The Innovator's Way: Essential Practices for Successful Innovation

by Peter J. Denning, Robert Dunham, John Seely Brown (Foreword by)

Overview

Two experts show that innovation is a skill that can be learned and describe eight essential practices for achieving success.

Innovation is the ruling buzzword in business today. Technology companies invest billions in developing new gadgets; business leaders see innovation as the key to a competitive edge; policymakers craft regulations to foster a climate of innovation. And yet businesses report a success rate of only four percent for innovation initiatives. Can we significantly increase our odds of success? In The Innovator's Way, innovation experts Peter Denning and Robert Dunham reply with an emphatic yes. Innovation, they write, is not simply an invention, a policy, or a process to be managed. It is a personal skill that can be learned, developed through practice, and extended into organizations.

Denning and Dunham identify and describe eight personal practices that all successful innovators perform: sensing, envisioning, offering, adopting, sustaining, executing, leading, and embodying. Together, these practices can boost a fledgling innovator to success. Weakness in any of these practices, they show, blocks innovation. Denning and Dunham chart the path to innovation mastery, from individual practices to teams and social networks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262288972
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	09/21/2012
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Peter J. Denning is Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. He is the coauthor of The Innovator's Way: Essential Practices for Successful Innovation and Great Principles of Computing, both published by the MIT Press.

Robert Dunham founded the Institute for Generative Leadership and the consulting company Enterprise Performance.

John Seely Brown is the former Chief Scientist at Xerox and Director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). He is currently Independent Cochair for Deloitte's Center for the Edge, advisor to the Provost at University of Southern California. He is coauthor of The Social Life of Information and other books.

What People are Saying About This

Bob Metcalfe

Denning and Dunham make clear something I have been muddling through for decades. I wish I long ago had their checklist of eight practices of The Innovator's Way—would have saved me a lot of wasted time.

Richard Strozzi-Heckler

Denning and Dunham have set a new standard for the inquiry and practice of innovation. Their approach is fresh and revolutionary. Their eight practices are practical, wise, and usher in a new and much-needed perspective on the how of innovation. Standing on solid research and experience this book transcends theory and takes you to the practices that allow innovation to flower. The Innovator's Way belongs on every leader's desk.

Michael Schrage

Truly innovative thinking about innovative thinking but it's the authenticity of the authors' experience that makes this book uniquely valuable and valuably unique.

Vint Cerf

Innovations (adopted inventions) become platforms for the next innovation. The World Wide Web could not have existed without the Internet and has itself now become the next platform for new innovations. This book amplifies the importance of adoption to turn invention into innovation.

Endorsement

Truly innovative thinking about innovative thinking but it's the authenticity of the authors' experience that makes this book uniquely valuable and valuably unique.

—Michael Schrage, Research Fellow, MIT Sloan School Center for Digital Business

From the Publisher

Denning and Dunham have set a new standard for the inquiry and practice of innovation. Their approach is fresh and revolutionary. Their eight practices are practical, wise, and usher in a new and much-needed perspective on the how of innovation. Standing on solid research and experience this book transcends theory and takes you to the practices that allow innovation to flower. The Innovator's Way belongs on every leader's desk.

—Richard Strozzi-Heckler, author of The Leadership Dojo

Denning and Dunham have taken innovation out of the realm of mysterious abilities into a very concrete set of practices. The Innovator's Way is a well researched book that walks its talk.

—Julio Olalla, President and Founder, The Newfield Network

Denning and Dunham make clear something I have been muddling through for decades. I wish I long ago had their checklist of eight practices of The Innovator's Way—would have saved me a lot of wasted time.

—Bob Metcalfe, Ethernet inventor, 3Com founder, National Technology and Innovation Medalist

Innovations (adopted inventions) become platforms for the next innovation. The World Wide Web could not have existed without the Internet and has itself now become the next platform for new innovations. This book amplifies the importance of adoption to turn invention into innovation.

—Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google

Julio Olalla

Denning and Dunham have taken innovation out of the realm of mysterious abilities into a very concrete set of practices. The Innovator's Way is a well researched book that walks its talk.

Editorial Reviews

This book will directly appeal to all those involved with inventions, innovations, and research and development-including those in computer and information science areas, as well as business leaders responsible for organizational renewal through innovations.—C.S. Arora, Computing Reviews—

From the Publisher

This book will directly appeal to all those involved with inventions, innovations, and research and development-including those in computer and information science areas, as well as business leaders responsible for organizational renewal through innovations.

—C.S. Arora, Computing Reviews

Reviews

This book will directly appeal to all those involved with inventions, innovations, and research and development-including those in computer and information science areas, as well as business leaders responsible for organizational renewal through innovations.

Computing Reviews - C.S. Arora