Interview with Stefan H. Thomke, Author of “Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments”
I had the opportunity recently to interview fellow author Stefan H. Thomke, the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School to talk with him about his new book Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments, to explore the important role that experimentation plays in business and innovation.
A Modern Reading of Drucker’s Classic “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”
Peter Drucker wrote Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the 1980s as a book that for the first time put innovation as a regular management tool, side-by-side with strategy and operations in a managed business. It offers little mystification of the term "innovation" and there is much of a practical approach to where innovation is made---or might be made.
Writing Proposals: A Handbook of What Makes Your Project Right For Funding
Whether you are a startup, researcher or consultant, at some point you may find yourself in a situation where you need to write a proposal for funding. Preparing proposals is a detailed process that takes lots of precious time and if you’re not familiar with the best practices for writing them, I dare say you may be wasting your time.
Business Model Generation
In this book review Paul Hobcraft looks at Business Model Generation- a book written by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur, along with 470 co-authors, published in two editions, one self published the other by John Wiley & sons.
Gamestorming Takes the Visual Thinking World by Storm
Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers, the new book by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo, is a great source of inspiration for any executive who seeks to invigorate thinking in their workplace.
Visual Meetings is a field guide to visual techniques for group creativity
In his fascinating new book, Visual Meetings, David Sibbett makes a convincing case for why teams ought to use visual techniques for group facilitation.
The Open Innovation Revolution- essentials, roadblocks and leadership skills
In this book review Paul Hobcraft has taken the opportunity to go through Stefan Lindegaard’s book “The Open Innovation Revolution- essentials, roadblocks and leadership skills” published by Wiley.
10 essential elements of an open innovation culture
Stefan Lindegaard, in his new book, The Open Innovation Revolution: Essentials, Roadblocks and Leadership Skills, outlines 10 essential elements of an open innovation culture. This list draws from some of the brightest minds in the emerging field of open innovation.
One key creative skill you must master
If you wish your idea selling skills were more effective, then I urge you to check out Sam Harrison's new book, IdeaSelling.
New book inspires by sharing stories of sustainable, green innovation
Greenovate! is an excellent idea catalyst for any organization that is looking for ways to innovate in ways that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
New book explores innovation via experimentation
A new book by Peter Sims, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries, explores how structured experimentation can be used to test and improve fledgling ideas, building up solutions that are more targeted and successful, rather than rolling the dice on a single compelling but untested Big Idea.
How to set up a ‘backburner’ to capture and review your ideas
Often, in the midst of a big project, we come up with ideas that we'd love to implement, if we only had the time and budget to consider them. Scott Belsky, in his new book, Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality, recommends that you set up a system for not only capturing these random ideas, but also a ritual for returning to them to evaluate them.
What is design thinking and why does it matter?
What is design thinking, and why should innovators pay attention to it? Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, the new book by Ideo CEO and president Tim Brown, does an excellent job of demystifying this concept, and explaining why it is an important form of strategic innovation.
How to Build your Capacity to Make Ideas Happen
Coming up with a great idea is never enough. You must transform your vision into reality. Helping creative people to do that is the focus of Scott Belsky's new book, Making Ideas Happen.
What is lateral thinking?
Lateral thinking is one of those terms that many people have heard of, but probably very few of us really know what it means. So when I saw a very clear definition and description of it in Paul Sloane's excellent new book, How to be a Brilliant Thinker: Exercise Your Mind and Find Creative Solutions, I couldn't resist sharing it with you.
Content Catalyst: An Awesome Creativity Tool for Writers
If you do any kind of writing and need a steady stream of compelling ideas for newsletters, presentations, blog posts, articles, books and other forms of written communication, you'll love Roger C. Parker's excellent Content Catalyst book.
Organizing around the average is not a viable option any more, says Seth Godin
Organizing your firm around average performers used to be acceptable in the old world order, where companies hired automatons and attempted to profit from increased efficiencies and economies of scale. But it's no longer enough in the new world order, where a motivated, creative performer can generate 100x or 10,000x what they're paid. So says Seth Godin in his new book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Barriers to innovation: The ‘factory’ mentality
In Roger Martin's new book, the author writes that the main reason companies find it difficult to realize innovations is that most people in corporations are trained in analytical thinking and focused on reliability and consistency. They are focused on making the "factory" and related processes better, faster, and cheaper to produce existing offerings.
New book reveals the key attributes of innovation leaders
Innovation Leaders: How Senior Leaders Stimulate, Steer and Sustain Innovation by Jean-Philippe Deschamps is an outstanding book focusing on the key attributes of innovation leaders, and the author's position is that a distinct form of leadership is required for innovation practitioners.
The transformation imperative
Scott Anthony, in his new book, The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times, does an excellent job of making the case for corporate transformation, and why it is an appropriate approach can help companies to escape their narrowing options in today's turbulent economy.
‘100 Whats’ e-book is potent source of creative fuel
Don Snyder, better known as "Don the Idea Guy," has written a fascinating little e-book entitled, 100 Whats of Creativity.
Peter Drucker on the essentials of innovation
While many articles, white papers and books have been written lately about innovation, Peter Drucker seems to have nailed it decades ago.
The six attributes of innovation leaders
In his new book, Innovation Leaders: How Senior Executives Stimulate, Steer and Sustain Innovation, Jean-Philippe Deschamps explains that innovation leaders are unique and rare individuals who must possess a unique set of seemingly opposed characteristics.
12 capacities of ‘natural’ entrepreneurs
Dave Pollard's new book, Finding the Sweet Spot: The Natural Entrepreneur's Guide to Responsible, Sustainable, Joyful Work, is now available. This book explains how to uncover what you're naturally gifted at, and how to discover unmet needs and transform them into a "natural" business that helps you to achieve your true calling in life. Not surprisingly, personal innovation is a recurring theme throughout the book.
New ‘Marks and Meaning’ book explores the fascinating world of visual thinking
Dave Gray, the founder and Chairman of XPLANE (a firm that has great expertise in communicating complex concepts and processes visually), has published a pre-release version of his new book, Marks and Meaning. It's a fascinating read, one which I highly recommend, and an innovative approach to publishing a book.
The chaos theory of innovation
In their new book, The Innovator's Guide to Growth, authors Scott Anthony, Mark Johnson, Joseph Sinfield and Elizabeth Altman explain how many companies believe the way to unleash innovation is to let chaos reign. But this may not be a good idea, for a number of reasons.
The personal innovation imperative
In their new book, The Game Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation, authors A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan warn that if middle managers don't make a commitment to support and practice innovation, they will soon be left behind by a world that is steadily moving in the direction of becoming much more innovative.
What is business model innovation?
Chances are, you've heard of business model innovation. But what is it, really? Peter Skarczynski and Rowan Gibson, in their new book, Innovation to the Core: A Blueprint for Transforming How Your Company Innovates, provide a very clear and understandable explanation of this concept.