Book Description
In his landmark book Open Innovation, Henry Chesbrough demonstrated that because useful knowledge is no longer concentrated in a few large organizations, business leaders must adopt a new, “open” model of innovation. Using this model, companies look outside their boundaries for ideas and intellectual property (IP) they can bring in, as well as license their unutilized home-grown IP to other organizations.
In Open Business Models, Chesbrough takes readers to the next step—explaining how to make money in an open innovation landscape. He provides a diagnostic instrument enabling you to assess your company’s current business model, and explains how to overcome common barriers to creating a more open model. He also offers compelling examples of companies that have developed such models—including Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Air Products.
In addition, Chesbrough introduces a new set of players—“innovation intermediaries”—who facilitate companies’ access to external technologies. He explores the impact of stronger IP protection on intermediate markets for innovation, and profiles firms (such as Intellectual Ventures and Qualcomm) that center their business model on innovation and IP.
This vital resource provides a much-needed road map to connect innovation with IP management, so companies can create and capture value from ideas and technologies—wherever in the world they are found.
Customer Reviews:
Fair.......2007-06-21
This is another pretty good book from the author. As in his earlier book, he starts with the motivation for open innovation, which is an old idea but that is not well practiced. In this new book he addresses many of the shorcomings of the first book, such as getting real value out of the partnerships that can be formed while overcoming internal issues, such as NIH. He then talks about different ways companies go about this. What drives you crazy is that he seems unaware that companies have been doing this forever. In the consumer electronics industry, for example, open innovation is mostly the model. Companies like GE, TI, and RCA were examples. In the case of GE and RCA they go back almost 100 years.
Well-written, concise, with specific examples.......2007-06-02
As with his previous book Open Innovation, Chesbrough provides a concise and easily read review of important new trends in high-tech management. In this book the focus is on the path an innovation takes to profitability in the marketplace. Among the topics reviewed are novel "intermediate markets" for ideas and technology.
I particularly appreciated the chapters of the book that provide nine examples of companies that are more-or-less "pure play" innovation intermediaries. Companies like Innocentive, Ocean Tomo, and UTEK are profiled in depth. I appreciate the specificity, which will allow the reader to evaluate Chesbrough's insights into the future: By following up on the progress of these companies, we'll see how well Chesbrough hit the mark. This specificity is rare in business books.
It will be interesting to see where Chesbrough's interests flow in future. I would welcome a focus on public sector research institutions. A comparison of the innovation and commercialization models among universities, NIH, NASA, ESA, etc. could be helpful to policy makers as Open Innovation ideas gain wider acceptance.
Open Business Models for Those Who Rely on Technology Innovation and Need Intellectual Property Protection.......2007-05-14
This book is misnamed. Rather than being about open business models, the book's topic is about how to open business models to benefit from access to more technological innovation and strengthen your competitive posture through intellectual property.
As a result, Professor Chesbrough creates a misapprehension that successful open business models are almost always linked to technological innovation as their main purpose and benefit. My own research (with Carol Coles in The Ultimate Competitive Advantage: Secrets of Continuously Developing a More Profitable Business Model) indicates just the opposite point: Technological innovation is rarely the most effective way to open up your business model to create improvements.
So, this book's value is mostly to those who work in achieving or creating more benefits from technology innovation. If that is your interest, you've come to the right book. If that's not your interest, skip this book.
Why do those involved in achieving or creating more benefits from technology innovation need to open their business models? Professor Chesbrough points to several influences:
1. Technological innovation is coming from more sources than ever before. As a result, you will be developing inferior technology without accessing the best of what the world has to offer.
2. Most intellectual property isn't used for any practical purpose. That's a waste of social and company resources.
3. The protections for intellectual property are stronger now, and your pathway to progress will be blocked without collaborating with those who have complementary IP.
4. Product cycles are shorter and costs of developing new technologies are higher; open business models offer the promise of getting to market sooner at lower cost so that your business has a better chance of earning a decent return on new technology.
5. Large companies need to make new product development more productive if they are to meet their growth goals.
Professor Chesbrough does a nice job of developing those themes. He balances theoretical arguments with case histories of recent practices.
Of even more value, he explains how companies will have a hard time finding all of the technology they need without help. As a result, he feels that intermediaries will turn out to be important to helping connect organizations. His case histories of such intermediaries are very interesting in showing how difficult it is to play such intermediary roles without deep pockets.
For those who are new to the subject of technological innovation in the context of business models, you will find his descriptions of what a business model is (see page 182) and types for assessing your business model (see pages 132-133) to be helpful. The only quibble I would make with his types is that in his examples he assumes relative undifferentiation in industries and business types where there are often large nontechnological differentiations.
I found the last chapter to be by far the most helpful, in describing three case histories (IBM, Procter & Gamble, and Air Products) for showing how large organizations went from closed to open business models for the purpose of technological innovation. In fact, the discussion of Procter & Gamble's practices is the best one that I have read. That point, by itself, is sufficient to commend this book to you. I suspect that almost everyone will be doing what Procter & Gamble is doing now ten years hence.
Excellent work, Professor Chesbrough!
Innovation requires an open mind...and the courage to challenge "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." .......2007-03-14
What is an open business model? In Chapter 1, here's Henry Chesbrough's response to that question: "A business model performs two important functions: it creates value and it captures a portion of that value. It creates value by defining a series of activities from raw materials through to the final consumer that will yield a new product or service with value being added throughout the various activities. The business model captures value by by establishing a unique resource, asset, or position within that series of activities, where the firm enjoys a competitive advantage."
Having thus established a frame-of-reference, Chesbrough continues: "An open business model uses this new division of innovation labor - both in the creation of value and in the capture of a portion of that value. Open models create value by leveraging many more ideas, due to their inclusion of a variety of external concepts. Open models can also enable greater value capture, by using a key asset, resource, or position not only in the company's own business model but also in other companies businesses."
These two brief excerpts are provided because Chesbrough`s definitions of various terms are far clearer and more authoritative than mine could possibly be. Also, these excepts address the "what" so that in the balance of this brilliant book, Chesbrough can then focus almost entirely on the "why" and "how" concerning the design, implementation, modification, and performance measurement of open business models.
