Goliath’s Revenge

Everybody knows of start-up stories, which were sometimes created in a garage, that radically changed entire sections of the economy in a few years, and destabilized the existing leaders. We talk less of established players who decided to get organized not only to counter this threat, but with the ambition to themselves drive the disruptions to come.

The authors use such examples to propose historical leaders an approach aiming at overtaking start-ups in the race for innovation. First, they detail all the assets that these leaders have in comparison with newcomers, and suggest the development of a strategy that takes advantage of them. They then examine the way they can organize to execute on it. To achieve this, they recommend to clearly distinguish between incremental innovation and disruptive innovation, by dedicating means and processes to each of these two types of innovation. They also insist on the necessity to rally external entrepreneurs to the company project and propose ways to achieve this.

This is essentially a stimulating book for the general framework it proposes. Numerous illustrations, checklists and methodological indications enable the reader to focus his/her thinking on the points that he/she will want to work on.