The Other Side of Innovation/Book Review, J. Colannino

The Other Side of Innovation emphasizes R&D execution. Amen. After 20+ years as a senior executive in charge of R&D initiatives, I can affirm that good ideas are not the same as good R&D. Here, Govindarajan and Trimble tackle the oft overlooked piece of the puzzle -- execution. If your R&D is lackluster, the cause is almost certainly the execution structure of your organization -- specifically, a failure to differentiate between production and invention -- what Govindarajan and Trimble call the performance and innovation engines, respectively.

The performance engine is a finely oiled machine that doesn't tolerate a wrench in the works. Within the performance engine, incremental improvement might be tolerated, but breakthrough innovation will be fiercely resisted: the mission of the performance engine is to turn out reliable, repeatably performing product, not to have "creative" employees deviate from specifications. By contrast, the innovation engine is a kind of managed chaos requiring unique and one-off approaches. Such R&D inventions are unique and differ from what the current system has been optimized to produce. Even so, creativity in the R&D organization will get you inventions, but not innovations. For real innovation to occur, the invention must be assimilated and adopted by the performance engine. This is the creative tension that all innovative organizations must constructively maintain. How to do that? The authors insist that a hybrid team must be formed to mix the oil and vinegar. I am bit less exclusive in my thinking, but I certainly agree that it is one proven way to get there.

Besides an introduction and a conclusion, the book is divided into two parts. Part I: Build the Team, comprises three chapters: (1) Divide the Labor (2) Assemble the Dedicated Team (3) Manage the Partnership. Part II: Run a Disciplined Experiment, holds the remaining chapters: (4) Formalize the Experiment (5) Break Down the Hypothesis, and (6) Seek the Truth. The book tends toward the pedantic at times, but possesses real wisdom nonetheless.

Is that all there is to great innovation? No; much more could be said, and at the end of the day, innovation must be embraced as a person-centric enterprise. But I am convinced that "The Other Side of Innovation" is a good start. The organization that proceeds from its central framework will be ahead of those that do not because innovation requires good execution as well as good invention.