Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation

"A dominant design in a product class is the one that wins the allegiance of the marketplace."

"The inability to change organizational structure and practices in tandem with the evolution of technology in the industry is a major source of failure. "

"The ability of managers and industry watchers to receive that signal?or even better, to predict the emergence of a dominant design?should be important with respect to their product designs, R&D, and process development. "

"The most threatening challenges are often those that come from outside the traditional definition of the industry and its products."

"Firms attempt to maximize their sales and market shares by defining their development initiatives in terms that clearly matter to potential customers. "

"The organization of a firm formed around an innovation goes through the familiar transformation that entrepreneurial organizations experience as they become successful."

"The day of the inventor has given way in the specific phase to the tenders?that is, those who monitor and control the smooth working of the production system. "

"Each new wave of innovation has its fluid, transitional, and specific phases."

"Like the emergence of a dominant design, the emergence of a major change in process architecture?a discontinuous change?is not always apparent. "

"A consequence of major jumps in process technology and productivity is that fewer and larger productive units are required to meet forecasted demand."

"Radical changes create new businesses and transform or destroy existing ones."

"Firms that ride an innovation to the heights of industrial leadership more often than not fail to shift to newer technologies."

"Identifying the path to the future is one important requirement for survival and success when discontinuities surface."

"Some discontinuities do not broaden a market or create a new niche."

"When core capabilities are aligned . . . management can attempt to make a discontinuous change internally."

"Incremental innovation is clearly of critical economic and competitive importance."

"In a stable and effective but conservative organizational environment the reward for improving existing technology, products, and processes is greater than the incentive to turn the world on its head."

"Established businesses have adopted any one of several piecemeal approaches for managing their way to the future."

"For radical innovation to occur, traditional organizational controls must loosen."