Investment-Centric Innovation Project Management

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Winning the New Product Development Game
Steven James Keays, M.A.Sc., P.Eng.
Hardcover, 6×9, 350 pages
ISBN: 978-1-60427-151-5
August 2018

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Description

The subject of innovation has become a permanent fixture of the current political and economic discourse across the globe. In fact, the belief that economic growth is driven by innovation is common. Ironically, however, the literature on the subject has so far been anything but genuinely innovative.

Investment-Centric Innovation Project Management remedies this situation. It unveils a comprehensive, yet novel management and execution framework to transform an idea into a successful commercial enterprise without breaking the bank. The first half of the book adopts the viewpoint of the innovator through the details of the innovation’s development journey. The second half advances this journey, where the actual running of an innovation business is explored. The underlying theme of the book will remind the reader that the innovation journey is but the means to the real end: the successful commercialization of the innovation, measured by the sustained ROI delivered to the journey’s investors.

Written by a leading expert in the aerospace, cleantech, defense, energy, and manufacturing sectors, this seminal reference empowers companies of all sizes to carry out their innovation programs with the smallest investment risks and highest probability of successful commercialization.

Key Features

  • Recasts the innovation process away from focusing on the widget to what an eventual buyer actually buys: a purpose realized through functions
  • Establishes a formal taxonomy of innovation along three axes—the integrated product, the ready product, and the schema product—and associates each one with their respective, distinguishing features of development and commercialization
  • Sets out key success factors, priorities, and work sequences throughout the development journey, including the all-important innovation landscape that must be quantified first
  • Lays out the complete road map for the evolution of the original idea, anchored by the technology readiness level methodology
  • Identifies the many pitfalls of the design process, the pursuit of intellectual property, and the securing of funds to sustain the innovation journey
  • Leads the reader, step-by-step, through the process of securing the first client, the second client, and the ultimate commercial roll-out
  • Highlights the many factors that go into the ramping-up of the business from technology development to commercial operations, with an emphasis on what works, what doesn’t, and what to watch out for
  • Points out the sources and nature of risks (knownunknown, and unknowable) stalking the innovator along the way and the means to corral them effectively and proactively
  • Outlines the key success factors for assembling a potent management team, for creating a success-driven culture, and for managing the business’ relationships with the outside world

About the author(s)

Steven James Keays, M.A.Sc., P.Eng, is a 30-year veteran of the aerospace, defense, manufacturing, and energy sectors. He is the author of the acclaimed book Investment-Centric Project Management, and founder of NAIAD Company, a consultancy specialized in capital and innovation project delivery. Keays is also an Industrial Technology Advisor for the National Research Council of Canada and is an engineering graduate of Royal Military College of Canada and the University of Ottawa (M.A.Sc., turbulent fluid mechanics). He is a specialist in large scale project planning and delivery, global execution strategies, innovation programs, and machine sciences. Keays is a registered professional engineer and a member of the Project Management Institute. Steven resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his wife Margaret and their younger children Gabrielle and James.

Table of Contents

Part 1 – The Innovation Journey

Chapter 1 – The Birth of a Notion

Chapter 2 – The Innovation Landscape

Chapter 3 – Success Factors

Chapter 4 – Secret Sauce

Chapter 5 – The First Customer

Chapter 6 – Transformers

 

Part 2 – The Business Journey

Chapter 7 – Managing the Journey

Chapter 8 – Culture

Chapter 9 – The Second Customer

Chapter 10 – The Pursuit

Chapter 11 – Quantico Performance Is Metrics

Chapter 12 – The Symbiocene Age

Chapter 13 – Curtain Call

Reviews

“…an excellent resource for those embarking on a commercial project, written in an accessible style that never loses focus on the end game—a commercially viable product!”

—Brad Narfason, President, GKD Industries Ltd.

While also providing a profound and robust portrait of the innovation journey, the book’s true excellence is in how it details the ways to apply innovation principles to project management. Think you have it all figured out? Think again!

—Alex Chard, Director of Content & Programming, Connex Partners (US)