Book Summary | The Innovation Zone : How Great Companies Re-Innovate for Amazing Success

The Innovation Zone : How Great Companies Re-Innovate for Amazing Success

Author : Thomas M Koulpoulos

Innovation is one of the most searched word today and widely used word in day to day activity in corporates. From the top to the bottom, everyone is asked to innovate to add value.  The book touches about the innovation zone for business model innovations to crowd sourcing for innovations as there is no single approach to innovation and innovation approaches depends upon the organizations priority, cultures, and people.  Innovation at the organisation level needs systems and solutions as Innovation and creativity are processes and one can learn and improve them.

The thought provoking paragraph in the book is: From Steve Jobs to Bill Ford, innovation has become a mantra for organizations that are thriving as well as those that are striving. But it is questionable if most of us can really define innovation or describe how to create it. Can innovation actually be taught? Can innovation become a core competency? Are there rules you can follow to emulate the leading innovators and to create your own Innovation Zone?.

Summarizing the thoughts:

• Innovation cannot exist in the absence of value that is recognized and rewarded

•            The Obstacles for innovations are : Believing that Innovation will Just Happen | Telling everyone to ‘think outside the box’ and call it a day | Laying the responsibility on the shoulders of Innovation team or Technologist | Criticizing the ideas | Viewing Different and new as Bad | Analyzing ideas into Financial and legal mind-set | Afraid to fail | Innovating only when you need to | Leaving it up to the innovators | Encouraging everyone to drop any and all ideas in suggestion box
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•     Building Innovative culture: Dedicated function | Incentives for inventors.| Internal exit | Metrics |Leadership

•     The companies that sustain growth and margin best are the companies that focus on innovations that build on their core competency by innovating their business model.

•    Leadership plays a crucial role in building an Innovation Zone. The role operates chiefly in four areas: ■ Separating core competencies from the core business model ■ Building and reinforcing a culture of innovation ■ Counterbalancing entrenchment in past success ■ Creating an organizational structure that facilitates innovation

•     Leaders need to put in place five elements for a culture of innovation to thrive: ■ Visibly committed leadership ■ Defined area of responsibility ■ Rewards ■ Customer involvement ■ Mentoring and training

•  The velocity of innovation is measured and improved by using a model called the innovation chain. Four stages determine the velocity of an innovation chain: ■ Internal awareness ■ Internal responsiveness ■ External responsiveness ■ External awareness

The book has examples of Innovation zones and success stories of few companies, makes it interesting read.