Discontinuous Innovation

Learning to Manage the Unexpected

This book is based on the findings, issues and questions related to an ongoing decade-old research project named the Innovation Lab (www.innovation-lab.org). The research project focuses on discontinuous innovation in more than thirteen countries, most of which are European, and provides useful insights into its different challenges. It also raises several questions related to the subject, some of which are: how do firms pick up weak signals on emerging — and possibly radically different — innovation? What should firms do when these weak signals hit their “mainstream” process? What are the criteria for allocating resources to a strategic innovation project? What actions should firms take to avoid being left out by the “corporate immune system”? How should firms organize projects that often break existing rules and require new rules to be created?

This book attempts to provide answers to the above mentioned questions by gathering information from the research project and also from firms that have tried exploring various ideas, models and insights to tackle discontinuous innovation. Written in a simple and accessible manner, this book will be of interest to both practitioners and academics alike.

Contents:

• Learning in the Discontinuous Innovation Laboratory

  Radical, Discontinuous and Disruptive Innovation — What's the Difference?

• Part I:

  • Looking Beyond the Lamp-Post
  • Ambidexterity in the Search Phase of the Innovation Process
  • Unpacking Exploratory Innovation: Search Practices, Organizational Context and Performance
  • Organizing Discontinuous Innovation at Established SMEs
  • Discontinuous Innovation Search for SMEs and Large Organisations
  • The BMW Group Co-Creation Lab: From Co-Creation Projects to Programmes
  • Strengthening the Role of the Users

• Part II:

  • Netnography in the Food Industry
  • Selection Strategies for Discontinuous Innovation
  • Selecting Discontinuous Innovation in Practice
  • Innovation Buy-In at Schneider Electric: The KIBIS Method

• Part III:

  • Implementing Discontinuous Innovation
  • Strategic Flexibility, Culture and Measurement as Organisational Enablers
  • Coloplast: Fixing Broken Hearts?
  • Implementing Discontinuous Innovation within Philips Lighting
  • Fighting the Unknown — With Business Design
  • Center of Excellence: One Way to Implement Discontinuous Innovation
  • Munich Airport: The Success Story of InfoGate

Readership: Graduates and researchers studying innovation-related topics, business professionals handling innovation decisions and general public interested in innovation.
Key Features:

• Up-to-date literature review about discontinuous, radical and disruptive innovation
• Provides modern search tools for discontinuous innovation
• Extensive use of illustrative case studies on how small and big firms cope with discontinuous change