Rating: 
Summary: Good thesis, but terribly repetitive
Review: The main point of this book is well supported with examples from "innovative" organizations. However, I was continually under the impression that this was a 30 page research paper converted into a 200 page book. How did the author accomplish this feat? Repeat, repeat, repeat. This book is full of redundancies, repetitions, summaries, and introductions that are all superfluous. When you're done reading this book, you will know the examples of good innovators by heart because they are repeated in every chapter, sometimes multiple times.
Rating: 
Summary: The Lone Genius Myth Must Die!
Review: The Summary:
This is book looks to answer the question, "Can Innovation really be routine?" This book not only answers that questions but actually gets into the details of "How". The title of the book is "How Breakthroughs Happen" and Hargadon definitely successfully explains the 'How'. He doesn't proclaim that it is easy, but he does give a road map of how to achieve innovation through technology brokering, he even explains the different paths that apply to different types of companies. This book is ambitious since it is going to go in the face of popular belief that innovation is the sole province of geniuses. But it also isn't just another create an "innovative work space" through giving break/games rooms, adding free soda machines and providing all employees with Herman Miller chairs! This isn't a superficial answer to innovation; you can't just throw money at this and hope that innovation will just happen! But follow his rules and strategies you should be able to create an environment where recombinant ideas can flourish.The central thesis of the book is that Innovation can be achieved through some best practices but first companies need to overcome the romantic preconception that innovation is the sole province of lone geniuses. Hargadon is a social scientist that has been researching innovation for the past decade. He explores the concept of technology brokering and creating Innovation factories a subject he first wrote about in a Harvard Business Review article - Building an Innovation Factory. Hargadon's research explores in detail Edison's Menlo Park as an example of one of the first documented innovation brokerages. He also looks at modern day examples such as IDEO (a company he has worked at) and Design Continuum. One of the most interesting topics that is discussed is the debunking of the 'Lone Genius Myth' and how the media could be responsible for putting American companies years behind the Innovation race by propagating and even probably being the original instigators of this myth. America's love affair with heroes is behind this myth; everyone wants to believe the stories of the lone genius in the garage inventing the next great technology that will change the world. This is not to say that lone geniuses don't come up with great inventions, but more to the point, they aren't the only source of innovation. Hargadon even goes as far as to explore the theory that Edison propagated this myth as a marketing exercise, he tapped into the America's need for heroes and played up his role as the lone inventor in the lab. In actuality his lab was a perfect example of innovation factory. He had a lot of very smart engineers that worked at the lab and most of his long list of inventions was really a product of their combined genius. Menlo Park, New Jersey represented the first dedicated R&D facility and showed the industrial world the power of organized innovation. Menlo Park exemplifies Hargadon's model for innovation; by linking people, objects and ideas together from diverse worlds of knowledge you can create an environment where innovation through recombination happens. An modern day example of 'Recombinant Innovation' is taken from Design Continuum; they combined the concept of an 'inflatable splint' and a basketball shoe to create the concept of a basketball shoe that is used to prevent injuries by providing inflatable ankle support. They created these 'air bladders' from medical IV bags. Menlo Park created an environment where recombinant innovation could happen by modeling the lab on machine shops from which Edison emerged. These machine shops were where mechanics and independent entrepreneurs/inventors worked side by side, sharing tools/machines, stories and inevitably ideas. Edison built his organization to redistribute the ideas emerging from the telegraph industry and applying it to any new industry that electricity was being applied to. By bringing these diverse industries together, by creating an environment where people with diverse background worked on diverse projects, side by side he had created one of the first Innovation Factories. People, Industries and ideas were brought together in an environment conducive to sharing. Hargadon goes on to explain some of the underpinnings of his theory drawing from network theory and the theory of "small worlds". He then gets into the "how" by showing different brokering strategies:
- A company committed to a full time strategy i.e. IDEO, Menlo Park
- Remain focused on the core business but dedicate groups that bridge different worlds (departments) and help broker ideas - Xerox Parc, 3M's Optical Technology Center
- Develop a strategy to seize on one-time opportunities for brokering i.e. Microsoft and building the Xbox. Hargadon completes the book by listing 8 rules that are the basis of an organized pursuit of innovation through technology brokering. If you truly want to create an innovation factory, you should read this book and then apply what it teaches you.
Rating:
Summary: Innovation redefined
Review: This book provides a totally new dimension to look at innovation as a process. The concept of defining technology as an arrangement of Objects (hardware and software, tangible and unchanging), Ideas (understanding how to interact with objects) and People (those who know these objects and ideas) lays the foundation for the research. Innovation is a result of (Objects + People + Ideas) recombined in new ways.Innovations that happen this way are cheaper, quicker and are more likely to succeed. The social side of innovation as a process bridging distant worlds and building new communities is the most valuable contribution of this book. The author uses theories of sociology very effectively to further exploit this phenomenon. Definition of networks and their relevance to the process of innovation is another important concept." Man is suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun" - Max Weber. Networks link distant social groups and their relationships. Breakthrough Innovations cause a dramatic shift in these networks according to the author. Case studies are liberally used to explain each concept. If Edison was an innovator he was actually great networker transforming the Menlo Park Laboratory of 15 engineers into a factory for patents. If Ford at Highland Park pioneered the assembly line for magnetos and then cars, it should also thank the meat packaging industry among others for the origination of these ideas. If innovation is a recombination of objects, people and ideas in new ways, it is possible for firms having access to different industries to be the leaders in innovation. Design Continuum's contribution to Reebok pump athletic shoe came from its experience in the pharma industry. This firm with just 110 people is a place for combination of ideas in a systematic manner. " We enjoy working in diverse industries and it brings great benefit to our clients" - Gian Zaccai, CEO of Design Continuum. The Concept of "Technology Brokering" to create new relationships is the key lesson for managers to practice. Managers in today's global businesses should see innovation as an integral part of business strategy. Taking this responsibility for innovation as a process, they should then promote networking to connect diverse product divisions across countries, encourage people to work in new areas, attract and retain people from diverse industries, and accept innovation as a social process rather than merely pumping money into laboratories that work in isolation. Innovation should happen by design and not by accident. This book is very different from most other books on innovation and introduces a new paradigm that we cannot afford to ignore.
Rating: 
Summary: useful but boring
Review: This is a useful book, but it is quite boring. It could have been written in half the pages. I agree with an earlier reviewer that it is wordy and repetitive. You have to be patient to find a new idea buried under a pile of superfluous and redundant paragraphs. But it is insightful nonetheless. If you work in R&D, then you must read this book to see which model is suitable for innovation.
Rating:
Summary: A significant contribution to several disciplines!
Review: With this book, Dr. Hargadon has managed to take several concepts being explored in a number of disciplines and give them clarity, life, and meaning. His exploration of the true nature of innovation has a lot to teach us, cutting across traditional academic and professional boundaries. As someone operating in the world of knowledge transfer in the Canadian health sector, I have already begun to incorporate many of Dr. Hargadon's ideas into my work - to my great benefit. This is a must read and a great contribution to the area of knowledge transfer and knowledge brokering.
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