Davila&Epstein has done it again. After their first book “Making Innovation Work” (Davila, Epstein, Shelton 2006.) they are back with “The Innovation Paradox – Why good businesses kill breakthroughs and how they can change”.

After reading dozens of innovation & creativity books I stopped thinking that there could be a new great book which will enforce me to underline 1/3 of content but here we are…

The story of Innovation Paradox is starting with definition of this term and the Startup Corporation which should combine “strengths of the startups to innovate” and “resources, network, and ability to execute of established companies”.

“When breakthrough ideas are managed as incremental, they become incremental.”

It gives the examples and frame the problems of breakthrough innovations and top-down and bottom-up innovations which gives headaches to many innovation managers.

Chapter “The Benefits of Business Units” (my favourite) is an essential read for everyone who worked or still works in a corporation. Later, the focus goes on startups and startup corporation – the innovation factory of the future.

Overall, this is not a once-read business book, but a great innovation handbook which will be read over and over again as important resource for diving in into the innovation management.