Book Description
In Mavericks at Work, Fast Company cofounder William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at the magazine, give you an inside look at the "most original minds in business" wherever they find them: from Procter & Gamble to Pixar, from gold mines to funky sandwich shops. Want to stop doing business as usual? Then take some lessons from the 32 maverick companies Taylor and LaBarre profile.
Questions for William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre
Amazon.com: Whom do you think this book will appeal to?
Taylor and LaBarre: This book should appeal to a wide "coalition" of business leaders and innovators--impatient, change-minded executives in big companies, senior leaders in smaller, entrepreneurial companies, young people with big dreams about their future and their careers. This book should inform and energize anyone and everyone who wants to do big things in business by shaking up the status quo and challenging the powers-that-be. One important point: We strongly believe that this book should appeal to women as well as men. It is not meant to be an uptight, starched-shirt type read--your typical all-male business book. The book doesn't target women executives per se, but we believe it will appeal to men and women alike.
Amazon.com: What's the story behind the book?
Taylor and LaBarre: In one sense, Mavericks at Work has been 18 months in the making. That's the amount of time that the two of us spent totally focused on the travel, research, interviewing, and writing to create Mavericks at Work. In another sense, this book reflects more than a decade's worth of learning, thinking, and writing about the best way to do business and the new cast of companies and individual leaders that represent the face of business at its best. First at that classic voice of the business establishment, Harvard Business Review, and then at the new-generation magazine that he cofounded, Fast Company, Bill Taylor has been traveling the world, visiting companies, and interviewing great business leaders. Much the same goes for Polly LaBarre--first at the venerable IndustryWeek magazine, and then as one of the original members of the Fast Company team, Polly has made it her speciality to discover, understand, and chronicle the most exciting and innovative leaders in business.
With respect to Mavericks, the book reflects our in-depth access to the 32 companies featured in the book. This is anything but an "armchair" business book. We logged tens of thousands of miles and spent countless hours visiting, conducting interviews at, and participating in meetings, training sessions, and events inside a wide variety organizations. We went deep inside these organizations, looking to understand the ideas they stand for and the ways they work. We participated in a filmmaking class at one of the world's most successful movie studios. We attended a closed-to-the-public awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall, where employees of what has to be the world's most entertaining bank sang, danced, and strutted their stuff. We sat in on a crucial monthly meeting (the 384th such consecutive meeting over the last 32 years) in which top executives and front-line managers of a $600-million employee-owned company share their most sensitive financial information and most valuable market secrets. We walked the corridors of a 120-year-old research facility where a team of change-minded R&D executives is transforming how one of the world's biggest companies develops new ideas for consumer products. We walked the streets of Manhattan with teams of employees from a hard-charging hedge fund, who were sizing up ideas about stock-market picks.
Amazon.com: What makes this book relevant today?
Taylor and LaBarre: We believe that this is the right book at the right time, with a set of messages and a collection of practices that will inspire business executives and entrepreneurs to bring out the best in their companies, their colleagues, and themselves. Why this book now? Because business needs a breath of fresh air. We are, after five long years, coming out of a dark and trying period in our economy and society--an era of slow growth and dashed expectations, of criminal wrongdoing and ethical misconduct at some of the world's best-known companies. But NASDAQ nuttiness already feels like time-capsule fodder, the white-collar perp walk has become as routine as an annual meeting, and the triumphant return of me-first moguls like Donald Trump feels like a bad nostalgia trip, the corporate equivalent of a hair-band reunion. We've seen the face of business at its worst, and it hasn't been a pretty sight. This book is intended to persuade readers of the power of business at its best.
Which speaks to one of our major goals for Mavericks at Work--to restore the promise of business as a force for innovation, satisfaction, and progress, rather than as a source of revulsion, remorse, and recrimination. Indeed, despite all the bleak headlines and blood-boiling scandals over the last five years, the economy has experienced a period of transformation and realignment, a power shift so profound that we're just beginning to appreciate what it means for the future of business—and for how all of us go about the business of building companies that work and doing work that matters.