I was especially interested in what Chesbrough has to say about what several quite different exemplary companies -- including IBM, Qualcomm, Genzyme, Procter & Gamble, and Chicago (the musical stage show and film) -- share in common: "each started with an idea that traveled from invention to market through at least two different companies" which shared the work of innovation, and, all were assisted by effective management of an open business model. Chesbrough also devotes a substantial attention to IBM whose type 3 business model (i.e. multiple segmentations, "inside-out" mindset) reached a financial crisis in 1992. Had the IBM board not replaced its then CEO with Lou Gerstner and fully supported his leadership throughout an immensely complicated and equally difficult transformation , it is probable that IBM would not have survived. Gerstner deserves much of the credit for the success of that "cultural revolution" (as he once described it) but much credit should also be assigned to IBM's open source business model. Procter & Gamble is another company which completed an especially difficult transition from having internal staff members who protected (hoarded?) various technologies so that other companies, including potential competitors, could not use them to becoming a company with a much more open approach to innovation. Chesbrough notes that P&G began to pay much greater attention of external licensing of its technologies, (e.g. to BearingPoint), now strongly supports openly partnering for driving growth equity joint ventures (e.g. with Clorox), and an entirely new perspective on competitive advantage.
According to Jeff Weedman, vice president of P&G's external business development: "There are many kinds of competitive advantage. The original view here was: I have got it, and you don't. Then there is the view, that I have got it, you have got it, but I have it cheaper. Then there is I have got it, you have got it, but I got it first. Then there is I have got it, you have gotten it from me, so I make money when I sell it, and I make money when you sell it." To me, that in essence describes the primary competitive advantage of the open business model.
I also appreciate what is rarely provided in other business books: detailed notes (Pages 217-242) which are clustered per chapter. As I read them, it seemed as if Chesbrough were standing next to me, supplementing his narrative with additional comments that are always informative and frequently entertaining. What also struck me about Chesbrough's notes is that they enable him to acknowledge various sources with appreciation and admiration. His was obviously an open source approach to the research for this book and then to the writing of it.
To thrive in the new innovation landscape, change agents must have both an open mind and the courage to challenge what James O'Toole characterizes, in Leading Change, as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." They would also be well-advised to absorb and digest the material in this book. Congratulations to Henry Chesbrough on a brilliant achievement.
The World It Is a'Changin.......2007-03-04
We have become accustomed to the fact that innovation has become a standard of the industrial world. Indeed companies like Microsoft market (very successfully) what is essentially nothing but an arrangement of bits. One of the things that this book brings to mind is that a lot of other companies (Procter & Gamble, Air Products) are innovative in a business that you wouldn't think of as being particularly innovative.
This book is exploring fairly new ground in its concept of 'Open Innovation,' that is creating a marketplace for innovation itself. You might not be able to capitalize on your new innovative idea, perhaps Air Products can, or perhaps you can use something that Procter & Gamble has done. And where that's a market like that, there are new specialty companies in the business of marketing innovation between companies.
We live in a time where the future is going to require major changes, peak oil and global warming to name two harbingers of change. Companies that continue to live in the old world are going to have a very hard time -- go look at Ford and GM
Book Description
If you're like most people, you bet your career and company on innovation--because you must. Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation offers you a new way to think about and manage innovation that will dramatically improve the odds of success.
Authors James Andrew and Harold Sirkin, senior partners in The Boston Consulting Group, describe an approach to managing innovation based on the concept of a cash curve--which tracks investment against time. They ask the questions you need to ask: How much should you invest in a new product or service? How fast should you push it to market? How quickly can you get to optimal value? How much additional investment should you pour into sustaining and building the product or service?
Payback offers you practical and economically sound advice on when to pursue cash flow indirectly by first pursuing other benefits, such as brand and knowledge. It also shows you how to reshape the cash curve by using different business models--integrator, orchestrator, and licenser--each of which balances risk and reward differently.
The authors then present a short list of decisions and activities that you must make--not delegate--to achieve a high return on innovation. You won't find facile answers in Payback--but you will find valuable insights and practical guidance for mastering one of the most challenging and critical business activities: innovation.
Customer Reviews:
Solid idea; very weak exposition.......2007-05-24
This book bears all the weaknesses one expects from management consultants. It has a solid core concept, the cash curve, and a very simple graph to go with it. Virtually everything worth knowing gets said in the first 50 pages of the book.
What follows is a logical, step by step exposition of each point in more detail using selected examples from the authors' consulting experience. Sadly, no single customer example is longer than four pages, and details are sparsely strewn. It is especially noteworthy that they graphic of the key concept, the cash curve, is wholly absent from the second (much longer) half of the book.
One also gets the feeling that if the authors had had different customer engagements, they would have come to different conclusions. For instance, they discuss how Intel practices the integration business model in their chip business. However, virtually every other semiconductor company of any note on the planet is using outside factories (fabs in semiconductor parlance). Many, such as Qualcomm and Broadcom just to pick two examples have built market capitalizations in the tens of billions of dollars practicing the orchestration business model. It would have been very instructive to compare and contrast how two different models in essentially the same business can both lead to outstanding results for investors. Sadly, that discussion is wholly absent.
In summary, the core principal of the book is a very important one. I cannot think of a single business that could become a big success not understanding it. However, the lack of details in the customer examples keeps this book from realizing anywhere close to its real potential.
Freshman overview.......2007-05-14
Don't expect any insight into the process of innovation. Payback provides a freshman-level overview of innovation taking place in various companies, but is not a source of insight into the process. Years after the results of internal policies of many companies have become apparent to the business World, the author merely points to seeming successes and says "Do That", and to the failures "Don't Do That".
There is a decent comparison of the Integrator, Orchestrator, and Licensor models and some of the issues facing decision makers. Look for this around the middle of the book.
For a far more profound study that is immediately useful there is probably nothing better than Christensen's Innovator's Solution - cover-to-cover. Payback lacks any reference at all to many of the biggest challenges to implementing policies and deriving return in the market place, from innovation. Beginning with Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma, learn first of all why established companies get stuck in a rut of satisfying the demands of existing customers and simply cannot produce new products and services that really will produce big paybacks. Learn also the big difference between sustaining innovations and disruptive innovations. Discussing payback without this understanding is like studying Rocks without studying Geology.
I must have read a different book.......2007-04-09
Based on the other reviews I must have read a different book. But seriously Payback bills itself on the ideas behind creating practical and actionable innovation, how else could you meet the promise of 'reaping the rewards of innovation.'
Unfortunately the rewards they are talking about are all in terms of cash and profits making this book a 101 finance book built around the authors notion of the Cash Curve with the following basic tenants:
- don't spend to much to create an idea because that consumes upfront cash
- don't take too long to commercialize and bring the idea to market
- get your idea into volume production as soon as possible
- support the idea with a measured post launch investment.
Sorry but that's it. The book is heavy on the finance 101 side and extremely light on the idea of practices and ideas. Sure they say that you can play different role: innovation integrator, orchestrator, or liscensor but you pretty much know what the authors are going to say just by the role names.
The book does have an number of case studies, many that are available in the public domain, however these cases are more narrative telling you what happened without being analytical and telling you why the did this or that and the result it took.
