The Wide Lens

by Ron Adner

How can great companies do everything right - identify real customer needs, deliver excellent innovations, beat their competitors to market - and still fail?

The sad truth is that many companies fail because they focus too intensely on their own innovations, and then neglect the innovation ecosystems on which their success depends. In our increasingly interdependent world, winning requires more than just delivering on your own promises. It means ensuring that a host of partners -some visible, some hidden- deliver on their promises, too.

In "The Wide Lens," innovation expert Ron Adner draws on over a decade of research and field testing to take you on far ranging journeys from Kenya to California, from transport to telecommunications, to reveal the hidden structure of success in a world of interdependence.

A riveting study that offers a new perspective on triumphs like Amazon's e-book strategy and Apple's path to market dominance; monumental failures like Michelin with run-flat tires and Pfizer with inhalable insulin; and still unresolved issues like electric cars and electronic health records, The Wide Lens offers a powerful new set of frameworks and tools that will multiply your odds of innovation success.

"The Wide Lens" will change the way you see, the way you think - and the way you win.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Management, Professional Development, Economics, Entrepreneurship

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. The Wide Lens as a term has a lot of meaning for me now. I remember many of the illustrations/case studies and have been telling them to anyone who'll listen. I feel equipped to know where to start with really progressing some of my ideas. The systems are powerfully simple and yet seem simply powerful.

As someone who has lots of ideas and can't pick between them, I think this is going to be a massive help for me to:
- Assist in narrowing my focus onto the "correct" segment of an idea worth doing.
- Eliminate ideas that I think are good but are doomed to failure (given available resources and influence)
- Add detail to my plans and road maps related to what's outside my own plans and implementations.
- Identify blind spots in my execution plans.
- Have confidence that I know what I'm trying to do.

I expect this book will help me as an investor to more accurately determine how ecosystems are built and grown, how to put a value on them.

There were lots of moments reading this book where my own past thinking made more sense. It beautifully systemised why I thought what I thought. That meant I could have more confidence in my decisions as I know what's underlying them.

The book clearly explained and illustrated it's concepts and gave a "toolkit" set of methodologies to assist in applying the principles. It's so superbly written that they seem incredibly straightforward. The author obviously knows how to teach concepts for those who want theory to lead to tangible action.

I had a beautiful opportunity to explore some of the book's ideas informally in a focus group for a proposed software reuse tool at work. As well as discussing the tool, I was able to point out why the project was probably going to fail in it's current "narrow lens" implementation. It needed changes such that users, team structure and entropy, project funding methods, discipline structure, and process gates, all worked together to ensure the tool got the inputs and use that it needed to add value to the business.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is Nonfiction and it wasn't my favorite. I struggled to get through this one. I listened to the audio as I turned my garden tomatoes and peppers into enchilada sauce and salsa. So not a bad afternoon, but this wasn't a book for me. I liked the idea though about looking beyond the picture that is directly right in front. So the term Wide Lens was perfect and it was illustrated well. But still not for me. 2 stars.

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and well organized book -- with one or two well-chosen cases for each chapter/concept. Ron found a compelling way of writing about strategy and bringing in fresh insights. Will probably offer this book as an essay option for my strat students. As to the content and Ron's arguments, I like the first chapters, especially the identification (and naming) of execution, co-innovation, and adoption chain risk (first three chapters), even if if does lead to some very artificial "gotcha" examples/cases (e.g. Ron claims Pfizer's Exubera inhaled insulin initiative failed after years and billions of development just because Pfizer failed to consider that users would need to take a lung capacity test --- very doubtful).

As the book progresses (blueprinting your ecosystem, managing it, etc.) the cases become more revisionist. Ron likes to use Apple as an example and suggests that their growth/success comes from deliberately and strategically implementing an "ecosystem" strategy. It might look this way in hindsight, but half of Apple's ecosystem decisions were by luck, against Job's wishes, or late -- I think its pretty clear that Apple under Jobs was a product/design company first and used that very powerful position to then build ecosystems around Job's ideals (mostly control). In other words, you can view Apple's growth through the opposite lens (narrow focus on product and control) with equal explanatory power.

