Cover image for How breakthroughs happen : the surprising truth about how companies innovate
Title:
How breakthroughs happen : the surprising truth about how companies innovate
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, 2003
Physical Description:
xvi, 254 p. ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9781578519040

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30000005079961 HD45 H375 2003 Open Access Book Book
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Summary

Summary

This book presents lessons from the famous 'Invention Factories' past and present. Did you know that the incandescent lightbulb first emerged some thirty years before Thomas Edison famously 'turned night into day'? Or that Henry Ford's revolutionary assembly line came from an unlikely blend of observations from Singer sewing machines, meatpacking, and Campbell's Soup? In this fascinating study of innovation, engineer and social scientist Andrew Hargadon argues that our romantic notions about innovation as invention are actually undermining our ability to pursue breakthrough innovations. Based on ten years of study into the origins of historic inventions and modern innovations from the lightbulb to the transistor to the Reebok Pump athletic shoe, How Breakthroughs Happen takes us beyond the simple recognition that revolutionary innovations do not result from flashes of brilliance by lone inventors or organizations. In fact, innovation is really about creatively recombining ideas, people, and objects from past technologies in ways that spark new technological revolutions. This process of 'technology brokering' is so powerful, explains Hargadon, because it exploits the networked nature--the social side--of the innovation process. Moving between historical accounts of labs and factory floors where past technological revolutions originated and field studies of similar processes in today's organizations, Hargadon shows how technology brokers create an enduring capacity for breakthrough innovations. Technology brokers simultaneously bridge the gaps in existing networks that separate distant industries, firms, and divisions to see how established ideas can be applied in new ways and places, and build new networks to guide these creative recombinations to mass acceptance. How Breakthroughs Happen identifies three distinct strategies for technology brokering that managers can implement in their organizations. Hargadon suggests that Edison and his counterparts were no smarter than the rest of us-they were simply better at moving through the networked world of their time. Intriguing, practical, and counterintuitive, How Breakthroughs Happen can help managers transform their own firms into modern-day invention factories.


Author Notes

Andrew Hargadon is Assistant Professor of Technology Management at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis.


Reviews 2

Publisher's Weekly Review

A light bulb flashing over the head of a lone scientist is the universal symbol of invention, but Edison's electric light bulb, which was the product of a whole team of engineers working with ideas cribbed from other inventors, is the rule rather than the exception, argues this fascinating primer on business innovations. Every breakthrough-be it the steamship, the transistor or the rise of rock 'n' roll-is a collective effort that combines and tweaks already existing ideas and technology in novel ways. Drawing on systems theory, cognitive psychology and "microsociology," management professor Hargadon examines innovation as a phenomenon of networks connected by "technology brokers"-people or organizations that link isolated groups and industries to integrate previously unrelated viewpoints and technologies to resolve new problems. He applies this framework to business case studies ranging from Henry Ford's mass-production methods to the work of present-day industrial design firms. Companies can stimulate innovation, he suggests, by cultivating a diverse network of projects, clients and suppliers to "capture" new ideas and exploit the resulting innovations, as well as by constantly testing models and prototypes, encouraging informal collaboration among employees and fostering a culture that embraces open-mindedness, iconoclasm and the freedom to "fail your way to success." Hargadon's argument is a well-written and well-supported corrective to the "lone genius" myth of technological innovation. While not quite a blueprint for breakthroughs, his provocative viewpoint and intriguing case studies will give managers new techniques to ponder. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved


Choice Review

Innovation and encouraging a company to become innovative are the central topics addressed by Hargadon (Univ. of California, Davis). His answer is quite simple: cross industrial lines, i.e., recombine people and ideas from past technologies to create new innovations. He presents some good examples, such as the design firm IDEO and Xerox PARC, but the text is highly repetitive and lacking in logical inquiry. This reviewer would have welcomed more pages devoted to examples of how a manager could elicit more innovation from his or her employees. In some ways, the author presents the problem of improving innovation as an insurmountable task for the average manager. Clayton M. Christensen's works on innovation, primarily The Innovator's Dilemma (rev. ed., 2000), are the seminal books on this issue and are recommended for anyone interested in this topic. ^BSumming Up: Optional. Practitioner and comprehensive academic collections. N. Gersony University of New Haven


Table of Contents

Kathleen Eisenhardt
Forewordp. vii
Prefacep. xi
Part 1 Technology Brokering and the Pursuit of Innovation
1 The Business of Innovationp. 3
2 Recombinant Innovation and the Sources of Inventionp. 31
Part 2 The Networks of Innovation
3 The Social Side of Innovationp. 55
4 Bridging Small Worldsp. 65
5 Building New Worldsp. 91
Part 3 How Firms Pursue Innovation Through Technology Brokering
6 Technology Brokering in Practicep. 123
7 Technology Brokering as a Firmp. 133
8 Technology Brokering Within the Firmp. 159
9 Exploiting Emergent Opportunities for Technology Brokeringp. 183
10 Looking Back, Moving Forwardp. 205
Epiloguep. 217
Notesp. 229
Further Readingp. 241
Indexp. 247
About the Authorp. 255