Abbie Griffin - Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms

S ERIAL INNOVATORS

How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms

Abbie Griffin, Raymond L. Price, and Bruce A. Vojak

STANFORD BUSINESS BOOKS

An Imprint of Stanford University Press

Stanford, California

Stanford University Press

Stanford, California

2012 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Griffin, Abbie, author.

Serial innovators : how individuals create and deliver breakthrough innovations in mature firms / Abbie Griffin, Raymond L. Price, and Bruce A. Vojak.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8047-7597-7 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8047-8332-3 (e-book)

1. Technological innovationsManagement. 2. New products. I. Price, Raymond L. (Raymond Lewis), author. II. Vojak, Bruce A., author. III. Title.

HD45 .G69 2012

658.4063dc23

2011040724

Typeset by Newgen in 10/15 Sabon

We jointly dedicate this book to all the individuals and firms striving to make the world a better place through developing new technologies and products that provide improved solutions to problems that we have.

To John Horne, former CEO of Navistar International Truck and Engine, for starting me down this research path, my terrific son, Griffin Spotz, and my wonderful husband, Ken. Abbie

To my wife, Stephanie, whose support and encouragement have made my contributions possible, and to my children and grandchildren, who provide great joy in my life. Ray

To my wife and son, Deb and Andrew, with whom I continue to work out the reality that we love because He first loved us. S.D.G. Bruce

C ONTENTS

P REFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is based on several years of academic research on Serial Innovators conducted by the coauthors and a number of graduate students. In conducting the research, we interviewed over fifty Serial Innovators and a larger number of their coworkers, managers, and human resource managers. These Innovators are some of the best product development people in the world. They graciously shared with us how they think, how they work, and how they create breakthrough new products. The interviews and other empirical studies helped us understand who these Serial Innovators are as people, how they innovate, what motivates them, and how best to manage them. If organizations are going to develop the breakthrough innovations that enable organic growth, they need to have these types of people and the structured space they need to perform their work. Serial Innovators practices have significant implications for organization structure, investment, and management. If firms want to create breakthrough products in the future, these people provide the best models we have to understand what is required. The purpose of this book is to help people and corporations better understand, emulate, enable, support, and manage these unique and important individuals, who have the potential to create new breakthrough products that result in large revenue and profit streams, primarily for large, mature firms.

Several different types of people residing in large firms will benefit from reading this book:

PEOPLE WHO ALREADY ARE SERIAL INNOVATORS

POTENTIAL FUTURE SERIAL INNOVATORS

COLLEAGUES OF SERIAL INNOVATORSINVENTORS, CHAMPIONS, AND IMPLEMENTERS

TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS FOCUSED ON INNOVATION

MANAGERS OF SERIAL INNOVATORS AND POTENTIAL SERIAL INNOVATORS

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGERS

TECHNICAL EXECUTIVES (CTOS) AND BUSINESS EXECUTIVES (CEOS, COOS, AND PRESIDENTS)

We thank each of the people who took time out of their busy schedules to talk with us and share their insights, knowledge, and feelings on these topics. We are indebted to each of you and hope that you are innovating away in a supportive and energizing environment. We wrote this book in the hope that it would help others achieve the kinds of new product accomplishments that you have, but perhaps with fewer organizational difficulties than those that some of you have encountered.

We also are indebted to our research assistants who worked in various aspects of the project over the years: