Raleigh, N.C.—On Friday, Jan. 9, 2015, the authors of a soon-to-be published book on innovation management will reveal the benefits of following a system that takes the guesswork and inefficiency out of consistently achieving breakthrough innovation at the corporate level. They will speak at the winter meeting of the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS), an industry-academia research center based at N.C. State University’s Poole College of Management. The meeting will be held at the Raleigh Marriott City Center in Raleigh, N.C., from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. and is open to the public, with tickets available at the non-member rate. Attendees will receive a signed copy of the book.

The authors, Steve Markham, Ph.D., and Paul Mugge, are the former and current Executive Directors, respectively, of CIMS. They’ve synthesized a combined 60 years of industry experience and 20 years of researching the practice of innovation management into a replicable system that demystifies the process of transforming ideas into viable products. The CIMS System for Industrial Innovation has been tested on dozens of large companies and organizations and forms the backbone of the book, Traversing the Valley of Death: A practical guide for corporate innovation leaders. The book comprises a step-by-step, how-to guide for successfully crossing the “Valley of Death,” managing innovation and creating opportunities for top-line growth.

Meeting highlights include presentations from both authors as well a several executives from CIMS member companies, who will share their experiences applying the book's processes to implement change. Other experts will speak on the importance of data-savvy managers who can ask the right questions and utilize the right tools to uncover the most relevant information and on understanding the tools and resources available through Traversing the Valley of Death. There will also be a special preview of a forthcoming article by Dr. Markham and co-authors Hyunjung Lee and Tim Michaelis on identifying traits of charismatic “champions” and the important role they play in leading organizations to higher levels of product performance.

For more information on the meeting, or to register, visit http://cims.ncsu.edu/events/.

About the Center for Innovation Management (CIMS)

Founded in 1984, the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) is a research center located in the Poole College of Management at N.C. State University in Raleigh, N.C. CIMS is the leading authority on innovation management and innovation research and represents a unique convergence of academia and industry. With today’s businesses as its focus, CIMS creates, synthesizes and disseminates information on innovation management. It also helps develop current and future generations of innovation-management researchers and practitioners. Helping clients and member organizations use Big Data analytics, or decision modeling, has become a core competency of CIMS, which partners with N.C. State’s computing experts and supercomputing resources in these projects. For more information, visit the CIMS web site at http://cims.ncsu.edu.