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Rating: 
Summary: The Basic message seems to be ?Don?t believe the hype?
Review: This book covers some of the bases in regard to innovation - in particular it mentions the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, propounded by Everett Rogers among others. He gets a lot of mileage out of failures (such as New Coke and The Smokeless Cigarette) , under the general guise of "what were they thinking", and he clearly describes how foolish ideas can get backing from powerful, influential ideas and how other people then fall into the Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome.
There are a lot of good references in this book to successes, failures and studies relating to the Dot Com boom. One curious omission, in my view, is any reference to the work of Geoffrey Moore, whose work in the marketing of innovative technology products is a must-read for anyone trying to define the topic.My basic impression of this book is that it is good on description, adequate in referring the reader to deeper, more original, material but very poor on analytical contribution.
Rating:
Summary: The Basic message seems to be ¿Don¿t believe the hype¿
Review: This book covers some of the bases in regard to innovation - in particular it mentions the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, propounded by Everett Rogers among others. He gets a lot of mileage out of failures (such as New Coke and The Smokeless Cigarette) , under the general guise of "what were they thinking", and he clearly describes how foolish ideas can get backing from powerful, influential ideas and how other people then fall into the Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome.
There are a lot of good references in this book to successes, failures and studies relating to the Dot Com boom. One curious omission, in my view, is any reference to the work of Geoffrey Moore, whose work in the marketing of innovative technology products is a must-read for anyone trying to define the topic. My basic impression of this book is that it is good on description, adequate in referring the reader to deeper, more original, material but very poor on analytical contribution.
Rating: 
Summary: Practical commonsense for anyone involved in innovation
Review: Why Innovation Fails is a practical guide reminding us of the many almost obvious reasons causing so many innovations to fail. The book is easy reading, and not academic. At first I was disappointed by this, but the book fits together well and has a seriously useful questionnaire at the end. The books uses examples from the dotcom bust and other modern ideas (the iPod is presented as an innovation that did work). It focuses on why people reject or aren't interested in technical innovation. The questionnaire, for example, asks the innovator to describe a typical early adopter, a typical late majority adopter and to ask what they each want from the innovation. This focus on the launch and growth phase of the product is typical of the book's emphasis on the consumer experience. There is some discussion of types of consumers (early adopters etc), and lots of summaries of key books in the area. My overall impression was that at my company, we need to use more common sense and get more customer research. The book is oddly positive, a message being that if innovations doomed to failure and spotted and killed earlier, more resources will be available for innovations that can succeed. When I rate books, four stars is "highly recommended".
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