In industry after industry, organizations and executives that were once dismissed as upstarts, as outliers, as wildcards, have achieved positions of financial prosperity and market leadership. There's a reason the young billionaires behind the most celebrated entrepreneurial success in recent memory began their initial public offering (IPO) of shares with a declaration of independence from business as usual. "Google is not a conventional company," read their Letter from the Founders. "We do not intend to become one."
Nor does the unconventional cast of characters readers will encounter in this book. From a culture-shaping television network with offices in sun-splashed Santa Monica, California, to a little-known office-furniture manufacturer rooted in the frozen tundra of Green Bay, Wisconsin, from glamorous fields such as advertising, fashion, and the Internet, to old-line industries such as construction, mining, and household products, they are winning big at business--attracting millions of customers, creating thousands of jobs, generating tens of billions of dollars of wealth--by rethinking the logic of how business gets done.
Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist, put it memorably some 35 years ago: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." We believe the companies, executives, and entrepreneurs you'll meet in the pages that follow are inventing a more exciting, more compelling, more rewarding future for business. They have devised provocative and instructive answers to four of the timeless challenges that face organizations of every size and leaders in every field: how you make strategy, how you unleash new ideas, how you connect with customers, how your best people achieve great results.
Amazon.com: Can you give us a brief summary of your book--in 250 words or less?
Taylor and LaBarre: This book is a report from the front lines of the future of business. It is not a book of best practices. It is a book of next practices--a set of insights and a collection of case studies that amount to a business plan for the 21st century, a new way to lead, compete, and succeed.
Our basic argument is as straightforward to explain as it is urgent to apply: When it comes to thriving in a hyper-competitive marketplace, "playing it safe" is no longer playing it smart. In an economy defined by overcapacity, oversupply, and utter sensory overload--an economy in which everyone already has more than enough of whatever it is you're selling--the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your company and industry can and should be going. You can't do big things as a competitor if you're content with doing things a little better than the competition.
This book is devoted to the proposition that the best way to out-perform the competition is to out-think the competition. Maverick companies aren't always the largest in their field; maverick entrepreneurs don't always make the cover of the business magazines. But mavericks do the work that matters most--the work of originality, creativity, and experimentation. They demonstrate that you can build companies around high ideals and fierce competitive ambitions, that the most powerful way to create economic value is to embrace a set of values that go beyond just amassing power, and that business, at its best, is too exciting, too important, and too much fun to be left to the dead hand of business as usual.
Who are these mavericks? The core ideas in this book are rooted in the strategies, practices, and leadership styles of 32 organizations with vastly different histories, cultures, and business models. But all of them are business originals, based on the distinctiveness of their ideas and the power of their practices. They are rethinking competition, reinventing innovation, reconnecting with customers, and redesigning work. Together, they are creating a maverick agenda for business--an agenda from which every business can learn.
Book Description
In the last decade the business world has been dogged by bad leadership, CEO greed and the excesses of the dotcom craze. Now, as the authors of this lively new book suggest, companies and corporations are moving away from traditional methods of how to lead, manage and compete, towards a more 'maverick' management style that has proved highly successful.
Mavericks at Work is the first book to document this change – and to give readers a glimpse into the ideas and techniques behind fast–growing but unconventional companies such as Google, HBO, Lendlease and Southwest Airlines. It profiles some of the most exciting – and often eccentric – CEOs in the US, and details their strategies for success.
With its accessible tone, Mavericks at Work is both serious and fun; business 'edutainment' for a smart, ambitious readership.
Customer Reviews:
Become a Maverick.......2007-10-10
"Mavericks at Work" hit a home run for me. I love to think and act like a Maverick. I love to do "work that matters". This book introduced me to others who think like I do and have found business success. Thanks!
"Mavericks at Work" starts off with great a great introduction and keeps on going. I love the quote from Alan Kay (introduction): "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." Why does business spend so much time trying to figure out what the competition will be bringing to the market place instead of trying to "invent the future"? Why not invent the market? Then you don't have any competition!
My favorite chapters were Chapters 1, 3, 4, and 10.
