Serial Innovators

Serial Innovators
Author: Abbie Griffin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2012-05-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0804783322

Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms zeros in on the cutting-edge thinkers who repeatedly create and deliver breakthrough innovations and new products in large, mature organizations. These employees are organizational powerhouses who solve consumer problems and substantially contribute to the financial value to their firms. In this pioneering study, authors Abbie Griffin, Raymond L. Price, and Bruce A. Vojak detail who these serial innovators are and how they develop novel products, ranging from salt-free seasonings to improved electronics in companies such as Alberto Culver, Hewlett-Packard, and Procter & Gamble. Based on interviews with over 50 serial innovators and an even larger pool of their co-workers, managers and human resources teams, the authors reveal key insights about how to better understand, emulate, enable, support, and manage these unique and important individuals for long-term corporate success. Interestingly, the book finds that serial innovators are instrumental both in cases where firms are aware of clear market demands, and in scenarios when companies take risks on new investments, creating a consumer need. For over 25 years, research on innovation has taken the perspective that new product development can be managed like any other (complex) process of the firm. While a highly structured and closely supervised approach is helpful in creating incremental innovations, this book finds that it is not conducive to creating breakthrough innovations. The text argues that the drive to routinize innovation has gone too far; in fact, so far as to limit many mature firms' ability to create breakthrough innovations. In today's economy, with the future of so many large firms on the line, this book is a clarion call to businesses to rethink how to nurture and thrive on their innovative workforce.

Quirky

Quirky
Author: Melissa A Schilling
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2018-02-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1610397932

The science behind the traits and quirks that drive creative geniuses to make spectacular breakthroughs What really distinguishes the people who literally change the world -- those creative geniuses who give us one breakthrough after another? What differentiates Marie Curie or Elon Musk from the merely creative, the many one-hit wonders among us? Melissa Schilling, one of the world's leading experts on innovation, invites us into the lives of eight people -- Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Elon Musk, Dean Kamen, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, and Steve Jobs -- to identify the traits and experiences that drove them to make spectacular breakthroughs, over and over again. While all innovators possess incredible intellect, intellect alone, she shows, does not create a breakthrough innovator. It was their personal, social, and emotional quirkiness that enabled true genius to break through--not just once but again and again. Nearly all of the innovators, for example, exhibited high levels of social detachment that enabled them to break with norms, an almost maniacal faith in their ability to overcome obstacles, and a passionate idealism that pushed them to work with intensity even in the face of criticism or failure. While these individual traits would be unlikely to work in isolation -- being unconventional without having high levels of confidence, effort, and goal directedness might, for example, result in rebellious behavior that does not lead to meaningful outcomes -- together they can fuel both the ability and drive to pursue what others deem impossible. Schilling shares the science behind the convergence of traits that increases the likelihood of success. And, as Schilling also reveals, there is much to learn about nurturing breakthrough innovation in our own lives -- in, for example, the way we run organizations, manage people, and even how we raise our children.

The Optimizer

The Optimizer
Author: John Saunders
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781636766843

In The Optimizer, Saunders asserts that we should celebrate and learn from failures instead of condemning them. The book reveals how innovation, albeit frightening, is necessary in today's business world. Developing a team of serial optimizers who seek constant incremental improvement can be just the strategy to drive growth and ingenuity within your team. This book's approach to innovation highlights the importance of managing the emotional hurdles that come when facing change. Inside you will learn: How innovation has evolved over time and its inextricable link with effective leadership. How to develop trust in order to build and lead a team of serial optimizers, ultimately engaging everyone in your mission to grow and deliver your purpose. About The Motley Fool, Microsoft, a public school principal, the largest food delivery company in the world: Meituan Dianping, and many more who have successfully optimized their organizations. Following the roadmap laid out in The Optimizer, you will develop a team of serial optimizers, empower every member to be a contributor to growth in your organization, and lift the talent curve.

