How to Be Innovative : Ealry Stage Innovation for Scientists, Technologists and Other - from Idea to Proof-of-Concept

"A concise guide to early-stage innovation which will be valuable to everyone making the transition from individual scientist or engineer to a role in achieving innovation by an organization."

This transition is often harder than is recognized. The target audience has typically reached the top of an educational ladder, and moves, with a first job, to an organization with different norms, objectives and understanding of innovation. Relevant organizations are wide-ranging, and include companies, governments (local or national), government agencies and educational institutions. The primary purpose of this book is to provide a useful resource for those making the above transition. It may also be of value to people interacting with innovative scientists and technologists from other perspectives, for example from those in funding, commercial or managerial roles.

The book has three areas of focus. Firstly, on early-stage innovation, covering the journey from idea to proof-of-concept. Here the factors involved are common across many different areas. Secondly, on the needs of scientists and technologists, and thirdly on innovation by organizations.

The contents cover key ideas in innovation, processes for stimulating and managing early-stage innovation, open innovation, and behaviors and communications which support innovation. Conceptual frameworks are described, as well as practical examples. A set of case studies is included, and extensive references are provided. A concluding chapter discusses developments in the management of innovation.

The content has been shaped by the author's experience in giving many interactive courses on managing early stage innovation to scientists and engineers, which has given insights into needs; the style is shaped by the author's track record in scientific publications and lecturing. The focus, content and style will make the book more accessible and attractive to the target readership than related books on the market, and will benefit the target readership by enabling them to become more effective in roles involving innovation.

Readership: Scientists, engineers, technologists, business people, innovation managers and teachers.

Peter Lednor combines a technical career in industrial Research and Development with extensive experience of managing, and teaching, innovation. He holds a B.Sc. degree (University of Manchester, 1971) and a Ph.D. (University of Sussex, 1974), both in chemistry. Following post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Munich, and at CNRS, Paris, France, he joined the Shell Technical Center in Amsterdam in 1978, where he worked until retirement in 2009. He is the author of some 40 academic publications and 28 patents. His R&D career at Shell included exploratory research, development projects, and innovation management. Initiating and managing external relationships with companies and universities played an important role throughout his career. He was co-chair of four international conferences on advanced catalytic materials, organized through the Materials Research Society, and was the industrial supervisor of 4 Ph.D. students. He was an Associate Fellow of Saïd Business School, University of Oxford from 2007 to 2015. His work there covered program director roles in Executive Education as well as lecturing. In May 2010 he founded Peter Lednor Consulting, focusing on innovation. He was awarded a fellowship by the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp) to spend six weeks in 2010 as a visiting professor at the University of Campinas, Brazil, where he taught a post-graduate course on innovation, and worked on technology transfer issues with Inova, the technology transfer office at University of Campinas. Since then he has provided courses or lectures on innovation in the Netherlands, UK, France, Brazil, USA, India and Kazakhstan, for a variety of organizations.