Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57707
Research CMR's 50th Anniversary Issue Focuses on Innovation The California Management Review, pub- lished by the University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business, recently published its 50th anniver- sary issue. Dedicated to the topic "Leading Through Innovation," the issue included 15 articles on areas ranging from branding innovation to open innovation strategies to innovation in the services industry. In one article, "Innovation: Brand It or Lose It," Haas mar- keting professor David Aaker looks closely at the fact that while companies talk a great deal about promoting innovation, few make efforts to craft strategies to brand their innovations. Without success- ful branding, writes Aaker, even the best innovations "can be short- lived…or become another forgotten internal initiative." To protect its innovation, he argues, a company first must realize when it has an innovation that is progressive, news- worthy, and meaningful—and then it must build a brand around it to sustain it. For example, once Apple established iPod as a brand, says Aakers, Microsoft's Zune player was at a severe disadvantage—many cus- tomers wouldn't even consider the Zune an option. Another article, "Open Innova- tion and Strategy," was written by Henry W. Chesbrough, director of Haas's Center for Open Innova- tion, and Melissa Appleyard, associ- ate professor of business administra- tion at Portland State University. Open innovation, they write, often does not reconcile with traditional business strategies that emphasize protection of proprietary knowl- edge and defense against competi- tion. They describe the benefits and challenges of four types of open business models, noting that such models "can produce superior products and services relative to those produced by a smaller num- ber of minds huddled together in a single company." Companies ignore open innovation at their peril, say these writers. Innovation in service-based industries is the topic of "Innova- tion in Services: Corporate Cul- ture and Investment Banking," by Jennifer Chatman, a professor of management at Haas; Richard Lyons, chief learning officer at Goldman Sachs and former profes- sor of finance; and Caneel Joyce, a doctoral student. Most research into innovation focuses on products, not services, the researchers argue. With this in mind, the trio focused on the investment banking industry, identi- fying four drivers of service innova- tion: services that span boundaries, client relationships, integration of service design and execution, and a CEO's vision for innovation. "Innovation in investment banking has been breathtaking," says Lyons, "not because of radical innovation, but because of an accumulation of hundreds and even thousands of small innovations." Other topics in the issue include Henry Chesbrough (at left) and Richard Lyons and David Aaker (center and at right) at the Haas School's Inside Innovation 2007 conference, where all three spoke on topics covered in the California Management Review's "Leading Through Innovation" 50th-anniversary issue. 54 BizEd MAY/JUNE 2008 the difficulty of innovating while also satisfying current market demand, the value of design think- ing in organizations, and the pat- terns of innovation in startups and established companies. To purchase the "Leading Through Innovation" issue of CMR, visit its Web site at cmr.berkeley.edu.