I got this book based on a presentation I attended on one of my MBA courses. It was a great lecture about innovation portfolio management. So the lecturer had my attention and trust. He recommended it and I bought the book!
80% of the book is written as a bachelors level thesis.
In short, it is about a number of large successful Swedish companies being interviewed about how they handle innovations. 80% of the book is written as a bachelors level thesis. Facts and quick obvious conclusions. Many of the conclusions are valid but not much more than that. The categorization of innovation management, the questions asked are all valid. However, very safe and logical. Basically, the questions were categorized, the answers weighted and presented in tables.
The companies are traditional companies in Sweden, they have a process for most of things, even innovation!
80% of the book wasn’t really very interesting. To know how the 29 of the largest Swedish companies handle innovation doesn’t really say much. Yes, they are large in Sweden and some of them are internationally large. However, they are all traditionally managed companies. If you compare how they handle the customer complaints, products recalls, traceability of products parts … They would show the same average managed processes in place.
The book did not even come close to my expectations on a”book of metrics”.
Perhaps the last 7-10 pages was the part that actually brought some value. The authors summarized the important parts of metrics and what the actual benefit of metrics was.
In summary, if ou are looking for a book that actually talks about different techniques, pros and cons ,provides good examples of successful metrics of innovation or any other area! Look for another book. Specially, given the price of 500 SEK, which is roughly 50 euros.
I was still interested in the specifics and the science of metrics so I bought these two books. I will write a blog about them but until then, my recommendation is, don’t buyt the “Book of Metrics” try one of these:
Make sure to leave a comment if you have suggestions on other books or if you have actually read this one!
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