Chapter One - "Not Just a Company, a Cause: Strategy as Advocacy." This chapter does a great job of explaining why YOU need to create a Cause, not just a company. Causes make raving fans. Raving fans bring profits
Chapter Three - "Maverick Messages (1): Sizing Up Your Strategy". Take notes on this chapter, you will be glad you did. The authors give five questions every company should ask when sizing up your strategy.
Chapter Four - "Innovation Inc.: Open Source Gets Down to Business". Do you need some "innovative" ideas on how to get your company to embrace innovation as a way of life? This chapter shows you how. Don't be shy about putting some of these ideas to work.
Chapter Ten - "The Company You Keep: Business as if People Mattered". Great chapter on TALENT! Business today needs to put Talent at the top of the agenda for every strategy meeting, every business plan, every performance review, etc... All company's say that their people are their most important asset. Few prove it through their actions. This chapter shows some organizations that know and act as if People Matter and the payoff are increased profits.
Larry Kevin Adams
Author of "Selling: Powerful New Strategies for Sales Success".
theactionator.com
Stories to inspire - Lessons to Learn.......2007-08-10
Interesting stories and concrete examples are one of the most powerful ways to learn and be inspired. If you want to learn to succeed in the new world of work, then the collection of stories and examples in the book Mavericks at Work is a great starting point. The book profiles 32 remarkable US entrepreneurs who have battled bureaucracy and challenged the status quo, and won, while redefining success in their industries. The authors William Taylor, founding editor of Fast Company, and Polly LaBarre, a former writer for Fast Company, uncover some remarkable examples of how businesses are succeeding in hypercompetitive industries by being distinctively different.
Their findings are centered on 4 key themes:
1. Be different and pursue more than just money: Successful mavericks are fearless about breaking with outdated traditions and confining standards. Making money is only a small part of a bigger mission which they are deeply passionate about. Examples include Southwest Airlines, the company that pioneered low cost air travel and democratized the skies. The book highlights how Southwest saw it as their mission to make air travel accessible to all and by going after this wholeheartedly they innovated on different ways to save cost such as using second tier airports, not serving food and seating people on a first come first serve basis. Keeping this mission at the centre of the organisation has differentiated them from the competition and enabled them to consistently make profits is a loss making industry.
2. Tap other people's brains: The innovators of today rely on more than just their own insight and intelligence. They create systems to enable and encourage others to help them solve problems and come up with ingenious solutions. Examples include TopCoder Inc., a software development house for many large multinational organisations. They create competitions for technology geeks from all over the world to come up with solutions for software problems in return for lucrative prizes and prestigious ranking points. In this way they are able to use the wisdom of many to solve very specific software development challenges.
3. Connect deeply with customers: Connecting with customers is about a lot more than just traditional advertising, it is about really understanding what customers' value and connecting with that value system in a deep and meaningful way. Jones Soda asks customers to contribute photographs to be used on the labels of their cool drink bottles. Customers submit photos plus the story attached to each photo. Many photos are selected and placed on the bottles to be distributed in the region in which that customer lives. This creates a massive interest in the community as they discover "who is on the label?" and "what their story is?"
4. Partner with your employees: Maverick business enable employees to really understand what drives the business. They are given the opportunity to freely contribute to the overall mission of the business and be rewarded for doing so. At Cranium, a fast growing, innovative board game manufacturer in Seattle, the Chief Financial Officer holds companywide meetings on the company's numbers. He tutors the staff on cash flow and financial ratios, and every employee then assesses his or her own productivity. He recognizes that this helps keep the whole company focused on the right priorities
These are just a few of the many insightful, uplifting and inspiring examples that are highlighted in this energetic and well written book.
Great book!.......2007-07-25
This is one of the best business books I have read. Though it is written principally for managers and entrepreneurs, the book is truly inspiring for those starting up their own business. You will learn some very unconventional ways of managing your organization and innovating! "Playing it safe" is no longer playing it smart. The only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your organization should be going.
Follow Southwest airlines' example by not hiring industry veterans in your organization. Industry veterans are harder to retrain, and come to your organization with preconceived ideas. Hiring people new to the industry fills your organization with fresh ideas.