Overall this book is very light on the ideas and actions required to deliver the rewards of innovation because it treats innovation as a financing event that is intended to generate cash. While that view is true, there is allot of insight, actions and practices that must happen before we can start thinking about how to get cash out of an innovation. I only hoped that the authors had taken the time to tell us that.
Business libraries and business managers will find it inspirational........2007-03-12
Written by professional consultants James P. Andrew and Harold L. Sirkin, Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation is a solid guide to the difference between having a good idea and turning that idea into financial reward. Payback puts forth the argument that the biggest challenge facing most companies today is their need to increase returns from their innovation spending. Introducing a concept called the "cash curve", Payback explores the fundamental factors that affect how much financial return will be netted. From how and when it can be profitable to apply innovation to noncash goals (such as the acquisition of new knowledge or enhancement of the company's brand), to models that accurately assess financial, technical and market risks to the relative advantages and disadvantages of the integration, orchestration, and licensing models and when to employ each, Payback is a reservoir of solid, high-stakes insight into skilled decision making. As valuable for innovative small business owners as for managers of grand enterprises.
Leading Beyone Where The Numbers Can Tell You.......2007-02-18
Innovation is one of the biggest problems facing companies today. This book does an excellent job of analyzing innovation into various types of companies and showing several examples of successful and unsuccessful companies.
The authors break innovation approaches within companies into three broad categories:
1. The Integrator - Here is where a company has a core competence and they hold the developement very close to their chest. The example they use is BMW who has a core technology in engines that they protect as much as they possibly can. Afer discussing a couple of other successes they then discuss Polaroid who attempted to move from film to digital cameras but failed.
2. The Orchestrator - where a company has the broad general idea and the ability to take a product to market but doesn't have the time, expertise, or desire to do this particular design/manufacturing job.
3. The Licensor - Some companies develop technologies that they are not going to take to market themselves. Dolby is the example they use, with technology licensed to various manufacturers. They have become the standard for audio professionals.
These decisions cannot be made by accountants, they take a leader. Someone has to see the potential beyone what the sheer numbers are showing.
Average customer rating:
- Simplistic description - poorly written
- THE textbook for basic TRIZ education
- Interesting
- A brilliant model of problem solving
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Simplified TRIZ: New Problem-Solving Applications for Engineers & Manufacturing Professionals
Kalevi Rantanen , and
Ellen Domb
Manufacturer: CRC
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Book Description
As customers and shareholders demand better products faster, more pressure is felt by technical professionals to develop it now and develop it right the first time. Considered the breakthrough design and inventive problem-solving approach of the past 100 years, TRIZ is a unique, algorithmic approach to problem solving that allows engineers, planners and managers to formulate the best possible solutions for technical systems problems and predict future product needs based on technology evolution and competitive advantages. Developed in Russia, the popularity of TRIZ is now spreading to Europe, the United States, and Japan, but until now no comprehensive, comprehensible treatment of the topic has been available in English. Simplified TRIZ: New Problem Solving Applications for Engineers and Manufacturing Professionals not only demystifies TRIZ, but it also shows how it can be used in new ways to enhance Six Sigma, Constraints Management, Supply Chain Management, QFD, and Taguchi methods to gain innovative and technological competitive advantages. This practical how-to guide teaches you how to solve problems creatively, and more importantly, shows you how to find and foresee the evolution of problems in the future. It provides many exercises, worksheets, and tables to further illustrate the concepts of this multinational method. Implement the same problem-solving tool that many Fortune 500 companies are already using with Simplified TRIZ.
Customer Reviews:
Simplistic description - poorly written.......2006-10-05
The method itself is extremely interesting, unfortunately the authors repeat the same examples over and over again. Very annoying. The style borders on boring. I would recommend definitely reading the book from Savransky as a much better example of TRIZ
THE textbook for basic TRIZ education.......2005-10-27
Simplified TRIZ provides the theoretical foundation for the beginner to learn the practical application of the TRIZ methodology. Domb and Rantanen present a cohesive and structured breakdown of the basic components of TRIZ: the Ideal Final Result and Ideality, Contradiction Theory, Resources, and the Patterns of Evolution. The book's importance is such that I use it as a supporting text for my basic TRIZ curriculum. The students find it easy to understand as well as demonstrative enough to teach application.
Dr. Domb's credibility (international TRIZ evangelist and editor of the TRIZ Journal, www.triz-journal.com) in the quality and innovation communities is such that this book MUST be studied if you are serious about TRIZ.
Interesting.......2005-08-02
I found the book very interesting, even if I was not able to apply it to real problems we face yet.
A brilliant model of problem solving.......2003-07-05
Using a perfect model, this books first introduces characteristics of GOOD solutions, then step by step, it describes triz problem solving tools (and strategy development tools as well) all integrated into each other.
As stated in the title, it's a simplified book so you can't find some advanced tools like su-field modeling in it.
Book Description
Why do so many world-changing insights come from people with little or no related experience? Charles Darwin was a geologist when he proposed the theory of evolution. And it was an astronomer who finally explained what happened to the dinosaurs.
Frans Johansson’s The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory, and offers examples how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations.
Customer Reviews:
Better than it would appear.......2007-10-01
This book is about developing ideas. It starts out very slowly and it seems like just another rehash of the tales told a hundred times before. It goes through the normal diversity is better arguement, which is a plus and a minus (he never gives us the minus). But as the book develops he provides a family of keen insights. He reviews much of the literature in an interesting way. Even old news is presented nicely. For example, at this point most people know that brainstorming does not really get you anywhere. Indeed, individuals will come up with more ideas than a team all working together, one after the other. He goes through this and then suggests alternatives. By the time I was done with the book I was impressed and I would recommend it to others.
Nice Book.......2007-08-01
You actually feel inspired when reading it. Just get done and you'l feel real effect.
Good for getting in an innovative and integrative mindset.......2007-06-04
This book was really easy to get through and I came away thinking more about how to keep my mind open to ideas from lots of different disciplines. It provides good examples of cross-discipline collaboration and why you should care. The book provides a few little tricks to get you thinking in a different way, but I found the subject matter itself to be more inspiring than directly applicable.
Interesting, thought provoking and you really can learn "creativity" from it .......2007-03-13
Copied from pg 2, "The idea behind this book is simple: When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas." Somehow you may vaguely have a similar concept as the author's in mind. What he did much more than the rest is that he had studied and consolidated on it, given it a an exotic name "The Medici Effect", and furnished it with plenty of vivid, interesting and memorable examples for others, presumably less bright people like me, to read and follow. In short, quite outstanding in the sea of books on creativity and innovation. Really helpful! Highly recommended!
