Chapter 7. Follow through

In March 2007, the CNBC European Business network broadcast its ‘Innovation Issue.’ In all, 50 ‘key innovators’ were heralded for their inventiveness. The survey, CNBC said, was carried out in a rigorous fashion: ‘On behalf of CNBC European Business, strategy consultants PRTM surveyed 60 companies over a two-year period using around 150 product development metrics to identify specific levers for product and service innovation.’ Without doubt, you would recognize some of the company names. Constantin (Germany), Aresa A/S (Denmark), Industria (Iceland), Inditex (Spain), ABB (Switzerland), Tesco (UK) – the list is impressive.

To win a spot on the list, companies were interviewed extensively. PRTM said that each candidate ...

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