Managing Innovation, 6th Edition

CHAPTER 1 Innovation – What It Is and Why It Matters

“A slow sort of country” said the Red Queen. “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

— Lewis Carroll, Alice through the Looking Glass

You don’t have to look far before you bump into the innovation imperative. It leaps out at you from a thousand mission statements and strategy documents, each stressing how important innovation is to “our customers/our shareholders/our business/our future and most often, our survival and growth.” Innovation shouts from advertisements for products ranging from hairspray to hospital care. It nestles deep in the heart of our history books, pointing out how far and for how long it has shaped our lives. And it is on the lips of every politician, recognizing that our lifestyles are constantly shaped and reshaped by the process of innovation.

Innovation makes a huge difference to organizations of all shapes and sizes. The logic is simple – if we don’t change what we offer the world (products and services) and how we create and deliver them, we risk being overtaken by others who do. At the limit, it’s about survival, and history is very clear on this point: survival is not compulsory! Those enterprises that survive do so because they are capable of regular and focused ...