The Innovation Formula


Book Description

A practical guide to innovation strategies based on fact, not feeling The Innovation Formula delivers strategies for building a culture where innovation can thrive, based on actual scientific research. Author Amantha Imber holds a PhD in organisational psychology, and has been called upon by a multinational roster of forward-thinking companies—such as Google, Disney, LEGO and Virgin—to improve innovation at all levels. In this book, she shares her strategies and helps you tap into a substantial body of scientific research to help further innovative practice within your own company. For example, rewarding failed innovations can actually be a critical aspect of building an innovation culture. It's rarely done, but it fosters creative thought by signaling to people that failure is tolerated and is a necessary ingredient in the pursuit of innovation. This kind of practical, easily implemented strategy is the lynchpin of cultural change. This guide shares fourteen separate, yet interconnected strategies for improving your company's innovation culture, and provides illustrative examples of real-world companies who are putting these plans into action. Business innovation guides tend to focus on how one company does it. But it's not your company, and just because it worked for Google or Apple doesn't mean that it's right for you. This book is different; these techniques are based on science, not gut feeling, and can apply to any organisation, at any level. Delve into the science behind successful culture shift For best results, reward innovation, whether or not it succeeds Learn the critical elements that foster organisation-wide creativity Implement practical strategies based on evidence, not anecdotes Fostering a culture of innovation means making your company a safe space for new ideas. Over 95% of business leaders surveyed get it wrong, because intuition cannot compete with data. The Innovation Formula gives you a science-based framework for turning your organisation into one where innovation survives and thrives.




The Innovation Formula


Book Description




The Elegant Solution


Book Description

One million. That's how many new ideas the Toyota organization receives from its employees every year. These ideas come from every level of the organization - from the factory floors to the corporate suites. And organizations all over the world want to learn how they do it. Now Matthew May, Senior Advisor to the University of Toyota, reveals how any company can create an environment of every day innovation and achieve the elegant solutions found only on the far side of complexity. A tactical guide for team-based innovation, THE ELEGANT SOLUTION delivers the formula to the three principles and ten practices that drive business creativity. Innovation isn't just about technology - it's about value, opportunity and impact. When a company embeds a real discipline around the pursuit of perfection, the sky is the limit. Dozens of case studies (from Toyota and other companies) illustrate the power and universality of these concepts; a unique 'clamshell strategy' prepares managers to ensure organizational success. At once a thought-shaper, a playmaker, and a taskmaster, THE ELEGANT SOLUTION is a practical field manual for everyone in corporate life.




The Creativity Formula


Book Description

Imber draws on psychological research to provide 50 simple and scientificallyproven ways to improve creative thinking ability instantly.




The Innovation Formula


Book Description

Clears up misconceptions about innovation, explains how to recognize business opportunities, and shows ways to encourage innovation




Loonshots


Book Description

* Instant WSJ bestseller * Translated into 18 languages * #1 Most Recommended Book of the year (Bloomberg annual survey of CEOs and entrepreneurs) * An Amazon, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, Inc., Newsweek, Strategy + Business, Tech Crunch, Washington Post Best Business Book of the year * Recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Kahneman, Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, Sid Mukherjee, Tim Ferriss Why do good teams kill great ideas? Loonshots reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs. Bahcall, a physicist and entrepreneur, shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing new ideas to rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice. Mountains of print have been written about culture. Loonshots identifies the small shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature controls the change from water to ice. Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how a new kind of science can help us become the initiators, rather than the victims, of innovative surprise. Over the past decade, researchers have been applying the tools and techniques of this new science—the science of phase transitions—to understand how birds flock, fish swim, brains work, people vote, diseases erupt, and ecosystems collapse. Loonshots is the first to apply this science to the spread of breakthrough ideas. Bahcall distills these insights into practical lessons creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries can use to change our world. Along the way, readers will learn how chickens saved millions of lives, what James Bond and Lipitor have in common, what the movie Imitation Game got wrong about WWII, and what really killed Pan Am, Polaroid, and the Qing Dynasty. “If The Da Vinci Code and Freakonomics had a child together, it would be called Loonshots.” —Senator Bob Kerrey




