Innovation Tournaments: Creating and Selecting Exceptional Opportunities

Writing for managers who are responsible for profit growth through innovation, Terwiesch and Ulrich (operations and information management, entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and mechanical engineering, Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania) address the question of how innovators recognize profit-making opportunities when they are still in the beginning stages and provide a model for generating and selecting innovation opportunities in any industry. These filtering processes, or "innovation tournaments," pit opportunities against each other, filter out the weak ones, and identify the ones with the highest profit potential. Examples from Merck, Apple, the Harry Potter movies, Oral B, and Pixar Studios illustrate their model. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)