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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great strategic guidebook for innovation, May 29, 2008
This review is from: Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work (Harvard Business School Press) (Hardcover)
I had the good fortune to meet Scott Anthony and some of the co-authors of The Innovator's Guide to Growth at the Front End of Innovation conference last week. This book presents a number of the concepts from the Christensen series (Innovator's Dilemma, Innovator's Solution, etc) in an approachable, step by step methodology for implementation. In that manner, this book and my book ( Make us more Innovative: Critical Factors for Innovation Success) are great companions, since The Innovator's Guide is really focused more on the strategic aspects of understanding how to deploy an innovation capability and align those strategies to corporate goals, while Make us more Innovative is written to detail how to build a complete innovation capability. But enough about my book.
I really liked The Innovator's Guide to Growth because it attempts to take all the great concepts about innovation and break them down into an actual guide that an innovator could follow to bring more innovation to his or her company. This book has a lot of good templates, forms and examples to help a nascent innovation leader define the innovation intent and goals and convince the management team to engage in an ongoing program of innovation.
The book is breaks down into five sections: precursors to innovation, identifying opportunities, formulating and shaping ideas, building the business and supporting systems and structures. Key points from each section:
* A firm can't innovate successfully until it's house is in control and a good game plan is in place
* Many innovation opportunities exist in "nonconsumers" (think the unbanked or un-insured) or in situations where products and services "overmeet" the needs of customers (think Southwest in airlines)
* The chapters on identifying ideas spend a significant amount of time on defining the "jobs" that people want to complete - again harking back to Christensen's books and to the concept of Outcome-Driven innovation which has also been popularized by Strategyn.
* Developing and shaping ideas focuses on refining ideas and targeting opportunities using a strategy map borrowed from Blue Ocean strategy and using innovation techniques such as ideation sessions, analogies and internal and external submissions
* I felt the chapter on assembling and managing project teams was fairly strong and identified a number of good points, especially on the interactions between an innovation team and the executive team, and the innovation team and the rest of the organization
* The chapter on innovation metrics should be must reading for any innovation program
This book takes it's primary focus as disruptive innovation and does not spend much, if any time on any other innovations. It does have a broad definition of the outcomes of innovation (products, services and business models) and does note that many times the most disruptive and most defensible innovation is a business model innovation. It is an especially good book for an executive team that needs to understand how to build an innovation capability and set the appropriate expectations.
There are a few quibbles I have with the book, however. The first two thirds of the book are really loaded with good advice, templates and forms and case studies. Somewhere in the late middle of the book, where the book begins to address refining ideas and building the innovation team, the book begins to become more theoretical and less practical. For example, what kinds of people or skill sets are better or worse for an innovation team? Should innovation be a centralized or decentralized capability? What are the best idea generation methods? What should an innovation process or methodology look like? What are the roles and responsibilities within innovation? These questions are addressed obliquely, if at all, and important topics like rewards and recognition and corporate culture are not addressed at all. Perhaps the team assumed these items are already addressed if the firm has decided to become more innovative.
While I have a number of concerns with the book as a practical methodology for deploying an innovation capability, I can wholeheartedly recommend the book, especially the first six chapters which focus on the alignment of innovation to corporate strategy and intent, and chapter eight, which is about building and managing innovation teams. I think that the segue in the middle and last third of the book from practical advice, templates and forms to more theoretical advice may align to the fact that the actual deployment of these programs is subject to many more variables, but I would have expected a bit more detail in the chapters on organizing to innovate. I will point out that chapter ten on innovation metrics, while a bit short, is an excellent overview and mirrors a lot of good advice on building innovation metrics and the expectations around innovation returns.
