Innovation that Fits:Moving Beyond the Fads to Choose the RIGHT Innovation Strategy for Your Business

Whether you’re a corporate executive or an entrepreneur, one of your top priorities must be to achieve long-term growth through innovation. The expression “Innovate or die” sums up the reality today. But most people in business today still struggle with how to actually make it happen – and too often, they choose the wrong approach. As a result, they innovate and die.

Now, in Innovation that Fits, Michael D. Lord, J. Donald deBethizy, and Jeffrey D. Wager finally reveal what works and what doesn’t, to help you build a focused, sustainable innovation strategy that fits your business.

Lord is the Director of the Flow Institute and Associate Professor of Strategy and International Business at Wake Forest University. DeBethizy, formerly of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, is the founder, president, and CEO of Targacept, Inc., a company developing therapies for numerous central nervous system disorders. Wager is the founder and managing member of CCP Advisors, a consulting firm that specializes in the life sciences.

Together, they examined the record of more than 100 corporate venturing and venture capital programs, more than 100 innovation-driven acquisitions and alliances, and more than 50 licensing deals and spinouts. They explored a diverse range of organizations of different sizes from varied industries over a five-year period from 1998 to the end of 2003.

Drawing from this unprecedented study, the authors present a clear-eyed assessment of every leading innovation approach, including corporate venturing, asset-lite innovation, and innovation-by-alliance. For each one, they explain its advantages and drawbacks, its execution challenges, and where it is most -- and least -- likely to work.

This summary will help you to define and design better strategies for innovation, show you how to better execute them, and help you navigate the minefields on the way to success. Armed with the insights gleaned from Innovation that Fits, you’ll be equipped to identify the innovation strategy that best fits your situation.