Buy this book on Amazon

The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times

by Scott D. Anthony

Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press, 2009

When the economy hits hard times, most companies respond by cutting costs and streamlining operations until things pick up. But this downturn is different. It’s not just a recession. It’s not even the Great Depression. It’s an environment the likes of which managers have never seen — a “Great Disruption” in which the old rules for sucess become recipes for failure, and “doing more with less” will not be nearly enough to survive.

But there is a silver lining behind all the gloom and doom, says innovation expert Scott Anthony. The inevitable constraints this tough economy will impose on companies will provide a fertile environment for innovation. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention — and companies that learn to innovate more quickly, cheaply, and with less risk will emerge from the downturn stronger than ever.

The Silver Lining shows how managers can apply the time-tested principles of disruptive innovation to manage the ultimate business paradox: cutting costs while simultaneously innovating for growth. Based on deep academic research and lessons from successful innovators, Anthony provides frameworks and tools managers can use to determine what to stop doing, what to do differently, and what to start doing to adopt a disruptive innovation mind-set. Managers will learn how to:

• Liberate resources for promising innovations by prudently shutting down dead-end projects and declining businesses
• Drive fresh growth by re-featuring existing products and services and reinventing outdated processes
• Mitigate risks by conducting strategic experiments and forging alliances with customers, competitors, and suppliers
• Appeal to value-conscious consumers and fend off low-cost attackers by delivering “good enough” offerings at an affordable price

Tough business environments force companies to operate and innovate. This hands-on playbook will help executives, managers, strategists, and investors survive the worst of times — and thrive when the good times return.

Scott D. Anthony, president of innovation consultancy Innosight, has worked with clients across industries including consumer products, media, and healthcare. He is the lead author of The Innovator’s Guide to Growth (Harvard Business Press, 2008), and coauthor of Seeing What’s Next (Harvard Business Press, 2004).