The Innovator's Way: Essential Practices for Successful Innovation

by Peter J. Denning, Robert P. Dunham

Innovation is the ruling buzzword in business today. Technologycompanies invest billions in developing new gadgets; business leaders see innovation as the key to acompetitive edge; policymakers craft regulations to foster a climate of innovation. And yetbusinesses report a success rate of only four percent for innovation initiatives. Can wesignificantly increase our odds of success? In The Innovator's Way , innovationexperts Peter Denning and Robert Dunham reply with an emphatic yes. Innovation, they write, is notsimply an invention, a policy, or a process to be managed. It is a personal skill that can belearned, developed through practice, and extended into organizations. Denning and Dunham identifyand describe eight personal practices that all successful innovators sensing, envisioning,offering, adopting, sustaining, executing, leading, and embodying. Together, these practices canboost a fledgling innovator to success. Weakness in any of these practices, they show, blocksinnovation. Denning and Dunham chart the path to innovation mastery, from individual practices toteams and social networks.

Genres: Business, Leadership

434 pages, Hardcover

First published August 13, 2010

About the author

Peter J. Denning is Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. He is the coauthor of The Innovator's Way: Essential Practices for Successful Innovation and Great Principles of Computing, both published by the MIT Press.

Reviews

[Antonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book you do not ‘finish’ it will become one of my reference books there’s just so much good stuff in it and applies beyond innovation.
Yes, it’s not another innovation book full of anecdotes, there’s lots of practical things to keep you going for a long while.

[Samuel Lubell]

A business book that I read for the Futurist book club. I found it somewhat dull.

[Nico Macdonald]

Recommend by Nathan Shedroff.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The eight principles are very straightforward and are great practices for innovator's and others alike.