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Book Nook
 Driving Growth Through
Innovations: How Leading Firms Are Transforming Their
Futures
by Robert B. Tucker
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2002
ISBN: 1-57675-187-2
Hardcover, 240 pages.
List price $27.95
Overall Rating: * * * Snail mail it
There are essentially only two ways to increase
profits—to reduce expenses or to increase
income. Reducing expenses rarely has the desired
long-term effect—especially after years of
supplier partnering (reducing the cost of purchased
materials and services), employee concessions and
layoffs (reducing the cost of labor), and quality
assurance initiatives (maximizing the useful output
of available resources). Even if costs drop to zero,
an organization’s bottom line will never be
more than its top line (what it receives for its
goods and services). For long-term growth, leaders
need to focus on this top line, looking for new
products, processes, and markets that have the
potential to radically change the results of the
profit equation.
In Driving Growth Through Innovation,
Robert Tucker states (p. 178) that, “The days
when you could build a better mousetrap and customers
would beat a path to your door are over.” He
positions innovation as the essential mechanism for
sustaining long-term profits and proves his point by
citing a wealth of research on the subject. He then
focuses on the practices of 23 “Innovation
Vanguard” companies, using their success (and
failure) stories to flesh out five principles for
driving growth through innovation while presenting
practical elements of an innovation process. These
five principles (quoted from p. 5) are:
- Innovation must be approached as a
discipline.
- Innovation must be approached
comprehensively.
- Innovation must include an organized,
systematic, and continual search for new
opportunities.
- Innovation must involve everyone in the
organization.
- Innovation must be
customer-centered.
Chapters provide strategies on different aspects
of innovation. Discussions include detailed ideas for
tactical implementation and anecdotes of both what
has worked and what hasn’t. Extensive source
citations and reference notes are also included,
along with an index. Key topics covered include:
- Five essential strategies for leading
innovation.
- Eleven strategies for creating a culture that
fosters innovation.
- Eight management models and 10 guidelines for
empowering the idea management process.
- Six strategies for how to “mine”
the future for ideas.
- Seven strategies for “fortifying the idea
factory.”
- Six product innovation strategies.
- Six strategies for generating
growth.
- Seven strategies for selling new
ideas.
In addition to all this strategic advice, there
are also more than 40 questions provided to help
leaders design their own 21st century innovation
strategy. These questions guide leaders to probe
their current readiness for accepting and adopting
innovative ideas, and challenge them to create an
organization capable of an innovative breakthrough in
the future.
Ultimately, that is the true message of the book:
An organization cannot simply benchmark what others
are doing to achieve innovation and cherry-pick the
most interesting to adopt. Rather, leaders must
customize the strategies and tactics to their own
circumstances and work to develop an innovation
process that is uniquely their own.
Leaders from large organizations will find plenty
of food for thought in this book. Those from small
firms may have some difficulty connecting with the
large-company anecdotes and will be challenged to
adjust strategies to a smaller scale. Those not in a
leadership role will need to think through which
strategies can be adapted to their own jobs. Yet,
even if not immediately translatable into action, the
vision of what could be can inspire readers to look
beyond what they are currently doing toward a more
innovative future.
You won’t find any dramatic revelations or
breakthrough ideas in this book. It’s not a
page-turner that will keep you spellbound to the last
period. Nor will you find a magic spell that will
instantly make your organization more innovative.
What you will find is a readable book filled
with good solid ideas and practical advice combined
with examples of how some companies have actually
made these concepts work.
 CHRISTINE ROBINSON has more
than 25 years of leadership experience in quality
systems for the process industries. She has a
master’s degree in quality, values, and
leadership from Marian College. An avid reader, she
spends a significant amount of her time with her nose
in books and her body at the library.
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