Innovation and Entrepreneurship

A must read for entrepreneurs | Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker If you are looking to get knowledge on the basic principles of entrepreneurship, this book is where you should start. Peter Drucker explains in a very detailed way these 19 principals which cover everything that you should know about the business world. Throughout the entire book he makes use of many examples of successful companies to show their process to success, he also shows examples of companies that have failed and why this happened. The book starts by letting you know the the deep relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship, it even starts by using examples which make the entire book much easier to understand. The author explains how an entrepreneur isn't a person starting a small food business but, the person that starts a new food business that has a new process which satisfies the people's demand. The author uses as example one of the most famous restaurants today, Mcdonald's, which changed an entire food industry with an innovating new process called “fast food”. We see many examples like this one throughout the book to explain the different topics, it explains how a business has to evolve alongside with the generations in order to survive. In general it is a very good book for young dreamers that like to think outside the box and want to become successful in life. This is the first entrepreneur book a read and i am really satisfied. One of the best lessons i learned form one of the chapters of the book is the change in perception, basically that we should always see a cup half full and never half empty. I highly recommend this book a a start line because of its combination of simplicity, detail and real life examples.

Right off the bat, it is easy to be dismissive of this book because it was written in the 1980's. How can such an old book still be relevant in today's high tech world? It is important not to get caught up in this trap. The principles Peter Drucker's spells out in this book are deep and go to the very nature of modern American capitalism. The beauty of this well written book is that it establishes the intellectual boundaries of innovation and entrepreneurship. There are countless subsequent books that address the many details of innovation. Yet all of these books work within the boundaries Drucker established with this work This is a great book that is as relevant today as when it was written. Highly recommended!

This is a really good book. I think it is a must read if you are thinking of starting any business venture. The other book I would recommend to compliment this one is the E-Myth Revisited. The E-Myth provides the How. This book provides the What. This book can be a bit boring at times but the points are well made. If at all possible avoid the Audible version of this book as it leaves a lot to be desired. The audible version is poorly recorded and the narrators voice is a monotonous monotone with his voice tone jumping all over the place in certain sections. If I did not find the value I did in this book I would have definitely requested a refund since the Audible version made it an excruciating listen. I was also unable to download the format 4 audible version and Audible support was of no help. (Note: Format 4 was an option when I purchased the book)

I bought this book after a CEO friend from YPO & OPM recommended this book to me. I find this book great for companies needing innovation. Many times business revenues and profit stay flat because they kept doing the same thing year in year out without any innovation. The book focuses on 3 main things: I. Practice of innovation II. Practice of entrepreneurship III. Entrepreneurial strategies What i like about this book is talking about creative imitation and: The do's of innovation: 1. Purposeful, systematic innovation with analysis of opportunities 2. Conceptual & perceptual innovation 3. Simple innovation 4. Effective innovation start small 5. Successful innovation aims at leadership The don'ts of innovation: 1. Not to be too clever 2. Don't diversify, don't splinter, don't try to do too many things at once 3. Don't try to innovate for the future The 3 Conditions of innovation: 1. Innovation is work, it requires knowledge 2. To succeed, innovators need to built on their strengths 3. Innovation has to be close to the market & focus on the market, indeed market-driven Buy this book if you wish to have innovation in your company.

The title of this book says it all and I am very happy the book is here to read. Being a business owner with constant innovation within the company, I found this book really helpful. Don't think entrepreneurs are innovative by nature, this is something you choose to do yourself. Drucker has put together a story that catches your imagination and encourages you to go and seek opportunities. As famous Hollywood director David Lynch ones put: "Creativity is out there and like an aquarium full of fish... you just have to catch one". And that's what this book is about. Apart from being a great read, the book encourages action and makes you pursue opportunities. It has helped me in building and growing my company. I think that stands for a good testimonial.

