IEEE-USA
Releases First E-Book in New Series on
Innovation — Book 1: Perspectives on
Innovation
By
Sharon Richardson
The first
E-book in IEEE-USA’s new Innovation Series
on Doing Innovation: Creating Economic
Value — Perspectives on Innovation,
written by Gerard H. (Gus) Gaynor, Retired
3M Director of Engineering, and President of
IEEE’s Technology Management Council, has
been released.
Perspectives
on Innovation includes a section on
Historical Background of Innovation. Gaynor
quotes a report, "In Search of Excellence,"
authored by Peters and Waterman, which
"focused on the importance of innovation and
entrepreneurship in pursuing business
leadership." This report studied 62
companies that were considered innovative
and excellent. In later years, these same
organizations were no longer considered
excellent, but Gaynor notes that the
attributes that affected innovation cannot
be overlooked. This same report also gives
examples of what hinders the innovation
process.
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Research Partnerships in the
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- The Globalization of R&D
and Innovation
- A History of the Committee
on Science & Technology
- The Plum Book: 2008
Edition
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Gaynor explains
that it is impossible to agree on a common
definition of innovation in the chapter
Ambiguities Associated with Innovation.
He quotes economist and political scientist
Joseph Schumpeter; Theordore Levitt, an
author, influential scholar, economist and
editor of The Harvard Business Review;
and Peter Drucker, a writer and management
consultant. Each of these men studied
innovation, and yet each provided different
perspectives on what innovation is.
The chapter on
Basic Concepts Associated with Innovation
covers different types of innovators, such
as independent innovators, organizational
innovators, bottom-up innovators, top-down
innovators, technological innovations and
management innovation. Writes Gaynor, "Too
often, the concerns about innovation focus
solely on technological innovation…
Innovation occurs in different
environments."
"The Innovation
continuum includes coming up with that raw
idea and describing it; formulating the idea
into a concept that can be verified and
tested; doing the work of invention; and
then bringing the results to the marketplace
as a successful innovation," Gaynor explains
in the chapter Continuum from Idea to
Innovation. He describes the benefits of
raw ideas, how to transform ideas into
concepts, what the word invention
means and the innovation process.
In the chapter,
Types of Innovation, Gaynor covers
how the types of innovation have grown over
the years and "the differences have become
blurred." He summarizes the various types,
such as incremental innovation;
discontinuous innovation; architectural
innovation; system innovation; radical
innovation; disruptive innovation; and
breakthrough innovation. Then, he
consolidates this list into four categories.
"How innovation
takes place depends on the environment in
which it was born," Gaynor notes in the
chapter on How Innovation Takes Place.
For innovation to take place, there must be
brainstorming, creative people and
customers. The innovation process will be
covered in the Book 2 in this series "Developing
a Workable Innovation.
Other E-Books
included in the upcoming series will be:
Book 3 — Fostering an Innovation Culture;
and Book 4 — What it Takes to be an
Innovator.
These four
E-Books provide the basics for gaining an
understanding of what innovation involves;
what it takes to be an innovator; and what
it takes to develop a culture where
innovation can thrive. If you’re looking to
become an innovator, or participating in the
innovation process, begin with Book 1:
Perspectives on Innovation.
You can
purchase your copy of Perspectives on
Innovation at
www.ieeeusa.org/communications/ebooks
for IEEE Member Price: $9.95 and Non-member
Price: $19.95.
Ideas for
new E-Books
If you’ve got
an idea for an e-book that will educate
other IEEE members on a particular career
topic of expertise, e-mail your e-book
queries and ideas to IEEE-USA Publishing
Manager Georgia C. Stelluto at
g.stelluto@ieee.org.
IEEE members
can purchase IEEE-USA e-books at deeply
discounted member prices — and
download free e-books by going to
www.ieeeusa.org/communications/ebooks.
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