Innovator's Toolkit

Innovator's Toolkit

by Harvard Business Review
Released March 2009
Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN: 9781422135136

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Book description

The Innovator's Toolkit

What are the types of innovation? How can you generate creative ideas for your business? How can you move from ideas to unleashing you innovation to the market? How can you combine your innovation with a strategic plan to move your company forward?

Get these questions answered with jargon-free, useable, practical tools and advice. The Innovator?s Toolkit offers you field-tested techniques and tips to ensure the successful development and implementation of your innovation.

Topics Include:
- Moving innovation to the market
- Making strategic, innovative moves and placing strategic bets
- Using projects to drive innovation to market

Readers can also access free interactive tools on the Harvard Business Essentials companion Web site at www.elearning.hbsp.org/businesstools.

Harvard Business Essentials
The Reliable Source for Busy Managers

The Harvard Business Essentials series is designed to provide comprehensive advice, personal coaching, background information, and guidance on the most relevant topics in business. Drawing on rich content from Harvard Business School Publishing and other sources, these concise guides are carefully crafted to provide a highly practical resource for readers with all levels of experience. To assure quality and accuracy, each volume is closely reviewed by a specialized content adviser from a world class business school. Whether you are a new manager interested in expanding your skills or an experienced executive looking for a personal resource, these solution-oriented books offer reliable answers at your fingertips.

Table of contents

  1. Harvard Business Essentials - The New Manager’s Guide and Mentor
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Introduction
  6. 1 - Types of Innovation
    1. Incremental and Radical Innovation
    2. Factors That Favor Incremental Innovation
    3. Process Innovations
    4. The Product-Process Connection
    5. Service Innovations
    6. Summing Up
  7. 2 - Idea Generation
    1. New Knowledge
    2. Customer Ideas
    3. Learning from Lead Users
    4. Empathetic Design
    5. Invention Factories and Skunkworks
    6. Open Market Innovation
    7. The Role of Mental Preparation
    8. How Management Can Encourage Idea Generation
    9. Four Idea-Generating Techniques
    10. Summing Up
  8. 3 - Recognizing Opportunities
    1. A Method for Opportunity Recognition
    2. Rough Cut Business Evaluation
    3. Summing Up
  9. 4 - From Recognition to Support
    1. The Champion
    2. Supporting Cast
    3. Get the Timing Right
    4. Build a Business Case
    5. Line Up Stakeholders
    6. Maintain Momentum
  10. 5 - Early Tests of Business Potential
    1. The Idea Funnel
    2. Stage-Gates
    3. A Caution on Funnels and Stage-Gates
    4. Financial Issues
    5. Discovery-Driven Planning
    6. The R-W-W Method
    7. Summing Up
  11. 6 - Types of Strategy
    1. Low-Cost Leadership
    2. Differentiation
    3. Customer Relationship
    4. The Network Effect
    5. Summing Up
  12. 7 - Strategic Moves
    1. Gaining a Market Beachhead
    2. Market Entry Through Process Innovation
    3. Market Entry Through Product Differentiation
    4. Create and Dominate a New Market
    5. Extending Innovation Through Platforms
    6. Summing Up
  13. 8 - The S-Curve and Its Strategic Lessons
    1. The S-Curve Explained
    2. Four Lessons
    3. Limits to These Lessons
    4. Summing Up
  14. 9 - Finding the Future
    1. Where Do You Stand Now?
    2. Signals That Change Is in the Making
    3. Create a Welcoming Home for the Future
    4. Summing Up
  15. 10 - Placing Strategic Bets
    1. Portfolio Management
    2. Getting a Handle on Risk
    3. Bottom-Up or Top-Down Innovation?
    4. Summing Up
  16. 11 - Human Creativity
    1. Myths About Creativity
    2. Three Components of Individual Creativity
    3. Managing for Greater Individual Creativity
    4. Summing Up
  17. 12 - Working Through Creative Groups
    1. Characteristics of Creative Groups
    2. Conflict in Groups—and How to Handle It
    3. Time Pressure and Group Creativity
    4. Finding the Right Balance in Group Tenure
    5. Summing Up
  18. 13 - Toward a Creativity-Friendly Workplace
    1. Risk Taking Is Acceptable to Management
    2. New Ideas and New Ways of Doing Things Are Welcome
    3. People Communicate Freely
    4. Knowledge Is Shared
    5. Good Ideas Find Supportive Executive Patrons
    6. Innovators Are Rewarded
    7. The Physical Surroundings Bring People Together
    8. How Friendly to Creativity Is Your Workplace?
    9. Summing Up
  19. 14 - Leaders Can Make a Difference
    1. Fixing the Culture
    2. Establish Strategic Direction
    3. Be Involved with Innovation
    4. Be Open but Skeptical
    5. Improve the Idea-to-Commercialization Process
    6. Exercise Flexibility
    7. Don’t Overlook Innovations in Processes, Finance, and Distribution
    8. Put People with the Right Stuff in Charge
    9. Create an Ambidextrous Organization
    10. Summing Up
  20. APPENDIX A - Writing a Business Plan
  21. APPENDIX B - Workplace Assessment Checklist
  22. No tes
  23. Glossary
  24. For Further Reading
  25. Index
  26. About the Subject Adviser
  27. About the Writer
  28. Need smart, actionable management advice? - Look no further than your desktop.

Product information

  • Title: Innovator's Toolkit
  • Author(s): Harvard Business Review
  • Release date: March 2009
  • Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
  • ISBN: 9781422135136