Ultimately society decides whether an idea is both new and valuable...It is impossible to determine if a person's products are innovative if they have never been seen, used, or evaulated. pg 15
In essence, these people (Marcus Samuelsson, Charles Darwin) succeeded at breaking down their associative barriers because they did one or more of the following things: exposed themselves to a range of cultures; learned differently; reversed their assumptions;, took on multiple perspectives. pg 45
The most successful innovators produce and realize an incredible number of ideas....Pablo Picasso produced 20,000 pieces of art; Einstein wrote more than 240 papers; Bach wrote a cantata every week; Thomas Edison filed a record 1,039 patents. This holds true today. Prince is said to have over 1,000 songs stored in his secret vault, and Richard Branson has started 250 companies. pg 91
Research has shown, in fact, that the vast majority of successful new business ventures abandoned their original business strategies when they began implementing their initial plans and learned what would and would not work in the market. The dominant difference between successful and failed ones, generally, is not their original strategy. Guessing the right strategy at the outset is not nearly as important to success as conserving enough resources (or having relationships with trusted backers or investors) so that new business initiatives get a second or third stab at getting it right. Those that run out of resources or credibility before they can iterate towards a new strategy are the ones that will fail. - Clayton Christensen pg 130
Risk homoeostatis: people will compensate for taking higher risks in one area of life by taking lower risks in another. - Gerald Wilde pg 167
The most effective way to combat fear is to acknowledge it...For starters, you have to come to terms with what is at stake and admit that you might lose it. Often this means that you must be comfortable enough to know that if everything is lost, you can still move on. pg 180
interesting book but need to be better.......2007-03-04
1. the author have something to say, and he say it in a easy way that friendly to understand. it's good. But the author seems too hush to run into the conclusion, it seems if he spend more time in detail study, this book will be much better;
2. For the same topic, I suggest "A Technique for Producing Ideas" which is short but powerful; and it from a master's hand, if you compare that book with "Medici Effect", you will find how good it is, ;-);
Book Description
Are you looking for a comprehensive approach to determining the future of new technologies based on technology rights, risk assignment, the art of deal-making, and deal economics? This indispensable tool provides you with complete coverage of the issues, methods, and art of valuing and pricing early-stage technologies including backgrounds in the core concepts, sources of value, methods of valuation, equity realizations, and negotiation strategies--all based on the author's real-world experiences.
Order your copy today!
Customer Reviews:
Budding inventors/entrepreneurs will want this book.......2006-08-16
As an accountant outside of the IP field, I found this to be a good tool to "round out" my business acumen. Enjoyed the presentation of pricing models.
My clients rate this book "Superb!".......2006-03-07
Richard is a very well known authority among those of us who are involved in the technology commercialization industry. As a technology commercialization business coach, I hear regularly that Richard's advice in his books is extremely helpful in the most important areas of their work. You can count on the validity of Richard's information...he's been in the trenches and around technology commercialization for many years.
If you want to be successful in commercializing technology get Richard's books, study them and put his advice and suggestions into practice.
~John L. Jenkins, The Coach
john@yourcoachingedge.com
Looks great so far !.......2005-10-22
I'm just through a couple of selected chapters, but I am certain that this book will provide me with an amazing outlook. It's very rounded, and includes a vast amount of information about licencing strategy, along with everything else. I suggest looking at the available images for the index (link to it somewhere on this page) and checking them out. Good stuff.
Excellent work.......2005-09-20
Dr. Razgaitis has achieved an excellent job in illustrating most types of market-practiced methods in the valuation & pricing of tech-based intellectual property. He has done it not just in a coherent manner, but also with a touch of humourous & philosophical elements, which makes the book a surprisingly enjoyable read. Despite the fact that each valuation methods has different, or even diverse, characteristics, Dr. Razgaitis managed to clearly present how each method can be practically applied in various situations, and how these methods can be jointly applied to solve business problems. He has skillfully provided knowledge & guidelines for readers to come up with their own judgement regarding what methods to be applied in various real-world situations, rather than promoting a particular method as the 'silver bullet', like some other authors may attempt to do; this is refreshing & pragmatic as technology valuation is both art & science. The references of the book are also highly valuable, as they provides good pointers to resources that would enable readers to practice the methods.
Some thoughts from a competing author.......2003-06-24
Dr. Razgaitis has tackled an area that contains the most difficult question facing professionals and intellectual property owners - how to value and price embryonic technology.
In recent years many have attempted to educate us on the subject of valuing intellectual property. Complex financial theories and spread-sheet models emerged, especially during the e-business bubble as some strove to explain the unexplainable valuations of enterprises whose only assets were intangible. Dr. Razgaitis obviously knows and understands the theories, but doesn't let the reader escape into flights of fancy, instead bringing one back to earth gently, sometimes with humor, sometimes with real-life anecdotes.
This book allows the reader to seek information to a depth that he or she wishes. As an example, the Monte Carlo technique is presented in all its complexity for those willing and able to study it. At the same time, mathematically challenged readers can still come away with an understanding of what is going on. The author is skilled in clearly explaining complexities and the many well designed charts and tables greatly assist the reader.
These are just some of the features that set this book apart and give it a strong practical value to all of those who create and exploit technology assets, and to those who advise them. Anyone in those roles should have this book within easy reach.
Book Description
Nothing is more important to business success than innovation . . . And here’s what you can do about it on Monday morning with the definitive how-to book from the world’s leading authority on innovation
When it comes to innovation, Curt Carlson and Bill Wilmot of SRI International know what they are talking about—literally. SRI has pioneered innovations that day in and day out are part of the fabric of your life, such as:
•The computer mouse and the personal computer interface you use at home and work
•The high-definition television in your living room
•The unusual numbers at the bottom of your checks that enable your bank to maintain your account balance correctly
•The speech-recognition system used by your financial services firm when you call for your account balance or to make a transaction.
Each of these innovations—and literally hundreds of others—created new value for customers. And that’s the central message of this book. Innovation is not about inventing clever gadgets or just “creativity.” It is the successful creation and delivery of a new or improved product or service that provides value for your customer and sustained profit for your organization. The first black-and-white television, for example, was just an interesting, cool invention until David Sarnoff created an innovation—a network—that delivered programming to an audience.
The genius of this book is that it provides the “how” of innovation. It makes innovation practical by getting two groups who are often disconnected—the managers who make decisions and the people on the front lines who create the innovations—onto the same page. Instead of smart people grousing about the executive suite not recognizing a good idea if they tripped over it and the folks on the top floor wondering whether the people doing the complaining have an understanding of market realities, Carlson and Wilmot’s five disciplines of innovation focus attention where it should be: on the creation of valuable new products and services that meet customer needs.
