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Fast Innovation: Achieving Superior Differentiation, Speed to Market, and Increased Profitability 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Michael L. George (Author), James Works (Author), Kimberly Watson-Hemphill (Author), Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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“How can I create an innovation engine that will consistently deliver substantial organic growth?”



This question is the number-one issue for most CEOs and senior executives today. Innovation is a critical driver of organic growth, yet based on the authors' research, only a small percent of companies effectively use innovation to sustain long-term, profitable growth. And the stakes couldn't be higher-failure to create successful new products, services, and business models causes stagnating or declining profits.



Now, for the first time, experts Michael George, James Works and Kimberly Watson-Hemphill explain the surprising and significant gap between the CEO's growth goals and actual performance. The authors, who are experts at connecting strategy to execution, give you a complete blueprint for exploiting the strategic and operational dimensions of innovation.



Using fresh insights about the true drivers of fast time-to-market and the inadequate success rate of innovation, Fast Innovation reveals:



  • Why current approaches to innovation fail


  • A new strategic and tactical plan that will help your company dramatically reduce time-to-market by 50 to 80 percent


  • The secret for finding out what your customers really want (not just what they say they want)


  • Tools and methods for turning customer insights into ideas that will generate significant ROI


  • The key levers that senior leadership must engage to create innovation capability across the business




You'll receive specific actionable solutions for driving disruptive and sustaining innovation at the strategic, portfolio and project level. You'll also learn how to improve how much time your innovation teams actually spend innovating, and discover the changes that must be launched at the corporate level in order to enable the whole business to embrace and get results from this approach.

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Previous page
  1. ISBN-13
    978-0071457897
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    McGraw Hill
  5. Publication date
    July 15, 2005
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    3931 KB
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Michael L. George is an executive advisor and a leading expert at helping Fortune 500 companies connect strategy to execution. He is author of the bestselling Lean Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma for Service, and co-author of Conquering Complexity in Your Business. Mike is Chairman and CEO of George Group.

James Works advises senior executive teams in the areas of innovation, business strategy, operations improvement and organizational change. He is President and Chief Operating Officer of George Group.

Kimberly Watson-Hemphill has built a reputation over the last 12 years as a leading expert in the field of innovation and design across many different product, service and business model applications.

From the Back Cover

Achieving Superior Differentiation, Speed to Market, and Increased Profitability

“Of all the innovation books we've read post-Christensen, this one does the best at speaking the language of the CEO and other top executives.”- Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

“My understanding of innovation has been enlarged through my interactions with Mike. I am grateful that in the writing of this book Mike has relied upon my research and that I have similarly been able to build upon his understanding. I thank him for providing all of us with the set of practical implementation tools presented in this book.”-CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN, Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, author of The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution, and Seeing What's Next

“Growth through innovation is key to Eli Lilly and Company. To serve our commitment to meeting medical needs and achieve our growth goals requires more innovation, faster innovation and, at the same time, less resource consumption and risk. This book identifies some of the significant changes in strategy and tactics needed for an innovation process to achieve these goals. Every executive concerned with the changing business of innovation would do well to become familiar with the principles contained in this book.”-ALPHEUS BINGHAM, Vice President, Strategy, Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company

“Texas Instruments recognizes the importance of creating highly differentiated products with faster time-to-market as the driver of profitable growth. In this book, you will receive the strategic insight and the practical tool set needed to significantly improve your company's rate of successful innovations. I encourage every executive who is interested in accelerating the growth of his business to read this book.”-EMERY POWELL, New Product Development, Texas Instruments Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B006QA725Y
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ McGraw Hill; 1st edition (July 15, 2005)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 15, 2005
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3931 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Up to 4 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0071457895
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

About the author

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Michael L. George

Michael L. George

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Anh Thu Vo
5.0 out of 5 stars Solid book on Innovation AND Excecution
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2005
Verified Purchase
Having worked at several Silicon Valley start-ups and with several visionaries, I can honestly say that innovation, especially the product and new market definition types, are somewhat easily arrived. However, once envisioned, most start-ups/visionaries fail miserably to execute. Visions without execution are just hallucination!

This book not only presents the what's and why's of innovation but also the how's. It details some solid guidelines for being fast and productive in an uncertain environment where disruptive innovations reign.

