Historically, innovation has been confined within the four walls of a company where researchers toiled in relative secrecy to create the next big thing. Not only is this formula no longer viable in today's environment of shorter product life cycles and accelerated competition, it is a prescription for disaster.

The innovation crisis is not limited to a few large companies. Indeed, companies large and small across a wide range of industries are facing similar creative challenges.

Two recognized thought leaders in innovation management and strategy -- Satish Nambisan, a professor of technology management and strategy at the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Mohanbir Sawhney, the McCormick Tribune Professor of Technology and the Director of the Center for Research in Technology and Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University -- have collaborated on an intriguing treatise that attempts to resuscitate the innovation imperative. The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster and Smarter in a Networked World makes a compelling case that creativity requires a diverse mix of talent and expertise applied in a collaborative and open environment.

"Tapping into the Global Brain is no longer a matter of choice," they write. "It is more a question of how, rather than whether, a company should pursue a network-centric innovation strategy."

Nambisan and Sawhney trace the innovation learning curve through the experiences of Staples, IBM, Boeing, and Apple to reveal the strategic value of reaching out to customers, suppliers, amateur inventors, researchers, and a variety of other external entities that constitute the Global Brain. In doing so, the authors avoid the prescriptive, one-size-fits-all mentality that undermines many similar academic business tomes.

A case in point is the Human Genome Project (HGP), the international research initiative that aimed to identify and sequence some 25,000 genes that make up human DNA. The effort unleashed the creative power of networked communities and pooled resources to produce extraordinary results.

By providing a structure that can be used to evaluate and prepare organizational capabilities and resources, Nambisan and Sawhney go beyond descriptions of innovation systems to elaborate on how firms can position themselves to tap into the Global Brain. They provide an insightful roadmap on how best to structure emerging network-centric innovation in terms of governance (to ensure common patterns of behavior among members and coordinate information sharing), knowledge management (to facilitate the generation, codification and utilization of knowledge in the network) and intellectual property (to enable innovators to control the use of their innovation and its derivatives).

The authors successfully bridge the gap between the art and science of innovation while at the same time translating the theory into practical application.

Excerpted with permission. Copyright © 2007 by Soundview Executive Book Summaries. www.summary.com, 1 (800) SUMMARY, 1 (610) 558-9495.