Innovaro - Europe's Leading Innovation Consulting and Insight Firm - Publications

Reviewed books: Entrepreneurship
	Ideation: The Birth and Death of Ideas Graham Authored by two leaders of investment companies active in the intellectual property and intellectual capital areas, this book provides an accessible overview of how value is created from new ideas. Kicking off with an introduction to the innovation arena, the core chapters focus on the life cycle of ideas from initial birth, through the IP process of registration and protection and then on into development, valuation and finally finding investors and customers. This is thus largely a handbook of the key stages involved and brings together varied known elements into a step by step approach. The final few chapters examine and suggest some of the implications that higher levels of innovation activity are having in the corporate, academic and creative arenas.
	Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Japan Kathryn Ibata-Arens Many of Japan’s innovators have survived the recession in the 1990s to again prosper in today’s ever more competitive environment. This new study by a leading commentator on Japanese industry, is an in depth analysis of some of the key dynamics at play. Using multiple case studies, it examines the relationship between firms, regions and the Japanese state, innovation networks, clusters and socio-political foundations of regional innovation networks. As a comparative analysis to much of the US and EU focused literature commonly available, this is a useful insight that updates many of the preconceptions held by commentators in the west.
	Developing New Business Ideas Mary Bragg, Andrew Bragg Adopting much of the familiar innovation approaches used for developing new products and services, this new book adapts the principles specifically to the area of new business creation. Written by a couple of UK based consultants, it has a good balance of US and European examples to highlight the key steps and so mixes the likes of Dyson, IKEA and Cobra Beer with Nike, Amazon and Fedex. In terms of content, there is little new in here – idea generation, selection and planning for implementation being the core structure, however with a wealth of tool summaries, it does provide a useful handbook for those specifically looking to innovate in the business arena.
	Risk Management and Innovation in Japan, Britain and the US TAPLIN An interesting book emanating from within the heart of the risk management community of the financial services sector, this collection of contributions is drawn from a number of insurance companies, banks and academics. Most directly relevant to the innovation community are three key chapters which cover very different topics. Firstly ‘Intangible assets, risk management and insurance’ looks at several of the key forms of risk that can associated with current large scale R&D activity – from intellectual property risk and reputation through to the role of insurance in the area of intangible assets. Secondly ‘Developments in patent enforcement procedure in Japan and England’ provides a good update on recent changes and some of the key implications and, lastly, ‘Intellectual Property and Bridging Loans’ provides an insight into how IP and venture finance are being linked in Japan to enable SMEs to gain access to capital for growth.
	Profiting from Intellectual Capital Patrick H. Sullivan This is a handbook aimed at understanding intangible assets and their value. It brings together a selection of key ideas for managing intellectual assets looking at best practice from leading companies. The three core topics are the concept of intellectual capital, assets and property; managing, measuring and monitoring intellectual capital; and techniques for extracting value using intellectual property. Authoritative and comprehensive, it is a good summary of the key issues. Examples include Dow, IBM, Xerox, Scandia and HP.
	Copyrights and Copywrongs Siva Vaidhyanathan By providing a comprehensive overview of the history of copyright through the last century from Mark Twain to MP3, this lays down a good framework upon which to discuss some of the challenges for the future. The core argument is that in its current form, intellectual property legislation, and especially American copyright law, restricts many areas of cultural development and production. Looking ahead beyond today’s imbalances, it proposes a freer arena that can use issues such as digital rights management to better support wider economic and cultural growth.
	The Creative Economy John Howkins This has aroused interest across the media sector as it explores how creativity and the exploitation of the associated copyright will be the dominant economic form of this century. Not restricted to just copyright, this book also covers the wider impact of intellectual property, the impacts of globalisation on the issue, the value of know-how in the advertising, design, film and music industries. Jargon free and full of new media insights this is a good overview of many of the challenges facing this sector.
	Intellectual Capital Thomas Stewart The definitive 1997 book on how companies can manage and exploit their knowledge to create value is still one of the best. Covering all three areas of human, structural and customer capital it provides the insight and context that underpins all attempts to leverage knowledge management and integrate it across business activities that are occuring today.
	Rembrandts in the Attic Kevin Rivette and David Kline Written by two leading consultants in intellectual property management and patent strategy, this refreshes perceptions of the use of intellectual property as a value creation mechanism. Using examples from Intel, Microsoft, Dow and IBM, it shows how leading companies are unlocking the hidden value of their patents to drive increased revenue generation.
	Smart Luck Andrew Davidson In an age where being successful has finally become cool, this engaging ride through today’s winners and wannabes highlights how and where such issues as nature, resilience, vision, single-mindedness, energy and discipline all combined with ‘smart luck’ to enable some to deliver sector changing innovation in both new and mature markets. Entertaining, informative and at the same time thought provoking, this is an ideal read for everyone interested in making new things happen.
	Entrepreneurship and Organization Michael Lynskey and Seiichiro Yonekura This collection of papers published contains a number of articles that together present insight into how entrepreneurship has evolved in big business. From a view of the development of German department store chains in the 1930s to computer networking in Silicon Valley and Japanese video games in the 1990s, it traces the role that the corporate entrepreneur has had in enabling leading businesses to build organisational innovation. Examples include NEC, Sony and Microsoft.
	The Beermat Entrepreneur Mike Southon and Chris West This highly accessible book provides a step by step guide for turning ‘a good idea into a great business’. Amongst such topics as building the core team, getting your first customer and the real business plan, it highlights the important contribution that can be made by experienced mentors, the challenges of managing early growth and the pitfalls of using venture capital investment. Taking the idea right through to maturity and the time for the entrepreneur to potentially move on from an established business, this is a well packaged introduction.
	Entrepreneurship David Kirby This text book provides a good overview of many of the people issues present in enabling Entrepreneurship. The first section looks at the environment from the social and cultural dimensions, while part two examines the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur encompassing creativity, motivation, leadership, team building and conflict resolution, and the last section focuses more on the organisational elements. This brings together some of the leading academic thinking with business fundamentals. Examples include Margaret Thatcher, Al Capone, Amway, Amazon, Virgin, Body Shop, Lastminute.com, IKEA and Dixons
	Inventuring William Buckland and Andrew Hatcher This takes a new look at ‘why big companies must think small’. Focusing on the successes and failures by large organisations to profit from new venture activities, it uses numerous examples to extract the pathway for new business creation today. It provides a good overview of the area, including a examination of the attitudes to venturing in companies and an exploration of many of the associated business creation capabilities that are required to perform it successfully. Examples include Shell, Tesco.com, Virgin Atlantic, LloydsTSB and BAA.
	Corporate Entrepreneurship Vijay Sathe This is a rich, insightful and comprehensive overview of how large companies create and support new business growth. It focuses on four companies - AMP, 3M, Monsanto and Xerox -and their relative successes in enabling senior managers to lead the creation of significant new businesses. Effectively debunking the increasingly outdated view that large firms can't innovate and entrepreneurship happens best in small owner managed companies, this is an accessible academic text that many will find to be a useful point of reference.
	Innovation Nation Leonard Brody et al In Innovation Nation, 30 leading Canadian technology innovators of today are profiled and their impact on the world examined. From the development of Nortel, the growth of the Blackberry and the creation of Java through the development of XML, the dominance of MacroMedia and Alias’s moves in pioneering 3D, this collection provides an insightful view of what is happening ‘north of the border’. This book also looks at what is happening within Canada to enable it to produce people that are ‘doing extraordinary things in the world of new technological innovation.’