Business Innovation

How many presentations on innovation have there been recently? Thousands? Millions? We are experiencing 'innovation fatigue': we feel cheated by the endless rounds of consultants who come into our organizations, deliver conceptual models that don't stick with the realities of business and then leave again. Companies and teams are left feeling more deflated than before, and with not one idea that's impacted the bottom line. Innovation for the Fatigued argues it is worth fighting for the concept and study of innovation in organizations.

Good ideas are killing great companies. A waste of money, brains, and time (WOMBAT) is guaranteed if your company thinks product first, market second. Every late-stage failure, every “pivot,” is a testament to this. When you’re wrong about the market, you cannot be right about the product, so why is innovation done this way? Needs-Driven Innovation—inspired by Stanford University’s Biodesign—turns the typical innovation process on its head. Instead of failing with product-market fit, NDI discovers market-product fit. Every time.

Innovation means putting ideas to work. It is a discipline that can be learned, practiced, and leveraged to propel meaningful transformation and sustainable success, and it is proving to be the margin of difference in the largest concentrated sector of our economy: health care. This is where the stakes may be highest because the transcendent ideas that come from the patient bedside or laboratory bench don't just translate to a bottom line, they improve and extend human life.

Over the last 5 years, we have seen the rise of Responsive Nonprofits who committed to drive innovation in the charitable sector. A new breed of growth-oriented nonprofit leaders are beginning to emerge. These innovative leaders are using new tactics and technology to drive exponential impact across their fundraising, marketing, program, and operations teams. Through hours of conversations with hundreds of the leading innovators in philanthropy, we’ve discovered 9 key practices that responsive nonprofits adopt in order to transform their operations.

Today’s board rooms, think tanks, and staff lounges are more diverse than ever before. These cultural differences can either lead to gridlock among stubborn, single-minded thinkers or they can catalyze innovation and growth among an expansive team of creative, distinctive individuals. Diverse teams are far more creative than homogenous teams—but only when they are managed effectively. Driven by Difference identifies the management practices necessary to minimize conflict while maximizing the informational diversity found in varied values and experiences.

A new model is being pioneered by geeks; a radical new mindset that has shifted the paradigm entirely on what a business can – and should – be. They do not follow the rules of the Industrial era, with their hierarchies and bureaucratic ways of thinking. They do not follow the principles preached in business schools since the dawn of time. They have all dedicated themselves to approaching business as a geek would: through trial and error, egalitarianism, evidence and stress-testing ideas in a group setting – rather than relying on the boss’s instincts.

Partnership marketing is not new; it has existed in many different forms, and under many different names (such as affiliate marketing) for decades. However, thanks to transformative changes in enabling technology and pricing models, as well as a change in both supply and demand, partnership marketing now exists in a more automated, scalable form that few companies have fully leveraged to date. Moving to Outcomes will unlock the keys and show readers how to do so for themselves.

Tamara Ghandour, author, podcaster, keynote speaker and founder of innovation training company LaunchStreet, used to believe that innovation was the domain of a select few, exclusive to certain industries or relegated to a specific job role. But, as Tamara discovered in her 25 years of work and research, everybody has the capacity to innovate. It's a person's unique innovation style, which can be assessed and channelled, that can transform inertia into innovation.

Why are some organizations more innovative than others? How can we tap in to, empower, and leverage the natural innovation within our organizations that is so vital to our future success? Now more than ever, companies and institutions of all types and sizes are determined to create more innovative organizations. In study after study, leaders say that fostering innovation and the need for transformational change are among their top priorities.

Musicians may just hold the keys to innovation in business. They don’t think like we do, and in the creative process, they don’t act like we do. It’s no coincidence that some of the world’s most respected creators are also entrepreneurs. In Two Beats Ahead, Panos A. Panay, senior vice president for strategy at Berklee College of Music, and R. Michael Hendrix, global design director at IDEO, interview some of the nation’s top musicians and business leaders about how they approach innovation differently.

