Innovation Management Theory and Practice: Part 1

Abstract

Abstract

This article identifies the root cause of a group of wicked global problems which is lack of value creation from radical innovation that has existed over the last four decades. This article describes the essential part of a solution which is adoption of a new fourth generation of innovation management (4G) to emerge as best practice since 1900. 4G effectively enables radical innovation.

Radical innovation is required for sustained, adequate rates of economic growth driven by improvements in productivity, quality and cost in industries such as health care, education, construction and energy. As a result of inadequate radical innovation for decades, a group of major economic, social and environmental wicked problems , such as, income inequality and global warming, remain unsolved, and these problems exist in all countries including the United States. In his landmark book Capital in the Twenty-first Century, Thomas Piketty linked inadequate economic growth to income inequality.

A distinguished economist and professor at Northwestern University, Robert Gordon, has identified the current global situation as a period of potentially permanently stalled economic growth unless value creation driven by radical innovation is resumed at a level and with rates similar to what occurred in the three industrial/information revolutions since 1750.

Since 1900, there have been three separate and successive periods of time in which a new generation of innovation management was created and then adopted as best practice to replace, augment and improve the practices in earlier generations. The root cause of the global problem is that none of the three generations have been effective in creating an adequate amount of radical innovation which requires a new dominant design to transform (a) capabilities in organizations based on knowledge, tools (which include purchased products and services), technology and processes, (b) business models and (c) the structure of markets and industries.

4G is guided by 12 new principles and practices to effectively and efficiently create radical innovation based on new dominant designs while also improving the efficient creation of incremental innovation. Part 1 of this article describes 4G and the first four principles of 4G in detail. Another companion article, Part 2, will later describe the remaining eight principles in detail as essential part of a solution.