Ron himself offers the ultimate counterargument to using "a wide lens" as the main driver of strategy with the "Better Place" case study in chapter 7. A Better Place's strategy does indeed seem to follow an "ecosystem" strategic logic - Agassi did look into the future to identify ecosystem level barriers to electric car deployment and built his strategy around removing them (e.g. high cost of batteries-lease them, not enough charging stations-build the network out, etc.) and then proceeded to flop miserably! (probably after the chapter was written). This highlights the main and crucial weakness to "wide lens" strategizing, which is its lack of flexibility -- or in other words, we can't predict the future, and visualizing a future ecosystem requires us to predict in advance a whole host of interdepedencies. By definition we will get it wrong. We don't even know in advance whether the value proposition such an ecosystem will provide will ultimately be accepted by consumers. Tesla is a great counterexample to the A Better Place and exemplifies the opposite approach, instead of focusing on the ecosystem at large, Tesla focused on execution -- getting its product/technology right and is only now building out its ecosystem (free charging stations, proprietary show rooms, online ordering, etc.). It is leading ecosystem development by first developing a very strong offering and committed customer base (similar to Apple).

Some chapters feel a bit of a stretch in terms of fresh contributions. For example, chapter 8 on sequencing and "minimum viable ecosystem", which uses the M-Pesa case seems to really be about reducing complexity in the early stages (don't partner off the bat, do it all internally if possible to reduce interdependencies). Ron contrasts his MVE-Staged Expansion-Ecosystem Carryover model to the prototype-pilot-roll-out sequence but to draw clear distinctions he needs to make the pilot stage into a straw man. In his view, the pilot is about testing the totally fleshed out value proposition, which I think is rarely done. Well-designed pilots are about testing what he would call the MVE, roll-outs would include the staged expansion. So at the end there is no real distinction/contribution here. Same with the ecosystem carryover discussion, this is all about establishing your offering as a platform -- about winning the platform war.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love when a book I have to read for school is actually a banger

[Oleksandr Sorokivskyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm happy that I bought this book spontaneously during lunch. This is my first book about innovations and I love it. I like the way the author provided stories, conclusions and solutions. Easy and fast to read.

[Maura (thenovelmaura) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been a PDF. There, that's the whole review.

Ok, fine, I'll follow Adner's lead and draw this out for way longer than it needs to be. Every chapter of this book introduced a new and spectacular failure and/or success in an oftentimes obscure and highly specialized industry. This meant that Adner could fill more than half of each chapter with explanations of the problem, minute details of the industry, and the history of the company that achieved the success and/or failure. Of course, had he chosen to use one or two examples to illustrate the concepts of the book, it would have been roughly a third of the length, and then no one would have wanted to publish this glorified pamphlet! So instead it's stuffed with details of the semiconductor, tire, film-making, and cellular phone industries (to name a few) and some of the most useless diagrams I have ever seen.

And the business ventures themselves are all (with the exception of one) initiatives that have already happened. Adner is merely using the "hindsight is 20/20" adage and applying his theories to explain why each venture succeed or failed. Not once does he give examples of how you can use the wide lens concept on a project you're thinking of starting or are currently working on. Instead of demonstrating the same ideas over and over with outdated examples, this book needed to prove that the wide lens framework could be applied in real time to a company that was then able to course-correct and come out ahead.

You're probably wondering why I even gave this book two stars. Well, the concept of the Wide Lens itself is useful, and the parts of the chapters that weren't pure filler are applicable to start-ups and business initiatives. But you should really just read a blog post about it, because you'll get the same level of insight and save yourself a ton of time.

