Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation - Tapa dura

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.

—Jong-Yong Yun, Vice Chairman and CEO, Samsung Electronics

“It’s refreshing to see a book that brings the innovation debate so firmly back to the issue of determining and executing on the right business model. Andrew and Sirkin provide deep insights into driving financial returns from innovation.”

—Henning Kagermann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO, SAP AG

“There’s no question that Andrew and Sirkin understand that the real focus of every company’s innovation strategy should be sustainable business growth. Or, said more simply, the book is about making more money every year from your innovation efforts. The authors provide a clear road map that will help managers avoid the pitfalls that others have fallen into, while providing a great vision to substantially improve results. Payback is a book for leaders.”

—Stephen David, Senior Vice President and CIO (retired), Procter & Gamble, and creator of P&G’s global innovation network

“Payback provides a way to think about innovation as a management process, rather than as a mysterious creative activity. The authors demonstrate that a lack of good ideas is rarely an impediment to successful innovation; lack of leadership and good management too often is.”

—Jarkko Sairanen, Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Nokia

"Innovation is the competitive weapon of the 21st century. Those who master it will out perform those who don't. Andrew and Sirkin provide a systematic approach for dramatically improving your organization's innovativeness. A must read ... before your competitors do!"

—J. Bruce Harreld, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Strategy, IBM