Academic Focus: Dr. James Utterback
Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation by Dr. James Utterback is an innovation classic. It describes how technologies and industries in the past have evolved over time, usually resulting in the large, established firm losing out to the smaller startups. Looking forward, I have no doubt his models and insights will be used to explain the evolution of firms and industries with us today. “A major work that will be cited for decades,” says Professor James Brian Quinn at Dartmouth. I predict a much longer time frame than decades.
Utterback is the David J. McGrath Jr. Professor of Management and Innovation and a Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Here are selected quotes out of Dr. Utterback’s book. As you read these, try to relate these quotes to companies that face this situation. Keep in mind this book was first written in 1994.