This new book explores how firms achieve competitive advantage in a disruptive, digital and globalized business landscape. An integrative framework, ‘The Four Rs of Competitive Success’, is introduced, which covers the four core pillars of global strategy: resources and capabilities, technology and innovation (recombination), internationalization and international markets (reach), and physical and virtual location (roots). It then explains how competitive advantage is achieved through an interaction of these four drivers against the backdrop of a globalized and digitized world. It is uniquely practical in its approach, combining theoretical understanding with international case studies and real-life examples throughout each chapter, including Apple, IKEA and Microsoft. Unlocking Strategic Innovation is concise, applied reading for postgraduate students studying international business, corporate strategy, innovation and digital strategy, as well as academics in the field. It will also be important reading for practitioners looking to gain further understanding of how firms compete and flourish in a global and technology-driven environment.

The power of transformative design, multidisciplinary leaps, and diversity: lessons from a Black professional’s journey through corporate America. Design offers so much more than an aesthetically pleasing logo or banner, a beautification add-on after the heavy lifting. In Reimagining Design, Kevin Bethune shows how design provides a unique angle on problem-solving—how it can be leveraged strategically to cultivate innovation and anchor multidisciplinary teamwork. As he does so, he describes his journey as a Black professional through corporate America, revealing the power of transformative design, multidisciplinary leaps, and diversity. Bethune, who began as an engineer at Westinghouse, moved on to Nike (where he designed Air Jordans), and now works as a sought-after consultant on design and innovation, shows how design can transform both individual lives and organizations. In Bethune’s account, diversity, equity, and inclusion emerge as a recurring theme. He shows how, as we leverage design for innovation, we also need to consider the broader ecological implications of our decisions and acknowledge the threads of systemic injustice in order to realize positive change. His book is for anyone who has felt like the “other”—and also for allies who want to encourage anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-ageist behaviors in the workplace. Design transformation takes leadership—leaders who do not act as gatekeepers but, with agility and nimbleness, build teams that mirror the marketplace. Design in harmony with other disciplines can be incredibly powerful; multidisciplinary team collaboration is the foundation of future innovation. With insight and compassion, Bethune provides a framework for bringing this about.

Without sustained innovation, most organizations will simply fade away. Explaining how to achieve sustained innovation success in today’s increasingly competitive global environment, ENOVALE: How to Unlock Sustained Innovation Project Success provides a validated strategy for implementing innovation projects following the ENOVALETM methodology: envision the need, nominate, objectify, validate, align and adapt, link, and execute. The authors’ first book, Chance or Choice: Unlocking Innovation Success, introduced a proven management process, using the ENOVALE methodology, for identifying innovation opportunities through validated outcomes. This book takes the outcome and provides a method—from project initiation to completion. Goes beyond the typical innovation book to outline specific solutions and strategies Includes templates, flow charts, tools, and strategies for each "means" of innovation Provides business examples of the philosophy, strategic elements, and success criteria that readers can easily relate to The text begins by explaining what strategy means in terms of innovation and how it can be transformative for products, processes, and services. After an overview of innovation, the book discusses a series of strategies for each of the three means of innovation. These strategies outline a systematic process you can use to initiate and conduct your own innovation projects. The book includes numerous business examples that illustrate the authors’ philosophy, strategic elements, and success criteria. After reading this book you will gain a solid understanding of five time-proven implementation strategies that can be applied to any type of innovation project.

This small but powerful book, perfect to toss in your briefcase or bag, takes on the conventional thinking that says more resources are the answer-helping you to see what is really going on as your organization seeks to innovate and launch new products. In an open and straight-talking manner, it teaches you to challenges the premises undermining your performance. Then it shares strategies that strike directly at the root causes, so you can start taking action immediately-action against issues like: Low Project Throughput - Are you simply not getting as many new products to market as you need to? Poor Predictability or On-Time Performance - Do you struggle to predict and commit to timelines that your business can actually achieve? Minimal Market Impact - Are too many of your resources going to low impact programs or programs that don't deliver as promised? Long Time to Market / Slow Speed to Market - Do projects take too long causing you to miss critical windows of opportunity? These are the key issues that Unlocking Innovation Productivity can help you overcome. As a passionate and experienced business leader and innovation insider himself, Mike Dalton has used these strategies across industries globally. This book crystallizes that experience into the roadmap you need to transform your organization-once and for all-to deliver both profitable and predictable new product growth.

Author Dr Andy Wynn, along with contributions from leaders of some of the biggest companies on the planet (including DuPont, 3M, Johnson Matthey and Imerys), finally reveals the secret of how you can unlock the potential in your business to grow. In the follow up to his book Transforming Technology into Profit, Andy takes you on a journey that explains how the organisation and culture within your business impact your company’s ability to innovate. Using his "Three Tiers of Successful Innovation", Andy reveals how to clearly identify what aspects of your business are holding back growth and how to use that information to transform your business into one that facilitates growth by revitalising the structure and culture of your business to focus employee behaviours on adding profitable new revenue streams. Part sequel and part companion volume to his previous book, Andy finally "cracks the code" on how to unleash your business’ ability to create and successfully commercialise new products. Written in the author’s trademark conversational style, Cracking the Innovation Code offers a refreshingly practical and real-world view, written by someone who has been there and done it, and enhanced by valuable case studies and contributions from numerous senior executives who have made life-long careers out of leading innovation, and with a passion for leading industrial manufacturing businesses.

Every company's ability to innovate depends on a process of experimentation whereby new products and services are created and existing ones improved. But the cost of experimentation often limits innovation. New technologies--including computer modeling and simulation--promise to lift that constraint by changing the economics of experimentation. Never before has it been so economically feasible to ask "what-if" questions and generate preliminary answers. These technologies amplify the impact of learning, paving the way for higher R&D performance and innovation and new ways of creating value for customers.In Experimentation Matters, Stefan Thomke argues that to unlock such potential, companies must not only understand the power of experimentation and new technologies, but also change their processes, organization, and management of innovation. He explains why experimentation is so critical to innovation, underscores the impact of new technologies, and outlines what managers must do to integrate them successfully. Drawing on a decade of research in multiple industries as diverse as automotive, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and banking, Thomke provides striking illustrations of how companies drive strategy and value creation by accommodating their organizations to new experimentation technologies.As in the outcome of any effective experiment, Thomke also reveals where that has not happened, and explains why. In particular, he shows managers how to: implement "front-loaded" innovation processes that identify potential problems before resources are committed and design decisions locked in; experiment and test frequently without overloading their organizations; integrate new technologies into the current innovation system; organize for rapid experimentation; fail early and often, but avoid wasteful "mistakes"; and manage projects as experiments.Pointing to the custom integrated circuit industry--a multibillion dollar market--Thomke also shows what happens when new experimentation technologies are taken beyond firm boundaries, thereby changing the way companies create new products and services with customers and suppliers. Probing and thoughtful, Experimentation Matters will influence how both executives and academics think about experimentation in general and innovation processes in particular. Experimentation has always been the engine of innovation, and Thomke reveals how it works today.

"How a deliberate merger of design and innovation capabilities can help organizations garner more strategic advantage, pursue sustainable growth, navigate disruption, and improve foresight"--