a special excerpt exclusive to InnovationManagement.se
the innovation master plan
the CEO’s guide to innovation
by langdon morris
this excerpt includes
conclusion
bibliography
acknowledgments
Langdon Morris is recognized worldwide as one of the leading authors and
consultants in the innovation field. A new chapter of his latest book, The Innovation
Master Plan, will be presented exclusively at InnovationManagement.se
every two weeks throughout the summer.
It will soon also be available at Amazon.com (but not quite yet).
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
2
The Innovation Master Plan
complete table of contents
introduction
1
1. why innovate:
21
the link between strategy
and innovation
2. the driving forces of change
53
3. what to innovate:
73
the innovation portfolio
4. the ideal innovation portfolio
103
5. how to innovate:
137
the innovation process
6. innovation metrics
189
7. who innovates:
211
the innovation culture
8. the creative process
249
9. where we innovate:
265
the innovation infrastructure
conclusion
293
bibliography
index
acknowledgments
303
307
313
ISBN #: Forthcoming
www.innovationlabs.com
Copyright © 2011 by Langdon Morris.
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic,
electronic, or mechanical – without the written permission of the publisher.
This excerpt in InnovationManagement.se is reproduced by permission of the author.
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
3
conclusion
“Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth."
Mike Tyson
The innovation system described here is intended to provide a comprehensive
approach to a difficult, challenging, and significant problem for organizations, the
problem of how to manage innovation in the face of excruciating change. My goal
has been to help you attain a higher level of mastery, and to guide you through the
preparation of your own master plan so that when the punches start to fly, your plan
has prepared you to succeed.
mastery
In most fields, mastery occurs through stages. It proceeds from ignorance to
awareness that the topic itself is one of value and perhaps even importance (and I
have certainly argued that innovation is very important). This launches a quest to
understand what it means. As you search, gather more information, and test your
initial ideas, you develop greater expertise, gaining confidence while at the same time
discovering that additional layers of nuance and depth await you. While the journey
may never reach a definitive end point, your capabilities will increase and your
results will reflect this progress.
And it has only been through our own pursuit of mastery that we’ve been able to
formulate this innovation framework, through the projects and initiatives and
programs for which we’ve discovered, developed, and tested the concepts and tools
described here. We know that we’re not finished, but along the way we remain
deeply grateful to our clients for having trusted in us and enabled this learning to
occur.
Overall, what we’ve learned is that it seems to work well to frame the issues and
challenges this way:
You know why innovation matters; it is a core element of your strategy, and it
leads to results every organization must achieve on the way to its ultimate
success in the market.
You know that innovation is a risky domain in which to invest, but also that
those investments are mandatory. So what do you do? You manage the
innovation portfolio, which enables you to effectively balance risk and reward.
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
4
Figure 30
The Pyramid of Mastery
It’s obvious that the quality of your approach to innovation matters a great deal.
The difference between knowing how and a broken process is so huge that it
cannot be overlooked.
It’s also entirely clear that the innovation capacities of your people are essential
to achieving your innovation goals. For who will do it if you do not? Your
organizational culture must therefore define norms that encourage and enhance
innovation as long term creators of value.
And it’s clear that the right infrastructure can support a tremendous improvement
in the quality of the process, as well as the satisfaction of the participants, and the
value of the results.
Where you innovate is defined by the essential
infrastructure.
These five themes, organized and managed in harmony, constitute an innovation
system. And while there will certainly be improvements to make in the coming
years, we’ve been at this long enough to feel confident that this is an effective
platform, and it’s working well for many organizations.
By way of conclusion, there are a few key points that I think are worth
highlighting.
First and foremost is the idea I mentioned in the introduction, and then returned
to at various times throughout the book: success at innovation begins with the right
mindset. Meaningful progress will be made only when leaders adopt the mindset
that their organizations must and will innovate, when their words and actions
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
5
genuinely reflect that mindset, and when they also understand how to go about
leading it in action.
But a framework and strong leadership are not enough. My friend Léopold
Demiddeleer of Solvay made this comment, highlighting what else is needed:
“Langdon, please put somewhere in the book the idea that no matter how perfect the
master plan is, it is the craftsmen and craftswomen of innovation who will make it
happen, who will actually build the cathedral. Their team spirit and long term
commitment are necessary to realize the potential and the vision. I’ve seen so many
smart plans destroyed by incompetence … just too many.”
