HBR's 10 Must Reads on Innovation

by Harvard Business Publishing

To innovate profitably, you need more than just creativity. Do you have what it takes?

If you read nothing else on inspiring and executing innovation, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you innovate effectively.

Leading experts such as Clayton Christensen, Peter Drucker, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter provide the insights and advice you need

Decide which ideas are worth pursuingInnovate through the front lines—not just from the topAdapt innovations from the developing world to wealthier marketsTweak new ventures along the way using discovery-driven planningTailor your efforts to meet customers’ most pressing needsAvoid classic pitfalls such as stifling innovation with rigid processes

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Startup

190 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) is a publisher founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, independent corporation and an affiliate of Harvard Business School (distinct from Harvard University Press), with a focus on improving business management practices. The company offers articles, books, case studies, simulations, videos, learning programs, and digital tools to organizations and subscribers.
HBP consists of three market units: Education, Corporate Learning, and Harvard Business Review Group. Their offering consists of print and digital media (Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review Press books, Harvard Business School cases), events, digital learning (Harvard ManageMentor, HMM Spark), blended learning, and campus experiences.

Reviews

[Em Chainey (Bookowski) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kanter's and Drucker's articles was great!

Not bad, not so good at all.

[Ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتابی خوب با ترجمه‌ای غیر روان و نفس‌گیر.

[nicolreads]

read this for grad school

[Nosemonkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't about how to be innovative, but about how to give corporate innovation efforts a better chance of succeeding. As such, there are a lot of platitudes about communicating, listening, involving the whole organisation, seeking diverse perspectives, encouraging feedback, etc etc - which frankly should be unnecessary for anyone in a senior leadership position but which I can sadly say from experience can't be repeated often enough.

More useful - and surprising for the HBR, which is often a home for groupthink despite its aspirations - is the repeated rejection of standardised success metrics and process-based approaches. And even though some of the more traditional articles introduce classic frameworks and the like, these were mostly presented in ways that are helpful rather than anger-making.

Some helpful stuff in here, in other words.

[Jose Papo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of classic articles about innovation which were published on HBR. Classic articles from authors like Clayton Christensen, Peter Drucker, Govindarajan, Ulwick, George Day, Rita McGrath, Ian McMillan and others. Strongly recommended!

[Oleksandra Manson · Rating 3 out of 5]

В книге собрано 10 лучших статей об инновациях, тут много полезной информации о том, как компании внедряют у себя новые продукты.

В каждой корпорации свой подход, и каждая статья рассказывает о процессах в разных отраслях.

Самыми полезными уроками, на мой взгляд, являются

1 - группы, которые были сформированы без учёта фактора коммуникабельности людей, сталкиваются с бОльшими трудностями. Им тяжело воспринимать общие цели. Учёные из Массачусетского тех университета, люди, которые находится в одном проекте, начинают работать по-настоящему продуктивно, побыв "в одной лодке" НЕ менее двух лет.

2 - Лидеров стоит выбирать с сильными личными качествами - они помогут сохранить целостность команды. Когда корпорация Williams Sonoma запустила новый проект, во главе она поставила не технического эксперта, а человека, которая смогла собрать сильную команду. В ней были опытные люди из других отделов и новички с разнообразными умениями и навыками.

3 - делать более гибким планирование и контроль. При работе с инновациями нельзя использовать те же методы, что и для состоявшегося бизнеса - бюджеты, отчёты - всё это душит инновационные идеи.

"Когда руководство поняло проблемы BBC, оно начало создавать на корпоративном счёте дополнительные фонды для поддержки новых идей. Один новичок предложил на эти деньги снять пробную серию "Офиса", который стал самым популярным сериалом BBC".

3 - команды разработчиков новых продуктов часто считают, что работа над продуктом заканчивается тогда, когда к нему уже нечего добавить. А вот и нет. Возможно, стоит использовать обратную логику - продукты приближаются к совершенству, когда уже нельзя отказаться от каких-то существующих свойств.

4 - нужно поддерживать несколько основных проектов, на которые компания делает ставку, но и не забывать про перспективные идеи среднего калибра. Развивать продукты в разных сферах : и в производстве, и в маркетинге.

Думаю каждый найдёт в этой книге что-то полезное для себя :slightly_smiling_face: ведь не так просто найти нужный подход к новому продукту и почитать о чужом опыте в данном вопросе крайне полезно.

[Pablo María Fernández · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hacer una antología de artículos de innovación y tener a Peter Drucker y a Clayton Christensen en tu equipo es una mano de truco con el as y el siete de espadas. Harvard Business School tiene contenido muy interesante y el comienzo de este libro promete eso, pero se va quedando y de los diez artículos puedo rescatar tres o cuatro, máximo.

Lo que rescato sobre todo son los dos primeros artículos donde se desarrolla breve pero muy bien conceptualmente qué implica crear e implementar algo nuevo en una organización. Otros libros de innovación son más teóricos, abstractos y hasta ideales, ignorando la poderosa resistencia al cambio. En Stop the innovation war Govindarajan y Trimble bajan a detalle el choque entre quienes tienen que mantener la maquinaria andando (la que suele generar la rentabilidad) y las áreas que exploran nuevos modelos de negocio (en los que se suele invertir sin un retorno inmediato). Y Roger Martin en The Innovation catalysts nos ayuda a entender qué implica diseñar una cultura en la que se permita y aliente la innovación sin necesitar de grandes visionarios o genios como Steve Jobs o Elon Musk.