[Andrew Heitzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely a business book. There are some morals that can be extrapolated for your normal life, but that being said, it's true helpfulness comes from redefining the way you look at business relstionships. This book is for people who have great ideas, but can lose themselves in the details. Specific examples and analysis help you apply these ideas to daily innovations you read or hear about, and then into your own business life. Nothing about it is new, but that doesn't mean it's obvious.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A useful and timeless book that would have saved me money had I read it earlier in my investment career. The frameworks help me examine assumptions in a systematic fashion and highlight the joint conditional probability of introducing innovations into markets. The case examples provide relatably useful narratives.

[Abby Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could be great for the soley technically minded folks out there but I feel like I learned this lesson in my first semester at a liberal arts university. You've got to look at and consider everything and everyone before launching any new innovation.

[Emilie22 · Rating 4 out of 5]

*caveat: I only read select chapters of this book (required reading for class, yay). Many business books focus on the success stories from the Amazons and the Facebooks of the world. However, I appreciate how Adner discusses failures or the "almost" Ubers of the world. There is equally as much to learn from what went wrong as there is from what went right.

[Navneet Bhushan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting framework. And of course focusing on innovation ecosystem - the width is tuned to my own philosophy of holistic and systems thinking what I called an integrative thinking. Recommended reading !

[Scott Torrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat dated book (2012) on how success of new innovations is increasingly about more than just strong execution - it depends on the success of partners in your ecosystem. Provides frameworks for understanding co-innovation and adoption chain risks and potential ways to mitigate.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Importance of considering an entire supportive ecosystem needed in launching an innovation.

[Turgut · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really useful book!

[Danielle Clere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommend.

[Zulqarnain Ansari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book presents a wide lens, through which you can set the level of zoom and focus on bigger shots. that are blind spots for many innovators, along with the fixations. Highly recommended!

[Boopalan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for any business person (from startups to large scale organizations)

[Marisa Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If your working on strategic initiatives this is a great book on not just looking at execution risks but also how to consider and mitigate risks that are part of the innovation ecosystem.

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at ecosystem risks, ie why you can execute perfectly and still fail

[Feyha Tejani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoever plans on doing any sort of business must read this book first. This book provides perspective on matters that are not generally discussed.

[Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This particular book is recommended by Bill Gates, together with several others in his reading list. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have bought it. And it turns out, this particular book isn’t “just another book on innovation”. The contents are far more useful than some tips to encourage innovativeness in ones’ organization like other book on innovation. Personally, the Wide Lens framework is useful even for projects internal to an organization that involves several other stakeholders. Though sadly, one of the case study, Better Place, that the book uses to showcase the adoption of its Wide Lens framework has turned out to be a failed business venture, but nonetheless, the framework in the book gives readers some insights into why certain businesses work and others failed even when they are both selling rather similar products/services.

Wide Lens framework builds upon the notion where products/services are built on a highly connected environment with multiple stakeholders, for one particular innovation to be a successful business, managing your own risk and execute it perfectly isn’t enough. There’s always interdependency among the stakeholders, be it your supplier, middleman, sales person and even after sales service center plays a huge role in its success. There’s 2 risk factors that were always overlooked by business, co-innovation risk and adoption chain risk.

Co-innovation risk is the risk revolves around the other components that fully make up the product that you proposed in the business, those components that your innovation relies on have to be available precisely when you need it, the book gives an example of 3G phones from Nokia, while the 3G technology is available on the Nokia smartphone, but there isn’t many mobile contents available and the mobile application platform isn’t ready as well, and this leads to a slow adoption and low ROI for the first generation 3G enabled handsets.

On the other hand, the adoption chain risk is the risk whether everyone in the whole pipeline are committed to the innovation/idea. If anyone of them falters, the business idea are most likely doomed to fail. The book gives the example of PAX tires, in which the venture breaks down by just not having support from the tires workshop that provides repair services to tires, even though it was supported by everyone else in the supply chain and with billions of funding.

Besides the risks that everyone tends to overlook, the book covers various tools/techniques from the framework that helps readers. Value blueprints, leadership prism, first-mover matrix…etc., just to name a few. There’s a chapter for each tool/technique and the book uses real world case studies to illustrate the idea.

