Synopses & Reviews
How can great companies do everything right—identify real customer needs, deliver excellent innovations, beat their competitors to market—and still fail? The truth is that many companies fail because they focus too intensely on their own innovations, while neglecting the ecosystems on which their success depends. In our increasingly interdependent world, winning requires more than just delivering on your own promises. It means ensuring that a host of partners—some visible, some hidden—deliver on their promises, too. Ron Adner draws on over a decade of research and field testing to reveal the hidden structure of success, from Michelin’s failed run-flat tires to Apple’s path to market dominance. The Wide Lens offers a powerful new set of frameworks and tools that will multiply your odds of innovation success.
Review
"Essential reading for innovators."
—Kirkus Reviews
Review
"A clear analysis of numerous scenarios, both failures and successes, with a depth rarely found in pragmatically-tinged books. Anyone involved in moving a product from conception to adoption will not want to let this book pass them by."
—Publishers Weekly
Review
"The Wide Lens opens the readers' eyes to the bigger picture and expands the mind to the possible pitfalls that have come to stand in
the way of the success of many innovative products and services....Don't miss out on your opportunity to see your innovation go from conception to success by engaging a wider lens."
—Jack Covert Selects, 800ceoread
Review
"Ron Adner is a breakthrough thinker. He zooms out to see more clearly how -- and why -- some innovations take hold, and others do not. Adner's core insight is profound, that an innovation's success depends on its place in an entire ecosystem, and his concepts can help people turn inspired creativity into practical impact and market success. A significant contribution."
—Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and co-author of Great by Choice
Review
"This is a path-breaking perspective on innovation. Adner's tools guide you to ask the right questions to protect you from making mistakes that condemn so many innovations to failure."
—Clayton Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor, Harvard Business School, author of The Innovator's Dilemma
Review
"
The Wide Lens will change the way you think about innovation. Adner shows why and how you must adapt your approach to innovation in today's interdependent world. This is highly useful reading for anyone whose success depends on collaboration."
—John Donahoe, President and CEO, eBay, former CEO, Bain & Company
Review
"
The Wide Lens is an important new book on innovation. Ron correctly identifies the important challenge of recognizing market ecosystem and competitive strategies. His framework for innovation is contemporary, teachable and practical. Growth is today's big challenge.
The Wide Lens will help big and small companies grow faster."
—Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric Corporation
Review
"Engaging, insightful, and immensely practical. Success in today's economy requires mastery of your innovation ecosystems, and
The Wide Lens is the definitive guidebook to this new landscape. Adner's innovative tools and insights will make your strategy more robust and your organization more effective."
—Kevin Sharer, Chairman and CEO, Amgen
Review
"What is the big picture?' This is a question that haunts every business strategist --- reflecting the fear that our analysis of the landscape has missed the larger threats or opportunities in front of us. Based on years of research and teaching,
The Wide Lens gives a brilliant answer. Ron Adner describes the landscape of innovation in the most complete terms ever achieved. The arrival of this book is a major event for leaders everywhere."
—Adam Brandenburger, J.P. Valles Professor, NYU Stern School of Business, co-author of Co-opetition
Review
"As Ron Adner makes crystal clear, when it comes to proliferating a successful innovation, "it takes a village!" And if you do not think about the needs of your co-innovators, or the chain of adopters that helps it get all the way into the hands of your end users, you are likely to find yourself stranded on the wrong side of a chasm, looking longingly at the customers that could have been yours."
—Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Escape Velocity
Review
“Ron Adner is a breakthrough thinker. He zooms out to see more clearly how—and why—some innovations take hold, and others do not.”
—Jim Collins, author of Good to Great “Essential reading for innovators.”
—Kirkus Reviews “A clear analysis of numerous scenarios, both failures and successes, with a depth rarely found in pragmatically-tinged books. Anyone involved in moving a product from conception to adoption will not want to let this book pass them by.”
—Publishers Weekly “This is a path-breaking perspective on innovation. Adner's tools guide you to ask the right questions to protect you from making mistakes that condemn so many innovations to failure.”—Clayton M. Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor, Harvard Business School; author of The Innovator's Dilemma
Review
andldquo;Ron Adner is a breakthrough thinker. He zooms out to see more clearly howandmdash;and whyandmdash;some innovations take hold, and others do not.andrdquo;
andmdash;Jim Collins, author of Good to Greatandnbsp;andldquo;Essential reading for innovators.andrdquo;
andmdash;Kirkus Reviewsandnbsp;andldquo;A clear analysis of numerous scenarios, both failures and successes, with a depth rarely found in pragmatically-tinged books. Anyone involved in moving a product from conception to adoption will not want to let this book pass them by.andrdquo;
andmdash;Publishers Weekly andldquo;This is a path-breaking perspective on innovation. Adner's tools guide you to ask the right questions to protect you from making mistakes that condemn so many innovations to failure.andrdquo;andmdash;Clayton M. Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor, Harvard Business School; author of The Innovator's Dilemma
About the Author
RON ADNER has spent the past decade studying the root causes of innovation success and failure. He is an award-winning professor of strategy at Dartmouth College, whose writings have appeared in the
Wall Street Journal, the
Financial Times, Forbes, and the
Harvard Business Review. Visit www.thewidelensbook.com