The Business of Innovation: Managing the Corporate Imagination for Maximum Results

by Roger BEAN, Russell RADFORD

Overview

This is a guide to building innovative, creativity-rich organizations through astute and skillful management. Whatever the end goal, this book provides a systematic process for managing focused, usable innovation - without the micro-managing that can stifle creativity. With examples from McDonald's, Toyota, Palm (Pilot), 3M, Sony, Singapore Airlines and others, this model helps managers and executives: nurture an environment of innovation; support market-focused innovation through effective policies; gather expert feedback to properly evaluate innovations; develop and launch innovations successfully; and project future trends and developments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814413104
Publisher:	AMACOM
Publication date:	10/16/2001
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishing
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Roger Bean (Shelbyville, MI) is a principal of the consulting firm Bean, Radford & Associates.

Russell Radford, Ph.D. (Caledonia, MI) is a principal of Bean, Radford & Associates and teaches at Cardean University. They are coauthors of Powerful Products.

Table of Contents

	Preface	IX
	Acknowledgments	XV
1.	The Strategic Impetus for Innovation	1
	The Business of Innovation
	Three Big Ideas
	Innovation Matters
	Management Matters
	Strategy Is the Key Enabler
	The Creative Process: Who Are the Innovators?
	A System of Focused Innovation
	Alignment and Innovation
	Continuous Evolution
Part 1	The Business of Innovation	23
2.	The Miracle of Systems	25
	Systems Thinking
	A World of Systems
	The Importance of Interrelatedness
	Feedback Loops: The Key to Understanding Systems
	Related Disciplines
	Applying Systems Principles
	Developing a Structure for Managing Innovation
3.	A Model for Managing Innovation	37
	Seeing the Challenge Clearly
	The Innovation Management Model
	Four Different Systems
	Clusters of Innovation Activity
	Combining the Model with the Clusters
	Uses of the Model
	The Context for Innovation
4.	Nurturing Innovation	52
	Developing and Nurturing an Environment of Innovation
	Management Development
	Strategy Development
	Employee Development
	Necessity versus Opportunity
	Creating the Favorable Environment for Innovation
5.	Innovation with a Purpose	72
	Developing the Capacity Needed for Innovation
	Strategic Focus Is Always Market Focus
	Communicating the Strategy to Employees
	Getting and Organizing Information
	In Search of Competitive Advantage
	When the Target Keeps Moving: The International Space Station Project
6.	Developing the Capacity to Innovate	88
	Strategic vs. Tactical Innovations
	Getting the Innovations We Need
	Ten Key Areas of Innovation Opportunity
	Examining the Key Areas of Innovation Opportunity
	Developing Capability within the Innovation Management Model
7.	Crafting the Innovating Organization	109
	What Structure Is Best?
	Organizing for an Innovative Future
	Recent Developments in Organizational Thinking
	Different Types of Organization Structure
	A Low-Tech Example of a High-Tech Challenge
	Upsetting Traditional Business
	A Hierarchy Based on Accountability Horizon
	Responsibility Based on Process Activity Clusters
	Seeing the Processes Differently
	The E-Friendly Organization Structure
	Steps in New Organization Design
	Revisiting the Innovation Management Model
	The Potential of Cost Savings
	Conclusion: Rethinking the Fundamental Structure of the Company
Part 2	Supporting Innovation	139
8.	Innovation and Organizational Policy	141
	The Power of Organizational Policy
	What Is Policy?
	Sources of Policies
	Three Levels of Policy
	Supporting the Innovative Environment with Policies
	Planning Innovation
	Selecting Innovations to Pursue
	Funding Innovation
	Conclusion: Setting the Policies that Support Innovation
9.	Leveraging Logic	157
	Logic, Critical Thinking, and the Scientific Method
	The Scientific Method
	Errors in Thinking
	Conclusion: Avoid Errors in Thinking to Make Better Decisions
10.	Coping with Serendipity	175
	Studying the Entire Market
	Shifting the Balance of Innovation
	When Things Unexpectedly Go Right
	More Things that Get in the Way
	How the System Handles the Unexpected
	Several Alternative Ways to Capitalize on Unexpected Innovation
11.	Measuring and Evaluating Innovations	186
	Evaluating the Corporate Innovation Strategy
	Evaluating Innovations
	A Framework for Evaluating Innovations
	Innovations in Evaluation
Part 3	Leading Innovation	211
12.	Developing and Implementing Market-Focused Innovations	213
	Market-Focused Innovations
	From Idea to Launch
	Development Projects Are Projects
	Getting Ideas from the Market
	Designing the Innovation
	Teams: The Design Conundrum
	Involving External Development Resources
	Cost: The Final Frontier
	Broadening the Innovation Target Area
	Experimentation and Prototyping
	Preparing for the Physical Launch
13.	Exploiting Market-Focused Innovations	234
	What Is Exploitation?
	What Does It Take to Exploit Success?
14.	Bridging the Gap between the Old and the New Economies	255
	What Business Model?
	Organizing for E-Innovation
	Outsourcing Innovation
	Challenges for Innovative Organizations
	Conclusion	275
15.	Toward the Future	277
	Breaking Paradigms
	Understanding the White Space
	Service Innovation
	Social Innovation
	Technological Innovation
	Scientific Innovation
	Conclusion: Innovation as the Life Force of the Organization
	Bibliography	291
	Index	295

Editorial Reviews

This guide's weakest advice concerns the specific area in which many managers need the most help: how exactly does one spur corporate creativity? To their credit, the authorsAboth consultantsAsuggest helpful focusing techniques (ask questions like "What should we be creating; which customers should we target and how should we compete?") and offer strategies for applying systems thinking to the innovation process. After that, readers are left largely on their own to follow a step-by-step process that oddly avoids specifics for getting the most out of any idea that happens to surface. The logical but extremely dense prose is somewhat mitigated by useful chapter summaries. Illus. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In their second book, Bean and Radford (Powerful Products: Strategic Management of Successful New Product Development, 2000) offer textbook advice on how to integrate innovation into contemporary business practices. The book is well written and draws on some interesting examples; it is unlikely, however, that any organization of significant size will ever adopt, wholesale, the principles and practices recommended by the authors. In fact, even with a proven track record in innovation, the best of the contemporary innovators Bell Labs, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola, for example may not see the end of the decade. The author's view on systems and innovation is also somewhat shortsighted. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus (sixth century B.C.E.) dealt with change and order in the universe; about 200 years later, Aristotle pretty much wrote the book on systematic thought. The Roman Catholic Church, a favorite Drucker example, has managed to stay focused, contemporary, and innovative over two millennia. Ultimately, successful innovation is the result of leadership, research and development, and a little luck. While there is something to be said about a synthetic textbook approach, most libraries could do without this book. An optional purchase. Steven Silkunas, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Philadelphia Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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