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Innovation and Entrepreneurship (平装)
by Peter F. Drucker
| Category:
Entrepreneurship, Inovation, Small business, Management |
| Market price: ¥ 198.00
MSL price:
¥ 178.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A great book for entrepreneurs for guidance on trying to identify opportunities. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 7 items |
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National Review (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
A remarkable book about the economic futre of the United States. |
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Technology Review (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
Far from being dated, Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship has survived the past decade in considerably better shape than many Fortune 500 companies that ignored its lessons... Thoughtful, concise and useful.
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Peter Hupalo, author of Thinking Like An Entrepreneur, USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
Drucker's recurring theme is that good entrepreneurship is usually market-focused and market-driven.
Drucker gives us guidelines for identifying innovative opportunity. For example, unexpected successes or unexpected failures within an industry often point to opportunity. Drucker also suggests that innovative opportunity exists where there is "an internal incongruity within the rhythm or the logic of a process" or a process need.
As a great example, Drucker tells us the story of William Conner, a salesman to the medical industry who decided he wanted to start his own company. Conner went out and spoke with surgeons about the problems and difficulties the surgeons faced.
While talking with surgeons, Conner learned that the process for cataract surgery was generally routine and easy, except there was one incongruity making the surgery difficult and unpleasant for physicians. During the surgery, surgeons had to cut one ligament which involved some risk.
With research Conner learned that there was an enzyme that dissolved this ligament. Conner also learned that new methods of storage could preserve this enzyme allowing it to be used in surgery. After patenting his compound, Conner quickly captured a niche market providing his compound to surgeons performing cataract surgery. No longer did they need to cut the ligament. They could dissolve it. With process need, the market already exists for the innovation. Drucker notes this is a relatively low-risk type of entrepreneurship.
While process need is a great area of entrepreneurial innovation, Drucker also suggests demographics may provide opportunities. I'm more dubious of this. Even though we may know how the population will change in ten years, capitalizing on this change isn't easy. Further, most entrepreneurs already tend to be focused on a particular industry or market and large-scale demographic changes wouldn't induce them to change their company's focus. Plus, there are entrepreneurial opportunities even in declining industries.
Sometimes, there is a dissonance between reality and the perception of reality in an industry. This may offer innovative opportunities, according to Drucker.
For example, Drucker mentions the evolution of the ship container industry. While established shipping companies focused on cutting transit time and cost by making ocean-going ships faster and more cost effective, this really wasn't the key. Ships were already very efficient in transit.
Rather, the real problem with the shipping industry was the loading and unloading of cargo, which kept ships in port and tied up valuable harbor space. When the shipping container was developed, it could be pre-loaded on land before the ship arrived. The pre-loaded container could then quickly be loaded onto the ship when the ship arrived in port. This made ocean transit much more cost effective and efficient. Drucker notes that the big cost of ocean transit was having ships held up in port, effectively tying up a capital asset without being able to utilize its full earnings capability.
Drucker discusses entrepreneurial management, claiming three keys to building a successful new organization are:
- having a market focus
- financial foresight, i.e., cash flow budgeting and planning for capital needs
- assembling a top management team
Other topics covered in "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" include creative imitation, entrepreneurial judo, and filling a specialized, ecological niche. "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" provides great insight into seeking entrepreneurial opportunities.
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Ali Alwattari (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
Peter Drucker has conducted an extraordinary thought experiment and corroborated his hypothesis with retrospective data. I really believe both the logic and the implications of his book. This is because I have been an innovator (scientist and manager) in Fortune 500 companies as well as tiny Startups and no matter what the environment, Druckers definition of the "seven sources of innovative opportunity" are exactly true in reality. Especially the two most prevalent sources: solving a consumer need or desire and the extreme opposite of that, finding an application of a newly available technology. This book spells out the "what" of innovation. It does not talk about the "how" of innovation since that is a different technical subject altogether. |
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Anthony (MSL quote), Quote
<2007-11-05 00:00>
Drucker's thesis: "Systematic innovation consists in the purposeful and organized search for changes, and in the systematic analysis of the opportunities such changes might offer for economic or social innovation."
The book is divided into three sections: The practice of innovation (where to look to find indicators of opportunity for innovative change); The practice of entrepreneurship (managing so to foster innovation); and Entrepreneurial strategies (competitive strategies).
Drucker provides a detailed analysis of the sources of innovation and strategies for the implementation of innovation-based changes. He shows, with many real-world examples, how systematic innovation can be applied to business, government, politics, non-profit and service organizations.
The analysis is thorough, well structured and easy to understand. He finishes with an interesting discussion of why innovation is so necessary today, and gives some good examples of areas of society operating on dated assumptions and suggests some insightful innovations.
Even though the book was written some years ago, his methodology remains applicable. In terms of contribution to strategy development I rank Innovation and Entrepreneurship up there with Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy.
My only criticism of Drucker is his sometimes awkward writing style and his tendency to wordiness. However, I give the book full marks for being a well-researched and logically presented work. |
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Gregory McMahan (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
With the publication of this book, which goes all the way back to the mid-eighties, Drucker has set the standard for serious entrepreneurship. Drucker tells the reader that innovation and entrepreneurship go hand in hand, and that both innovation and entrepreneurship can be practiced by large and small companies.
Using a plethora of available case studies, Drucker shows how many companies large and small, known and unknown, have successfully implemented entrepreneurial practices. Drucker tells the reader how to go about implementing an entrepreneurial culture, and more importantly, what not to do when trying to develop such an outlook and culture in the organization.
Drucker identifies seven sources of innovation, and explains very clearly how to go about sowing the seeds of and nurturing an innovation. He then lays down the principles of entrepreneurship, and gives the reader some entrepreneurial strategies. Throughout the text, he gives both the pluses and the minuses of his ideas.
This book, first published in 1985, was way ahead of the curve. It literally predicted the profound effects of the IT revolution, coined the concept of lifelong learning, and identified the pivotal role of sound managerial practices in entrepreneurship and the new venture. Those of us who are active participants in the 'New Economy' should sit up and take notice of this book.
These days, it is very fashionable to call oneself an 'entrepreneur', but only Drucker has a clear concept of what an entrepreneur really is. Any person who wants to practice serious entrepreneurship, whether they work for a big company or are involved in a new venture, must read this book. |
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Dustin Bouch (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 01:00>
Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a good resource for categorizing and identifying sources of innovation. Drucker does an excellent job of organizing the key elements involved in innovation and there is a fair amount of real world examples that help the reader understand the concepts. However, most books on this topic usually leave me asking for more concrete examples of the execution of the topics laid out here, and this book is no exception. Innovation and Entrepreneurship is more about creating a framework for innovation that can be used to compartmentalize current practices and shed light on their origins. Drucker accurately points out that the least likely sources of innovation are from new knowledge and bright ideas. The insight into this alone, makes the book well worth reading. If you are looking for a way to categorize and identify the most effective sources of innovation in an effort to budget the research efforts in you corporation, I highly recommend this book. If you are an entrepreneur looking for new sources, you might me better off looking elsewhere, such as Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma. |
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1 Total 1 pages 7 items |
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