Innovation Passport: The IBM First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) Journey From Research to Reality

“Finally! A book that lays out a thorough yet workable path to collaborative innovation! With a highly readable style and using great examples, Frederich and Andrews describe the process by which IBM makes collaborative innovation work from a process, company, and customer standpoint. By following the guidelines in this book, those with aspirations of collaborative innovation can learn from the lessons of IBM and maximize their probability of success. A+!”

–Gregory S. Dawson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and former Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers

“Innovation Passport goes directly to the heart of how companies can speed up the transition from research to revenue. This book’s combination of insight and actionable detail–derived over a dozen years–provides a roadmap for companies to accelerate the commercialization of ideas and technologies. Moreover, this best practice is based on collaboration with external partners, an approach that is even more critical given strained economic times.”

–Keith O’Brien, VP, Best Practices Research, Frost & Sullivan

Get Inside IBM’s Breakthrough FOAK Program for Delivering Profitable Innovation!

• Learn from one of the world’s most successful innovation initiatives
• Align researchers, clients, and partners behind innovation that matters
• Get the right innovations to market fast

How can you promote innovation that delivers real, profitable business value–again and again, year after year? For 14 years, IBM’s FOAK program has done just that. In Innovation Passport, FOAK’s leaders share the powerful lessons they’ve learned. Through actual project examples, you’ll discover how to craft more effective processes for making innovation happen...encourage collaboration...manage innovation portfolios...protect intellectual property...and systematically improve the chances of marketplace adoption. Whatever your role in innovation, this book will help you do it better, faster, and more profitably.

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Innovation: A Program That Works

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Table of Contents

Foreword     xv

Preface     xvii

Acknowledgments     xxi

About the Authors     xxiii

Introduction     2

Chapter 1: A Program That Works     8

Chapter 2: The FOAK Process: Phase I     24

Chapter 3: How Ideas Take Shape     42

Chapter 4: Getting the Most out of Partnerships     59

Chapter 5: Choosing the Best Projects     85

Chapter 6: The FOAK Process: Phases II and III     102

Chapter 7: Clarifying Project Plans     121   

Chapter 8: Ensuring the Work Gets Done     135

Chapter 9: Telling the Story: IBM's Industry Solutions Labs     155

Chapter 10: Portfolio Management     176

Chapter 11: Contracts and Intellectual Property     192

Chapter 12: A Guide for Creating Innovative Programs     206

Chapter 13: The Future of Collaborative Innovation     223

Afterword     240

Appendix: FOAK Process Overview     244

Index     251