Jugaad Innovation


Book Description

"Jugaad Innovation is the most comprehensive book yet to appear on the subject [of frugal innovation]." —The Economist A frugal and flexible approach to innovation for the 21st century Innovation is a key directive at companies worldwide. But in these tough times, we can't rely on the old formula that has sustained innovation efforts for decades—expensive R&D projects and highly-structured innovation processes. Jugaad Innovation argues the West must look to places like India, Brazil, and China for a new approach to frugal and flexible innovation. The authors show how in these emerging markets, jugaad (a Hindi word meaning an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness) is leading to dramatic growth and how Western companies can adopt jugaad innovation to succeed in our hypercompetitive world. Outlines the six principles of jugaad innovation: Seek opportunity in adversity, do more with less, think and act flexibly, keep it simple, include the margin, and follow your heart Features twenty case studies on large corporations from around the world—Google, Facebook, 3M, Apple, Best Buy, GE, IBM, Nokia, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Tata Group, and more—that are actively practicing jugaad innovation The authors blog regularly at Harvard Business Review; their work has been profiled in BusinessWeek, MIT Sloan Management Review, The Financial Times, The Economist, and more Filled with previously untold and engaging stories of resourceful jugaad innovators and entrepreneurs in emerging markets and the United States This groundbreaking book shows leaders everywhere why the time is right for jugaad to emerge as a powerful business tool in the West—and how to bring jugaad practices to their organizations.




The Innovation Formula Workbook


Book Description

This is a workbook of assessment tools and proven techniques to help small business leaders bring forth agility, innovation, and creativity to help their organizations succeed in our rapidly changing world. This workbook is meant to be used in conjunction with The Innovation Formula, and provides the worksheets to put the the lessons of The Innovation Formula into practice in your own organization. This Workbook is also a learning companion to the InnovationLabs online innovation course, Innovation Mastery, the world's most complete online learning program on innovation. With more than 100 chapters totaling more than 20 hours of exceptional content, this course is carefully tailored to the needs of small business leaders who need to apply innovation in their own organizations. Which is all small business leaders ... You can learn more at www.mastery.innovationlabs.com.A book for and about innovation for small business leaders.




The Innovation Book


Book Description

The Innovation Book is your hands-on guide to turning new thinking into exciting opportunities. The quick-read format features an overview of each topic, what success looks like, the pitfalls to dodge and an action plan of what you can start doing - right now - to achieve success. Includes: Your Creative Self – how to become a more powerful innovator Leading Innovators – how to inspire and motivate creative people Creating Innovation – how to develop and test new concepts Winning with Innovation – how to sell your new ideas The Innovator’s Toolkit – 20+ tools to help you create, shape and share your ideas The Innovator’s Case Notes – real-life examples of innovation in action; what would you have done?




Innovating


Book Description

Discover the MIT-developed, “doer’s approach” to innovation with this guide that reveals you don’t need an earth-shattering idea to create a standout product, service, or business—just a hunch that you can scale up to impact. Innovation is the subject of countless books and courses, but there’s very little out there about how you actually innovate. Innovation and entrepreneurship are not one and the same, although aspiring innovators often think of them that way. They are told to get an idea and a team and to build a show-and-tell for potential investors. In Innovating, Luis Perez-Breva describes another approach—a doer’s approach developed over a decade at MIT and internationally in workshops, classes, and companies. He shows that innovating doesn’t require an earth-shattering idea; all it takes is a hunch. Anyone can do it. By prototyping a problem and learning by being wrong, innovating can be scaled up to make an impact. As Perez-Breva demonstrates, “nothing is new” at the outset of what we only later celebrate as innovation. In Innovating, the process—illustrated by unique and dynamic artwork—is shown to be empirical, experimental, nonlinear, and incremental. You give your hunch the structure of a problem. Anything can be a part. Your innovating accrues other people’s knowledge and skills. Perez-Breva describes how to create a kit for innovating, and outlines questions that will help you think in new ways. Finally, he shows how to systematize what you’ve learned: to advocate, communicate, scale up, manage innovating continuously, and document—“you need a notebook to converse with yourself,” he advises. Everyone interested in innovating also needs to read this book.