Don't hesitate to fire your customers if they don't fit into your organization's culture. ING, a bank unlike others, does exactly that. ING also innovates by being different from other banks. They open on Sunday for example, and deposits are in a person's account within 24 hours (other banks take up to 3 business days). If groceries and malls can open on Sundays, why not banks?
Pixar Animation, unlike other companies in its industry (who hire on contract basis), hires full time crew. This creates a team atmosphere where everyone gets to know each other, and thus can be more productive.
Use open source. A Gold mining company in Canada did just that when it asked people from all over the world over the internet for their insight on where gold could be found. With worldwide expertise available, they found their answer! Cirque du Soleil similarly scouts the whole world for talent. Talent is everywhere, and you have to go everywhere to find it.
Any entrepreneur should be asking the following two questions: (a) If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would really miss you and why? (b) Why would people want to work for you?
Don't hire great people, or else you have to change your whole work environment into greatness. Hire good and smart people, but they don't have to be great. You have to be able to shun traditional ideas.
Finally, just in case some of you are wondering, Samuel Maverick, a Texan lawyer and politician, is the namesake of the eponym maverick, meaning an unbranded range animal. Gradually the term was enlarged to include anyone who could not be trusted to remain one of his group.
Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist, said some 35 years ago: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
Gets the creative juices flowing.......2007-07-05
A very inspiring book in helping think outside the box. Loads of real-world examples throughout. Starts with great energy and passion by the authors, and (maybe) runs out of steam in the end. Or maybe I just wasn't as interested in the subject covered. Anyway... I bought three more copies as gifts for clients.
Describes what it takes to have a breakthrough corporate success in the new millennium..........2007-06-20
Like a host of the new "psychosocial" business books, Mavericks at Work describes what it takes to have a breakthrough corporate success in the new millennium. The focus is not so much on the business styles of the 50's and 60's, as illustrated by the work of, say Peter Drucker, but rather it focuses on the new gestalt of branding through an intense devotion to customer service. By examining companies from the large scale of Proctor & Gamble and the World Bank, as well as new upstarts like Craigslist and ING Direct to open source communities like Wikipedia and TopCoder, authors William Taylor and Polly LaBarre take a new approach to finding out what the basis of the new energy and focus of companies who's products or services allow them to differentiate themselves and pull away from the pack. As veterans of the cutting edge business magazine Fast Company, the authors are well suited to have the inroads and knowledge in witnessing what works (and what doesn't) for the new breed of entrepreneurs or those within established enterprises trying to re-write the rules of business in the new world order. In addition, the pair operate one of the best follow-on websites we've seen featuring outtakes from the book, a blog, podcasts, interviews and information about their 'Mavericks Live' special events around the country [...]. A must for anyone thinking about Business 2.0. - Tim Devine
Book Description
This best-selling book is dedicated to the development of decision-making skills in marketing. It introduces concepts and tools useful in structuring and solving marketing problems, while extensive case studies provide an opportunity for those concepts and tools to be employed in practice. Consisting of 10 chapters and 43 cases that feature contemporary marketing perspectives and practices, this book covers the topics of marketing management: its foundations; financial aspects; decision-making and case analysis; opportunity analysis, market segmentation, and market targeting; product and service strategy and brand management; integrated marketing communication strategy and management; pricing strategy and management; the control process; and comprehensive marketing programs. For marketing executives and professionals.
Customer Reviews:
Chapter two is most valuable!.......2007-03-22
Chapter two has a really good, in depth, review of basic marketing math.
Shippment.......2005-07-08
Book was in perfect condition with the exception of some small damage that occurred during shipping. The company packaged it well, I think the postoffice just used metal straps during shipping which damaged the book a little. But the company shipped it out immediately which is appreciated!
Strategic Marketing Problems... Not Solutions.......2003-08-17
I was disappointed. The book does contain some interesting thoughts, but 90% of the content is a description of companies facing marketing problems (case studies with a lot of facts). The author doesn't offer the solutions and best practises that would help solve these problems. While reading this book, i felt i was eating a burger without meat. Something is missing...