Figure 31
The Innovation Master Plan
5 questions across a process of seven stages
Responsibilities are shown in the column at the right.
So please do follow Léopold’s advice, and focus on both, on designing the plan,
and on enabling the craft of building it out in the full glory of the vision.
I also want to remind you that the framework described here is intended to define
a concrete and specific pathway, a methodology for going about the pursuit of
innovation. But that certainly doesn’t mean that every organization will follow
exactly the same path. It’s our experience that each of the main themes discussed
here needs to be accounted for in some way as you adapt this framework to your own
needs, so what you will then achieve is actually the development of your own
methodology.
In this regard, it’s useful to note the important difference between methodology
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
6
and luck when it comes to innovation.
“Methodology” means applying a systematic approach to address a fundamental
business issue or problem (and innovation is certainly fundamental).
“Luck,” on the other hand, is relying on the hope that people will come up with
good ideas to drive the innovation process forward.
If you frame your alternatives as methodology vs. luck as I do, then as with
infrastructure and all the other elements of the master plan, the choice becomes no
choice at all. Once this context is accepted then no manager could possibly rely on
luck, and certainly no board member would consider “waiting for luck” to be a
satisfactory approach to fulfilling their fiduciary duties.
A sound innovation methodology, then, is not an option, but a requirement.
the very last word …
on innovation, change, and luck
The pursuit of innovation broadly defines an important response to the
competitive nature of business, and articulates how companies can apply processes
and technologies to build and sustain effective relationships with customers, while at
the same time searching for enduring competitive advantages. The experiences that
customers have, and the relationships that companies build with their customers, are
the critical factors that innovation must serve. Understanding the essence of positive
experiences and relationships, creating them, preserving them, enriching them, and
extending them into the future are critical attributes of success. So everything that’s
done to pursue innovation must be in their service; relationships and experiences are
the point, and innovation is a means to these ends.
Successful innovators earn some sort of competitive advantage to the extent that
their results create or enhance successful relationships. But the useful life span of
every innovation is inherently limited by the specific conditions and the technologies
available at the time, and due to the unpredictability of change its useful and viable
time frame is often unknown. Hence, advantages may disappear overnight should a
competitor devise a superior offer, thereby displacing your company in the mind of
the customer.
Just as innovations have a limited but unknown lifespan in the market,
companies do also.
The mortality of companies is a real and significant
phenomenon, and the mortality rate is increasing as a result of the acceleration of
change throughout the economy.
Managers who have the good fortune to preside over a period of calm success
should never lose sight of the ephemeral nature of their advantages, and must focus
not just on administering the (illusory) stability of today, but on preparing for, or
even inducing the inevitable changes that will shape tomorrow. Another way to say
this is that the management which remains unrepentantly focused on stability and
continuity, instead of on disruption and change, is looking in the wrong direction,
and is possibly courting disaster as the eventual result.
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
7
Relentlessly changing conditions mean that the business world evolves rapidly,
and innovation is therefore not optional. New products and services coming into the
market affect the fate of all participants in the market ecosystem, and while any
innovations applied throughout your organization may be important, innovations
linked with your strategic intent will likely be life-sustaining.
Further, because the market is so transparent and the performance of every public
company is subject to such detailed scrutiny by investors and analysts, changes in an
organization’s innovation performance can lead to broad swings in stock price, as
Nokia’s experience makes utterly clear.
Improving innovation performance may lead to increasing stock price, a virtuous
and self-sustaining cycle that creates more favorable conditions for companies to then
develop and implement future innovations by improving brand image, improving
stock currency for making acquisitions, and also by lowering the overall cost of
capital. In this way, the results of innovation can be even more far-reaching than
their utility for the customers who buy them.
Figure 32
Innovation’s Virtuous Cycle
Conversely, declining innovation performance and a falling stock price can lead
to a dangerous downward spiral that makes it progressively more difficult to compete
for attractive acquisition targets, and which can also increase the cost of capital, and
divert capital that could be invested in innovation-related activities such as R&D and
product development. Get ahead and push farther ahead; get behind and fall farther
behind.
