Week 11 Reading Reflection

Hey everyone,

This is my weekly post dedicated to the our Weekly Reading Reflection. This week's reflection comes from the Harvard Business Review and is an article written by Gary P. Pisano, titled "You Need an Innovation Strategy".

The biggest thing that surprised me in this week's reading was the fact that innovation is continuous. Before reading the article, I thought of innovation as just merely coming up with a new idea. However, Pisano explained that innovation is a continuous process of creating customer value, rather than just a single idea and leaving it at that. I also did not realize that there are so many factors within a company that go into innovative processes, including the determination of what type of value a company wants to create, and how this type of innovation fits the organization and its goals.

One thing that I found confusing was the Innovation Landscape Map. I am not too familiar with the numerous types of innovations and how these types of innovations require certain things of a company in order to accomplish this innovation. However, if I knew more on the subject, hopefully I would be able to understand the significance and meaning of these concepts and the chart.

Two questions I would ask the author:

#1. Is it possible to cross multiple innovative fields with a single product and still be able to stay within the means of a company?

#2. For a young college student, what qualities should I possess to be a skilled innovator?

Finally, there is nothing that I disagreed with in this article. I thought that Pisano did an excellent job of articulating himself and hammered home his points with numerous facts. On top of that, he is clearly very experienced in numerous innovative fields, so I trust that most everything he says is reliable.

Until next time,

-Bryce