Driving Growth Through Innovation: How Leading Firms Are Transforming Their Futures

In his Introduction, Tucker explains that the premise of his book "is that seemingly disparate issues [such as strategy innovation, new product development, and how to solve problems more creatively] must be integrated into a single overarching strategy if they are to be mobilized in the quest for growth. That's why this book summarizes and condenses the key issues of innovation; it is written to enable you and your team to actively move through each chapter and develop a blueprint to redesign your firm's innovation process holistically." Tucker recommends five Principles which assert that innovation is a discipline which must be approached comprehensively; innovation initiatives must include an organized, systematic, and continual search for new opportunities; also, that they must involve everyone in the organization; and finally, all such initiatives must be customer-centered. Tucker cites statistics from a Corporate Board Strategy of 3,700 U.S.-based and non-U.S.-based companies, each of which generates at least $500-million in revenue annually. Of these, only 3.3 percent showed consistent profitable top- and bottom-line growth, and shareholder returns for the seven-year time period analyzed. Only 21 of the 3700 companies, or less than 1 percent, had sustained their growth over the last 20 years. According to Tucker, each demonstrates what he characterizes as a "Growth Gap" which cannot be closed by transitional means such as increasing marketing and sales, cost-cutting, efficiency-enhancing initiatives, and mergers and acquisitions. Throughout the narrative of his book, Tucker explains why and how innovation is the key driver of growth and profitability. Of even greater value are his recommendations for formulating and then implementing initiatives within three dimensions of innovation: product, process, and strategy. In the final chapter, Tucker poses a series of questions which each reader must answer before "mapping out an innovation initiative." The material which precedes this situation analysis (think of it as a reality gut-check) will guide and inform both the responses to the questions, and more importantly, how to take appropriate and effective action in response to the answers they evoke.

Leading companies are taking the haphazard innovation process and turning it into a systematic set of processes, practices, and cultural changes. In Robert Tucker's latest book on innovation, he compares the current state of innovation to the position of the total quality movement in 1980. Based on our experience at ManyWorlds, I agree completely with Tucker's views about the need for systematizing innovation and with his assessment of how little of this is being done. Our own work in this area indicates that those who lead in systematizing innovation still have the opportunity to pull far ahead of the slower adopters.The goal of this book is an ambitious one: To summarize and condense all the key issues of innovation while showing you practically how to implement a systematic innovation process. Tucker does a fine job of meeting this goal, drawing on his study of the Innovation Vanguard companies. He covers a wide terrain, including the cultural factors necessary for innovation, numerous methods for "empowering the idea management process", ensuring that your idea factory keeps running, looking ahead to innovate based on what the future probably holds, and how to develop saleable and innovative products. I'm happy to see that Tucker, unlike too many writers on the subject, recognizes that product innovation is just a start. Process innovation and innovation in business model design are crucial. The issues underlying business model innovation are handled well given the constraints of one chapter.You'll find plenty of checklists and summaries, including five principles for driving growth through innovation, 11 ways to improve your firm's culture for greater innovation effectiveness, eight idea management models, 10 guidelines for your own idea management system, and more. At the end of the book, Tucker provides a map for going about starting your own innovation initiative. This is practically an encyclopedia of corporate innovation ideas. It would be instructive to follow up this book by comparing the new book on Open Innovation by Chesbrough as well as digging deeper into business model innovation.

Robert Tucker's latest book, Driving Growth Through Innovation, is a powerful blueprint for transforming ad hoc, seat of the pants innovation into systematic innovation that can help to drive growth, profit and competitive advantage in your organization. This is one of the most important, insightful books on innovation that I've read in some time. Using extensive real-world examples from 23 "Innovation Vanguard" companies -- some of the world's most successful and innovative firms -- Tucker informs and inspires as he reveals their best practices and how your firm can adapt them to your needs.Tucker begins the book by building the business case for systematic innovation: Why is it a survival issue for organizations today? Why do so many corporate leaders agree that innovation is a key strategic issue, yet have great difficulty in actually implementing systematic, pervasive innovation within their companies? What's needed is a systematic and comprehensive strategy for innovation, and that is the focus of this book. Systematic innovation, according to Tucker, is comprehensive, involves all employees, is focused on an organized, systematic and ongoing search for future business opportunities, and is focused on delivering new value to customers.In Tucker's quest to deconstruct the DNA of systematic innovation, he covers an impressive collection of key strategic innovation issues, including how different corporate leadership styles and cultures can influence an organization's commitment to innovation, or lack thereof; how to identify unmet customer needs and build market-leading new products around them; and techniques for "future scanning" -- "mining" emerging trends in an organized, systematic way to uncover exciting new business opportunities.Driving Growth Through Innovation is highly practical and inspiring book, a field guide to successfully implementing systematic innovation that should be on every entrepreneur and innovation manager's bookshelf, yet at the same time a compelling manifesto for change in how most companies approach innovation. Tucker does a terrific job of clearly and compellingly explaining the systematic innovation methodologies used by the Innovation Vanguard companies, and provides readers with one valuable insight after another into how to make these principles work for you. I highly recommend this book!

Extending my knowledge in Product Development lead me to read Tucker's book - Just one simple comment - Well written, full of common sense and very practical in the approaches and ideas. Surely inspiring and putting me in a position where I know I have to innovate myself in integrating many of the book ideas and link them with other great Product Development concepts.

Robert Tucker speaks with authority; he does not write in empty generalities. He cites facts, figures, case studies and innovation luminaries. He poses questions, provides solutions and presents answers. Finally, he describes six growth strategies. It is obvious he knows his stuff. This scholarly book is fascinating and fun to read. If you liked the two books by Jim Collins: Built to Last and Good to Great, you will want to read this book. As a publisher, author of 28 Books, 109 revised editions, six translations and over 500 magazine articles as well as a consultant to the book publishing industry, I rely on books like this. I will refer to this book again and again.Dan Poynter, ParaPublishing.com.