Chapter 1The Mythology of Innovation

In this chapter, we examine the myths that surround innovation and the misconceptions that arise based on these myths. These myths create overly simplistic explanations for innovation success, and they cause individuals and firms to place importance on factors that don’t significantly contribute to innovation success and to overlook other more important factors. Confusion and misunderstandings about the role of innovation, its importance, and its ability to truly affect a firm’s success, can, and will, hurt your company.

To begin, let’s first examine some easily identifiable successful innovators that receive a great deal of attention, and identify the myths about their innovation success. Firms like Apple, ...

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