Richard Fosters Book, Innovation The Attackers Advantage

Innovation, the ability to change and take risk; is a key attribute to success. No company has become successful by keeping their old ways, or staying to the â€Å"tried and true† (Foster, 1986). No successful business can stay successful regardless of how much money or technology they have, if they do not know how to keep evolving with time. Success isn’t built off one tool; it is built off a variety of tools. This book taught me that one must constantly adapt to the world around you, because it won’t slow down. We live in an ever-changing world. One must be willing and able to change. This book teaches how to be â€Å"unsafe† in the world of business, never stick with one way, never rely on one source of success; be ready to change it and find†¦show more content†¦Foster talks about these mistakes in detail, which I will try to summarize in the next few paragraphs. The first mistake companies make is assuming there is no reason to upgrade, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The second mistake companies make is that they think they will have ample warning about a discontinuity, this is not always true. The book gives a good example, if one can tell one has a fever by placing one’s hand on ones head then one should have been in bed days ago. The third mistake is one should not base all his new ideas on trying to predict what the consumer will want. Consumers don’t always know what they want until they are showed. Customers did not always want disposable paper diapers until PG convinced them they were just as good, if not better. Lastly, know onescompetitors. It is easier to defend an attack when one has paid attention to the potential threats. Most companies don’t realize who their actual competitors are until it’s too late, and usually it’s the smaller companies they over-looked. Foster states u sually 7 out of 10 attacks are successful; therefore 3 attacks may be unsuccessful. What did those defenders do? Foster states that there are three ways a defender can strike back. First is â€Å"leapfrogging†, instead of creating new technology that might be costly, inefficient or inferior technology. They wait for companies to do this for them then they leapfrog ahead.