Book Reviews: Innovation-Part 1
Welcome to our new students! And to our returning students, welcome back. In celebration of those of you who come to Fuqua to remake yourselves, personally or professionally, or to deepen your existing knowledge base, or just to learn something new, I am reviewing 5 new books about innovation during the month of August.
This week’s post reviews 2 new books on innovation written jointly by 2 faculty members from Dartmouth who often collaborate, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble. Both faculty members teach and consult about innovation and Govindarajan is sometimes ranked as one of the most influential management thinkers of the world, by those who measure such things.
Reverse innovation : create far from home, win everywhere by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble.
Under globalization, multinational firms export modified or low-end products to the developing world. But what works in the richer economies may not translate successfully in emerging markets, where customer needs are different. Innovation is often needed in emerging markets and occasionally these innovations create unexpected value for the developed world. Reverse innovation is the authors’ term for innovations that are first developed in the poorer parts of the world and later are adopted by rich markets. This book explains the theory underlying reverse innovation and provides guidance on executing successful reverse innovation initiatives, which may require new processes, new partnerships and a reinvented value chain. Case studies include Procter & Gamble, Deere & Company, GE Healthcare, PepsiCo and others. Also available as an audiobook.
How Stella saved the farm : a tale about making innovation happen by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble.
This simple parable about a farm in crisis uses animals as characters to ultimately illustrate eight principles for managing and executing successful business initiatives. More Who Moved My Cheese than The Goal, this 1-hour read shows how to build a dedicated team and to learn from disciplined experimentation. Also available as an audiobook.
© Reviewer: Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business. All rights reserved.