This is a good book for teachers who want case studies for their students to work on. It's a classroom book. It's not a good book if you want want to read marketing theory and best practises (if you're already in the management world).
Great and comprehensive.......1998-05-28
I am a MBA Candidate with a finance focus who had the pleasure to use this book. Never before had I imagined that marketing could have the amount of numerical focus that this book shows. There's a case for every type of industry and many world-famous companies in this book. What else is missing from an introduction to marketing text?!
A good book..........1997-10-23
I'm a MBA student in marketing. This book is good, but just that... good. I'm absolutely certain that somewhere has to be a book about strategic marketing that has a little more information (that's the problem, little theory and plenty of numbers) and not so expensive.
Teresa M. Rodríguez
Book Description
Providing the most current and complete treatment of business-to-business marketing, this comprehensive market leader captures and integrates the latest developments in market analysis, relationship management, supply chain management, marketing strategy development, and electronic commerce. Popular in both the United States and Europe since its first edition, the text provides expanded treatment of relationship strategies, the technology adoption life cycle, strategy formulation in high-tech industries, new product and service development for business markets, and Internet strategies.
Customer Reviews:
Business Marketing.......2007-02-19
This book discusses the principles of business-to-business marketing in a very clear manner. The topics and writing flow very easily which makes for a gentle and interesting read.
Book Description
This leading book in international marketing features comprehensive cases that cover consumer, industrial, low tech and high tech, product and services marketing.
Specific chapter topics examine the global economic environment; the social and cultural environment; the political, legal, and regulatory environments; global customers; global marketing information systems and research; global targeting, segmenting and positioning; entry and expansion strategies: marketing and sourcing; cooperation and global strategic partnerships; competitive analysis and strategy; product decisions; pricing decisions; channels and physical distribution; global advertising; promotion: personal selling, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, trade shows, sponsorship; global e-marketing; planning, leading, organizing, and monitoring the global marketing effort; and the future of global marketing.
For individuals interested in a career in marketing.
Customer Reviews:
A leading book in the field.......2005-08-11
Warren Keegan wrote the first international marketing textbook shortly after completing his Harvard PhD in the 1960s. He is a legend in the field and is widely credited as the father of the global marketing concept.
The 7th edition of his leading text does not disappoint the demanding reader and carries on the tradition of earlier editions. He walks the talk, writing for and speaking to a global audience. It is clear that he is one who has "been there" and knows international markets.
The book presents a very sound basis for learning and is a leading text for full courses in global marketing in many leading MBA programs. It also enjoys a large readership by business execs around the world.
"Global Marketing" opens with a very sound introduction to global marketing analysis and strategy. The international trading environment is well described and the text simplies the complexity of international trading blocs, the WTO, and other influences on marketing strategy today.
Keegan's global marketing texts have always been strong on introducing readers to technical terms used in international trade and exporting and explaining the flow of paperwork (i.e., letters of credit, etc.) one encounters in international trade. This current edition does not disappoint in this regard.
There is a good introduction to factors that motivate consumers and customers to choose and use products that is applicable in consumer, business, services, and high technology markets. The book finishes with a very sound coverage of the marketing mix (i.e., product, price, promotion, and distribution) strategies.
A number of case studies are well integrated into the text to illustrate typical business decisions global marketers must make. I have prescribed this text for more than a decade and it always has been rated as the best or among the best textbooks prescribed for our marketing courses.
The up to date Case.......2003-07-24
This book has easy to understand & have up to date case. The Harley Davidson case is one of the cases that showing us how's struggling US to face Japanese company offensive. This is the good case to picturing the dawn to earth marketing strategy compare to arrogant & not efficient strategy willing by US Company.
good service.......2003-01-16
the service is very good and efficient
clear, understandable jargon.......2002-11-25
Marketing concepts are explained within global marketing frame in an understandable manner using the jargon everybody can understand. The principles that each company must take into account both at home and abroad are revealed. Especially, I liked "18 Guiding Principles of the Marketing Company". Articles from the scholars at prestigious business schools are related to global marketing concepts in most understandable way. This makes the book richer. Another thing making the book richer is Global Income and Population estimates, that is both put inside the text and at the end of the book as appendix. These estimates give clear grasp to the reader about world demographics and economic structure, and helps reader understand the subject at hand and, in general, world dynamics better. Interesting and information & expertise-loaded cases differentiates the book from other boring textbooks. The future of global marketing section of the book gives the reader an invaluable horizon. I suggest that you read it carefully, you will get too many things from it.