Serial Innovators

Serial Innovators
Author: Claudio Feser
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2011-10-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118174046

"The average life expectancy at "birth" of a firm is roughly 15 years, and only one out of twenty lives longer than fifty years. Firms are born, they grow, then they struggle to keep up with changing markets. Slow adapters often become big losers, fall by the wayside, and die. Serial Innovators studies the factors affecting the aging of firms, particularly those that slow down their ability to adapt to changes in the marketplace. The book reviews recent findings in relevant academic fields—behavioral economics, psychology, neuroscience, organizational science, network theory, anthropology, sociology, and strategy—to understand how firms, as they grow, develop rigidities that prevent change. It develops a model of organization that is adaptive, innovative, and can create significant value for its stakeholders for long periods of time".

The Innovator's Way

The Innovator's Way
Author: Peter J. Denning
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2012-09-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0262288974

Two experts show that innovation is a skill that can be learned and describe eight essential practices for achieving success. Innovation is the ruling buzzword in business today. Technology companies invest billions in developing new gadgets; business leaders see innovation as the key to a competitive edge; policymakers craft regulations to foster a climate of innovation. And yet businesses report a success rate of only four percent for innovation initiatives. Can we significantly increase our odds of success? In The Innovator's Way, innovation experts Peter Denning and Robert Dunham reply with an emphatic yes. Innovation, they write, is not simply an invention, a policy, or a process to be managed. It is a personal skill that can be learned, developed through practice, and extended into organizations. Denning and Dunham identify and describe eight personal practices that all successful innovators perform: sensing, envisioning, offering, adopting, sustaining, executing, leading, and embodying. Together, these practices can boost a fledgling innovator to success. Weakness in any of these practices, they show, blocks innovation. Denning and Dunham chart the path to innovation mastery, from individual practices to teams and social networks.

The Innovation Mindset

The Innovation Mindset
Author: Lorraine Marchand
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2022-09-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0231554869

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.

The Innovators

The Innovators
Author: Walter Isaacson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2014
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1476708703

Chronicles the lives and careers of the men and women responsible for the creation of the digital age, including Doug Englebart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and more.

The Innovator's Spirit

The Innovator's Spirit
Author: Chuck Swoboda
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-05-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1732439176

2021 Axiom Business Book Award Winner in Business Intelligence/Innovation Innovation isn't optional—it's imperative Everyone wants to create new products and services, find new customers and markets, stay ahead of the competition, and work smarter instead of harder. Yet with all the focus and attention on innovation, the term has become an overused buzzword rather than a real, tangible concept. If you want to seriously pursue innovation—you need to strip away the hype. Real innovators need to transcend the existing ideas, rules, and patterns to discover exciting new outcomes. They must step outside the best practice box and get their hands dirty. The spirit of a true innovator is rooted in wanting to do something that has never been done before, to solve problems that have never been solved, and to run through walls and leap over tall buildings to get there. In The Innovator’s Spirit, author Chuck Swoboda—retired chairman and CEO of Cree, a company that fundamentally changed the way people experience light and drove the obsolescence of the Edison light bulb—explains that innovation is fundamentally about people and shows his readers how to develop a mindset of creativity, risk-taking, and hard work. He also instills in them a belief that there is always a better way.

The Innovator's DNA

The Innovator's DNA
Author: Jeff Dyer
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2011-07-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 142214271X

A new classic, cited by leaders and media around the globe as a highly recommended read for anyone interested in innovation. In The Innovator’s DNA, authors Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and bestselling author Clayton Christensen (The Innovator’s Dilemma, The Innovator’s Solution, How Will You Measure Your Life?) build on what we know about disruptive innovation to show how individuals can develop the skills necessary to move progressively from idea to impact. By identifying behaviors of the world’s best innovators—from leaders at Amazon and Apple to those at Google, Skype, and Virgin Group—the authors outline five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting. Once you master these competencies (the authors provide a self-assessment for rating your own innovator’s DNA), the authors explain how to generate ideas, collaborate to implement them, and build innovation skills throughout the organization to result in a competitive edge. This innovation advantage will translate into a premium in your company’s stock price—an innovation premium—which is possible only by building the code for innovation right into your organization’s people, processes, and guiding philosophies. Practical and provocative, The Innovator’s DNA is an essential resource for individuals and teams who want to strengthen their innovative prowess.