Innovation is not just for the “lone genius in the garage” but for you and everyone in your enterprise. Carlson and Wilmot provide a systematic way to make innovation practical, one intimately tied to the way things get done in your business.
Teamwork isn't enough; Creativity isn't enough; A new product idea isn't enough
True innovation is about delivering value to customers. Innovation reveals the value-creating processes used by SRI International, the organization behind the computer mouse, robotic surgery, and the domain names .com, .org, and .gov. Curt Carlson and Bill Wilmot show you how to use these practical, tested processes to create great customer value for your organization.
Customer Reviews:
Highly Motivating.......2007-08-13
If creativity can be learned, this book teachs you how. I think this is an excellent book to jumpstart the creative process. I also recommend Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers, as it has a new and interesting theory on brainstomring.
Excellent Book.......2007-08-13
This book doesn't really break new ground, but it systematically guides the reader to think through innovation and creativity in a disciplined manner. The theories toward the end about using disciplined innovation to attempt social and cultural change in the US are very interesting. Definitely a page-turner....
Tremendously Useful.......2007-06-21
This important and timely book deals with one of the most important issues of our times, our ability to successfully innovate. It is one of a very small number of books that addresses the "how" of innovation and not just the "what." The author's demonstrated success at helping create many important innovations makes them uniquely qualified to address this topic. The book makes fundamental points that are simple to understand but critically important.
First, they make the point that we are in the "exponential economy" where extremely rapid improvement is the rule. They show that the exponential economy is a consequence of our being in the knowledge age and they list the four basic conditions necessay for exponential improvement. They then use this model as the basis for their innovation model. Their rational is simple: if you do not innovate exponetially in the exponential economy, you will go away fast.
Second, they make the point that in the knowledge age we require a broader definition of customer value to succeed, in addition to cost and quality. This is certainly true, but this is one of those rare books where customer value is defined in a comprehensive and useful way. It also ties this definition, for the first time, to the widely used and often confused term "value proposition," which they define as "NABC" (i.e., where N stands for the customer's need, A stands for the approach to satisfy this need, and B stands for the benefits per cost resulting from this approach when compared to the competition, C).
Third, they make the case that we are currently doing a poor job at innovation. Even a small improvement in our ability to innovate would have a huge positive impact on growth and prosperity. We are at a point with our poor innovation results that is reminiscent of manufacturing in the 1950's, when product quality was extremely poor. Deming proved that by changing the way we work, product quality could be profoundly improved while simultaneously lowering costs. The Total Quality Management (TQM) movement pioneered by Deming is now used by all manufacturing companies. Like Deming with quality and cost, they argue that large improvements in our ability to innovate are possible. But we are now in the knowledge age, not the manufacturing age, so new innovation processes are required based on a comprehensive definition of customer value, not just quality and cost. In addition, TQM tends to produce incremental results. We need new innovation best practices that result in both incremental and transformational innovations.
Fourth, they argue that to improve our innovation results the process of innovation must be thought of as a "discipline." That is, it needs to become a subject that can be taught, learned, and improved. But the focus needs to be on knowledge workers who produce both incremental and transformational innovations.
Fifth, they propose that there are "five disciplines of innovation" that must be mastered if one is to be systematically successful at innovation. Several of these disciplines have been written about extensively (e.g., innovation teams, although here they make several new important observations) but others have not been (e.g., the process of innovation).
Sixth, and most importantly, they persuasively argue that failure at any one of the five disciplines of innovation can, and almost always does, lead to failure. This observation explains why large improvements in our ability to innovate are possible. Even small improvements in the five disciplines can produce a surprisingly large impact on one's innovation success rate. This is a fundamental point that has been missing in previous management books.
Finally, they show how these ideas can be used by the individual professional, their teams, and their enterprises. Read this book and compare what it describes to what you are now doing. You likely have enormous room for improvement.
Practical and engaging .......2007-06-05
Everybody talks about "innovation" these days, but here's a practical guide to getting it right. Carlson writes in an engaging manner, with real-world examples. It all just seems to make sense when you read it. Any company or organization out there that wants long-term success would do well to follow the five disciplines described in this book.
Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want.......2007-03-01
It has been often suggested that innovation comes from an isolated Aha! Carlson and Wilmot strongly contend that successful innovations come from a disciplined approach that creates value through new products, processes, services, or even marketing campaigns. One of their messages is to work on ideas that are profitable not just interesting. They suggest quantifying value in order to identify important innovation opportunities. They teach the reader how to create well tuned value propositions, and even those 10-minute elevator pitches. The authors provide examples their Need, Approach, Benefits per costs, Competition thinking process. This is not one of those magical matrices, it is a realistic approach that requires understanding customer and market needs, identifying costs and benefits, as well as, the value to investors and management. I thought this was a great book even before Business Week (18 Dec 2007 p.156) identified it as one of the top 2006 Business Books. "Innovation: The five disciplines for creating what customers want" is an easy to read, useful volume that helps readers to focus on the value of their idea or innovation as compared to alternatives. I would like to use this book in a course to help students to examine their business ideas
Book Description
Nanoscale science and technology is a young, promising field that encompasses a wide range of disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, and materials science. With rapid advances in areas such as molecular electronics, synthetic biomolecular motors, DNA-based self-assembly, and manipulation of individual atoms, nanotechnology has captured the attention and imagination of researchers and the general public. Introduction to Nanoscale Science and Technology provides a broad and thorough introduction that is aimed specifically at undergraduate seniors and early graduate students in all of the disciplines enumerated above. It will also be of value to academic, industrial, and government researchers interested in a primer in the field. The book consists of twenty-three chapters arranged in seven sections. All chapters have been written by experts from each respective field. Exercises and general references are provided at the end of each chapter to encourage students to expand on the topics discussed in the book. A CD-ROM containing color copies of all figures accompanies the book, allowing rapid preparation of lecture materials by faculty.
Customer Reviews:
A must have!.......2005-01-18
Books like this are difficult to find. Every chapter is very well written, easy to follow and with lots of extra reading suggestions. Finally, a complete, well-organized reference of the field. It definitely belongs to the bookshelves of people seriously interested in learning what nanoscience is all about.
Amazon.com
Recall the old saying about all work and no play making Jack a dull boy? World-class companies today need play--serious play--if they want to make truly innovative products, argues Michael Schrage, an MIT Media Lab fellow and Fortune magazine columnist. In Serious Play he writes, "When talented innovators innovate, you don't listen to the specs they quote. You look at the models they've created." Whether it's a spreadsheet that tests a new financial model or a foam prototype of a calculator, what interests Schrage is not the model itself, but the behavior that play--be it modeling, prototyping, or simulation--inspires.
