One of the most important contributions of this book when it first came out in 2010 was to return public innovation to the forefront. The topic had been neglected for a number of years, or treated from an increasingly narrow perspective. The focus at the time was on innovation in public organisations. The purpose was primarily to improve productivity or service delivery. Such a narrow focus was in essence missing the big picture and the importance of public innovation. Christian Bason's book helped to broaden the conversation and the perspectives about public innovation. This is why, several years later, this book remains important and relevant.

Christian Bason's book helped to connect the concept of innovation to the fundamental role of government and public organisations, that is, to ‘generate new ideas that create value for society’. This is a process of innovation and experimentation. Governments are responsible simultaneously for ensuring stability and for steering society through an ongoing process of change. This delicate balancing act requires public organisations with strong innovative capacity and a society with collective learning and collective problem-solving capabilities. Generating results that benefit society as a whole engages the responsibility of the public, private and civic spheres of life, with government being primarily responsible to ensure that the overall balance will advance the collective interests. A number of authors have since built on Christian's contribution and expanded the conversation further by exploring the unique role of the state and the irreplaceable use of the instruments of the state to invent solutions to public problems that stem from living in society.

The second important insight of this book is that it is possible to ‘consciously and systematically’ create innovative public solutions. In other words, it should be possible to teach, learn and build the capacity of public organisations to invent solutions to public policy dilemmas. It should be possible for public administration faculties to prepare future public administrators with a deep understanding of public innovation and the core elements of the ecosystem needed to support it. It should be possible for government to develop a curriculum to prepare public sector leaders for the challenges of inventing solutions to the increasingly complex problems of this time.