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Fast Innovation: Achieving Superior Differentiation, Speed to Market, and Increased Profitability ReviewThe last time I checked, Amazon and its online partner Borders offer more than 12,000 different books on the subject of innovation. Presumably this number will continue to increase as organizations become more actively involved with strategic planning in a global marketplace which relies so heavily on both technology and innovation.
What we have in this volume is a remarkably thoughtful, indeed rigorous and insightful discussion of how to achieve superior differentiation, speed to market, and consequent increased profitability. Those who have read any of George's previously published books (Lean Six Sigma, Conquering Complexity in Your Business, and Lean Six Sigma for Service) already know that he is an expert on both process simplification and process innovation. The former achieves incremental progress while the latter (with higher risk and higher reward) enables what George and other business thinkers refer to as "breakthroughs." Highly disruptive technologies, for example. The most effective organizations (e.g. GE, 3M, and Allied Signal) are committed to sustaining both process simplification and innovation.
The subject of speed has always intrigued me. The challenge, obviously, is to determine when to increase, decrease, or sustain it. Now more than ever before, organizations must be able to respond quickly to crises, opportunities, etc. However, as James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, and the Light Brigade demonstrated at Balaclava in 1854, when decisions are based on insufficient information and/or poor judgment, the results can be disastrous. Moreover, doing nothing or doing it too late can be just as dangerous as acting impulsively rather than rationally.
George, Works, and Watson-Hemphill carefully organizes their material within 15 chapters as they respond to a number of critically important questions which include:
1. What are the most significant benefits of fast innovation?
2. What is the process by which to design a fast innovation program?
3. What are the most effective strategies when implementing that program?
4. Which tools are most helpful during implementation?
5. What is an "innovation factory"?
6. How to establish an "idea-rich" workplace environment?
7. Within which process should fast innovation projects be deployed?
8. How best to measure project progress accurately?
9. What is the "FastGate Method" and how does it work?
10. How to create "innovation incubators"?
I especially appreciate the authors' probing analysis of several case studies (e.g. Eli Lilly, Home Depot, Intel, ITT Industries, and Procter & Gamble) to demonstrate their key concepts as well as to suggest how each reader can (with appropriate modification) apply those core concepts within her or his own organization. To me, some of the most valuable material is found in Chapter 4 when George, Works, and Watson-Hemphill examine "The Value of Thinking in Three Dimensions": product-service innovation, market definition innovation, and process/business model innovation. I agree with them that products and services such as Microsoft Windows and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol telephony are the cornerstones of most innovation programs, there are perhaps even greater opportunities in the other two dimensions, market definition innovation (which reflects the leverage possible from existing customer relationships) and process/business model innovation (which can create a competitive advantage that lasts longer than that from sustaining product or service innovations).
The key point is, that the most important breakthroughs in innovation are achieved by those initiatives which are multidimensional. George, Works, and Watson-Hemphill also note that "there are many companies that have maintained above-average growth without innovating a single new product or service but rather by exploiting the market definition, or process/business model dimensions of innovation."
As indicated previously, "fast" innovation does not mean hurried innovation. More often than not, as an ancient aphorism suggests, it is often prudent to "make haste slowly." Also, as the authors would be the first to point out, decision-makers in a given organization must decide to what extent (if any) activity in one or more of the three dimensions makes sense. Moreover, although George and his co-authors offer an abundance of information, observations, insights, and recommendations, it remains for each reader to determine which (if any) are appropriate to her or his organization's needs, interests, current and imminent circumstances, available resources, etc. This is not an "easy read." On the contrary, it requires but will generously reward a careful consideration of its contents. Credit George, Works, and Watson-Hemphill with a logical organization of their material, and, an eloquent presentation of it.
If you share my high regard for this book, I urge you to check out George's previously published Conquering Complexity in Your Business: How Wal-Mart, Toyota, and Other Top Companies Are Breaking Through the Ceiling on Profits and Growth and Lean Six Sigma for Service: How to use Lean Speed & Six Sigma Quality to Improve Services and Transactions.
Also, Clayton Christensen and co-authors' Seeing What's Next, Geoffrey Moore's Dealing with Darwin, Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces of Innovation, Yoram (Jerry) Wind and co-authors' The Power of Impossible Thinking, and Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble's 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators. One other suggestion: one of the most influential books ever written on the subject of technological innovation, Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology. It was first published in 1987 and, in certain respects, is even more relevant and more valuable now than ever before.
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