Video — Prof. Eugene Fitzgerald talks about the process of innovation and introduces Inside Real Innovation.

Read more about the authors' interview/article with Inc. and Forbes.

This breakthrough book gives a ground-floor view of the innovation process, showing how fundamental innovators really work. Then, it connects that knowledge to the bigger picture, explaining why the “innovation system” in the United States is failing to work as it once did, and what all parties can do to build a better system for the future.

Inside Real Innovation is written by distinguished practicing innovators. They debunk the concept of innovation as a linear process, from research to development to product in the market. They present a simple model for understanding it as a highly iterative process, in which you cycle repeatedly through many factors in the areas of Technology, Market and Implementation — until the right pieces come together. Co-author Gene Fitzgerald tells the story of his own major innovation, tracing it along the winding path into products we use every day. The authors then proceed to tell the larger story of how the vaunted American “pipeline” for carrying this process has been pulled apart.

The book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in a strong innovation system: investors, innovators and people in corporations, universities and government. Inside Real Innovation has become the course-book for a White House-recognised MIT course entitled 3.086x Innovation and Commercialization.

Contents: The Innovation CrisisInside Real InnovationOne Person, One Innovation at a TimeCharacteristics of Fundamental InnovationThe Story of a Fundamental InnovationThe American Innovation SystemBuilding a New Innovation System: The Free Market SideBuilding a New Innovation System: The Research and Education Side
Readership: Students and academics studying and teaching innovation; business professionals and general public interested in innovation processes.

Andreas Wankerl

Books