The need for sound thinking about innovation is as important for new businesses
as it is for old ones, and among the many examples consider the spectacular start-up
and equally spectacular collapse of Webvan. Webvan’s business concept, in case you
don’t remember, was simply to replace the grocery store with a delivery service.
Orders would be placed online, prepared in giant, automated warehouses, and
brought to your house in a van. The value proposition: no more trips to the grocery
store, so time saved, and convenience achieved. Webvan’s business model achieved
cost savings by eliminating the expensive stores, which more than covered the cost of
the fancy warehouses and delivery fleet. So once the company achieved significant
scale it would net a handsome profit.
Its management team included a renowned CEO who had formerly been the
head of Andersen Consulting, and everyone involved was so confident in what they
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
8
were doing that the company invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a huge
distribution infrastructure even though market demand that would generate a return
was completely unproven. That is, they believed that they could make the business
work, and fooled themselves into thinking that their own belief was sufficient basis
for betting their capital on a business model that had never actually been fully tested.
In the end, hundred-million-dollar warehouses were built but never used, never
generating even a cent of return. The business folded when it turned out that
customers just weren’t that interested, and more than a billion dollars of capital was
invested, spent, and lost.
Why did Webvan fail? Well, there’s always the temptation to build a business
according to a preconceived idea, and one key reason is that the company’s leaders
apparently didn’t take into account some of the important tacit factors related to
shopping.
Yes, they would have been wise to ask, “Why do people shop at all?”
And in response, they might have realized that for many people grocery shopping
is perhaps like hunting or gathering for food, an activity that more than any other is
probably hard coded into human DNA, and one not so easy to let go of.
So Webvan offered a brilliant engineering solution to a problem that really has
little to do with engineering excellence, but rather has everything to do with our
instinctive – and tacit – sensibilities concerning what it means to be human.
For these reasons it’s necessary to explore the tacit factors underlying your
innovation concept, not mention your entire business model. Managing the tacit
dimension is as essential as managing for change: it is an absolute requirement. But
many (should we say most?) managers still aren’t very good at dealing with change or
with tacit knowledge acquisition and modeling. And managing that innovation thing
is tough, too.
Nevertheless, recognizing that change in the marketplace is real and inescapable,
and that adapting to its tacitly-driven, turbulent evolution through innovation is a
necessity, this is an issue that confronts all executives. For although we may
remember periods that seemed stable, they are in fact long gone and never to return.
As markets continue to evolve and competition becomes ever more demanding,
engaging in the search for innovation therefore becomes not just an interesting
possibility, but a requirement. To survive, all business leaders must develop a
comprehensive approach to innovation, and I hope that the framework offered
through this concept of the Master Plan can help them and their organizations to be
more effective; that it can help you and your organization to be more effective.
In the end, when we look at the business world it’s clear that the story of change
is still the important story to tell, and the process of leading an organization in the
face of change remains the critical skill. Innovation will inevitably play a leading role
in the unfolding marketplace drama, and the capacity of your firm to innovate will
eventually go a long way toward deciding its fate.
The Greeks thought that each individual’s fate was given, predetermined at birth,
and that it could not be avoided. Achilles, they told us, was inescapably and
tragically destined to die from the inevitable wound to his heel.
But we know differently. There is no predestiny when it comes to innovation;
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
9
what matters is what you can accomplish, not the gifts that the gods gave to you, nor
the ones they took away.
Yes, your firm can become a brilliant innovator, and alter the course of the
market. To do so will require skill, as well as luck, but mostly skill. So when chemist
Louis Pasteur said that “luck favors the prepared mind,” he was giving us guidance.
So was golfer Gary Player when he said, “the more I practice, the luckier I get.”
Will you wait for luck to arrive, or will you prepare your mind and your
organization, practice diligently, and create your own future? I know, it’s really not a
choice when I frame the alternatives that way. Preparation or luck? No, if
innovation is in your future, and I believe it has to be, then it’s up to you and your
colleagues to make it so. And I hope that your own version of the innovation master
plan will significantly help you to attain your goals.
•••
Please return to InnovationManagement.se for the subsequent chapters of
The Innovation Master Plan by Langdon Morris.
You can learn more about his work and access additional writings and his blog at
www.innovationlabs.com
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
11
bibliography
Note: I have found all of these books very useful in my studies of innovation, and they’re all
insightful and well written. Those books marked with a double asterisk ** are highly
recommended.
