How to develop and execute business cases in an environment of uncertainty

Outstanding guide to drive growth! | Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity | Rita Gunther McGrath, Ian C. Macmillan

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	• Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity Rita Gunther McGrath, Ian C. Macmillan Harvard Business School Press, 2009 - 200 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

or anyone who wants a more successful future for their company

Research and Development can either be a highly profitable venture or a complete wasteful bust - but what determines the outcome? "Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity" is a business guide to new technologies and products in business. Encouraging companies to take wise risks - risks that can be profitable in lessons even if they technically turn out to be failures - and to avoid stagnation, authors Rita Gunther McGrath & Ian C. McMillan have put together a solid business book. For anyone who wants a more successful future for their company, "Discovery-Driven Growth" is a strong pick.

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How to develop and execute business cases in an environment of uncertainty

This is a very enlightening book that builds on the authors' HBR article of July-August, 1995 called Discovery-driven planning. Instead of the typical approach for evaluating innovative projects of complex, risk adjusted financials, that results in analysis paralysis, and reduces judgement, the authors suggest an innovative approach that focuses more on the assumptions and generates the results by backing into the financial justification with reverse financials. The assumptions based planning approach is very rich and powerful, and having used it myself a number of times with teams, I can tell you that it results in a very motivated team developed plan and business case. Then, instead of using the potentially bureaucratic "stage-gate" processes for governing execution that are in place today in most companies (but often don't work well with highly uncertain projects, by the way, due more to the mechanics than the process), they recommend an assumptions driven conversation based upon the completion of deliverables (of course, this could work with stage-gates but not the way that these are typically used today). The whole approach, I think, can be highly liberating for organizations today that are trying to get more collaborative and enabling. At the end of the book, through their experiences, they recommend approaches to getting the discovery driven approaches implemented. Consequently, I highly recommend this book for any innovation champion who wants to work on eliminating the burden that they feel in trying to get things done. I can't wait to use these tools myself.

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Outstanding guide to drive growth!

Rita McGrath and Ian Macmillan have written a definitive book on concepts, methods, and tools that can help corporations drive growth. The notion of Discovery Driven Planning is an original idea of these two authors. Their main argument is compelling. In any new business venture, you always start with a flawed strategy. This has nothing to do with the intelligence of people preparing the strategy. It has everything to do with the uncertainties that are inherent in any innovative venture. What executives should, therefore, focus on is not the numbers in the business plan but the assumptions that are behind the numbers. A successful new venture crucially depends upon how well executives test assumptions and convert assumptions into knowledge. As such, managing new ventures is nothing but a knowledge building exercise. McGrath and Macmillan have given us a process to rigorously and systematically test assumptions en route to developing a workable business model.

This book is a masterpiece. I would strongly recommend it!

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Great business insight

This book does a fantastic job guiding the reader to understand the pros and cons of investing on new markets and technologies to maximize growth. This is a complex subject but via diagrams and clear evaluation methodologies this book enables the reader to position their products and services. The understanding of your current market positioning and additional steps provided by the book greatly assist readers to reconstruct a portfolio that can maximizes growth potential.

Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process To Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity

Initially, Discovery-Driven Growth was a little disappointing. The underlying premise was not new ground, but basically a reverse-engineering process for developing new growth products and services. However, once you get over the fact that you know how the story is going to end, you begin to appreciate the way the process is laid out. It's what I call the answer to: OK, it's a great idea, but what do we do Monday morning? DDG provides that answer by laying out the 1-2-3 process for reverse engineering an idea from target revenue/profit backwards to the individual steps and costs that will be encountered. You can follow the process on a back-of-napkin analysis to quickly determine whether the project is worth the time and resources to pursue. OK, sure, you already knew how to do this. But, have you formalized the process? Worth the read. Ken Carter

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You've been charged with growing your business. Incremental growth can no longer deliver the results you need. You need truly dynamic growth - and you need to achieve it without risking a hugely expensive gamble. How can you encourage innovative new ventures and pursue ambitious growth while minimizing risk?

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