In the ever-evolving landscape of regulations, where every new situation not previously regulated gives rise to a cascade of new and potentially high regulations, "Cutting Through Chaos: A Blueprint for Regulation" emerges as a guiding beacon. This book transcends the ordinary and offers readers a transformative journey through the intricate dance between compliance and innovation. Delving into the heart of the chaos that this perpetual expansion of rules can create, this blueprint unveils real-world examples, laying bare the tangible impact on businesses and economies. It doesn't just ...

In this compact business management audiobook, Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein take the listener through every step of change - from realization that change is a good thing, to implementing that change in every department, across all channels. Change Is Good...You Go First will facilitate and champion change in any working environment and comes in an easily digestible format, including well-organized lists and objectives to help your team achieve its goals.

Most new media is destined to fail. Whether it's a song, film, website, book, video game, or advertisement, it's extremely difficult to create works that resonate with audiences. Lean Media can give creators and media companies an edge. The innovation framework for new media has worked for some of the biggest media brands and most well-known artists, as well as smaller creative teams and media ventures. It draws on the same "lean" approaches adopted by manufacturing and tech startups, but is optimized for the unique needs and creative methods used in the media industry. In LEAN MEDIA, ...

Are you ready to be part of the greatest industrial transformation of our era? The Greendustrial Revolution is a call to action, inviting us to redefine how we use, design, consume, and revalue the planet’s resources. This book invites you to be a protagonist in that change, blending sustainability strategies with a practical and realistic vision for the future. You’ll explore how circular economy, eco-design, efficient resource management —and even artificial intelligence— show us that every decision matters. Learn how to implement changes that benefit the environment and ...

In The Very Best Bad Idea, Kirk Westwood steamrolls the long-held premise that right is good and wrong is bad. He paves the way to give anyone who sees situations differently the permission to be proud of their brilliantly unbridled “bad ideas”.

In this book, Eric von Hippel, author of the influential Democratizing Innovation, integrates new theory and research findings into the framework of a "free innovation paradigm." Free innovation, as he defines it, involves innovations developed by consumers who are self-rewarded for their efforts, and who give their designs away "for free." It is an inherently simple grassroots innovation process, unencumbered by compensated transactions and intellectual property rights.

How did Ford Motors use Lean development to pull off one of the most impressive corporate turnarounds in history? Largely by avoiding the mistakes that so many companies make when in a death spiral. They looked beyond manufacturing efficiency to change the very fundamentals of how they developed vehicles. In Designing the Future, Lean product development expert James Morgan and world-renowned Lean guru Jeffrey K. Liker reveal why so many companies have achieved only moderate success with Lean in operations, with a limited impact on their overall business.

Berthold Gunster presents his fifteen flip thinking strategies that will transform your thinking away from limitations and threats and towards possibilities and opportunities. From disrupting (turn all the rules upside down), to flaunting (play up what you want to hide), and importing (get the enemy on board) to amplifying (focus on what works, and do more of that) Gunster's strategies and stories will have you approaching even the most challenging problems, at work, home and at play, in a whole new way.

Part philosophy, part business, and part history, this book is a kaleidoscopic view of the way humans have been able to achieve greatness for themselves, their organizations, and the world at large. You'll learn from the wisdom of Eastern philosophies that are over 2,500 years old and the interconnected insights of Leonardo da Vinci. Couple that with Fortune 100 corporate cross pollination for creativity and startup thinking for how to adapt with ease, and you have Everything Connects. This isn't just a quick fix for your next quarter; this is how you succeed in the long run.

Inside this book, Enfusen Founder Roger Bryan outlines everything you need to systematically implement data-driven marketing in your organization. You’ll learn how to implement a successful strategy the very first time based on CMO.com’s Five Phases of Data Driven Marketing. Gather Understand Decide and Automate Execute Test and Learn Roger Bryan spent three years working with hundreds of businesses on their “Modern Marketing Strategies” and discovered that the most successful businesses all had one thing in common: an understanding of how to leverage data in their marketing efforts...