Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation (Hardcover)

by James P. Andrew (Author), Harold L. Sirkin (Author), John Butman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
The authors, consultants with extensive experience assisting corporations, report that innovation problems are not due to lack of ideas but rather to how corporations turn those ideas into cash or payback. We learn about three different innovation models: "Integration," becoming the sole owner and executor of the innovation and its only or primary beneficiary of rewards; "Orchestration," partnering on significant and important phases of the process as primary "owner" of the idea that drives its development; and serving as "Licensor," the owner of the idea and sometimes of its production and launching but having limited involvement thereafter. The authors analyze start-up costs, speed to market, speed to scale (time from launch until achievement of planned volume), and support costs to evaluate potential payback success. Although the book can be taken as an infomercial for their consulting firm, the authors offer superb advice on managing innovation with a disciplined and analytical approach to determining how much and where to invest, providing valuable insight for leaders of companies large and small. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"...a detailed roadmap showing senior business leaders how to manage innovation projects and chart whether they are headed for success or failure..." -- The Financial Times, February 20, 2007

"...a helpful "how-to" for companies looking to refine their innovation process." -- Forbes.com, January 23, 2007

"One of the biggest business books of 2007 will feature innovation ... That book, more than likely, will be the newly published Payback." - Lester Craft -- Innovate Forum, January 4, 2007

There's a belief that innovation is about great ideas, but in the business context, it's also about bringing a great idea to market, and how to maximize the payback on the investment made in the idea." -- BusinessWeek.com, February 12, 2007

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1422103137
• ISBN-13: 978-1422103135
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #329,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "As you sow, so shall you reap.", February 7, 2007

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The last time I checked, I was amazed to learn that Amazon offers 178,376 books on the general subject of innovation. One of the basic truths about selling residential real estate is that "for every house, there is a buyer." The challenge is to bring the two together. The same is true of business books and those who read them. The authors of Payback, James P. Andrew and Harold L. Sirkin, do not provide an annotated bibliography but do refer to dozens of excellent sources that helped to guide and inform their explanation of how to "reap" the rewards of innovation. Presumably they would be the first to suggest that their readers also consult a number of the sources before deciding - and in this context, I presume to invoke an agricultural metaphor -- what to "plant" where in order to produce the desired "harvest." The purpose of this brief commentary is to help those who read it to decide whether or not Andrew and Sirkin's book is worthy of their careful consideration. My guess (only is a guess) is that it will be of substantial value to most (if not to all) C-level executives.

The material is carefully organized and lucidly presented within three Parts: What Is Payback? ("Cash and Cash Traps" and "The Indirect Benefits of Innovation"), Choosing the Optimal Model ("The Integrator, "The Orchestrator," or "The Licensor"), and Aligning and Leading for Payback. In the Afterword, Andrew and Sirkin then offer a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effect plan for "taking action" which will maximize the ROI of whatever resources have been committed innovation initiatives.

Of special interest to me is what they have to say about alignment in Chapter Seven. According to a survey conducted with BusinessWeek, the highest ranked innovative companies (in descending order) are Apple, Google, 3M, Toyota, Microsoft, GE, P&G, Nokia, Starbucks, and IBM. However different they are, "all of them are aligned around innovation and achieve payback" because they have avoided the most basic causes of innovation misalignment. Specifically, these causes are:

1. Having an innovation strategy at odds with business strategy
2. Innovation that is "all talk and no support"
3. Innovation initiatives are isolated
4. The process is fragmented and disjointed
5. "Dynasties" monopolize innovation resources
6. Metrics confound the goals of innovation

Andrew and Sirkin explain how to avoid these and other causes of misalignment, stressing the importance of achieving and then sustaining individual, unit, and companywide responsibility as well as creating and nourishing conducive conditions which include openness, and, meanwhile, "measuring what matters" with accuracy and consistency.

Efforts to "reap the rewards of innovation" require effective leadership at all levels and in all areas of operation, of course, but especially at the C-level. Leaders of innovation must have a tolerance for ambiguity; also be able to assess and be comfortable with prudent risk, be able to quickly and effectively assess an individual, be able to balance passion with objectivity, and finally and most important, be able to change.

Whatever their size and nature, all organizations need to "get their arms around [their] innovation portfolio," Andrew and Sirkin insist, and "the projects under review will fall into three categories. About a third of them will be winners that should be promoted and accelerated. Another third will be a waste of resources and should be stopped even if they are being supported by `other budgets.' These are the `walking dead,' and it takes great courage to kill them, but it must be done. The final third will be less easy to evaluate and will need further exploration and discussion to determine whether they should be kept or killed. Moving on the third that should be stopped, and reallocating resources to accelerate the third that are winners, will immediately increase payback."

Long ago, Thomas Edison asserted that "vision without execution is hallucination." While no doubt agreeing with Edison, Andrew and Sirkin take that thought a step further by insisting that execution of innovation initiatives must deliver the required return on a company's investment of money, time, and people. "Payback means one thing - cash. Cash that is realized within the planned time frame."

For decision-makers in organizations that have not as yet achieved and then sustained such payback, Andrew and Sirkin's book is a "must read"...and I mean now.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Solid idea; very weak exposition, May 23, 2007

By	Jeff "Jeff" (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This book bears all the weaknesses one expects from management consultants. It has a solid core concept, the cash curve, and a very simple graph to go with it. Virtually everything worth knowing gets said in the first 50 pages of the book.

What follows is a logical, step by step exposition of each point in more detail using selected examples from the authors' consulting experience. Sadly, no single customer example is longer than four pages, and details are sparsely strewn. It is especially noteworthy that they graphic of the key concept, the cash curve, is wholly absent from the second (much longer) half of the book.

One also gets the feeling that if the authors had had different customer engagements, they would have come to different conclusions. For instance, they discuss how Intel practices the integration business model in their chip business. However, virtually every other semiconductor company of any note on the planet is using outside factories (fabs in semiconductor parlance). Many, such as Qualcomm and Broadcom just to pick two examples have built market capitalizations in the tens of billions of dollars practicing the orchestration business model. It would have been very instructive to compare and contrast how two different models in essentially the same business can both lead to outstanding results for investors. Sadly, that discussion is wholly absent.

In summary, the core principal of the book is a very important one. I cannot think of a single business that could become a big success not understanding it. However, the lack of details in the customer examples keeps this book from realizing anywhere close to its real potential.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A really practical primer for managers, December 28, 2006

By	Len Schlesinger (Columbus, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

Lots of books on innovation purport to be useful to managers but end up spinning stories that rarely hang together. Payback really delivers! The authors have constructed a user friendly framework that links profoundly to business outcomes (cash) and articulates a number of generic strategy choices that are supported by useful examples. The managerially oriented reader can't help but come away with practical assistance and a vocabulary which can be easily shared with their team. If you are truly interested in making innovation work in your orgainzation this will end up as a "must read"