Sometimes innovation comes in an almost blinding flash of creative insight. More often those ideas result from a disciplined, strategic process of exploration and testing. Regardless of how innovation is born, the hard part is transforming that insight into a profitable business proposition. The most innovative and creative minds often fail as entrepreneurs.
The media industry is experiencing what the economist Joseph Schumpeter famously termed “creative destruction.” A new technology has rendered business models obsolete that until recently sustained century‐old media enterprises—from books and newspapers to television. Customers and investors are moving away from an aging industry, shifting their focus and resources to the new entrants. From the experience of other industries that have weathered “the gales of creative destruction,” we know that those who thrive in this new environment will need to adapt quickly.
New business models are beginning to emerge as leaders in both the academy and the industry explore ways to tap into the potential unleashed by this interactive, always‐on technology that connects media enterprises with their readers, viewers, and online visitors in revolutionary ways. Colleges and universities have established innovation and entrepreneurial centers that give students hands‐on experience with “ideation” and prototyping, and that, maybe—just maybe—will inspire one or more of them to come up with the next Facebook. Leaders of established, century‐old media empires commission innovation reports and encourage their employees to “think out of the box” about new ways to connect with current and potential customers. All of this occurs as the pace of change in the industry has increased significantly in recent years and shows no sign of slowing down. Indeed, many prognosticators predict it will increase.
As former executives of media companies, and now as college professors, we have our feet firmly planted in both worlds. Whether we are teaching tomorrow’s media leaders or conducting workshops for today’s leaders in the industry, we have noticed there are three significant hurdles that both students and professionals face. First, many of them lack the financial and strategic background to assess whether their great idea will be a profitable and sustainable business enterprise. Second, they need a new way of thinking about strategy and business models, a new framework for the digital space. Third, they cannot do it alone; they need to nurture entrepreneurial leadership at all levels and in all functions in their organizations. Therefore, we have designed a book that attempts to address those three missing links.