The Inside and Outside View of Innovation — Journal Article

How can companies ensure that a promising initiative receives the necessary resources when the core business dominates the organization? And why do so many brilliant inventions fail while other seemingly mediocre offerings succeed? Such fundamental questions are addressed in two recent books by innovation scholars who focus on different aspects of innovation. Gerard J. Tellis and Ron Adner have each written a book that together make an interesting pairing: the first concentrates on a company's internal workings, while the latter focuses on its external environment. Even if these two books can't help executives determine with any certainty which innovations will succeed, they can certainly help predict which innovations are very likely to fail, and at the very least, they instill a deeper appreciation for why innovation is so inherently difficult.