg a new approach to innovation and R Fourth Generation R&D answers that challenge. With lucid arguments and detailed case studies, Fourth Generation R&D sketches a powerful new paradigm for planning and managing innovation. Every manager concerned with innovation and its role as a strategic resource--that's to say, every manager--will profit from this new understanding." Lawrence Wilkinson President, Global Business Network "Fourth Generation R&D is a tour de force. Its sweep, depth, and use of graphics are all truly remarkable (not to mention its command of the literature on innovation). The distinctions it draws between continuous and discontinuous innovation--and between tacit and explicit knowledge--are fundamental." --John Yochelson President, The Council on Competitiveness

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Mastery of innovation and R&D is critical to survival in today’s hypercompetitive business environment. It involves years of patient (and impatient) investigation, punctuated by moments of inspiration. It positions uncontrollable creativity side by side with disciplined business process. And it is, for most companies, tremendously difficult to achieve. Now, for the first time, one book shows you how to balance these seemingly contradictory requirements to develop a coherent approach to some of the most challenging business problems your company faces. Fourth Generation R&D defines a comprehensive, state-of-the-art model for the practice of innovation and R&D management. In this breakthrough book, renowned R&D professionals William L. Miller and Langdon Morris fully describe the essential qualities, factors, methods, and business processes that enable successful innovators to consistently outperform everyone else. They offer detailed case studies on the advanced innovation practices of seven world leaders—Ford, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Motorola, NASA, Nike, and Xerox—as well as dozens of specific examples from many other organizations in high technology, manufacturing, and consumer products. The authors will teach you the many qualities that all of these innovations have in common and how to apply a single business process to achieve similar results in your own organization. They include over 100 diagrams and photographs, hundreds of references, and pages of detailed questions to be asked at each stage of implementation in order to help your organization become effective at innovation. Writing with clear prose and using a careful structure, the authors explain:

• How to master the linkage between strategy, innovation, and R&D
• Why conventional market research is not sufficient—and what is
• How to use the Internet as a critical component of the innovation process
• The vital difference between tacit and explicit knowledge, and how to combine them for effective knowledge management
• How new organizational models used in leading organizations are critical to Success
• The differences between continuous and discontinuous innovation, and how to make your organization effective at both

Offering a successful framework for using R&D to drive innovation throughout an entire organization, Fourth Generation R&D is essential reading for everyone in R&D, marketing, strategic planning, product design, and product development.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Fourth Generation R&D "A sweeping and insightful analysis of an architecture for innovation in the knowledge economy. Technologists, strategists, and organizational architects will all find this book worth reading, as will students of the modern organization." —John Seely Brown Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation "The new realities of competition beg a new approach to innovation and R&D; Fourth Generation R&D answers that challenge. With lucid arguments and detailed case studies, Fourth Generation R&D sketches a powerful new paradigm for planning and managing innovation. Every manager concerned with innovation and its role as a strategic resource—that’s to say, every manager—will profit from this new understanding." Lawrence Wilkinson President, Global Business Network "Fourth Generation R&D is a tour de force. Its sweep, depth, and use of graphics are all truly remarkable (not to mention its command of the literature on innovation). The distinctions it draws between continuous and discontinuous innovation—and between tacit and explicit knowledge—are fundamental." —John Yochelson President, The Council on Competitiveness

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471240931
• ISBN-13: 978-0471240938
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sustainable Innovation!, December 6, 2000

By 

Mark W. McElroy (Windsor, VT USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Fourth Generation R&D: Managing Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation (Hardcover)

Authors Miller and Morris have nailed the impending transformation of R&D from its historical, product-centric past to its emerging knowledge-centric future. In addition, their focus on 'discontinuous' and 'fusion' innovation promises to lead the way for industry, in general, whose R&D functions typically produce less than one new product innovation per decade and whose new products, when they are produced, tend to fail in under four years. The authors' explicit embrace of knowledge management is also welcome, as the value of most companies now tends to rest more on the weight of their intellectual assets than on so-called 'hard' assets. Finally, this book's focus on distributed, enterprise-wide innovation signals the tearing down of R&D's overly centralized and compartmentalized profile in most firms, and offers strong support for the view that innovation should be structured as a distributed, whole-firm social process, not an administrative one. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in R&D, innovation, knowledge management, intellectual capital, organizational learning, and sustainable innovation.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strategic management of innovation, September 27, 2002

By 

Suckwoo Lee (Seoul, Seoul South Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fourth Generation R&D: Managing Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation (Hardcover)

You might be curious about what the title of this book refers to. It¡¯s rather simpler than you might guess. In a common vocabulary in business, it refers to the ¡®radical innovation¡¯. Then, you might infer that the 3rd generation R&D should be the incremental innovation. Yep. You¡¯re right. But those conventional terms don¡¯t fit completely into what authors argues. There is sufficient reason to coin such neologisms. The argument of this book goes like this. Traditional market research tends to deal with explicit knowledge. Focus group, survey, structured interview, all tackle what is pre-definable or expressible in word. But could such approaches spot the next generation product? authors question. No. customers can¡¯t put into words their gut feeling needs. They could spot it only when it appears on the market. The real breakthrough in product development, more often than not, comes in unexpected way. Thus, authors pose the question, ¡®How we should manage the uncertainty?¡¯ Put in other way, ¡®how we should manage the innovation?¡¯ R&D or product development must include incremental innovation. But in this turbulent environment, it¡¯s not enough. To be the leader in the market, not follower, one should ride ahead the tide. Then the question of R&D should be the radical innovation. Break with the identifiable trend. Then what product should be devised? All R&D begins with the product concept. But now the concept should be based on what customer¡¯s gut feeling or their tacit needs. Don¡¯t make what customer wants today. Make what they want tomorrow. At this point, you might retort: ¡®Yep. You¡¯re right. But it¡¯s easier to be told than to be done. How I could do so?¡¯ Here comes the knowledge management. Customers¡¯ tacit needs tend to be buried in noise of day-to-day information flow. There are numerous reasons for such filtering out. But all in all, to be sensitive to that kind of info, the authors maintain, is to manage the organization innovative. Knowing is not doing. Doing needs the capability to do. Then innovation requires the capability building. But it¡¯s not that simple to build up. It must face resistance inside the firm itself. Radical innovation tends to be the capability-destroying one. so developing innovative product usually comes with organizational innovation.
Above is the problem authors pose to us. I think the better title of the book is ¡®Strategic management of innovation¡¯. This book is not about the specificity of R&D, but about how to manage the firm innovative. Overall tenet of the book is so close to Nonaka & Takeuchi¡¯s ¡®The Knowledge-Creating Company¡¯. But this book is written not for academic researcher but for managers in the field. Points are made in graphic way with various case studies by authors. Nonetheless, it lacks the depth of Nonaka & Takeuchi¡¯s book. I recommend to read this book with Nonaka & Takeuchi¡¯s.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book: 4th Generation R&D, December 6, 1999

By 

John Swegle (San Ramon, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fourth Generation R&D: Managing Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation (Hardcover)

Anyone who's ever fought the battle of bringing a new concept to market or who's managed in today's competitive R&D environment should read this thought-provoking book. It points the way beyond incremental improvement of existing product lines toward quantum leaps in user capability with new dominant designs.