Navigating Innovation: How to Identify, Prioritize and Capture Opportunities for Strategic Success

ISBN-13: 9783319771908 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 238 str.

Benoit Gailly

Opis

Every firm must maintain an entrepreneurial ecosystem and a coherent innovation strategy in order to stay ahead of the competition. Accompanied by a brand new app for iPhone and Android as well as a companion website, this is an easy dip in, dip out guide with a focus on successful execution.

Recenzje

"This is a well written and structured book and goes a long way to fulfilling its one stop shop objective. ... The book provides a roadmap, but they're the ones who will have to organize and enable the journey." (John Bessant, International Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 24 (1), 2020)

"It's certainly ambitious - it claims to offer a 'one stop shop' for the fundamentals of innovation management best practices. And it is well grounded; the foundations are based on a literature review of over 2,000 pieces of research - a good cross-section of the traveller's experience we've accumulated over the past hundred years of trying to understand innovation management. ...  it's full of helpful examples and, importantly, enabling tools, a valuable feature is the app, which is available to complement the book." (John Bessant, International Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 24 (1), August 19, 2019)

Spis treści

About the author

How to use this manager’s guide

Introduction: Make sense of innovation

 

Challenge 1: Build a shared strategic vision of innovation

 

Innovation is today seen by many organizations as a key strategic issue. However those organizations often embark themselves into costly innovation initiatives without having a clear idea of what they want to achieve (they are inefficient), and why (they are ineffective). Too often they do not understand what innovation is about and they do not know why they want to innovate. The first challenge of innovation management is therefore to develop a shared strategic vision of:

 

1.1 What innovation means from a business point of view – more than creativity

1.2 How innovation unfolds over time as a process - beyond ideation

1.3 What are the different types of innovations firms can engage in - beyond new products

1.4 Why it matters - innovation management capabilities

1.5 What are the strategic innovation options – beyond new product development

1.6 What should drive strategic decision making regarding innovation – beyond hype

1.7 Synthesis – key insights

 

Challenge 2: Manage entrepreneurial ecosystems

 

A perfect innovation strategy is worthless if the firm does not have the organizational and entrepreneurial abilities to execute it. Innovations can strive only when people and teams across organizations and networks embrace change and make new things happen. This means being able and willing to experiment, learn and often fail. The second innovation management challenge is therefore to foster the right entrepreneurial behaviours at all levels: people, teams, organizations, networks and regional ecosystems.

 

2.1       Encourage people to innovate - corporate entrepreneurs

2.2       Build and lead effective innovation teams – balancing acts

2.3       Build innovation-ready organizations – how some elephants can dance

2.4       Develop innovative networks and collaborations – never walk alone

2.5       Create innovation ecosystems – lands of opportunities

2.6       Synthesis – key insights

 

Challenge 3: Identify attractive innovation opportunities

 

Innovation opportunities do not magically “pop-up” out of the blue, be it in R&D laboratories or brainstorming sessions. They emerge when organizations “learn to learn” from multiple internal and external sources, increasing their knowledge and intellectual capital by “thinking in new boxes”, colliding, maturing and combining multiple insights and inspirations.

The third innovation management challenge is therefore to effectively identify innovation opportunities by developing the capabilities to systematically develop, screen, protect and combine both organizational and external sources of innovations:

 

3.1 Identify the sources of innovation opportunities – beyond R&D

3.2 Foster organizational learning – beyond ideation

3.3 Harvest and protect organizational knowledge assets – beyond patents

3.4 Integrate external sources of knowledge – proudly found elsewhere

3.5 Synthesis – key insights

 

Challenge 4: Develop a balanced portfolio of business models

 

Most innovation ideas do not lead to robust business opportunities, and most organizations pursue more innovation opportunities than they can actually handle. In order to effectively manage innovation they must therefore select the opportunities on one hand for which a convincing business model can be designed and on the other hand which collectively form a balanced and consistent portfolio. The fourth innovation management challenge is therefore to focus on the right portfolio of innovative business models.

 

4.1 Asking the right questions – business model design

4.2 Designing competitive business models – why and what

4.3 Mobilizing the right resources – who and how much

4.4 Valuing innovative business models – quantifying the unquantifiable

4.5 Building a consistent and balanced innovation portfolio – managing eggs and baskets

4.6 Synthesis – key insights

 

Challenge 5: Nimble execution: fail fast and win big

 

An innovation opportunity is worthless if it remains only an idea, a concept or a business plan. Successfully managing innovation therefore means developing the capabilities to effectively capture the innovation opportunities which have been identified as attractive by the organization. But innovation opportunities cannot be managed like “normal” corporate projects, where uncertainties are minimized and failure is the exception. The fifth and last innovation management challenge is therefore to effectively capture innovation opportunities through dedicated decision-making and project management approaches.

 

5.1 Nimble execution - learn cheaply and adapt quickly

5.2 Lean development – more brain, less storming

5.3 Smart money - funding innovation projects

5.4 Synthesis – key insights

 

Conclusion: More brain, less storming

 

Innovation is a means, not an end. Innovation is about making people change. Managing innovation is about developing the capabilities to mobilise your ecosystem and identify, select and implement new opportunities, in line with your objectives

O autorze

Benoit Gailly is Professor of Innovation Management and Strategy in the Center for Research in Entrepreneurial Change and Innovative Strategies (CRECIS) at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He held the Puilaetco Chair in Management and Financing of Technology Innovation at the Louvain School of Management (LSM) from 2001 to 2006, and is Program Director of the Executive Master’s Degree in Innovation Management. Benoit is also the former LSM Vice-Dean for Corporate Relations and former Chair of the committee regarding the transfer and valorization of research results for the Academic Council. Before his time at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Benoit also studied at Roskilde University in Denmark and INSEAD. His research focuses on innovation-based strategies and innovation support systems. He is the author of numerous scientific publications on innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as Developing Innovative Organizations published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011. A former manager at McKinsey and an entrepreneur and advisor for several innovation networks and companies (both large firms and start-ups), Benoit is also a member of the Essenscia Innovation Circle and the Secretary General of the GRD Network.

Blurb

Every firm must maintain an entrepreneurial ecosystem and a coherent innovation strategy in order to stay ahead of the competition. For managers this means being able to build a vision of what innovation looks like in the context of their organization, fostering entrepreneurial behaviour, spotting opportunities and making the right decisions. Based on years of practical experience and unique insight, this handy guide identifies fundamental challenges and is rooted in concrete examples. Accompanied by a brand new app for iPhone and Android as well as a companion website, this is an easy dip in, dip out guide with a focus on successful execution. Navigating Innovation is a one-stop-shop, giving you a deeper understanding of the core concepts and tools to capture the right opportunities for your business.