Aaker, David. Brand Leadership. Free Press, 2000.
Ackoff, Russell, Jason Magidson and Herbert Addison. Idealized Design. Wharton School Publishing,
2006.
Allen, Thomas. Managing the Flow of Technology, Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press, 1977, 1995.
** Allen, Thomas J. and Gunter W. Henn. The Organization and Architecture of Innovation. Elsevier,
2007.
Anthony, Scott and Mark Johnson, Joseph Sinfield, and Elizabeth Altman, The Innovator’s Guide to
Growth. Harvard Business Press, 2008.
Apple Human Interface Guidelines: The Apple Desktop Interface. Addison-Wesley, 1987.
Ariely, Dan. Predictably Irrational. Harper, 2010.
Barsh, Joanna, and Marla Capozzi and Jonathan Davidson. “Leadership and Innovation.”
McKinsey Quarterly, 2008, no 1.
Beckwith, Harry. Selling the Invisible. Warner Business Books, 1997.
Bernstein, Peter. Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. Wiley, 1998.
Bhidé, Amar. The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses. Oxford, 2000.
Burke, James. Connections. Little Brown and Company, 1978.
Calvin, William H. The River that Flows Uphill: A Journey from the Big Bang to Big Brain. New York,
MacMillan, 1986.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, 1968.
Capra, Fritjof. The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance. Anchor
Books, 2007.
Chabris, Christopher and Daniel Simons. The Invisible Gorilla. Crown, 2010.
Colvin, Geoff. Talent is Overrated. Portfolio, 2008.
Crouhy, Michel and Dan Galai and Robert Mark. The Essentials of Risk Management. McGraw Hill,
2005.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Creativity. Harper Perennial, 1996.
De Geus, Arie. The Living Company. Harvard, 1997.
Deming, W. Edwards. The New Economics. MIT, 1993.
Dorner, Dietrich. The Logic of Failure. Perseus Books, 1996.
Drucker, Peter. The Age of Discontinuity, Harper & Row, 1968.
** Drucker, Peter. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Harper & Row, 1985.
Drucker, Peter. Post-Capitalist Society. HarperBusiness, 1993.
Fetterman, David. Ethnography: Step by Step. Sage Publications, 1998.
Friedman, George. The Next 100 Years. Anchor Books, 2009.
Gelb, Michael J. How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci. Dell, 1998.
** Gerstner, Louis V. Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance. HarperBusiness, 2002.
** Gopnik, Alison. The Philosophical Baby, Farrar Straus Giroux, 2009.
** Hall, Peter. Cities in Civilization. Fromm International, 1998.
** Hirshberg, Jerry. The Creative Priority: Driving Innovative Business in the Real World.
HarperBusiness, 1998.
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
12
Holland, John. Emergence: From Chaos to Order. Perseus Books, 1998.
Janis, Irving. Groupthink. Houghton Mifflin, 1982.
Johnson, Steven. Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. Touchstone,
2001.
Jordan, Dr. Brigitte. "Ethnographic Workplace Studies and Computer Supported Cooperative Work."
Institute for Research on Learning, Report No. IRL94-0026, 1994.
** Kahney, Leander. Inside Steve’s Brain. Portfolio, 2008.
Keegan, John. Intelligence in War. Alfred Knopf, 2003.
Koberg, Don and Jim Bagnall. The Universal Traveler. Crisp Publications, Inc., 1991.
Kodama, Fumio. Emerging Patterns of Innovation. Harvard Business Press, 1991.
Kohn, Alfie. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other
Bribes, Mariner Books, 1999.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Penguin
Books, 1999.
Lakoff, George, Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don't. Chicago, The University
of Chicago Press, 1996.
** Mark, Margaret and Carol S. Pearson. The Hero and the Outlaw. McGraw Hill, 2001.
Markowitz, Harry. Portfolio Selection. Efficient Diversification of Investments. Wiley, 1959.
McCraw, Thomas. American Business Since 1920: How It Worked. Harlan Davidson, 2000.
McCraw, Thomas. Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction. Belknap
Harvard, 2007.
Meyer, Marc and Al Lehnerd. The Power of Product Platforms. Free Press, 1997.
