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Vol 28 - No 09 - November 2002 Book review: Innovating at the Edge Tim Jones's book, in its own words, sets out to provide a 'How to ...'guide for anyone wanting to develop best practices. At over 300 pages long it is packed with appropriate case studies and a well-structured approach that provides the reader with both useful plans and a number of critical success factors for those wishing to become more innovative. It is a great book for lists, so useful for consultants. I can see a number of these lists being used by anyone who has to present on this topic. Tim Jones talks of the: 10 myths of innovation 3 waves on innovation 7 generic elements of innovation 5 levels of innovation assessment, and so on. There are lots of good presentation slides in the making here. One point of contention is the author's view that 'the whole quality approach has very little to contribute to the innovation leaders'....There are many members of the IOM who are still actively involved in improving quality standards in UK industry, including some of those seen as market leaders, and who may take a different view. Jones then goes on to praise Toyota and its continuous improvement approach in one of his case studies. There are a number of good case studies that illustrate the points that Jones wishes to make, including Dyson, Honda, Dell and others. His excessive praise of Manchester United should however serve to limit sales of his book on the Yorkshire side of the Pennines. It will be interesting to see over time which of his examples remain valid. He writes of company-wide initiatives, ather than small maverick projects that may be of more relevance to the average reader trying to develop an innovative approach within a large beast of a corporation. One key question that is not answered is 'How to be innovative in a cautious company?' The title 'Innovating at the Edge'is probably an exaggeration. The approaches and examples, even though valid, are not particularly leading edge. For instance, the continuous five stage cycle for embedding innovation consists of: evaluation, focus, design, implementation and review;not a million miles away from Currie's Method Study approach of select, record, examine, develop, install and maintain. This is a book full of good ideas and approaches that will reward the reader who wants something to refer to at various stages in moving up the innovation scale. Having recently reviewed Steve Shapiro's excellent book '24/7 Innovation', it was interesting to read another book on the same topic so quickly. Perhaps Innovation is the next big idea. We can only hope so. It is sorely needed. Author Tim Jones Publisher Butterworth Heinemann 2002 Price £21.99 Nick Lawrence, MIOM Page number: 6 Word count: 270 Related Topics:
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