- Email: [email protected]
Guidelines for product innovation
Z’echnouation, l(l981) 81 Elsevier Scientific Publishing
81 Company,
Amsterdam
- Printed
in The Netherlands
Book Reviews Educating the Engineer for Innovative and Entrepreneurial Activity, by Raymond Tomkins, published by the European Society for Engineering Education, Rue de la Concorde, 51, B 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium. 146 pp. Tomkins begins his look at the education of engineers for innovation with an analysis of the need for such. The analysis commences with a definitive review of the process of innovation and then progresses to examining innovative performance by country. The author, in this section, also presents statistics on the number of engineers graduating by country and their industry responsibilities upon graduation. The study does an excellent job of connecting the role of engineering education to the requirements of innovation. By doing so the author is then able to take up the subject of potential problems and their solutions. Some of the suggestions presented to increase engineering training for innovation include a proposed increase in communication between industry and academia and a use of students on an intern basis to work on selected industrial problems. Other items reviewed included the U.S. Innovation Centers, France’s Confederation National des Junior Entreprise and the New Enterprise Programmes in the U.K. and Ireland. The text is clearly written and uses statistics to support the author’s conclusions. Tomkins was not afraid to share with the reader his logical approach to training engineers in the innovative process. Guidelines for Product Innovation, by R.C. Parker, published by the British Institute of Management Foundation, Management House, Parker Street, London WCBB 5 PT, U.K. 55 pp. R.C. Parker has taken his 40-plus years of experience in managing innovation and succinctly stated it in 55 clear, easy-to-read pages. The author takes us from Chapter 1, Innovation and Group Headquarters, all the way down to Innovation and Design in Chapter 8. All key management groups and their interaction with the innovative process are covered in the handbook. Each chapter format is the same. First the reader is presented with the key principles; then the author follows with a set of to-the-point guidelines, each with its own commentary. To clarify and emphasize the guidelines, the author finishes the chapter with an illustration. It’s a credit to Parker that he could take the complexities of innovation management and boil them down to such concise statements. As suggested by the title, the text is not geared to offering solutions to indepth or particular problems, but rather is designed to be an overall guide to setting up a corporation structure suitable to foster innovation.
81 Company,
Amsterdam
- Printed
in The Netherlands
Book Reviews Educating the Engineer for Innovative and Entrepreneurial Activity, by Raymond Tomkins, published by the European Society for Engineering Education, Rue de la Concorde, 51, B 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium. 146 pp. Tomkins begins his look at the education of engineers for innovation with an analysis of the need for such. The analysis commences with a definitive review of the process of innovation and then progresses to examining innovative performance by country. The author, in this section, also presents statistics on the number of engineers graduating by country and their industry responsibilities upon graduation. The study does an excellent job of connecting the role of engineering education to the requirements of innovation. By doing so the author is then able to take up the subject of potential problems and their solutions. Some of the suggestions presented to increase engineering training for innovation include a proposed increase in communication between industry and academia and a use of students on an intern basis to work on selected industrial problems. Other items reviewed included the U.S. Innovation Centers, France’s Confederation National des Junior Entreprise and the New Enterprise Programmes in the U.K. and Ireland. The text is clearly written and uses statistics to support the author’s conclusions. Tomkins was not afraid to share with the reader his logical approach to training engineers in the innovative process. Guidelines for Product Innovation, by R.C. Parker, published by the British Institute of Management Foundation, Management House, Parker Street, London WCBB 5 PT, U.K. 55 pp. R.C. Parker has taken his 40-plus years of experience in managing innovation and succinctly stated it in 55 clear, easy-to-read pages. The author takes us from Chapter 1, Innovation and Group Headquarters, all the way down to Innovation and Design in Chapter 8. All key management groups and their interaction with the innovative process are covered in the handbook. Each chapter format is the same. First the reader is presented with the key principles; then the author follows with a set of to-the-point guidelines, each with its own commentary. To clarify and emphasize the guidelines, the author finishes the chapter with an illustration. It’s a credit to Parker that he could take the complexities of innovation management and boil them down to such concise statements. As suggested by the title, the text is not geared to offering solutions to indepth or particular problems, but rather is designed to be an overall guide to setting up a corporation structure suitable to foster innovation.