Schrage examines the approaches to successful prototyping at companies such as AT&T, Boeing, Microsoft, and DaimlerChrysler and describes the kind of culture that's needed for encouraging innovation. In the last chapter, he lays out the 10 rules of serious play, including: Be willing to fail early and often; know when the costs outweigh the benefits; know who wins and who loses from an innovation; build a prototype that engages customers, vendors, and colleagues; create markets around prototypes; and simulate the customer experience. Well-written and inspiring, Serious Play, is a first-rate user's guide for managers, project leaders, and other innovators. --Dan Ring
Book Description
Serious Play is about serious work: how the world's leading companies model, prototype, and simulate to innovate. Increasingly, prototypes are the key platforms and models are the core media for managing risk and creating value. They allow for cost-effective creativity, encourage profitable improvisation, and inspire organizations to collaborate in unexpected ways.
Serious Play is a crisply written handbook for product, process and project leaders who are determined to manage their innovation initiatives successfully.
As digital technologies for modeling and simulation offer more value for less money, they provoke fundamental challenges to organizational culture and design. MIT research associate Michael Schrage asserts that conventional wisdom surrounding innovation gets turned inside out: What innovative companies choose not to model often proves more important than what they do. Contrary to the popular assumption that innovative teams generate innovative prototypes, in fact innovative prototypes generate innovative teams. How innovators play with their models and simulations invariably matters far more than what they actually plan. In fact, Schrage shows why innovative firms cannot seriously plan unless they seriously play.
Drawing upon a range of companies as diverse as Walt Disney, Boeing, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, IBM, IDEO, Microsoft, Royal Dutch Shell, DaimlerChrysler and American Airlines, Schrage identifies the common patterns and practices that distinguish productive prototyping cultures from pathological ones. He explores the intimate connection between how leading innovators model reality and how they actually manage it. He examines prototyping failures as rigorously as he explains prototyping successes.
The essential message of
Serious Play is that tomorrow's innovations will increasingly be the byproduct of how companies and their customers behave-and misbehave-around this new generation of models, prototypes, and simulations. The distinction between serious play and serious work dissolves as technology gives innovators ever-increasing opportunities to simulate and prototype their ideas. As the media for modeling radically change, so will the organizations that use them.
With real-world examples and engaging anecdotes, Schrage argues that the future of prototyping is the future of innovation. A User's Guide included in the book helps readers quickly take away the innovation practices profiled throughout. A landmark book by one of the most perceptive voices in the field of innovation,
Serious Play will lay serious claim to the hearts and minds of forward-looking business managers.
Download Description
Successful innovation demands more than a good strategic plan; it requires creative improvisation. Much of the "serious play" that leads to breakthrough innovations is increasingly linked to experiments with models, prototypes, and simulations. As digital technology makes prototyping more cost-effective, serious play will soon lie at the heart of all innovation strategies, influencing how businesses define themselves and their markets. Author Michael Schrage is one of today's most widely recognized experts on the relationship between technology and work. In Serious Play, Schrage argues that the real value in building models comes less from the help they offer with troubleshooting and problem solving than from the insights they reveal about the organization itself. Technological models can actually change us--improving the way we communicate, collaborate, learn, and innovate. With real-world examples and engaging anecdotes, Schrage shows how companies such as Disney, Microsoft, Boeing, IDEO, and DaimlerChrysler use serious play with modeling technologies to facilitate the collaborative interactions that lead to innovation. A user's guide included with the book helps readers apply many of the innovation practices profiled throughout. A landmark book by one of the most perceptive voices in the field of innovation.
Customer Reviews:
Readable User-Friendly Book on Innovation.......2005-04-30
I am enjoying this book. I like the title "Serious Play", but I dislike the sub-title "How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate". Companies don't innovate people do is my thought. I think the author could have taken this concept one step further. That is tie in the concepts of how innovation relates to chaos theory and fractals and larger concepts. The author's ideas are not that new to me because I am a project manager in a software engineering environment where prototyping and iterations is the name of the game. We have at most 3 months to make a difference, to deliver and then we are swept into the ocean of change. You have a small window of opportunity before both the game and the players change.
I think that the world may be on the verge of moving so fast that we begin to see things like the wiki, open source culture in that it takes all of us innovating collectively in serious play. Long term I wonder if you are not free, workable and now, you are not in the game.
Some concepts for me are:
1) Importance of being able to improvise in the moment
2) Prototyping both reveals the underlying power cutural structures and changes them.
3) Human beings are relationship morphing entities.
4) the importance of shared collaboration space that invite clever interactions between people.
5) Treating prototypes as conversation pieces
6) Watch for the underlying feeling of geniune fun
7) The importance of the challenge or obstacles to the game
8) We shape our models, our models shape us
9) "In order to have actionable meaning, the fuzzy mental models ... must be externalized in representations in ways... that can be grasped"
10) Prototypes force individuals to confront the tyranny of tradeoffs (i.e. difficult decisions)
11) "All models are attempt to manage the complexity by making it simpler and more accessible"
While the text is very readable I had trouble pulling out the underlying structure of the book. But I felt redeemed when I read the User's Guide at the end of the book. Interesting you would think a User's Guide would go at the beginning. Fortunately I do not read sequentially so I found that chapter fairly quickly.
Three years on, still a great book.......2002-09-16
Here's the best review I can give Michael Schrage's "Serious Play": Three years on, it's consistently the first book I pull out of my bookshelf when I'm looking for ideas for presentations, thoughts on introducing new products or services, etc. His commentary on "mean-time-to-payback" is something that will stick with you for years. It's brilliant stuff, written in clear, concise terms. And, surprisingly, very little of it is dated. Unlike many books from that era, there's no .com or Enron fixation for the author to be embarrassed about. Schrage's examples are pulled from health care technology, animation, theater...in short, an eye-opening spectrum of ideas. I consider "Serious Play" one of my best purchases ever.
Preaching to the choir.......2002-08-22
This is a good book for someone to read if they are skeptical of the benefits of prototypes. However, since I already know the value of interactive prototypes I became quickly tired with the book.
Other critiques: it felt like the author had a bunch of cool little examples lying around and finally got the idea to put it together, surrounded by some fluffy text to make it thick enough to sell as a book, and put it on the market. Lots of space is taken up by these excerpts, as well as big text in the margins summing up "important points," which I would usually find useful but instead gave the impression of just taking up space.
Also, the author makes repeated use of similes to the point that it got annoying; "Just like a is to b, c is to d."
At one point, the author brings up the difference between a "simulation" and a "prototype," and just when you think the core of the matter is going to be distinguished the author backs out, leaving you wondering why they brought it up in the first place if they weren't going to take a stab at defining and differentiating them.
Sorry, but given the hype I was sorely disappointed. Read the first chapter or so in a bookstore before actually buying this.
