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The sources of innovation
Book The Sources ofInnovation, ERIC VON HIPPEL, Oxford Press (1988), 218 pp., 622.50.
University
Convential wisdom holds that innovation is carried out by manufacturers who perceive a need for new products and then develop and market them. In this study, von Hippel challenges this assumption by demonstrating that innovation occurs in different places in different industries. Presenting a series showing that innovation-users and material suppliers are the typical sources of innovation in some fields, von Hippel explores the reasons this variation in the ‘functional’ sources of innovation occurs, and how it might be predicted. Arguing that innovation will take place where there is greatest economic benefit to the innovator, the author develops his theory of the functional sources of innovation by identifying and categorizing firms and individuals in terms of the functional relationships by which they derive benefit from a given innovation type. Another well presented, primarly academic study unlikely to be widely read by busy managers.
Munugemenr Accounting, (1988), 477 pp., A16.95.
PATRICK MCNAMEE,
Heinemann
This book covers the Chartered Institue of Management Accountants Stage 4 Management Accounting paper and has been written to show how contemporary strategic management can be used with creativity and control to steer an organization towards its goals. The topics discussed are given a strong marketing orientation and a microcomputer-based strategic model using JAVELIN has been provided to support the text. Although commissioned particularly for the CIMA, the contents cover the broad range of topics required for final year undergraduate and MBA students on business policy/strategic management courses, as well as practising managers and management consultants who want to develop their strategic perspectives.
The PIMS Principles: Linking Strategy to Performance, ROBERT D. BUZZELL and BRADLEY T. GALE, The Free Press (1987), 322 pp., S24.95. Since 1972 the PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategy) Programme, working with a data base of 450 companies and 3000 business units, has developed a set of principles for business strategy that should be considered part of any managers basic education. In this book, the authors summarize and explain PIMS methodogy and applications, in away that should help managers understand and predict how strategic choices will effect business performance.
What’s Next?, PAUL ERDMAN, Bantam 63.50.
Books (1987), 172 pp.,
This is a short, readable book. By the time this review is published much of it will be history; in some ways that will make it even more interesting to read-to see how many ofthe authors predictions came true, particularly the crash of 1989? Erdman is both a respected economist and a famous novelist-a combination that is rare, if not unique, and that makes his books a special pleasure to read. He argues his case effectively and, if you do not want to believe his predictions, it is a challenging and rewarding exercise to be forced to spell-
Reviews
out why he is--or was-wrong. Required Finance Directors-albeit as history.
153 reading
for all
Top Management Strategy, CBI/Kepner Tregoe (1988), 69 pp., L46.95. (Edited transcripts of the proceedings of a conference organized by the Confederation of British Industry and Kepner Tregoe.) In the Chairmen’s introduction, James Gulliver, Chairman of The Argyll Group plc, identified ‘strategy’ as a key element in any companies enduring profitability, and endorsed the view that formulating a strategic vision for the future of our companies and ensuring it is successfully implemented is the single most important activity of a Chief Executive and his top team. Three U.K. [Sketchley plc, Wembley Stadium Ltd, and ICI plc] and one Canadian [Varity Corporation] firms were discussed, as were details of recent U.S. research into strategic management needs. A conference can be valuable as a way of passing on collective learning but they rarely read well in retrospect-unless the reader has some very specific need. What the busy Manager/Director really needs is a 2 or 3-page summary of the key points and issues, without them being reduced to the blandly obvious.
Taming Technology: How to Manage a Development Project, GEOFF VINCENT, Kogan Page (1988). 166 pp., E14.95. Innovation-and its effective management-is the life-blood of industry. The author explains-in a clear and practical style-how to plan, manage and control a development project. He emphasizes the need for clear goals; the importance of the right management approach; the necessity of reviewing progress at regular intervals, and that technology must always be seen as the means to an end and not as an end in itself. All eminently sensible. But there is little on what goes wrong and why. The book takes an essentially bureaucratic approach, rather than entrepreneurial, with virtually nothing on the cultural conflict between many core business operations and new ventures.
Policy and Information in Juvenile Justice Systems, Hilltop Practice Development and Publications Unit (1988). 32 pp., 63.50. Based on a two day seminar for senior managers from Social Services, Probation Departments and the Police. The seminar embraced a wide variety of policy and planning issues, from economics to systems modelling. In the next decade it is likely that there will be growing interest in appling business and planning techniques to social issues and this study is a good example of that approach-but it is only a start.
IT Futures . . . it Can Work, NED0
(1987), 172 pp., 420.00.