This book definitely belongs on the shelf of any executive considering an innovation program or initiative, and on the desk of any innovation leader. This is cross-posted from my blog Innovate on Purpose.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Read The Innovator's Solution, skip this one, October 20, 2008
This review is from: Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work (Harvard Business School Press) (Hardcover)
Thgis is a very light version of The Innovator's Solution which, I believe, was a masterpiece. You can hardly find in this book the depth and strength which was present in The Innovator's Solution. This is more a company (i.e. Innosight) publicity material and an ecletic strategy manuscript than anything of real practical and academic value. Read the original work and don't waste your time on this, as the original work is an immensely stronger & robust piece on strategy practice and theory.
Also, please and please, aren't you fed up with the same exercises over and over, e.g. Nucor Steel and minimills etc.? Incidentally, if the authors refer to the book by AG Lafley & Ram Charan (The Game-Changer), they will find out that the Swiffer innovation story is totally different than their romantic explanation.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Making innovation a regular part of your organization..., July 19, 2008
This review is from: Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work (Harvard Business School Press) (Hardcover)
I've read a number of books on innovation, both on a personal and business level. Always looking to find that "edge"... In the book The Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work by Scott D. Anthony, Mark W. Johnson, Joseph V. Sinfield, and Elizabeth J. Altman, the authors present a methodology for making disruptive innovation part of your company's culture. Along the way, I had my thoughts twisted a bit as to how best to disrupt the standard playing field, while not going head-to-head with the giants right from the beginning...
Contents:
Introduction: Your Guide to Growth; Precursors to Innovation
Part 1 - Identify Opportunities: Identifying Nonconsumers; Identifying Overshot Customers; Identifying Jobs to Be Done
Part 2 - Formulate and Shape Ideas: Developing Disruptive Ideas; Assessing a Strategy's Fit with a Pattern
Part 3 - Build the Business: Mastering Emergent Strategies; Assembling and Managing Project Teams
Part 4 - Build Capabilities: Organizing to Innovate; Innovation Metrics
Conclusion
Appendix - Frequently Asked Questions; Notes; Index; About the Authors
As you can tell from the list of chapters, the authors cover everything from identifying ideas and potential products that would be disruptive clear through to the end where you have a formal organization that can grow and repeat successes in that area. Given their experience in the field, you avoid making mistakes that are all too common and sound correct, but end up being wrong. For instance, companies have a tendency to throw massive amounts of resources and capital behind a new idea or product that will "revolutionize the industry". The problem is that everyone becomes committed to the initial design and plan, and no thought is given to learning and prototyping along the way. The end result is often a product that completely misses the mark in terms of what people want. But by then, so many millions have been sunk into the design that you can't easily go back. The book instead advocates for quick trials and cheap prototypes without large amounts of funding. That forces creativity and smaller experiments, and permits course changes along the way. Only after you get actual feedback do you commit larger resources to it. But by then, you should know the outcome or have a solid idea as to market acceptance.
For me, I was most interested in the first part of the book. The concept of "overshot customers" was one I hadn't heard of in quite those terms. These are the people who don't need or can't use all the high-end performance built into the product(s) being offered, and are actually looking for something far less. To them, "less" becomes "perfect". Why pay for 100% of a product when all you really need is 10% of it? The other 90% is of no use to you. This is also linked to the concept of "nonconsumers". These are the people who don't use your product (or any product being offered) due to constraints of skill, wealth, access, or time. If you can identify these consumers and serve them, you have an entry into the market that can disrupt the incumbents. Finally, I was also intrigued by the concept of "jobs to be done". It's the adage of "people don't buy drills, they buy holes". If you rethink your product as a service that people are hiring you to do, then you can think beyond the boundaries. An example would be the lowly mop. Not much to do differently there. But if you think that people are hiring you (the mop maker) to clean the house, then you look at the product differently. In this case, it led to the Swiffer line of dust mop accessories. Less effort, easier cleanup, and the job is done more quickly. Hence, people "hire" your product as the superior choice. Interesting concepts...
This is a book that deserves to be sitting on the shelf of management in all companies. Actually, it shouldn't be on the shelf. It should be in the briefcases and backpacks being read...
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