"The Balancing Act of Innovation"

Web: www.thebalancingactofinnovation.com

Vlerick compiles expertise on innovation and inspiring stories of innovative companies

• What is the importance of innovation for companies?
• How can you efficiently and goal-oriented steer the innovation process?
• And how can you develop your own innovation style?

An answer to all these questions can be found in the brand new book “The Balancing Act of Innovation” by Walter Van Dyck (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School) and Philippe Silberzahn (EM Lyon), two authorities in the field of innovation. This very hands-on book offers you a helicopter view on innovation in all its diversity and across all management domains: sometimes radical, sometimes incremental, sometimes spectacular, sometimes less so but no less effective. This unique combination of innovation examples produces a practical guide that helps companies to find their own road to innovation. There is no one best way to innovation. The art is to discover your own innovation style with a balance between creativity and discipline.

Via successful and inspiring company case studies of amongst others Janssen Pharmaceutica, Alcatel Lucent, Studio 100 and Belgacom Mobile you will get an overall view of the different types of innovation, from a small firm to a big company, from high-tech to low-tech. While an integrative framework is presented throughout so as to help formulate innovation strategies that drive growth, each chapter is self-contained and covers a particular topic:

• Foreword by Rudy Provoost, Chief Executive Officer, Philips Lighting
• “Arteconomy: stimulating creativity and innovation through art” (Herman Van den Broeck, Eva Cools)
• “A technology intelligence system to enable open innovation at VIB” (Mark Veugelers, Stijn Viaene, Jo Bury)
• “A showcase in show business: Studio 100 outperforms the competition through product leadership” (Kurt Verweire, Judith Escalier Revollo)
• “ Belgacom Mobile: IT-enabled process innovation in turbulent industries” (Joachim Van den Bergh, Stijn Viaene)
• “Breaking into an established market through a process of experimentation: the case of GreenPan” (Miguel Meuleman, Jan Lepoutre, Olivier Tilleuil, Wouter De Maeseneire)
• “How to survive your own business model innovation: the story of Bongo” (Marion Debruyne)
• “The sagacity of Sigasi: financing an innovative start-up with limited resources” (Sophie Manigart, Andy Heughebaert)
• “Winning the disruptive technology game: The case of Alcatel AND” (Steve Muylle, Pieter Geeraerts)
• “The benefits of open innovation in low-tech SMES: The Quilts of Denmark story” (Wim Vanhaverbeke)
• “Growth by necessity and design: The balancing act of new business platforms at Cronos, Econocom and DS Textile Platform” (Iris Vanaelst)
• “Going beyond the pill: Business transformation through corporate venturing at Janssen Pharmaceutica” (Walter Van Dyck, Tom Aelbrecht)
• Epilogue: “BIC’s innovation journey. An interview with Billy Salha, General Manager Europe, BIC”

About the authors

Before joining EM Lyon Business School, Philippe Silberzahn was Assistant Professor at Vlerick.
Walter Van Dyck is currently Professor of Innovation at the School and is also Director of the Vlerick Innovation Management Research Platform.