There are few subjects that are more important in influencing the way we all will be living in the coming decades than the impact of computers and IT. As NED0 itself confesses in the subtitle, the report is ‘an optimistic view of the long term potential of information technology for Britain’. In the report, a group of experts, representing a wide spectrum across
University
Convential wisdom holds that innovation is carried out by manufacturers who perceive a need for new products and then develop and market them. In this study, von Hippel challenges this assumption by demonstrating that innovation occurs in different places in different industries. Presenting a series showing that innovation-users and material suppliers are the typical sources of innovation in some fields, von Hippel explores the reasons this variation in the ‘functional’ sources of innovation occurs, and how it might be predicted. Arguing that innovation will take place where there is greatest economic benefit to the innovator, the author develops his theory of the functional sources of innovation by identifying and categorizing firms and individuals in terms of the functional relationships by which they derive benefit from a given innovation type. Another well presented, primarly academic study unlikely to be widely read by busy managers.
Munugemenr Accounting, (1988), 477 pp., A16.95.
PATRICK MCNAMEE,
Heinemann
This book covers the Chartered Institue of Management Accountants Stage 4 Management Accounting paper and has been written to show how contemporary strategic management can be used with creativity and control to steer an organization towards its goals. The topics discussed are given a strong marketing orientation and a microcomputer-based strategic model using JAVELIN has been provided to support the text. Although commissioned particularly for the CIMA, the contents cover the broad range of topics required for final year undergraduate and MBA students on business policy/strategic management courses, as well as practising managers and management consultants who want to develop their strategic perspectives.
The PIMS Principles: Linking Strategy to Performance, ROBERT D. BUZZELL and BRADLEY T. GALE, The Free Press (1987), 322 pp., S24.95. Since 1972 the PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategy) Programme, working with a data base of 450 companies and 3000 business units, has developed a set of principles for business strategy that should be considered part of any managers basic education. In this book, the authors summarize and explain PIMS methodogy and applications, in away that should help managers understand and predict how strategic choices will effect business performance.
What’s Next?, PAUL ERDMAN, Bantam 63.50.
Books (1987), 172 pp.,
This is a short, readable book. By the time this review is published much of it will be history; in some ways that will make it even more interesting to read-to see how many ofthe authors predictions came true, particularly the crash of 1989? Erdman is both a respected economist and a famous novelist-a combination that is rare, if not unique, and that makes his books a special pleasure to read. He argues his case effectively and, if you do not want to believe his predictions, it is a challenging and rewarding exercise to be forced to spell-
Reviews
out why he is--or was-wrong. Required Finance Directors-albeit as history.
153 reading
for all
Top Management Strategy, CBI/Kepner Tregoe (1988), 69 pp., L46.95. (Edited transcripts of the proceedings of a conference organized by the Confederation of British Industry and Kepner Tregoe.) In the Chairmen’s introduction, James Gulliver, Chairman of The Argyll Group plc, identified ‘strategy’ as a key element in any companies enduring profitability, and endorsed the view that formulating a strategic vision for the future of our companies and ensuring it is successfully implemented is the single most important activity of a Chief Executive and his top team. Three U.K. [Sketchley plc, Wembley Stadium Ltd, and ICI plc] and one Canadian [Varity Corporation] firms were discussed, as were details of recent U.S. research into strategic management needs. A conference can be valuable as a way of passing on collective learning but they rarely read well in retrospect-unless the reader has some very specific need. What the busy Manager/Director really needs is a 2 or 3-page summary of the key points and issues, without them being reduced to the blandly obvious.
Taming Technology: How to Manage a Development Project, GEOFF VINCENT, Kogan Page (1988). 166 pp., E14.95. Innovation-and its effective management-is the life-blood of industry. The author explains-in a clear and practical style-how to plan, manage and control a development project. He emphasizes the need for clear goals; the importance of the right management approach; the necessity of reviewing progress at regular intervals, and that technology must always be seen as the means to an end and not as an end in itself. All eminently sensible. But there is little on what goes wrong and why. The book takes an essentially bureaucratic approach, rather than entrepreneurial, with virtually nothing on the cultural conflict between many core business operations and new ventures.
Policy and Information in Juvenile Justice Systems, Hilltop Practice Development and Publications Unit (1988). 32 pp., 63.50. Based on a two day seminar for senior managers from Social Services, Probation Departments and the Police. The seminar embraced a wide variety of policy and planning issues, from economics to systems modelling. In the next decade it is likely that there will be growing interest in appling business and planning techniques to social issues and this study is a good example of that approach-but it is only a start.
IT Futures . . . it Can Work, NED0
(1987), 172 pp., 420.00.
There are few subjects that are more important in influencing the way we all will be living in the coming decades than the impact of computers and IT. As NED0 itself confesses in the subtitle, the report is ‘an optimistic view of the long term potential of information technology for Britain’. In the report, a group of experts, representing a wide spectrum across