Business Innovation

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.

How do Amazon, Apple, Google, Nike, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and The Walt Disney Company grow better and faster than others in the same industry? In Upstream Marketing, authors Tim Koelzer and Kristin Kurth share best practices, research, case studies, and analysis informed by their more than twenty years of experience helping transform client brands and businesses through their work at EquiBrand Consulting, a top management consultancy. The result is a groundbreaking deep-dive into the fundamentals of upstream marketing.

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.

What can you learn from the most successful companies in the world? The Capital One Story will help you understand and adopt the competitive strategies, workplace culture, and daily business practices that enabled an unlikely credit card startup to revolutionize the credit industry.

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.

In a world where 72% of companies lack an AI policy and most prioritize shiny implementations over the less glamorous essentials of readiness and governance, The Curious Case of ChatterBotGPT couldn’t be more timely, or more entertaining. This compelling business parable dives headfirst into the chaos, challenges, and opportunities of AI in the workplace, offering a cautionary tale wrapped in wit and intrigue. Acme Inc., a mid-sized tech company with big ambitions, finds itself at the center of an AI-fueled storm when Thaddeus Blandly, an eager but misguided employee, uploads proprietary ...

Companies are fighting the wrong battle. The consensus has been to learn the best practices from Big Tech and imitate them. But new paths for growth aren't created by imitation; they're forged by radical differentiation. In Smart Rivals, Harvard Business School professor Feng Zhu and former Bloomberg journalist Bonnie Cao show business leaders how to create new competitive advantages by offering product features and benefits that tech giants and other competitors cannot match.

Innovation Casino is a new playbook on how executives at large firms can grow digital revenue in the 2020s. Challenged with COVID-19 at the outset, the 2020s are also poised for higher taxes and higher borrowing costs. In this new decade, large corporates will need to change course from betting on big acquisitions (a strategy used by “players” in the innovation casino) to growing organically by creating new reasons for customers to pay a premium and stay loyal.

Tech insider Inbal Arieli goes against the common belief that Israel’s outstanding economic accomplishments are the byproduct of its technologically advanced military or the result of long-standing Jewish traditions of study and questioning. Rather, Arieli gives credit to the unique way Israelis are raised in a culture that supports creative thinking and risk taking. Growing up within a tribal-like community, Israelis experience childhoods purposely shaped by challenges and risks - in a culture that encourages and rewards chutzpah.

Rising to the challenges of corporate culture and leadership can feel like an impossible challenge, especially when you're striving to align your team with the company’s core values. Guess what? Creating a thriving, motivated, and resilient organization that aligns fully with your corporate vision is entirely achievable. This book is your roadmap for realizing that vision. Drawing from years of hands-on experience, the author shares insights and strategies as someone who has been in your position and understands exactly what it takes to transform your organization.

When faced with new challenges, it’s easy to feel our solutions need to be equally unprecedented. We think we need a revolution. But what if this is a big mistake? In Evolutionary Ideas, Sam Tatam shows how behavioral science and evolutionary psychology can help us solve tomorrow’s challenges, not by divining something the world has never seen, but by borrowing from yesterday’s solutions–often in the most unexpected ways.

A lean strategy is about gaining a competitive edge by offering better quality products at competitive prices and making a sustainable profit by eliminating waste through engaging employees in discovering deeper ways to think about their own jobs and smarter ways of working together. In its current form, lean has been radically effective, but its true powers have yet to be harnessed. The Lean Strategy harnesses that power and delivers a new way of creating value from lean.

Get from idea to product/market fit in B2B Startups don’t have infinite runway. To reach product/market fit, they need a solid roadmap, effective strategies to learn from their market and customers, and a framework for deciding when to pivot, and when to persevere. The issue is that most of the advice they get is either incomplete, unrealistic, misguided, or it’s just not catered to the enterprise or B2B journey. Founders can create their own processes through patchwork at the cost of trial and error, but this can easily send them sideways. What startups really need is… A proven ...

This book invites readers to reimagine what is possible for small businesses in a rapidly changing world. It begins by challenging entrepreneurs to dream bigger than ever before, laying the groundwork for bold ambition. The book then reveals how profits can grow as costs shrink, showing practical strategies for financial health. Readers learn why cash flow is the business’s lifeline and how to manage it for stability and growth. The focus shifts to customers, emphasizing that exceptional service is the secret to lasting loyalty. Next, the power of brand storytelling is explored, ...

The Maker Movement is where all the next great inventions and innovations are happening - and you can play a part in it. The Maker Movement Manifesto takes you deep into the movement. Hatch describes the remarkable technologies and tools now accessible to you and shares stories of how ordinary people have devised extraordinary products, giving rise to successful new business ventures. He explains how economic upheavals are paving the way for individuals to create, innovate, make a fortune - with nothing more than their own creativity and some hard work.

In The Wise Company, legendary management experts Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi highlight how various companies have confronted the challenge of rapid change. The key: a relentless self-renewal process where companies realize the future they envision, rather than only responding to changes in the environment.

Unlock the tools, strategies, and mindset you need to thrive in the digital world with three exceptional books in one. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to scale, this all-in-one resource delivers the most up-to-date techniques in AI marketing, digital strategy, and social media monetization.

First introduced in Anne Marie Knott's influential Harvard Business Review article, RQTM (Research Quotient) is a revolutionary new tool that measures a company's R&D capability - its ability to convert investment in R&D into products and services people want to buy or to reduce the cost of producing these.

How much of innovation is inspiration, and how much is hard work? The answer lies somewhere in the middle, says management thinker Peter Drucker. In this HBR classic from 1985, he argues that innovation is real work that can and should be managed like any other corporate function. Success is more likely to result from the systematic pursuit of opportunities than from a flash of genius. Indeed, most innovative business ideas arise through the methodical analysis of seven areas of opportunity.

Almost every major company today has made innovation its number one priority. Yet fewer than one in four executives believe their organizations are effective innovators. The pressure to innovate and the price paid for failure keeps rising while most companies haven't progressed at all. They are still using the same antiquated techniques pioneered decades ago. This is why some of the biggest corporations in the world manage to lose entire markets to start-ups they've never heard of.