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 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.




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




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?




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.




In Your Creative Element


Book Description

SHORTLISTED: CMI Management Book of the Year 2018 - Innovation and Entrepreneurship Category In Your Creative Element helps readers identify a personal creativity formula for success, and kick-starts the creative journey. It provides personalized insights so that readers can develop their knowledge and skills and their own formula to unlock creativity and apply it in any context. In Your Creative Element is an original work on one of the hottest topics in business written by a creative director who has made it her business to unpick how and why creative ideas are born, develop and survive or die. The author has identified 62 elements that affect creativity and has created a unique 'Periodic Table of Creative Elements'. This simple framework adds logic and science to the concept of creativity and can be explored by anyone to find which creative elements are most important to them and to transform their approach to creativity. Highly practical and packed with case studies and tips from creative experts and organizations including Google, Netflix, Pixar, the NHS, the United Nations and Twitter as well as some of the world's most successful advertising agencies, In Your Creative Element provides inspiration and practical advice for readers who recognize that creativity is essential for business success but who do not know where to begin to unlock their creative potential.




The Creativity Formula


Book Description

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




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.




The Invincible Company


Book Description

The long-awaited follow-up to the international bestsellers, Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneurs’ Business Model Canvas changed the way the world creates and plans new business models. It has been used by corporations and startups and consultants around the world and is taught in hundreds of universities. After years of researching how the world’s best companies develop, test, and scale new business models, the authors have produced their definitive work. The Invincible Company explains what every organization can learn from the business models of the world’s most exciting companies. The book explains how companies such as Amazon, IKEA, Airbnb, Microsoft, and Logitech, have been able to create immensely successful businesses and disrupt entire industries. At the core of these successes are not just great products and services, but profitable, innovative business models--and the ability to improve existing business models while consistently launching new ones. The Invincible Company presents practical new tools for measuring, managing, and accelerating innovation, and strategies for reducing risk when launching new business models. Serving as a blueprint for your growth strategy, The Invincible Company explains how to constantly stay ahead of your competition. In-depth chapters explain how to create new growth engines, change how products and services are created and delivered, extract maximum profit from each type of business model, and much more. New tools—such as the Business Model Portfolio Map, Innovation Metrics, Innovation Strategy Framework, and the Culture Map—enable readers to understand how to design invincible companies. The Invincible Company: ● Helps large and small companies build their growth strategy and manage their core simultaneously ● Explains the world's best modern and historic business models ● Provides tools to assess your business model, innovation readiness, and all of your innovation projects Presented in striking 4-color, and packed with practical visuals and tools, The Invincible Company is a must-have book for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovation professionals.




The Innovation Mindset


Book Description

Innovation requires more than a eureka moment. The vast majority of new product ideas never make it to market. Typically, this is because of the failure to address a real problem that a customer has experienced and is willing to pay to have solved. What do people and businesses need to know about the realities of innovating in order to develop products successfully? Lorraine Marchand—a seasoned practitioner who has guided Fortune 500 companies and start-ups on developing and launching new ideas—lays out a step-by-step framework for spurring success. She shares her eight laws of innovation, a formula for driving significant and lasting transformation in any organization. Marchand emphasizes the frame of mind needed to spark the innovation process, underscoring the importance of creating a problem-solving culture and supporting personal curiosity, passion, and talent. She pinpoints the strengths shared by the big ideas that break through and debunks the myths that hold back aspiring creators. Drawing on her experience as a woman in a male-dominated field, Marchand discusses how to support entrepreneurship by women and highlights the contributions of underrepresented innovators. Marchand’s how-to program for innovation is clear and easy to follow, featuring a toolkit of strategic templates and planning frameworks that are illustrated by helpful case studies. Written in authoritative but conversational language, The Innovation Mindset offers a practical plan for both the veteran with another great idea and the first-timer with a big dream.