Enlightening.......2002-07-11
This book gave me a very good and new insight of how to manage prototyping. It is enlightening for not only it explains and lists the topics that are important. It also gives us lots of practical examples of implementations.
I kept refering it, and i DON't usually do that.........2001-03-14
The most significant aspect of this book is that it provides a vocabulary and a language to discuss the nature of creative prototyping and modeling behaviors. The first thing you do is take off the cover, otherwise people think you're reading a really cheesy book. It's everything but that. It's been 4 weeks, and i'm on my 3rd time through it. I reference it and re-use it over and over. I've since recommended it to a genetic scientist friend of mine that works for a major drug company, a software engineer, and a broadcast designer. The thinking in this book has an epidemic effect with those that read it, and the excitement that it carries into their work and mine is the most influential and direct I have ever experienced. Some books are relevant once, but this will be accessed for years to come. This is my first book recommendation i have ever made. that is all...
Download Description
"To compete effectively, you must innovate: Not just once, but consistently, in all your products, services, and business functions. But, profitable innovation doesn't just ""happen."" It must be managed, measured, executed on¿and few companies do that well. Making Innovation Work offers the first real solution: A start-to-finish process for driving growth from innovation.
The authors draw on unsurpassed innovation, consulting experience, and a thorough review of innovation research. Their techniques have been proven at top companies ranging from Apple and GE to Toyota. In this book, they demonstrate what works, what doesn't, and how to use all your management tools to maximize the value of your innovation investments.
You'll learn how to define effective strategies and organizational structures for innovation, manage innovation more successfully, incent teams to deliver, and infuse metrics throughout every phase of the innovation process. Simply put, Making Innovation Work takes the mystery out of profitable innovation, showing how to lead it, track it, incent it, and get more of it.
Leading innovation
Defining innovation strategy, designing portfolios, and encouraging value creation
Integrating innovation and business strategy
Matching innovation to your overall business strategy
Balancing creativity and value capture
Generating successful new ideas that drive maximum ROI
Weaving innovation into the fabric of business
Making innovation truly integral to your company's business mentality
Neutralizing organizational ""antibodies""
Preventing your company from killing off its best new ideas
Building innovation networks
Leveraging innovation resources both inside and outside the organization
Measuring and rewarding innovation
Implementing the right metrics and the right incentives to drive results"
Customer Reviews:
Innovation: Thrive or Fade Away.......2006-07-20
The term "Innovation" has been used so much in recent years that it's become cliche. Humans have been innovative for over 30,000 years, before the day of the first fire pit. People have always utilized innovation. But now it's is more vocally emphasized in the business realm because of ultra-competitive global market forces, and because we've reached the stage where technology enables change at a more rapid pace. "Innovation" is a Mantra. For lack of better words, creativity, adaptability, and innovation have always been vital. They've always been used by the successful: the winners; the victors. Innovation has always been mandatory. Survival: both literally and figuratively.
Authors Tony Davila, Marc Epstein, and Robert Shelton list 7 rules for innovation. This book uses matrices and tables to detail the different choices and the positives and negatives of choosing these various options. There are three types of innovation: 1) Incremental 2) semi-radical and 3) Radical.
Of the tons of information in this book, some things noted are the case study of the Coca-cola company and it's drop in sales, to Individual employee motivation in the "pay-performance relationship." Why do incentives for employees fail at times? Because they are overused. What can inhibit and actually kill creativity? "Fear, Failure, and Fairness" affect calculated risk taking by individuals, staff-teams, and entire companies. As for Radical Innovation, what is the motivation for radical innovations? That groundbreaking new idea, invention, product, vaccine, or piece of technology? Answer: intrinsic motivation.
One example of the types of innovation is a combination of them, such as in "Ersatz Radical Innovation." Ersatz is when a company (e.g. Apple) combines two forms of semi-radical change to create of successful product that changes an entire industry.
One case study enumerated how a company can focus too much on
innovation and lose site of the goal, such as in the case of Xerox PARC. The creative process must have the crucial ingredient that's equally vital: commercialization. It's a symbiotic relationship. Another very relevant issue discussed is the Outsourcing of Innovation. Which developments should be kept in-house? Which should be shared and outsourced? Innovation is so critical that it can't be outsourced entirely, so partial and selective outsourcing (sharing) is done under the proven concept of "partnering." Innovation is obviously borrowed, and oft-times today, it's outright stolen.
Perhaps a lot of this new focus on "creativity," and "innovation" and "adaptability," and "co-operation" is because of the recent rise of China, India, and other parts of the world. Game Theory's concepts are sprinkled about in this book because Game theory is an underlying and also an explicit element in economics, business, and calculated risk taking. Because of the theoretical and applicable strengths of
Game Theory we see innovation and adaptability + Game Theory.
This book deserves more attention. The writing style is
reader-friendly and keeps your interest. The authors provide
numerous case studies, stats, tables & figures, theory, and
practicality, and specific ways on how to survive and thrive in
today's world. Great book that more people should know about.
The first word on innovation.......2006-05-01
We recommend this book to everyone involved in innovation. Whether you're involved as a creative thinker, a promoter of new products, a manager guiding the innovation process or an investor evaluating an innovative company, there's gold here for you. Authors Tony Davila, Marc J. Epstein and Robert Shelton compress a mass of research and experience in innovation practices into a set of rules and guiding principles. Then, they use stories, lucid explanations, charts and careful definitions to illustrate how these principles work. A few of these concepts could have been expanded profitably - for example, how to tell in practice when radical innovation is needed, how to determine if you're innovating too much or too fast, and how to sort out the best ideas without discouraging the creators of the rejected concepts. That's the only caveat; everything else is fascinating and immediately applicable.
An Important Guide to Establishing Innovation Processes.......2006-03-01
Many executives decide they want more innovation from their organizations . . . but aren't quite sure how to encourage that result. Relax. You can read and apply Making Innovation Work, and you'll do a lot better.
The authors clearly understand today's best practices in innovation both for breakthroughs and for on-going incremental improvements. They take what seems amorphous to many and make it as concrete as is desirable to do.
The basic approach entails helping readers to understand that the processes you use to innovate determine what kind and how much innovation you will accomplish. From there, the book focuses on how to use a process that permits all of the kinds of innovation to prosper that the company's strategy pursues.
While many such books exhort everyone to go for breakthroughs, Making Innovation Works also explains when it's appropriate to have a more defensive innovation strategy . . . but to stay in the game . . . rather than to fall behind by being too defensive.
For me, though, the book really hit its stride in chapter six where the appropriate measurements are described to identify how your innovation process is doing. The book became even more impressive in chapter seven where incentives for innovation are explained. Chapter eight on how to learn innovation is perhaps the most pivotal section in the book. Chapter nine on creating a supportive culture for innovation was also solid.
