The Wide Lens: What Successful Innovators See That Others Miss [Paperback]

How can great companies do everything right—identify real customer needs, deliver excellent innovations, beat their competitors to market—and still fail?

The truth is that many companies fail because they focus too intensely on their own innovations, while neglecting the ecosystems on which their success depends. In our increasingly interdependent world, winning requires more than just delivering on your own promises. It means ensuring that a host of partners—some visible, some hidden—deliver on their promises, too.

Ron Adner draws on over a decade of research and field testing to reveal the hidden structure of success, from Michelin’s failed run-flat tires to Apple’s path to market dominance.The Wide Lensoffers a powerful new set of frameworks and tools that will multiply your odds of innovation success.

—Jim Collins, author ofGood to Great

“Essential reading for innovators.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“A clear analysis of numerous scenarios, both failures and successes, with a depth rarely found in pragmatically-tinged books. Anyone involved in moving a product from conception to adoption will not want to let this book pass them by.”

—Publishers Weekly

“This is a path-breaking perspective on innovation. Adner's tools guide you to ask the right questions to protect you from making mistakes that condemn so many innovations to failure.”

—Clayton M. Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor, Harvard Business School; author ofThe Innovator's Dilemma