Geoffrey Moore’s “Dealing with Darwin”

A recent recommendation lead me to “Dealing with Darwin”, a superb book on sustaining innovation within the enterprise.

Interestingly, one of Moore’s core models is almost a carbon copy of the Stages of an Enterprise model, but he goes a long way to elaborate on the “entrepreneurial button”, especially as it pertains to the use of technology and the innovation that is necessary to push the button. Better still, he actually breaks down the different types of innovation that are necessary at each stage of the enterprise. I’ve attached the model (geoff_moore_SE_innov_model.jpg) where he illustrates the different innovation types through the lifecycle. In that graphic, he’s also overlaid (bottom left) his “Technology Adoption Life-Cycle” model, which describes the adoption of disruptive technologies. Very, very applicable to Web 2.0 topics, SOA related sessions, or even ERP sessions.

I included the second model, as well, because it is part of a suite of models he uses to illustrate the point that innovation of itself is not valuable, but gains value only when it helps to achieve economic advantage. His discussion in this area serves as excellent guidance in any of our innovation sessions, as it helps to lay out a framework to distinguish between innovation that increases productivity, neutralizes the advantage of a competitor, differentiates one from their competitors, or is just plain wasteful.

Recommendation: get this book!