Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution by Geoffrey A. Moore, Geoffrey A. Moore

From the Publisher

The Darwinian struggle of business keeps getting more brutal as competitive advantage gaps get narrower and narrower. Anything you invent today will soon be copied by someone else—probably better and cheaper.

Many companies thrive during the early stages of their life cycle, only to fall slack during periods of inertia and die out while others surge ahead. But as Geoffrey Moore shows, some notable companies have figured out how to deal with Darwin in their mature years—making changes on the fly while fending off challenges from every quarter.

Boston Globe

Moore has delivered an innovative and instructive treatise on innovation.

BusinessWeek

Less a cookbook than a detailed menu of meals that can be prepared to turn your competitors into dinosaurs. Brontosaurus burger, anyone?

Ed Zander

Dealing with Darwin provides a lucid and engaging perspective on managing innovation. (Ed Zander, CEO, Motorola)

Strategy and Leadership

Dealing with Darwin is teeming with ideas and practical advice.... Moore's new book is a very significant and valuable addition to the strategist's bookshelf.

Soundview Review - Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Business is becoming increasingly competitive - globalization, deregulation and commoditization have taken their toll everywhere you look. Companies are forced to innovate or fold; it's a constant pressure that goes beyond mere competition - it's about survival. Who will the survivors be? The ones that win the scarce resources of customer purchases; the ones that gain customer preference because of their innovation; the ones creating next-generation offers and raising the bar for the future. It's evolution in every sense of the word. Survival of the fittest. In this summary, bestselling author and consultant Geoffrey A. Moore puts into clear relief the fact that innovation is not an optional "nice-to-have" in business - to innovate forever is a design specification. It's no longer a strategy; it's a requirement.

Foundation Models
The economic argument in favor of innovation focuses on pricing power - avoiding commoditization and the resulting vendor price wars brought about by consumers simply searching for the best deal. Over time in these situations, the market stabilizes at prices at or below cost, creating returns for investors below the cost of capital. Investors do not stay in marketplaces like these very long. When innovation is applied, however, offers become more and more differentiated from one another, leading to different ones becoming the preferred choice for different market segments. Vendors in those segments then have pricing power, and the markets stabilize at prices well above cost, creating returns above the cost of capital, attracting more investment.

The Economics of Innovation
In essence, when innovation creates differentiation, it creates attractive economic returns. This is not, however, the only possible outcome from innovation. In addition to differentiation, there are three other possible outcomes: neutralization, productivity improvement and waste.

Types of Innovation
To better understand the various types of innovation, Moore organizes these types into clusters. The innovation types fall into these four clusters or innovation zones: the product leadership zone, the customer intimacy zone, the operational excellence zone and the category renewal zone. Beyond these zones, innovation strategies are formed, one that gives every promise of creating the separation you need from your direct competitors, earning the customer preference your profit margins require. Now, says Moore, you must overcome the inertia of your own organization that fosters resistance to making the changes necessary to implement it.

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