Innovation Tournaments: Creating and Selecting Exceptional Opportunities [Hardcover]

Christian Terwiesch (Author), Karl Ulrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2009

Managers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists all seek to maximize the financial returns from innovation, and profits are driven largely by the quality of the opportunities they pursue. Based on a structured and process-driven approach this book demonstrates how to systematically identify exceptional opportunities for innovation.

An innovation tournament, just like its counterpart in sports, starts with a large number of candidates, with opportunities as the players. These opportunities are pitted against each other until only the exceptional survive.

This book provides a principled approach for the effective management of innovation tournaments - identifying a wealth of promising opportunities and then evaluating and filtering them intelligently for greatest profitability. With a set of practical tools for creating and identifying new opportunities, it guides the reader in evaluating and screening opportunities. The book demonstrates how to construct an innovation portfolio and how to align the innovation process with an organization's competitive strategy.

Innovation Tournaments employs quirky, fresh examples ranging from movies to medical devices. The authors' tool kit is built on their extensive research, their entrepreneurial backgrounds, and their teaching and consulting work with many highly innovative organizations

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich are professors at The Wharton School, where they teach in the innovation and product development field. They have helped dozens of organizations in a wide range of industries - including consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and high technology - to become more innovative. Terwiesch and Ulrich ground their teaching and research on their wealth of practical experience as innovators, product designers, and entrepreneurs.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (May 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1422152227
• ISBN-13: 978-1422152225
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Novel framework, practical advice, interesting examples, May 18, 2009

By 

Laura J. Kornish (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Innovation Tournaments: Creating and Selecting Exceptional Opportunities (Hardcover)

This is a great book about innovation. In the preface, the authors ponder whether there is a contradiction in trying to provide structure to a creative endeavor like innovation. The book then develops a clear answer that there is no contradiction by showing how organizations have and can improve their innovation processes. I found the "innovation tournament" metaphor to be very helpful. I like how the metaphor is developed throughout the book, drawing on examples from industries as different as transportation, pharmaceuticals, and entertainment (movies, and, of course, American Idol).

I like the balance of practical, hands-on advice (e.g., running innovation workshops, using The Darwinator online tournament tool) and explanations of the underlying principles and theories. I especially like how every point is illustrated with a concrete example. And, the authors integrate their own experience and research with both executives and student innovators effectively.

This book is targeted toward professionals, people who are involved in some way with the innovation efforts in their organizations. I also find it relevant and useful for students. (I teach a new product development course to business students.)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and fun, May 15, 2009

By 

J. Wooten (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Innovation Tournaments: Creating and Selecting Exceptional Opportunities (Hardcover)

The central idea in this book - that there is a logical and manageable approach to innovation - holds enormous potential for big companies and entrepreneurs alike. In a compelling and logical way, this 'how to' manual for analyzing, filtering, and choosing great opportunities walks through real-world examples and data as it educates on how to change your process of sparking and developing new ideas. Having used these ideas on projects ranging from Fortune 100 companies all the way down to single-person startups, I've seen the difference innovation tournaments can make; Ulrich and Terwiesch have developed a practical set of ideas that are simple and unique to the field. Execellent and fun read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have in your innovation library!, May 15, 2009

By 

S. Gallino (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Innovation Tournaments: Creating and Selecting Exceptional Opportunities (Hardcover)

This book presents an amazing approach to succeed in the idea selection process. The process-driven design of the book is great for managers that will want to implement these ideas right away in their companies.
Clear, to the point and with lots of good examples. A must have book if you are an innovation manager confronting the problem of selecting an innovation portfolio.