Ten Types of Innovation

As the pace of change continues to increase, innovation is imperative for firms. Customers demand it. Competitors may outflank you if you don't achieve it. Talented employees might not join your firm if you don't deliver it. Analysts expect it. Investors reward it. And yet many people still believe in primitive myths about innovation: "It's mainly about new products and new technology"; "It's about rare strokes of inspired genius"; "There's no disciplined, consistent method that you can apply"; etc. These common assumptions are simply not true.

In this new book, Ten Types of Innovation, the renowned innovation specialists at Doblin, the innovation practice of Monitor Deloitte within Deloitte Consulting LLP, will help you and your teams know what to do when the stakes are high, time is short and you really need to build a breakthrough. A solution is to look beyond new products to nine other powerful types of innovation, which can be combined for competitive advantage. The book lays out fresh viewpoints and then explains the actions that can allow teams or firms to innovate reliably and repeatedly.

The Ten Types of Innovation framework emerged from applying a proprietary approach to a list of more than 2,000 successful innovations, including Amazon.com, early IBM mainframes, the Ford Model-T and many more, to determine ten meaningful "moves" that great innovators typically make and that provide insight into innovation. Ten Types of Innovation explores these insights to diagnose patterns of innovation within industries, to identify innovation opportunities and to evaluate how firms are performing against competitors. This framework has influenced thousands of executives and companies around the world since its discovery in 1998 and is an enduring and useful way to start thinking about business transformation. In the book, the authors detail how businesses can use these innovation principles to bring about meaningful—and sustainable—growth within their organizations.

Unlike much of the writing on innovation, this book is designed to be both thought-provoking and entirely practical. It explains how the Ten Types can be used analytically to reveal blind spots, as a lens for leaders to identify new innovation opportunities and, most importantly, as a tool that can be used to accelerate and amplify existing ideas. Complete with practical exercises and containing multiple case studies and examples, this book is for those who want to stop listening to the hype and start figuring out how to do the hard work of innovating more reliably.

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