[K. Ira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why but I didn't care for this too much. I'd say that it has good information for anyone not in business or already read up on business.

It felt like a college paper, just regurgitating what we're "supposed" to do and most of the take aways were generic.

[Will Knechtle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good collection of articles with reading, especially if you haven't already read books by Drucker and Christensen. I read this because I found some extra time and wanted to make my reading on this subject more comprehensive - now I have a few more articles to recommend to others.

[Ezzeddine Jradi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book present several useful ideas to pay attention to. I liked mostly the aspects that affect motivation and the proposed approaches to promote innovation. The book is an easy read..

[Fatemeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

تنها مشکل کتاب ترجمه‌ی بسیار بد بود بنظر من.

[Sérgio Viana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good content but outdated, at the time I read it.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

steps, questions, analysis, and even myths for innovations.

[Deniz Oztas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different and interesting views on Innovation with real cases. Again we Big data can easiy mislead us.

[Hüseyin Odabaş · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drucker,Drucker and again Drucker.
Really, he beyond the age , Gineus ..

[Quan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice summary of books on innovation. Got a few insights at least

[Mrbastan7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

صفحات اول رو که خوندم ، فک کردم که متن کتاب باید در ادامه هم همینطور متکلف جلو بره و نکاتش هم کاربردی نباشه

اما خب در ادامه ، نظرم تغییر کرد ...

[Steven Bayazid · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you studying business management I really recommend this book. Read it and you will get more information about basically everything in your whole work journey and you will get prepared

[Javad Amiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب خوب، ترجمه بسیار بد

[Bora Eresici · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genel bir bakış sağlamakla birlikte günümüz hiziyla örnekler cok hizli eskidiginden 1960larin innovatif yaklaşımları örneklemeler kitabi günümüzden koparıyor.

[Joshua Waldron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little old now, but still great principles that are poignant even today. HBR articles and books are always well worth the read.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reference when you forget how to innovate after toiling with work that needs to be done according to others.

[Jon Daiello · Rating 4 out of 5]

These 10 articles from Harvard Business Review are incredibly helpful for any business leader looking to keep their company on top and profitable in the long run. I've used principles from several of these articles in my leadership as a Design Manager while interacting with our product leadership.

[Vishal Kale · Rating 5 out of 5]

The current book under review looks at Innovation; at the end of the book, I can honestly state that I understand not only innovation, but can also apply the concepts contained in the book to my real world experience in the Telecom Trade, and can identify errors and craft a rudimentary path forward which is clearly superior to the ones adopted by either self, or my managers at that point in time. The content has helped clarify some issues, unlearn some concepts; as well as broken new ground by teaching new processes and methods of daily tactical operation as well as strategy


The key articles that I highly recommend reading carefully, and certainly more than once in this book are Stop The Innovation Wars, Is It Real –Can We Win – Is It Worth Doing?, Innovation – The Classic Traps and Discovery Driven Planning. While I haven’t mentioned the other articles, let me clarify that most of the articles are really good, well thought through & presented. It is just that the ones above are those that made the biggest impression on me, as well as taught me the most.

The first article that I liked – Stop The Innovation Wars, talked about how you need to plan the innovation implemention; how you need buy-in from the employees; how innovation teams should be a mix of old and new and such pertinent points. My mind went back to one of my experiences, when I was among those charged with the implementation of an innovative strategy. This bombed, company-wide – just as the paper implied, in an almost textbook fashion. It did so as the Performance Engine {The team that gives the company numbers and share} was the one responsible for implementation. This team sabotaged the strategy as they were more fixated on current performance and methods.

Read More : https://reflectionsvvk.blogspot.in/20...

[Oksana Uskova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harward Business Review - це журнал про менеджмент, який публікується видавництвом Гарвардського університету з 1922 року. У журналі публікувалися такі люди як: Пітер Друкер, Клейтон М. Крістенсен, Роберт Каплан та багато інших. КМ-Букс видало 10 найкращих статей #hbr, де зібрало добірки на обрані теми. Матеріал поданий легко, наведені статистичні данні та багато реальних кейсів. До кожної статті є короткий конспект "про головне". Додам від себе, що саме це я б хотіла почути в університеті на обраних дисциплінах.

[Winda · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first impression was - outdated...also, unlike HBR review on strategy, the flow between one chapter to another in this book wasn't as great. It just reads like a magazine - a collection of articles.

However, I still found useful knowledge in the book. I wish I had read it before I started my first innovation. The book also contains guidelines and checklists which I think will come in handy for new innovators.

One of the main messages in this book was to not treat your existing business the same way as innovation as they are inherently different, and so would require

[Jorge Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente

Sobre disciplina e innovación, rompiendo los juicios de valor y prejuicios que generalmente hacen que las empresas o nuevas aventuras fracasen. Excelente investigación y aplicación práctica.

[Sambasivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cracker of a book. The selected articles bring out the multifarious dimensions of innovation and make a case for continuous investment.

In the current viva world, innovation is the insurance for survival. Please study this book carefully.

[Hollie Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

relevant for big corps but not innovation in general