The document outlines insights from twelve influential figures in the field of innovation, each providing key lessons from their experiences. These include perspectives on customer focus, strategic adaptation, and the importance of managing the innovation process. The information is organized alphabetically and also includes a brief introduction about Congregation Partners, an advisory firm that assists companies in navigating technological disruption.

1. MASTERS OF INNOVATION
12 people who have brought the greatest clarity to the field of
innovation, organized alphabetically, based on a great blog post from
the Harvard Business Review http://bit.ly/GU7Bnp.
DESIGNING BETTER BUSINESS

2. Steve Blank
• Who he is: A seasoned
entrepreneur who lectures at
Berkeley and Stanford
• Most important lesson:
A startup is a "temporary
organization searching for a
repeatable and scalable
business model"—a
structured search process
maximizes your chances of
success.
DESIGNING BETTER BUSINESS

3. Clayton
Christensen
• Who he is: Harvard Business
School professor and
Innosight co-founder
• Most important lesson:
Doing everything right can
leave a successful
organization susceptible to
attack from a disruptive
innovator who changes the
game with a simple,
accessible, or affordable
solution.
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4. Peter Drucker
• Who he is: Legendary
management guru and long-
time professor at the
Claremont Graduate
University
• His most important
innovation lesson:
"The customer rarely buys
what the company thinks it
is selling him." Companies
need to take a customer-
first perspective to succeed
with innovation.
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5. Thomas Alva
Edison
• Who he is: Legendary
innovator, credited with
creating the light bulb,
phonograph, and other
innovations
• His most important
innovation lesson:
"Genius is 1% inspiration and
99% perspiration." If you
aren't sweating, you aren't
innovating.
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6. Richard N. Foster
• Who he is: McKinsey's
leading light on innovation
for two decades, now serving
on a variety of boards
(including Innosight's) and
teaching at the Yale School
of Management
• His most important
innovation lesson:
To outperform the market,
you have to change at the
pace and scale of the
market, without losing
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7. Vijay Govindarajan
• Who he is: Professor at the
Tuck School of Business at
Dartmouth
• His most important
innovation lesson:
Existing companies that want
to master strategic
innovation have to carefully
borrow some core
capabilities, thoughtfully
forget others, and
systematically learn some
completely new skills.
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8. Bill James
• Who he is: Baseball writer,
historian, and senior advisor
to the Boston Red Sox
• His most important
innovation lesson:
Looking at old data in new
ways can highlight
counterintuitive patterns that
overthrow orthodoxy.
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9. A.G.Lafley
• Who he is: Former Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer,
Procter & Gamble
• His most important
innovation lesson:
Innovation is a process that
can be managed and
measured; the key to
successful innovation is a
"consumer is boss" mindset.
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10. Roger Martin
• Who he is: Dean of the
Rotman School of
Management, University of
Toronto
• His most important
innovation lesson:
Managers increasingly need
to take "ors" and turn them
into "ands."
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11. Michael
Mauboussin
• Who he is: Chief Investment
Strategist, Legg Mason
• His most important
innovation lesson:
Breakthrough insight can
come from applying lessons
from nonobvious fields to
your problem.
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12. Rita McGrath
• Who she is: Professor at
Columbia Business School
• Her most important
innovation lesson:
Your first idea is wrong, so,
as quickly as possible,
implement a careful plan to
learn which of your
assumptions are flawed.
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13. Joseph Schumpeter
• Who he is: Austrian
economist
• His most important
innovation lesson:
"The problem that is usually
being visualized is how
capitalism administers
existing structures, whereas
the relevant problem is how
it creates and destroys
them"; sometimes you have
to destroy in order to create.
DESIGNING BETTER BUSINESS

14. DESIGNING BETTER BUSINESS
ABOUT US
Congregation Partners is an advisory firm that helps creative
companies and industries leverage technological disruption to their
advantage.
Visit us at http://www.congregationpartners.com or contact
tim@congregationpartners.com.