A highly recommended book to everyone simply because overlooking the roles/commitment from someone else in the pipeline of either a business idea or project is too costly. While not everyone would buy the Wide Lens framework idea, but there’s no harm paying extra caution to various stakeholders in your idea.

[Phil Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reading The Wide Lens, I was struck repeatedly by two books: The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business (of which I am the author) and The Halo Effect. In The Age of the Platform, I write extensively about ecosystems, managing uncertainty, and embracing intelligent risk. Had Adner's book been published a year ago, I certainly would have quoted it. His use of case studies is particularly instructive and includes eReaders, insulin inhalers, and 3G cell phones.

So, the ecosystem guarantees success, right?

No--and this is where Adner's book really shines. He repeatedly discusses maximizing probabilities and offers no "one size fits all" elixir to this new world of ecosystems. To this end, the book reminded me of The Halo Effect. I applaud Adner for recognizing that there's no recipe for success these days. Books that fail to illustrate this important precept simplify and confuse readers, ultimately leaving them disappointed.

The Wide Lens is essential reading about a new way of doing business. Just don't expect a ten-point checklist for success. And that is one of the book's cardinal strengths.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not that I've read widely in this field, but this is the best book on innovation that I've come across. The best take-away nugget: when working in a collaborative fashion, keep in mind that success isn't an average of every party's chance that they'll complete their piece on time and on budget. It's a multiplication problem, not a division/average problem.

Example: if a group of four agencies try some new project and each estimates that their chance of success is somewhere around 80%, the project doesn't have an 80% chance of success. Rather it is .8 x .8 x .8 x .8 and that equals a 40.9% chance of success. Good to know, as I've been bitten by this little mathematical fact before.

[Tim Laukka · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wide Lens was an excellent book on innovation in an environment where multi-company collaboration is required to make a project successful. In today's world, that involves most large market products. I would rate this book on innovation right up there with The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. The concept of co-innovation and co-adoption risk was new to me and very helpful in explaining why innovations, even though superior to their competitors, may fail if they don't take into consideration the whole eco-system in which they operate.

This book is definitely worth the read if your looking for ways to make your innovation more likely to succeed.

[Andrea James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear writing with well-told and interesting stories on blind spots and the importance of understanding business eco-systems. I would have liked more depth but it worked for me as an audiobook for commuting.

The book provided good reminders of the importance of taking greater perspectives and considering a project from wider angles. It prompts us to think about how the different and non-obvious stakeholders may influence and affect the success of your plan. What is it like to be a first mover in a market that relies on other services or regulation etc. to be adequately available before consumers want or value your product/service enough to buy and use it.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, interesting read recommended to me by our CFO. I'm torn on the four stars designation because it's not as good as other four stars I've given during my tenure with GR. That said, on it's own merits and not in comparison with other books, it gets 4 stars: it taught me new strategies, described interesting facts/stories, and led me to think about things I hadn't thought about before. I recommend this book to anyone who is in a traditional, or for some other reason, slow-moving business, as a way to shake up how they think about innovation.

[Nathanael Coyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book seems so obvious in hindsight, how innovations fail by not looking at co-adoption and co-innovation. But it was an angle I hadn't thought of before and opened my eyes to the "wide lens" view of innovation in the ecosystem. Good case studies, easy to read, with a solid framework for adopting the wide lens view and helpful strategies on how not to fall into the same trap as Nokia, Philips, Michelin and more.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Packed full of useful frameworks for thinking about the strategy of innovating in ecosystems. Although I worry that it’s a little too backward-looking, and that he might be oversimplifying the factors that led to the examples of success he discusses to fit them into his framework.

[Jan Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

New frameworks for establishing innovation platforms. Story-based so very readable. Grounded in valid research findings.

[Anoop · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on Innovation that I have read.It really emphasizes the importance of Innovation ecosystem