After years of cost–cutting and downsizing, business leaders are once again looking for ways to generate growth. While innovation should be a primary engine for this growth, many senior managers are wary of investing in a process that entails such high costs and offers so little certainty of return. They also doubt their companies' ability to change course abruptly from retrenchment to full–steam–ahead investment. And even where senior management is willing to forge ahead with innovation programs, members of R&D, Marketing, and Manufacturing departments – which have been so long confined to incremental improvements designed to produce low–risk, short–term returns – now need help relearning innovation processes, skills, and mindsets. In short, companies seeking breakthrough products that will change the rules of competition and generate real wealth are facing a number of hurdles.