I would recommend reading this book along with the following books:
- Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen
- Innovator's Solution, Clayton Christensen
- Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore
- Inside the Tornado, Geoffrey Moore
- Harvard Business Review's Darwin and the Demon, Geoffrey Moore
- Execution: the Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy et al
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
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Mark S. Wroblewski
4.0 out of 5 stars A Guide on Managing Innovation Using Process Improvement Techniques
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2008
Verified Purchase
This was the first of George's books I picked up; I have since read
through some of his other works: Lean Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma for
Service, and Conquering Complexity. Here in Fast Innovation, the author
draws on his deep and broad experience in Process Improvement to show
how such techniques can be brought to bear on dealing with innovation.
Those versed in Lean and Six Sigma techniques themselves should find this
a very useful tool to extend their range towards planning effectively
to go after new work close(r) to the cutting edge of their industries.
Those with more reading in Prof. Clayton Christensen's works on innovation
will find here many good pointers to show that "Innovation" is not some
magic only available to the lucky few, but most often comes from solid
groundwork in aligned fields, done with one's mind kept open to the next
possibilities. Useful to both camps are the discussions on keeping the
hunt for innovations focused on something the organization can manage to
complete in a timeframe that's relevant to the balance sheet. This is
where George's experience in complexity management shows, including the
ideas on reuse of modules, teams, and existing processes, and focusing
the new innovation efforts only where they are truly needed.
One person found this helpful
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ARMAN KIRIM, PhD
3.0 out of 5 stars A bit of this, a bit of that
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2006
Verified Purchase
After finishing this book I thought my time was wasted. Actually I should have guessed from the jacket cover that this would be six sigma forced into the popular (an also lucrative) topic of innovation. The book did indeed trurn out to be just that. Hence, lack of coherence. The only useful part for me was the one on Re-Use, which I thought, was brilliant. This was a very good handling of an often neglected but very important issue. But apart from that the whole book could be squeezed into a little article and all the arguments made here could succinctly be made in only a few pages. If you are after a good book on implementation of innovation, I recommend "Making Innovation Work" by Tony Davila et.al. Fast Innovation will not provide answers to most of your questions.
10 people found this helpful
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SD Texas
4.0 out of 5 stars Be careful of formats
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2010
Verified Purchase
Be careful to inquire with the seller about what version is being advertised and shipped. There is a hardbound 335-page book which is the full version, and there is a 143-page paperback executive overview version that only includes part 1 of the full book.

I ordered what I thought was the hardbound version and was dissappointed to actually recieve the paperback version from the seller, which did not disclose this in their item description. I suspect there are others like that judging from the variance in prices. I have returned the paperback and now have the hardbound and am happy.
2 people found this helpful
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passione in cucina
4.0 out of 5 stars Deep reading
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2012
Verified Purchase
I think the book has many good insights but needs to be read with a lot of attention.
It's kind of a textbook
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Clayton M. Christensen
5.0 out of 5 stars Fast Innovation for Profitable Growth
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2005
"My understanding of innovation has been enlarged through my interactions with Mike. I am grateful that in the writing of this book Mike has relied upon my research and that I have similarly been able to build upon his understanding. I thank him for providing all of us with the set of practical implementation tools presented in this book."

-CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN, Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, author of The Innovators Dilemma, The Innovators Solution, and Seeing What's Next
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
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Charles E. Powell
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally - Someone who gets it
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2005
Texas Instruments recognizes the importance of creating highly differentiated products with faster time to market as the driver of profitable growth. In this book, you will receive the strategic insight and the practical tool set needed to significantly improve your company's rate of successful innovations. I encourage every executive who is interested in accelerating the growth of his business to read this book.

EMERY POWELL, New Product Development, Texas Instruments Inc.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Strategy AND Tactics
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2005
Growth through innovation is key to Eli Lilly and Company. To serve our commitment to meeting medical needs and achieve our growth goals requires more innovation, faster innovation and, at the same time, less resource consumption and risk. This book identifies some of the significant changes in strategy and tactics needed for an innovation process to achieve these goals. Every executive concerned with the changing business of innovation would do well to become familiar with the principles contained in this book." -ALPHEUS BINGHAM, Vice President, Strategy, Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
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