Quantity:

More Buying Choices

53 used & new from �1.41

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Share your own customer images

Search inside this book

Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation (Hardcover)

by James P Andrew (Author), Harold L Sirkin (Author)

5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

RRP:	�20.99
Price:	�17.84 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save:	�3.15 (15%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

35 new from �9.72 18 used from �1.41

Frequently Bought Together

Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-rings: The World of an Engineer

Total RRP: �59.44
Price For All Three: �51.91

Show availability and delivery details

This item: Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation by James P Andrew
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
Essential Communication Strategies: For Scientists, Engineers, and Technology Professionals by Herbert Hirsch
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-rings: The World of an Engineer by JL Adams
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Essential Communication Strategies: For Scientists, Engineers, and Technology Professionals

by Herbert Hirsch

�20.43

Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-rings: The World of an Engineer

by JL Adams

4.0 out of 5 stars (2) �13.64

The New Science of Strong Materials: Or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor (Penguin Science)

by J E Gordon

4.8 out of 5 stars (8) �9.09

De Bono's Thinking Course: Powerful Tools to Transform Your Thinking

by Dr Edward De Bono

4.2 out of 5 stars (5) �5.08

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

4.6 out of 5 stars (9) �12.67

› Explore similar items

Product details

Hardcover: 228 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (1 Jan 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1422103137
ISBN-13: 978-1422103135
Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.7 x 2.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 111,326 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories:
#9 in Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Electrical > Nanotechnology
#64 in Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Mathematics > Applied Mathematics > Finance & Economics

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Financial Times, February 21, 2007

a detailed roadmap on how to manage innovation projects in the early stages
[thus avoiding] irrevocable cash traps

Product Description

If you're like most people, you bet your career and company on innovation--because you must. Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation offers you a new way to think about and manage innovation that will dramatically improve the odds of success.

Authors James Andrew and Harold Sirkin, senior partners in The Boston Consulting Group, describe an approach to managing innovation based on the concept of a cash curve--which tracks investment against time. They ask the questions you need to ask: How much should you invest in a new product or service? How fast should you push it to market? How quickly can you get to optimal value? How much additional investment should you pour into sustaining and building the product or service?

Payback offers you practical and economically sound advice on when to pursue cash flow indirectly by first pursuing other benefits, such as brand and knowledge. It also shows you how to reshape the cash curve by using different business models - integrator, orchestrator, and licenser - each of which balances risk and reward differently.

The authors then present a short list of decisions and activities that you must make - not delegate - to achieve a high return on innovation. You won't find facile answers in Payback - but you will find valuable insights and practical guidance for mastering one of the most challenging and critical business activities: innovation.

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

(What's this?)

Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)

not recommend amazon

michael s

innovation

deremiah book club

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	98% buy the item featured on this page: Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation 5.0 out of 5 stars (2) �17.84
	1% buy Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape 4.7 out of 5 stars (3) �15.08
	1% buy Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning 4.3 out of 5 stars (6) �11.89

Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "As you sow, so shall you reap.", 7 Feb 2007

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

"As you sow, so shall you reap."

The last time I checked, I was amazed to learn that Amazon offers 178,376 books on the general subject of innovation. One of the basic truths about selling residential real estate is that "for every house, there is a buyer." The challenge is to bring the two together. The same is true of business books and those who read them. The authors of Payback, James P. Andrew and Harold L. Sirkin, do not provide an annotated bibliography but do refer to dozens of excellent sources that helped to guide and inform their explanation of how to "reap" the rewards of innovation. Presumably they would be the first to suggest that their readers also consult a number of the sources before deciding - and in this context, I presume to invoke an agricultural metaphor -- what to "plant" where in order to produce the desired "harvest." The purpose of this brief commentary is to help those who read it to decide whether or not Andrew and Sirkin's book is worthy of their careful consideration. My guess (only is a guess) is that it will be of substantial value to most (if not to all) C-level executives.

The material is carefully organized and lucidly presented within three Parts: What Is Payback? ("Cash and Cash Traps" and "The Indirect Benefits of Innovation"), Choosing the Optimal Model ("The Integrator, "The Orchestrator," or "The Licensor"), and Aligning and Leading for Payback. In the Afterword, Andrew and Sirkin then offer a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effect plan for "taking action" which will maximize the ROI of whatever resources have been committed innovation initiatives.

Of special interest to me is what they have to say about alignment in Chapter Seven. According to a survey conducted with BusinessWeek, the highest ranked innovative companies (in descending order) are Apple, Google, 3M, Toyota, Microsoft, GE, P&G, Nokia, Starbucks, and IBM. However different they are, "all of them are aligned around innovation and achieve payback" because they have avoided the most basic causes of innovation misalignment. Specifically, these causes are:

1. Having an innovation strategy at odds with business strategy
2. Innovation that is "all talk and no support"
3. Innovation initiatives are isolated
4. The process is fragmented and disjointed
5. "Dynasties" monopolize innovation resources
6. Metrics confound the goals of innovation

Andrew and Sirkin explain how to avoid these and other causes of misalignment, stressing the importance of achieving and then sustaining individual, unit, and companywide responsibility as well as creating and nourishing conducive conditions which include openness, and, meanwhile, "measuring what matters" with accuracy and consistency.

Efforts to "reap the rewards of innovation" require effective leadership at all levels and in all areas of operation, of course, but especially at the C-level. Leaders of innovation must have a tolerance for ambiguity; also be able to assess and be comfortable with prudent risk, be able to quickly and effectively assess an individual, be able to balance passion with objectivity, and finally and most important, be able to change.

Whatever their size and nature, all organizations need to "get their arms around [their] innovation portfolio," Andrew and Sirkin insist, and "the projects under review will fall into three categories. About a third of them will be winners that should be promoted and accelerated. Another third will be a waste of resources and should be stopped even if they are being supported by `other budgets.' These are the `walking dead,' and it takes great courage to kill them, but it must be done. The final third will be less easy to evaluate and will need further exploration and discussion to determine whether they should be kept or killed. Moving on the third that should be stopped, and reallocating resources to accelerate the third that are winners, will immediately increase payback."

Long ago, Thomas Edison asserted that "vision without execution is hallucination." While no doubt agreeing with Edison, Andrew and Sirkin take that thought a step further by insisting that execution of innovation initiatives must deliver the required return on a company's investment of money, time, and people. "Payback means one thing - cash. Cash that is realized within the planned time frame."

For decision-makers in organizations that have not as yet achieved and then sustained such payback, Andrew and Sirkin's book is a "must read"...and I mean now.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Report this | Permalink

Comment Comment

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting the most from innovation, 11 Dec 2007

By	Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

A lot of books on innovation make it sound like an end in itself, as if innovation carries the answer to every business problem. James P. Andrew and Harold L. Sirkin sound a refreshing note or, rather, several of them. They argue that companies must evaluate business innovation according to the direct or indirect financial returns it produces, its "payback" - and that most products fail to earn back their investment. They then discuss the issues you need to consider if you are investing in innovation: the models, factors, processes and more. While some of their discussions are a bit too sweeping or general, the authors' specific stories of innovation attempts that failed or succeeded illustrate how systematic evaluation could have helped companies estimate a product's chances of success. As a result, this book is a realistic antidote to innovation intoxication. We recommend it to anyone who is trying to plan seriously and realistically for innovation in a business context.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Report this | Permalink

Comment Comment

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 2 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jqOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jqOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jqOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; }