Too Many Ideas, Too Little Payback...and No One "Owns" the Problem
Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, January 2007) Addresses the Innovation Disconnect-and Shows Companies How to Manage Innovation for Profit and Use the Cash Curve as Payback Reality Check
Although 90 percent of senior executives rate innovation as a top strategic priority, almost half admit to being dissatisfied with the return they get from their innovation dollars, according to a survey by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) of more than 1,000 decision makers.
A key reason is that most companies confuse ideas or inventions with innovation. True innovation must lead—directly or indirectly—to increased profits. And even when companies recognize this, they're generally unsure how to determine which innovation efforts are on the road to payback, and which are destined to become "cash traps"—projects that drain valuable resources that could be better invested elsewhere.
That's according to Jim Andrew and Hal Sirkin, BCG senior vice presidents and coauthors of the new book, Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, January 9, 2007). Based on BCG's innovation–focused work and research involving hundreds of innovation decision makers and global corporate leaders, Payback analyzes the innovation problem and uses scores of detailed examples to show that companies can get beyond "innovation intoxication" and gain a clearer picture of innovation efforts from which to make smart decisions and align key players.
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