The problem isn't coming up with good ideas—any manager will tell you—it's creating an organization that can implement those good ideas and sustain innovation over time.
In this book, a second edition to the popular original, editors Michael Tushman (Harvard Business School) and Philip Anderson (INSEAD) continue to collect best writings on the subject of managing innovation, some current, some that go back decades. A reading from the 1950s, for instance, "Gunfire at Sea: A Case Study of Innovation," a series of lectures by MIT's Elting Morison, is a fascinating look at the introduction for continuous-aim firing in the U.S. Navy.
Subjects covered here include how to run innovative organizations, knowledge management, innovation strategies, innovation from era to era and, finally, the one essential ingredient that brings the others together: leadership. A common theme is how technology drives the need of organizational adaptation.
Although academic in tone, the many case examples and programmatic writing make this an insightful read for any manager dealing with the business of innovation.
Harvard Business School past and present is well represented in these pages, with contributions from Carliss Baldwin, Joseph Bower, Clayton Christensen, Kim Clark, Giovanni Gavetti, Dorothy Leonard, Gary Pisano, Wendy Smith, Donald Sull, Mary Tripsas, Tushman, and Steven Wheelwright.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction and overview
2. Innovation over time and in historical context
3. Organization architectures and managing innovation
4. Innovation and business strategy
5. Knowledge, learning, and intellectual capital
6. Managing linkages
7. Executive leadership and managing innovation and change
—Sean Silverthorne