I was recently passed a complimentary copy of "Innovate The Future: A Radical New Approach to IT Innovation " by David Croslin .  If his name sounds familiar to those of you in our small innovation circles, it should...he is a top-notch innovation consultant in his own right, but he also a former Chief Technologist with Hewlett-Packard and Chief Product Architect for Verizon. 

This work is certainly near and dear to my heart.  Coming originally from an IT and Project Management background, my innovation management discipline stems from the fast-paced, bleeding edge world one would equate with information technology.  In fact, much of my rigor around effective and efficient processes, innovation management maturity and tips/techniques/work-arounds are directly attributable to my work in the IT and project management fields. 

David's book feeds that discipline and rigor nicely!  He approaches innovation from a number of different angles and via a number of different life cycles.  For example, he breaks down the innovation life cycle as follows:

1. Initial Invention
2. Disruptive Innovation
3. Incremental Innovation
4. Positive Incremental Innovation
5. Repetitive Incremental Innovation
6. Negative Incremental Innovation
7. Repetitive Negative Incremental Innovation
8. Destructive Innovation

He then matches this logical sequence to typical business life cycles:

1. Product Life Cycle:
   1. Dominant Product
   2. Feature Set Expansion
   3. Feature Overkill
   4. Commoditized Product
2. Market Life Cycle:
   1. Market Creation
   2. Market Battles
   3. Market Truce
   4. Market Stagnation
3. Company Life Cycle:
   1. Initial Flexibility
   2. Pressures
   3. Frozen Flexibility

His thesis is that true innovation occurs when these standard "life cycles" stagnate or are disrupted in some way.  The best part...you can create the disruption!  You can determine your own organization's destiny by disrupting yourself!

Another fantastic part of the book is centered around the challenges and opportunities of generating innovation within IT.  Let's face it, there aren't many parts of your organization left (if any) that don't pass through IT at some point.  It is a great place to centralize an innovation initiative. 

David lists a number of great use cases for his theory and ideas on better innovation management.  His utilization of an aggressive pursuit of new ideas via invention, domination, conquer and disrupt are spot on!  Finally, he takes the step that many innovation books miss...recommendation on how to actually implement what he is talking about!

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in alternative ideas on innovation management, especially those with an eye on disruption!