"Innovation and Entrepreneurship" is one of the standard works on innovation authored by the famous management guru Peter Drucker. At the time of this review, it is a bit dated as it was written in 1984. Some might argue the content of this book won't be obsolete, I'm not one of them. I feel that large part of the content of this book is obsolete, irrelevant or has been replaced by better work (such as the work from Clayton Christensen). Next to that, some parts of the book were amusing to me in a sense that I felt they were very wrong (I'll point them out). On the other hand, other parts of the book were really good. The book is very American though, quite nationalistic, and by making the mistake of calling Singapore a Chinese colony, Peter Drucker makes clear that he doesn't seem to be very aware of the rest of the world. The book consists of three parts: 1) Practice of Innovation, 2) Practice of Entrepreneurship, and 3) Strategies. I don't think the titles really reflect well on what is in the chapters though. The first part, containing 11 chapters, started of very dry and academic. But the main content of this part relates to the sources of innovation, or where to look for if you want to be innovative. Drucker identifies 7 places where to look for when you want to be more innovative. At first, I felt they were kinda obvious as they were things like The Unexpected, Process Need, etc. However, each of these sources has their own chapter and each of these sources is described fairly well with mostly good example. I say mostly good examples, because a couple of examples were used that made me wonder about the research that Drucker had done. I'll give two from a domain that I know well. First, Xerox was given as an innovative company and used quite often. Some of the management practices of Xerox were given as an example. I found this amusing as Xerox (with his Parc research lab) is often the example of the company that best ruined their own innovative opportunities with their management practices. In fact, there are several books written on the topic on how Xerox was NOT able to sell its own inventions due to its dysfunctional and traditional management practices (see "Fumbling the Future" or "Dealers of Lightning"). The second example is IBM. Drucker praises IBM for their ability to innovate (many many times) and uses the IBM PC as one of the best examples of that. Now it is true that IBM managed to created the PC and be a player in the micro-computer market, but in fact, the ruined their future in that market by letting Microsoft build their software. Drucker argues that IBM was innovative enough to recognize they need to not rely on mainframes, but in fact, they weren't innovative enough to realize they needed to focus on software. (see book: "Big Blues: The Unmaking of IBM") Now, these are just two cases that I'm very familiar with. Drucker uses other case studies also, but considering how wrong he was in these two case studies, it made me seriously doubt the research done in the others. Part 2 of the book covers management practices that different companies should (and shouldn't) adopt in order to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in their organizations. Drucker focuses on a lot of "professional management" which seems deeply rooted in making a strict separation between the management and the workers. Also, it sort-of underrates the actual work and glorifies management. Practices that he recommends are: Build a management team, proper financial management, a lot and a lot of analysis before taking any actions, separating the innovative parts from the non-innovative parts, adjusting rewarding to promote innovation. Similar actions can be found in more modern work on innovation (such as the earlier mentioned work of Clayton Christensen). Part two is organized around types of organization: medium size, service, new company. The last part discuses organizational strategies of entering new markets and covers 4 different strategies: 1) all in, 2) find new markets (roughly similar to the Innovators Dilemma) 3) Find a niche, and 4) Change the market by changing the product or perception of the product. Drucker explains each of these strategies and looks for the benefits and drawbacks of each of these. This part reads pretty well and, my only critique of this is that it is very deeply (like all of the book) rooted in the illusion that you can predict the future by enough analysis and planning. The last chapter of the book, the conclusion, Drucker changes his focus to society and government as a whole and makes mostly political statements about his perspective of the role of government in society (which I do not agree with) Still, I'll stick with 3 stars. The book didn't impress me much, but it wasn't bad either. Some parts, like making explicit the sources of innovation, were pretty good and useful to remember. Some part, like the above mentioned case studies made it fairly bad. Most of it feels much like more conservative management and organizational theories, which I hope will gradually become obsolete (see e.g. "Future of Management" by Hamel). I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone except people who want to read everything related to management and innovation or who have a historical perspective (as Druckers influence has been strong). Thus, just 3 stars.

The other 5 star reviews on here said it well already, but I just wanted to add my appreciation for this book to the pile. This is a REALLY good book. I couldn't even put it down. I have loads of highlighting, bookmarks, and notes already in it (Kindle ed.) and I am definitely going to be re-reading this book more than a few times. Some of what he said reminded me of The E-Myth Revisited, but this book took the topic more seriously. Drucker wasn't messing around here or trying to be philosophical about things. This book was originally published in 1985 when I was only 1 year old, and it seems to me that the things he talked about then are still highly relevant today. Also, since the book was written, the types of things he predicted would happen largely DID happen (and are, still,) which only makes Drucker's ideas even more credible. Great great book. A must-read for the budding entrepreneur.

This is the classic work on commercialization of new ideas. Everything written over the ensuing 30 years is simply built from this foundation. This is a must read for anyone involved in creating new businesses. The lessons within do not go out of style. Some of the specific examples are now long in the tooth, but the insights and strategies are still relevant.

