THE PRACTICE OF INNOVATION: INNOVATION AS THE MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRAINTS.

OVERVIEW: Successful innovation requires the management of multiple contexts: those of the customer, the offering itself, the business model for the offering, and the strategic aims of the hosting corporation. An approach to managing these contexts and the constraints they impose was developed and implemented at Pitney Bowes. Although it is designed to manage multiple constraints, the approach is based on a deep and continuing reliance on the customer for direction. In this paper, the constraint-driven process is discussed and examples of innovation based on the approach are reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]