Miller, William L. and Langdon Morris. Fourth Generation R&D: Managing Knowledge, Technology,
and Innovation. Wiley, 1999.
Moore, Geoffrey. Crossing the Chasm. Harper Perennial, 1991, 1999.
Morris, Langdon. Managing the Evolving Corporation. John Wiley & Sons, 1995.
** Morris, Langdon. Permanent Innovation. Innovation Academy, 2006, 2011.
Morris, Langdon. “Social Design: The Link Between Facility Design, Organization Design, and
Corporate Strategy.” An InnovationLabs White Paper, 1999. Download at
www.innovationlabs.com/publications
Piel, Gerald. The Acceleration of History. Knopf, 1972.
Polanyi, Michael. The Tacit Dimension. Peter Smith, 1983.
Ramo, Joshua Cooper. The Age of the Unthinkable. Little, Brown, 2009.
Ratey, John. A User’s Guide to the Brain. Vintage, 2001.
Ries, Al, and Laura Ries. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. Harper Business, 1998.
** Rogers, Everett. Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press, 1983.
Roussel, Philip, Kamal Saad, and Tamara Erickson Third Generation R&D, Harvard Business Press,
1991.
Sabbagh, Karl. Twenty-First-Century Jet: The Making and Marketing of the Boeing 777. Scribner, 1996.
Scenarios: An Explorer’s Guide. Shell International BV, 2008. www.shell.com/scenarios
Schumpeter, Joseph, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Harper & Brothers, 1942, 1947, 1950
Schwartz, Peter. The Art of the Long View. Doubleday Currency, 1991.
Smith, Charles. Navigating from the Future. 2009.
Smith, Dougles and Robert Alexander. Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, and the Ignored, the
First Personal Computer. Quill, 1988.
Smith, General Rupert. The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World. Knopf, 2005.
Suchman, Lucy. Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication.
Cambridge, 1987.
Surowiecki, James. The Wisdom of Crowds. Abacus, 2004.
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. The Black Swan. Random House, 2007.
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. Fooled by Randomness. Random House, 2004.
Tapscott, Don, Wikinomics. Portfolio, 2010.
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
13
** Tharp, Twyla. The Creative Habit, Simon & Schuster. 2003.
Tharp, Twyla. The Collaborative Habit, Simon & Schuster. 2009.
Tichy, Noel M. and Stratford Sherman, Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will. New York,
Currency Doubleday, 1993.
** Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. Ballantine Books, 1962
Underhill, Paco. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. Simon & Schuster, 1999.
** Watson, Peter. The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century. Harper Collins, 2001.
Wiener, Norbert. Invention: The Care and Feeding of Ideas. The MIT Press, 1993.
Wilkinson, Paul. International Relations. Sterling, 2007.
Wozniak, Steve and Gina Smith. iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon. Norton, 2006.
Zimmermann, Manfred. "Neurophysiology of Sensory Systems." Fundamentals of Sensory Physiology,
Robert F. Schmidt, ed. Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1986.
acknowledgments
As with nearly everything I’ve ever written about business, it is the interactions
with our clients and colleagues that have provided the foundational questions,
discoveries, and insights underlying this book, and I am grateful to all of them for the
opportunities they’ve given us to work with them.
In addition, many people were kind enough to review various versions of this
book, and I deeply appreciate their many contributions. I would like to thank Sara
Beckman, Bryan Coffman, Griff Coleman, Réne van der Hulst, John Holmes, and
Justin Lin for their detailed critiques, as well as Michael Barry, Jacqueline Byrd,
Léopold Demiddeleer, Kim Dempsey, Signe Gammeltoft, Michael Kaufman, Kate
Lee, John Purcell-O’Dwyer, Martin Schwab, Avnindra Sharma, and Jay Smethurst
for their thoughtful and very helpful comments.
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
14
About this Book
This book is intended as a companion to my previous innovation book,
Permanent Innovation.
During the four years since Permanent Innovation was completed, we’ve
continued to refine our understanding of the innovation process through
work with many organizations, and we’ve found that senior managers
have a continuing interest in guidance in the design and management of
their innovation initiatives. The Innovation Master Plan addresses many of
those needs, and deals with aspects of the innovation process that
Permanent Innovation didn’t address.