Peter Druker's books are worthy and full of knowledge and information

Takeaways from reading the book: What are examples of innovation in education? - Page 30: It was the textbook that made universal education possible. After the textbook was developed many more people had the possibility to learn. - Page 177: The Prussian diplomat Wilhelm von Humboldt founded the University of Berlin in 1809. He was an outsider. What are examples of innovation in healthcare? - Page 15: From 1930 to 1980, it was widely believed in the USA and Western Europe that the hospital was the best place for anyone, who was not quite well. We now increasingly believe that the longer we can keep patients away from the hospital, and the sooner we can get them out, the better. It is a reaction against centralization. - Page 31: The hospital - in its modern form a social innovation of the enlightenment of the 18th century - has had greater impact on healthcare than many advances in medicine. What do entrepreneurs do? - Page 22: Entrepreneurs create something new or something different. Thereby they help change values people have. - Pages 21, 26 and 27: When the term entrepreneur was coined about the year 1800 by the French economist J. B. Say, it was a declaration of dissent. The entrepreneur upsets and disorganizes. Change is seen as normal and healthy. The entrepreneur searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity. - Page 27: Entrepreneurs shift resources from low productivity and yield to areas of higher productivity and yield. - Page 30: Entrepreneurs find a use for something. Thereby, that something becomes a resource. - Page 33: Entrepreneurs try to create value and make a contribution. - Page 152: Entrepreneurs recognize that all existing products, services, distribution channels, processes and technologies have limited life expectancies. - Page 154: Focus as much on opportunities as on problems. When brainstorming about opportunities, they question everything and develop ideas. - Pages 188 to 193: Entrepreneurs focus on the market. What you think users need may differ from what users actually need. Find out the real needs of users, for example by trying out things / testing, observing and asking questions. A product or service is defined by the customer - not by the producer. The customer knows what a great customer experience is. - Page 193: Entrepreneurs plan for cash flow. - Page 196: Entrepreneurs start building a team before you need it. - Page 199: Entrepreneurs find out what they do well. - Page 200: The entrepreneur decides on her / his own role, area of work and relationships. - Page 201: Entrepreneurs ask themselves what they really believe are the right things to do. - Page 202: Polaroid founder Edwin Land invited others to manage Polaroid. He created a lab where he could work on creating scientific innovations. - Page 202: McDonald's founder Ray Croc invited others to manage McDonald's. He focused on visiting stores every week to check quality - including cleanliness and friendliness. - Page 204: Entrepreneurs get objective coaching from from people with whom they can discuss decisions. What can you do to innovate? - Page 87: A simple strategy has a better chance of succeeding than a complicated one. - Page 135: To innovate, look at figures. - Page 135: To innovate, observe, ask and listen to people. Find out what they need and what their values are. - Page 135: Effective innovations are simple and obvious. - Page 135: Effective innovations start small. - Page 136: Do not try to be clever. Innovations have to be handled by ordinary human beings. - Page 136: Focus. - Page 136: Innovate for the present - not for the future. Example: From the first day the computer was useful, for example for calculating numbers through Microsoft Excel. How can the unexpected inspire innovation? - Page 35: The unexpected success has relatively low risk and uncertainty. The innovations arising from this typically have the shortest time between start and results. - Page 45: If an unexpected problem / mistake happens, try to dig into it to find out reasons and needs. How can differences between a) reality and b) what people think ought to be inspire innovation? - Page 57: Differences between what users need / value and what an industry or company is doing. - Page 67: Before the "Scott spreader" was developed, no supplier of lawn care products gave the customer a tool to control the process. How can needs in a process inspire innovation? - Page 69: Replace a task / service in the process that does not create the required output. - Page 69: Redesign an old process to make it satisfy needs better. Example: Perhaps some services can be done at the same time. Or a service need to be done before or after another service. - Page 69: Create a link that is missing in the process. - Page 72: Create a prototype, so people can see what is needed. Example: Edison who created lightbulbs. - Page 73: Innovations based on process need to be tested against five criteria: 1. Is there a process? 2. Is there a weak or missing link? 3. Is there a clear goal? 4. Are there clear specifications for the solution? 5. Is there a widespread realization that there ought to be a better way? How can changes in population inspire innovation? - Page 88: What is changing in terms of the size of the population, the age of people, education, employment or income. - Page 88: What products / services will be bought by whom in which quantities? - Page 94: Increase in the number of elderly people. - Page 96: How do which people want to learn / re-educate themselves? How can changes in perception inspire innovation? - Page 101: How will the changing roles of women and men open up for innovation? - Page 101: How will the increasing importance of diversity open up for innovation? How can new knowledge inspire innovation? - Pages 107 and 112: Much knowledge came together to make the computer possible. In fact, the computer required that 5 different types of knowledge came together: 1. The audio tube, a scientific innovation. 2. The binary theorem, a mathematical discovery. 3. A new logic. 4. The design concept of the punchcard. 5. The concepts of program and feedback. - Page 110: There is a potential to help people learn in better ways. - Page 115: In Japan, Shibusawa Eichii started a bank by carefully analyzing the knowledge available and the knowledge needed. In contrast to J.P. Morgan and Georg Siemens, Shibusawa published his papers. - Page 118: Joseph Swan's lightbulb was better than Edison's. However, Edison worked on more than just developing the product. For example, Edison worked on developing the distribution system, so he could sell and install electric power. - Page 126: A cure for cancer will be received very well by people, who have cancer. With most knowledge-based innovation, however, we cannot know who it will be received. Example: When the computer came, many experts did not think that businesses wanted it. - Page 128: Market research does not work. One cannot do research on something that does not exist. How can a bright idea inspire innovation? - Page 130: 7 or 8 out of 10 patents were created based on a bright idea. A large proportion of new businesses are built around bright ideas. - Page 131: Innovators improve if they base their work on a systematic analysis of the sources of innovative opportunity.

What hindsight shows overlaps with PD's foresight in so comprehensive a fashion that one seems to be sitting today in a classroom attending a lecture of his. I do find his text hilarious in its tone in certain places but hair-raising at the same time.

fast delivery & received in good order. good reference book to keep. thank u! 😄

Un capolavoro, in alcuni punti di un'attualità quasi sconcertante considerato quanto tempo fa è stato scritto. Grande Drucker.