Originally I had planned to set up a table that compared the different methods. However, the terminology used by the different authors and their approach to describing their management methods is so diverse that such a table proved to be more confusing than useful. The table below shows which authors discussed which aspects of the innovation value chain, which can serve as a guide for those who which to dig deeper.

In most cases, the authors did not put forth a management process/method; in fact one had to read their texts very carefully to pull out advice to managers. The exception to this was the author’s of the Radical Innovation book, as the book is about laying out their management approach chapter by chapter.

All of the authors believe that innovation can and should be managed. This is what each of the authors had to write:

• Discontinuous Innovation authors: “innovation can be effectively managed . . . There are no easy recipes for doing this but there are some emerging practices that appear to help”.
• Disruptive Innovation authors: “If indeed there are predictable reasons why businesses stumble, we might then help managers avoid those causes of failure and help them make decisions that predictably lead to successful growth”.
• Radical Innovation authors: “Our intention is to help senior executives . . . recognize the patterns in which radical innovation occurs and identify the managerial competencies needed to make the normally long and bumpy course of innovation shorter and more productive”.
• Open Innovation author: “In today’s world, where the only constant is change, the task of managing innovation is vital for companies of every size in every industry”.

Some of the common threads among the authors revolved around the hiring the “right people” or acquiring the “right skills”.

• Discontinuous Innovation authors: Bessant states that “most large companies do a good job of killing off the entrepreneurial spirit of their employees.” The authors promote building a culture that is comfortable with uncertainty and workforce that promotes divergent thinking.
• Disruptive Innovation authors: Christensen suggests that when hiring managers for a new venture that one look to hire those who have faced similar problems and challenges in the past.
• Radical Innovation authors: “Managers of RI projects must be comfortable with uncertainty, they must be capable of setting a goal and getting others to buy into project goals and they must have sufficient flexibility so that they can handle course corrections”.

Another common thread was finding the right home for a new innovation. All of the authors agreed that innovations which are not targeted to the current customer base need to find a home either within or outside the organization. Christensen (disruptive innovation) and the discontinuous innovation authors tend to favor a home outside the organization, while the other authors recognize that as one of several options including keeping it in-house or licensing it to another company.

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