Readings related to innovation
Books:
The innovator’s solution By Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor, this book is a continuation of Christensen’s The innovator’s dilemma. This business best seller deserves your accolades as it provides a comprehensive, well-written, and well-researched examination of how organizations can break away from past success that is ultimately preventing them from achieving that goal. next step change in growth.
Drive growth through innovation By Robert B. Tucker, I don’t know why this book doesn’t get more recognition. Tucker does an outstanding job of breaking down what it takes for an entity to commit, if it truly wants to become an innovative organization. The wording and examples used are clear and easy to understand, which is why this is one of the books on innovation that I recommend more than most.
The art of innovation By Tom Kelley, Kelley, the CEO of IDEO, Design Consulting takes the reader down an enjoyable path of creative thinking, getting groups / teams to think creatively and then incorporating the culture of creative thinking into an organization. Of course, this is all from a product design perspective. The stories are a bit selfish, but quite enjoyable and made me say, “That’s great.” a couple of times.
Open innovation by Henry Chesbrough, The Foundational Book on Open Innovation. It does a good job of describing what open innovation is, the benefits of following an open innovation strategy, and providing examples of cases where it has been used successfully. It is written in a business style for business people, but do not criticize it. If you are interested in open innovation, this is the book for you.
Breaking creativity By Michael Michalko, although it is written more for the practitioner, this book offers a good overview of how to see what others cannot and how to think what others are not thinking. Extremely similar to his other book in terms of content, writing and examples are better at Breaking creativity. The techniques, exercises, and group work presented here are great to read quickly when looking for ideas to help organize a workshop. Michalko has also released Thinkpak, a deck of cards to help with all phases of brainstorming.
A blow to the side of the head by Roger von Oech, I love this book! It is not your basic business copy. Written much more for the practitioner, Beat, provides numerous exercises and ideas on how to unleash your own creativity and that of others. The final chapter talks about the need not only to generate great ideas, but also to take action and bring them to market. Von Oech has released 2 decks of cards, Creative Whack Pack Y Innovative Whack Package to provoke and inspire creative thinking.
Made to stick By Chip Heath and Dan Heath, written by two brothers, this book is not really focused on innovation, but some of the concepts explored in this book on how to make ideas catchy are directly applicable to development or rather to development. refinement of innovative products and services. It is one of those books that makes you think about how you communicate and present yourself. Excellent reading.
How breakthroughs happen By Andrew Hargadon, The book title is self explanatory. And although the material it contains is good, it seems doomed to suffer the same fate as many business books: to be skimmed.
Fast second By Markides and Geroski, The premise of the book is that it is not the inventors who become famous (and rich) but the innovators, the people who can take invented technology and bring it to market in a way that consumers find valuable. The book uses examples as a way to prove its point and illuminate the keys to being the ‘quick second’ company and capturing value.
Video:
AG Lafley discusses innovation at P&G. This 15 minute video clip is a good overview of how they view innovation at P&G and where they stand in their path.
Websites:
As their website says, more Inspiration.com allows you to discover innovative products and technologies from every possible domain. It’s easy to spend 30 minutes just browsing looking at all the really great products from around the world.
LateralAction.com provides feedback on everything innovative with a clear lean towards creative types. It has excellent links to articles on the web. This is definitely a place to go for a couple of very interesting short readings every week.
www.innocentive.com was the first and the leader in open innovation on the Internet. They post corporate challenges with rewards for the best answers. Respondents around the world work on these problems primarily for research but also for development in the hope of solving them and getting paid for it.
Articles:
There are so many articles related to innovation that instead of trying to select a 1 or 2 special note, I would just suggest looking at Harvard Business Review and The McKinsey Quarterly for their most recent 3-5 articles on the subject.