In the course of preparing The Innovation Master Plan, I’ve also discovered
some opportunities to improve Permanent Innovation, and as a result a
revised edition is now available.
(You can download Permanent Innovation at
www.permanentinnovation.com)
About the Author
Langdon Morris
Langdon Morris is a co-founder and partner of InnovationLabs LLC, one
of the world’s leading innovation consultancies. He works with
organizations around the world to help them improve their proficiency in
innovation.
He is Senior Fellow of the Economic Opportunities Program of the
Aspen Institute, Editor of the Aerospace Technology Working Group
Innovation Series, Associate Editor of the International Journal of
Innovation Science, a Contributing Editor and Writer for
InnovationManagement.se, and a member of the Scientific Committee of
Business Digest, Paris. He is formerly Senior Practice Scholar of the
Ackoff Center of the University of Pennsylvania and Contributing Editor
of Knowledge Management magazine.
He is author, co-author, or editor of eight books on innovation and
strategy, various of which have been translated into six languages, author
of many articles and white papers, and a frequent speaker at workshops
and conferences worldwide.
He has taught or lectured at universities in the US, France, Portugal,
Taiwan, and Argentina, including Stanford University, the Ecole
Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and the Conservatoire National des
Arts et Métiers, Paris, the University of Belgrano, Buenos Aires, and
Chaoyang University of Technology, Taiwan.
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
15
early praise for
The Innovation Master Plan
“A fantastic piece of work, and a guide you must hold at hand when traveling
in Innovation-Land. Use it as a reference in outlining your plan to future
growth and profits. The business world has to be different, just start to build it
... with this Master Plan.”
Léopold Demiddeleer
Solvay
“Authentic Leadership among the companies of the 21st century is naturally a
commitment to sustainable growth, profit, and image. And this can only be
achieved with a complete dedication to sustainable innovation at the core of
the organization. Langdon Morris’ intelligent, passionate and inspiring
messages in his master plan make sustainable innovation possible. This
dynamic, focused and simple process takes us from concepts and ideas to
reality. It is hugely important and productive to guide us in creating valuable
innovations for our organizations. Langdon is a true innovation leader, and
wherever you are in your innovation journey it is wise to follow these best
principles.”
Signe Gammeltoft
L’Oréal
“The Innovation Master Plan is another revolutionary innovation masterpiece by
Langdon Morris, a framework which brings practicality to the concept of
innovation. This book will compel and inspire any executive reader to adopt
an innovation culture and framework for their organization in order to survive
and succeed in the 21st century.”
Genevieve Bonin
PwC
“The Innovation Master Plan is one of those books that captures your
imagination and keeps you grounded in reality at the same time. Langdon
Morris describes the driving forces impacting our businesses and the worlds
we live in everyday. He exposes how the ‘great ones’ have innovated, and
provides one of the most simple and powerful models to transform your
business and empower people to be more innovative; altering the innovation
landscape. A powerful call to action!”
Jacqueline Byrd, Ph.D.
Creatrix, Inc.
“For anyone who is wrestling with the challenges of innovation in their
organization The Innovation Master Plan is a must read. Langdon offers a
comprehensive handbook that maps this uncertain territory by asking (and
helping you answer) five key innovation questions; Why? What? How? Who?
Where? Having taught "Needfinding" and design research methods at
Stanford for the last 2 decades, it’s clear to me that this book is a significant
contribution to the field that will benefit students and experienced practitioners
alike.”
Michael Barry
Stanford University and Point Forward
www.innovationmanagement.se
the innovation master plan: the CEO’s guide to innovation by Langdon Morris
special edition for InnovationManagement.com
conclusion + bibliography + acknowledgments
16
more praise for
The Innovation Master Plan
“I love this book a lot.
I can be an innovation leader, because I keep providing my own industrial and
educational visions to the related parties.
I can be an innovation champion, because I support all kinds of innovation
activities in the industrial and academic societies.
I can be an innovation genius, because I learn, think and practice all sorts of
innovation methodologies.
Most of all, I can be a master of innovation.”
Justin Lin, Ph.D.
Chaoyung University of Technology
“Thought-provoking, enjoyable, and indeed inspirational! The key messages
here are incisive and convincing. A very worthwhile achievement that
deserves the widest readership.”
John Holmes
RathBeau Technologies Limited
www.innovationmanagement.se