Leading for Innovation: And Organizing for Results

19.1. Innovation and the Maximization of Shareholder Value

Peter Drucker has been fascinated with innovation ever since he started writing books in the early fifties. He links it with entre-preneurship, which, he says, is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice—and innovation (or the knowledge that is the outcome of the innovation) is a means to an end. "Entrepreneurs innovate. Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship."

Which "end" is Drucker talking about? As a good Austrian economist, he links it up with Schumpeter's creative destruction. Through innovation, the entrepreneur creates a dynamic disequilibrium, which gives him opportunities and brings destruction to the others. Unfortunately, in this process not only the ...