The literature of innovation is stocked with calls to become more visionary, creative and inspiring. It has less to say on the hard reality of turning promise i... » 

The literature of innovation is stocked with calls to become more visionary, creative and inspiring. It has less to say on the hard reality of turning promise into reality, theory into practice and ideas into profit. Even leading marketing organizations prefer to dwell on the excitement and thrill of invention, rather than on the challenge of commercializing it. Yet technical brilliance and original insights are only one stage in the cycle of innovation. Real breakthroughs in value depend on finding profitable applications for new ideas. Many innovators founder at this point. Inventive thinking does not sell itself and the best technology does not always win. Hard as it is to create new techniques, products and processes, it can be harder still to commercialize them. The beneficiaries of countless innovations are not the original inventors, but others who prove better able to exploit the potential of any breakthrough. This book argues that bringing a new idea to market depends on three distinct areas of activity: innovative strategy, inventive marketing and creative process. The editor combines the experience of innovative companies with the expertise of academics and advisors, bringing together the best of current thinking and practice in innovation, strategy, marketing, design, intellectual property and finance. From Idea to Profit takes managers in organizations of all kinds, whether a technology start-up or an established corporation, through a series of questions which they must be sure of resolving if they are to complete the cycle of innovation and establish a new source of long-lasting value. «