Learning Objectives
Click on the links below to find out what you will learn in each chapter.
- Chapter 1: Innovation, Globalization and Commoditization
- Chapter 2: Understanding Innovation
- Chapter 3: Assessing the Potential of an Innovation
- Chapter 4: Business Models
- Chapter 5: Assessing and Managing Capabilities
- Chapter 6: Service Innovations
- Chapter 7: Protecting Innovations
- Chapter 8: Entrance Strategies for Innovations
- Chapter 9: Technology and the Growth of Productivity
- Chapter 10: Communities, Networks and Reputation
- Chapter 11: Financing Innovations
- Chapter 12: Understanding and Managing Creative People
- Chapter 13: Society and Innovation
CHAPTER 1: Innovation, Globalization and Commoditization
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- innovation is no longer optional, but a necessary activity in every competitive business
- understand the difference between innovation, invention, creativity and commercialization
- understand the forces of globalization and commoditization, and identify their causes
- be able to identify opportunities for innovation in industries undergoing consolidation and commoditization
- understand that only innovations that ultimately will be profitable are of interest to firms
- be familiar with the development and role of topics in subsequent chapters of the text.
CHAPTER 2: Understanding Innovation
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- understand features, constraints and figures of merit
- understand how ‘long tail’ effects foster innovation in digital markets
- understand the components of innovation
- understand how the profitability of innovation is influenced by competences, complements, architecture and components
- understand science, technology and innovation, and the inherent risk at each stage of maturity
- be able to classify innovations based on the degree of impact on firm operations
- be able to identify the main mistakes made by firms that fail in their attempts to innovate.
CHAPTER 3: Assessing the Potential of an Innovation
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- understand that your core capabilities consume your resources; that your innovations are responsible for generating future resources to support the acquisition of future capabilities
- understand the steps for assessing the potential demand for an innovation
- be familiar with the innovator’s mindset, and understand that innovation is seldom radical and completely new
- recognize that most innovation is incremental, reconfiguring and re-differentiating existing services, business models and products
- be familiar with the innovator’s analysis toolkit consisting of:
- quizzing, and organization of resulting insights through mind maps
- the consumption chain
- the feature map.
CHAPTER 4: Business Models
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- be able to define a business model and know where the concept is applied in assessing an innovation
- understand what a ‘scientific method’ for business analysis of innovation means, and that this is different from strategy
- understand that business models fail because they fail either to tell a convincing story or to support that story with convincing financial numbers
- understand the components of value mapping and how they are used to support a story, and generate financial projections of costs and revenues for an innovation.
CHAPTER 5: Assessing and Managing Capabilities
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- understand how capabilities (assets + competences) constrain the space in which we can compete effectively
- understand the difference between radical, progressive, creative and intermediating industry innovation trajectories
- understand that acquiring capabilities can expand your opportunities for innovation, but that they are limited by the money and people at your disposal
- have learned that successful innovation requires the collaboration of five very different types of people: idea generators, boundary spanners, evangelists, coaches and project managers
- recognize two sources of innovation, functional and circumstantial
- recognize that innovations may be created in a firm’s own laboratories, but more oft en are procured from a combination of competitors’ laboratories, universities and government laboratories.
CHAPTER 6: Service Innovations
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- understand how the same concepts and features that are used to analyse product innovations can be applied to service innovations
- understand service innovations in the finance field, and how they are developed and sold
- understand service innovations in logistics and supply chain management.
CHAPTER 7: Protecting Innovations
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- understand the motivation and history behind intellectual property (IP) laws
- understand the function and applicability of a patent
- understand the function and applicability of a copyright
- understand the function and applicability of a trademark
- understand the function and use of trade secrets
- know how to get started in setting up an IP strategy.
CHAPTER 8: Entrance Strategies for Innovations
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- understand that as markets and technologies change and evolve, your capabilities need to evolve to keep up with the changing demand for products and services
- have learned how to decide where you will acquire new capabilities (assets and competences) based on an analysis of your existing and planned products/services by growth, profit and revenue size
- have learned to use real options analysis to factor risk into your decisions on where capabilities will migrate in the future
- understand the use of three particular options in developing an entrance strategy: positioning options, scouting options and stepping-stone options
- have found out how to optimize entry through early engagement of the potential customers; the ‘first three customers’ rule.
CHAPTER 9: Technology and the Growth of Productivity
After finishing this chapter, you will understand that…
- every technology has a particular rate of advancement that is stable over long periods of time – this rate of progress is called technology acceleration
- disruptive innovation and the so-called ‘innovator’s dilemma’ are a consequence of technology acceleration greater than the acceleration of consumer demand; when this occurs incumbent firms tend to be locked into existing customers, hampering their ability to adopt better performing technologies
- organizational scaling results from the substitution or augmentation of labour with better-performing technologies
- geographical scaling results from the replacement of physical products and transport with information.
CHAPTER 10: Communities, Networks and Reputation
After finishing this chapter, you will understand that …
- the action of network effects and industry standards
- how brands and reputation signal the market concerning minimum quality standards
- branding as a contracting vehicle for mutual trust, and community responsibility, however the community and contract are defined.
CHAPTER 11: Financing Innovations
After finishing this chapter, you will understand…
- that innovators need strategies to manage both the consumer market for their product and the capital markets that fund their operations
- figures of merit, and which are most appropriate for their innovations and businesses
- the function of the behavioural model and the strategy model in forecasting the value of an innovation and its associated business model
- how a value cone displays risk and return
- the choice of discount factor to compute present value.
CHAPTER 12: Understanding and Managing Creative People
After finishing this chapter, you will…
- understand current theory regarding the character and measurement of creativity
- understand some of the personality traits of creative people
- understand the demographics and personal histories common to creative people
- be able to identify opportunities for leading creative people to do their best work
- have learned some specific managerial methods for motivating and keeping your creative workforce.
CHAPTER 13: Society and Innovation
After finishing this chapter, you will understand…
- the changes being impelled by rapid innovation in economies and societies around the world
- the role of tolerance, diversity and creativity in economic wealth
- what governments can and cannot do to promote an innovation-based economy.