Inside Real Innovation:How the Right Approach Can Move Ideas from R&D to Market — And Get the Economy Moving

by Eugene Fitzgerald, Andreas Wankerl, Carl J. Schramm

Video — Prof. Eugene Fitzgerald talks about the process of innovation and introduces Inside Real Innovation. Read more about the authors' interview/article with Inc. and Forbes. This breakthrough book gives a ground-floor view of the innovation process, showing how fundamental innovators really work. Then, it connects that knowledge to the bigger picture, explaining why the “innovation system” in the United States is failing to work as it once did, and what all parties can do to build a better system for the future. Inside Real Innovation is written by distinguished practicing innovators. They debunk the concept of innovation as a linear process, from research to development to product in the market. They present a simple model for understanding it as a highly iterative process, in which you cycle repeatedly through many factors in the areas of Technology, Market and Implementation — until the right pieces come together. Co-author Gene Fitzgerald tells the story of his own major innovation, tracing it along the winding path into products we use every day. The authors then proceed to tell the larger story of how the vaunted American “pipeline” for carrying this process has been pulled apart. The book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in a strong innovation investors, innovators and people in corporations, universities and government. Inside Real Innovation has become the course-book for a White House-recognised MIT course entitled 3.086x Innovation and Commercialization.

Genres: Business

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 3, 2010

Reviews

[Kevin Kaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides an easy understanding to how innovation works and provides an overarching framework as to encompass various models used in innovation process e.g. design thinking, design sprint, lean canvas, business model canvas, customer discovery, research and development, problem-solution fit, problem-market fit.

Essentially there are 3 elements: market, implementation, and technology. An aspiring innovator iterates throughout the various elements until you get into very specific actionable ideas. The iteration process allows for the de-risking of the aspiring innovator's idea and validate whether it is feasible or not before spending too much time or resources into it.

The simplified way of doing so is as follows. Say you are knowledgeable and very interested in commercializing a particular technology. Since you are knowledgeable in the technology aspect, and thus probably know how to use the technology and it's underlying principles, shift your gaze to the market and implementation elements. Find the uncertainties there and seek out to uncover insights on the feasibility of commercializing your particular technology. During your investigation phase, you will discover that some aspects of the technology may need to be revised, emphasized, further developed, or discarded. And then you go another round of iteration. The same idea holds even if you're not an expert in any of the elements. Find an interesting idea, explore which element brings the most uncertainty in the sense that it can make or break your idea, then move-on to the next most uncertain variable. ad infinitium.

Innovation is the embodiment of useful ideas in the marketplace. An innovator is someone who is versed in the iterative innovation process. if you want to become one, expose yourself to an ecosystem which will allow the interaction between the experts of various disciplines. Innovation can be categorized into two aspects: incremental and fundamental. Incremental innovation is where minor changes were made and brought results like rearranging a layout in a shop or restaurant. Fundamental innovation is where the disruption takes place. That is the prevailing culture is permanently changed e.g. smartphones, ride hailing apps, microprocessors, gig economy. Critical characteristics of fundamental innovation are that it takes 10-15 years to emerge from the research stage and that it creates new industries.

Other things I liked in the book:
1. history of the rise and fall of the innovation ecosystem in the US.
2. why you might want not want to accept venture capital funding
3. the habits and origins of those habits of venture capital investors
4. the interactions between university, government, and industry
5. personal story on the use of the iterative innovation process
6. why it would make sense to invest in intel when it was founded - the founders were seasoned in the semiconductor industry. they came from shockley semiconductors, fairchild semiconductors, then intel.
7. corporate research labs and their former role in the innovation process
8. a comparison between iterative innovation process in the corporate research labs vs random scientific exploration in the academe (bucky balls vs carbon nanotubes | emphasis on materials science)

#8 is a very interesting one, the rest you can discover more when you read the book. :)
When bucky balls were discovered, the corporate research lab researchers studied its properties and then examined its market potential. they found out that there is essentially no market for the device at the time. At around the same time, carbon nanotubes were discovered and hype was created on it's potential. The academia pushed their funders to fund all sorts of research pertaining to carbon nanotubes. In 2010, 50,000 academic journals were published pertaining to the material. Up until now, there is no market adoption for the technology. A lot of wasted time, effort, and money? maybe.

The book was a bit of a chore to read especially given its rather simple idea, but it was definitely worth it. especially for a person who is learning technology entrepreneurship and innovation and aspires to have his own startup someday and create positive impact to human civilization.

[Azael Capetillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, the MIT iterative innovation process is really interesting.

However, there are many parts in the book where the authors describe personal points of view as facts.

[Angela Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book for someone like me with no tech background (and had my worst-ever grade in Computing), to get a glimpse into what it really takes develop a breakthrough innovation from scratch... We know from business school and public info that technology development takes time and can be complex. But, following the innovation process over 20 years really gives you a different perspective of what that means.

What I loved most was the vivid detail with which the story of strained silicon development was told (never heard of that term prior to the book), combined with the universal model that gels the seemingly-random pieces of the story together, to provide a framework to understand how innovation works. The book was able to explain a very complex topic, illustrate and explain how the stakeholders and influences fit together, into a comprehensive model.

Overview of the model here: http://readingraphics.com/book-summar...

Reading this book has unexpectedly given me a mental model to view and understand the world of technology and innovation. When I subsequently read "Creativity, Inc" by Ed Catmull of Pixar/ Disney Animation, I could automatically see how his journey from research to development and commercialization to the production of Toy Story 20 years later fits against the innovation model. And, it made the ideas from books like "The Innovator's Dilemma" seem less abstract and more relatable somewhat.


Note: The only reason I'm giving 4* (instead of 5) is due to personal style preferences. While the writing was clear and conversational, I generally prefer to read with clear headers, sub-headers for better reinforcement and retention. The book is somewhat narrative - it tells a nice story and explains how things gel together but after the while the paragraphs all mesh together (for me, at least), and it wasn't so easy for me to consolidate what I had read. Still, great book nonetheless.
I'd recommend this for:
• Entrepreneurs, technopreneurs, and aspiring entrepreneurs
• Government agencies and policy-makers
• Corporate executives involved in new product development/ innovation
• Individual and corporate investors in tech startups
• Researchers, scientists, engineers and academia

Book summary here: http://readingraphics.com/book-summar...

[Dan Horvat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful overview of the entire innovation process, and the innovation process in the US in particular. Gene Fitzgerald introduces several important points and makes no mistake in identifying what's really going on and what innovation is.

The book is completely biased towards technological products, the US market, commercial products, and tangible technological advances and patents in general. Companies like Xerox, Canon and Intel are what this book is about. You get what you'd expect from an MIT engineer. But this isn't by any means an in-depth textbook that can be used for university-level education, it's one person's point of view, in shape of a booklet that's pretty easy to read.

The book is a bit too simple for my taste and I resent the fact that it's not providing proof for its claims. But the basic values will stick. The key takeaways: Market, Implementation and Technology constitute Innovation. Innovation is an iterative process and not a linear one. Innovation and Invention are totally different things.

But I got to be fair and say I've read better-written books on far less important subjects. This is more of an essay than a well-structured book, there is no opposing view, there are no experts quoted (could he have asked an Intel decision-maker for opinion?), no graphs, no illustrations, no statistics and no scientific research quoted. This book is one man's opinion and this is mine: Three stars because the book isn't wrong and because the author is who he is.

[Abdullah-jemal Satybaldiev]

currently reading it

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is informative to read the critical opinion of someone who has been successful in all the arenas associated with innovation: Bell Labs, a research university, and a successful start-up.