I was pleased to see that Making Innovation Work looks beyond just innovating products and processes. The book also addresses business model innovation, perhaps the most important subject for innovation.
The only weakness I found in the book came in describing business model innovation and how to pursue it. The authors have too narrow a view of what's involved in business model innovation. They need to become more familiar with the less frequently cited best practices in business model innovation. Although their bibliography on innovation is a marvelous one, I was surprised to see how thin it is on the subject of business model innovation.
Until a better overview of how to manage innovation comes along, Making Innovation Work will be the standard reference.
My review is addressed to undergraduates.......2006-02-25
It is a good book that clearly shows models to map the different types of innovation and the problems involved to manage it.
A Fresh Look at Nothing New.......2006-01-21
There is a dire need for a fresh look at innovation.
Contrary to popular belief, the authors assert, much of what is held as common wisdom regarding how innovation is managed is wrong. Tony Davila, a faculty member of Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Marc Epstein, a research professor at Rice University's School of Management, and Robert Shelton, managing director of Navigant Consulting's Innovation practice write that contrary to popular belief, innovation:
* Does not require a revolution.
* Is not alchemy
* Does not require a "creative" culture.
* Is not solely about processes and stage-gate tools.
* Does not focus exclusively on new technology.
* Is not needed in copious quantities.
The authors write that innovation, like many business functions, is a management process that requires tools, rules and discipline. It needs to be measured and promoted if sustained, high yields are going to be delivered. It is a necessary ingredient to safeguard an organization's tangible and intangible assets. In short, it is a vital and must be managed.
To do so, the book identifies seven rules:
1. Strong leadership encourages value creation.
2. Innovation is a vital part of an organization's mentality.
3. Innovation matches the organization's business strategy.
4. Creativity and value creation are balanced.
5. Seek to neutralize forces that discourage good ideas.
6. Networks, not individuals, are the building blocks of innovation.
7. Metrics and rewards make innovation manageable.
Execution of innovation is not difficult, the authors conclude. It is similar to other management activities, such as manufacturing or financial control. There are no secret formulas. This book replaces the myths and half-truths with clear and concise thinking on how to manage and execute innovation.
Book Description
A revolution in the way we use artificial lighting is underway, one that is every bit as sweeping and significant as Edison's invention of the light bulb. The technology of light emitting diodes (LEDs) is ready for widespread implementation. Its impacts will include a reduction in energy consumption for electric lighting by up to 80 percent.
Brilliant! tells the story of Shuji Nakamura, a gifted Japanese engineer who came out of nowhere to stun the world with his announcement that he had created the last piece in the puzzle needed for manufacturing solid-state white lights. The invention of this holy-grail product, which promises to make Edison's light bulb obsolete, had eluded the best minds at the top electronic firms for twenty-five years. Until his startling announcement, Nakamura had not even been on the radar screen of most industry observers.
Veteran technology writer Bob Johnstone traces the career of Nakamura, which included many years of obstinate individual effort as well as a dramatic legal battle pitting him against his former Japanese employer. Over a five-year span, Nakamura distinguished himself with an unprecedented series of inventions—bright blue, green, ultraviolet, and then white LEDs, plus a blue laser that will play an essential role in the next-generation DVD players. Then he was forced to leave Nichia Chemical, the company where he had worked for twenty years, and his former employer sued him. The result was a multimillion-dollar settlement in a landmark decision that acknowledged, for the first time, the rights of individual inventors working in a corporate context. Today, Nakamura holds a professor's chair at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he continues to develop the technology of LEDs.
Johnstone, the first Western journalist to meet and interview Nakamura, has received the brilliant engineer's full cooperation through a series of exclusive interviews given for the book. Johnstone has also interviewed other key players in the imminent lighting revolution, providing an exciting preview of the technological, entrepreneurial, and artistic creativity that will soon be unleashed by Nakamura's inventions.
Customer Reviews:
Any science library strong in invention history needs BRILLIANT!.......2007-07-27
BRILLIANT! SHUJI NAKAMURA AND THE REVOLUTION IN LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY tells of the evolution of LED technology and how it was stalled over making an LED that would emit the bright blue light needed to make useful white light LEDs - until researcher Shuji Nakamura's key invention which single-handedly created the industry of solid-state lighting. Author Bob Johnstone is the first Western journalist to meet and interview Nakamura, and here provides a powerful blend of science and biography to show how the inventor made his ground-breaking discovery and how LEDs are revolutionizing the world. Any science library strong in invention history needs BRILLIANT!
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Must read book on Nakamura and LEDs.......2007-06-02
I heartily recommend this book for people who are interested in innovation, business, science, technology, etc. The book tells the fascinating story of Nakamura and the impact LEDs are having on the lighting industry.
Part One of the book tells the story of how Nakamura invented the first commercially successful GaN LED. Part Three explains how Nakamura became unwanted at Nichia and how he decided to move to UCSB. Parts Two and Four talk about some of the companies that are using LEDs to make exciting new products. I'll be a nit picker and say the book should be titled "Shuji Nakamura and the *Coming* revolution in Lighting Technology" because the revolution is just starting.
Although LEDs have been around for about four decades and everyone already owns products that incororate them, very few people understand the potential of LEDs and the impact that they will have on lighting over the next few years. The conversion to white LEDs for general lighting is underway. People will want to understand more about this phenomenon as they recognize the impact that LEDs are having on the lighting industry and energy consumption. The good news is that this book will serve as a tutorial for people who want to learn about LEDs.
A MUST READ for environmentalists and investors!!.......2007-05-15
Brilliant!!! Refreshing!!! Bob Johnstone is correct in espousing Shuji Nakamura as the leader of the LED revolution. Shuji's list of patents and accomplishments in his field far outshine all of his peers put together. Definitely a Nobel Prize in the works for Mr. Nakamura and hopefully a Pulitzer for Mr. Johnstone for his ability to explain this complex subject to the average reader in a true tale of high intrigue! The LED scientific community is still rather small. The competition for the holy grail (replacing the everyday lightbulb) is phenomenal. Bob and Shuji have this unusual, provocative combination that tells the story of this new high tech race. Bob spends quite a few chapters explaining the unusual and life changing ramifications of LED development worlwide. A must read for any investor or those with eco-green concerns!!!
Books:
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- Parking Structures: Planning, Design, Construction, Maintenance and Repair
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- Pattern Classification (2nd Edition)
- Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, Third Edition
- Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, Third Edition
- Physics of Semiconductor Devices
- Physics of Semiconductor Devices
- Poincare and the Three Body Problem (History of Mathematics, V. 11)
Books Index
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