Students found this to be informative but not presented well.......2000-07-14
Valuable, current information presented in a rather dull, uninteresting format according to MBA students. Very comprehensive.
Book Description
In this vital book, visionary international investment manager Antoine van Agtmael -- the pioneer who coined the term "emerging markets" -- pulls back the curtain on the new powerhouses of the world economy. Picking up where Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat left off, he persuasively demonstrates that the world's center of gravity is already tipping decisively in favor of the emerging economies. With this seismic shift, competitive challenges and investment risks are also being dramatically transformed, while new opportunities are arising for those who are alert to them.
A new breed of world-leading companies are catching their Western competitors off guard. Household names of today -- IBM, Ford, Sony, and Shell -- are in danger of becoming has-beens as these more innovative new superstars in the emerging markets claim dominance. Understanding how they have become world-class market leaders, and where they are taking the world economy, is crucial to understanding not only the future of globalization, but the future of Western competitiveness.
Each year we are buying more planes from Brazil's Embraer, refrigerators from China's Haier appliance maker, smart cell phones from Taiwan's HTC, and gas from Russia's Gazprom. How have these relative unknowns come so far in the world markets so fast? What are they doing right that their Western competitors are doing wrong, and how can Western companies face the intensifying challenges and survive?
With in-depth, inside knowledge of these emerging powerhouses that's based on his thirty years of working, traveling, and investing in emerging markets and his extraordinary access to the leading companies, van Agtmael trains his experienced analyst's eye on twenty-five of the top emerging giants, taking readers into the executive suites and labs where they are outmaneuvering their Western rivals. Profiling these major players, such as Korea's Samsung Electronics, China's computer maker Lenovo, Brazil's iron ore giant CVRD, and India's Infosys, van Agtmael divulges their strategies for growth, and analyzes how their rise to dominance will change our lives. His unique insights point the way to how we in the West can capitalize on the opportunities these companies represent while also mobilizing a powerful response to the challenges they present.
The Emerging Markets Century is a compelling and necessary read for anyone who wants to understand the true magnitude of change under way in the global economy today.
Customer Reviews:
The update on opportune investments from emerging economies.......2007-09-05
In 1981, fund manager Antoine van Agtmael created the term "emerging markets," as opposed to "Third World," to describe developing countries, from Brazil to China. A pioneer in emerging-market investments, he describes the economic revolution being provoked by corporate activities in emerging markets. Van Agtmael enumerates the forces driving this transformation in the economic relationship between developed nations and their emerging-market counterparts. In the second half of the book, he shares his detailed research into the factors that make emerging-market companies notable and successful. He catalogues market details about 25 specific companies he has analyzed for investment purposes, and presents the lessons they can teach Western managers. We recommend this book to serious investors who want to know about promising non-U.S. companies, and to managers who want to read about their corporations' upcoming competitors - and potential future owners.
Refreshing, easy to read, very informative, empowering book.......2007-03-17
This book is poorly branded in my opinion, just like what is said about the authors original idea on Emerging markets vs. 3rd world.
This book is totally under rated, and under subscribed., do yourself a favour and open it up and read a few random pages, you will soon realize how clearly the book is written, and how compelling and refreshing the ideas are that are presented.
This should/could be a best seller in weeks, but has not been promoted effectively in my opinion.
Antoine, whats with the poor branding again ? You need a new cover design, and maybe new title. Go onto CNBC TV also. Your book is incredible but people won't pick it up based on its visual appearance.
Book Description
Nothing is more important to business success than innovation . . . And here’s what you can do about it on Monday morning with the definitive how-to book from the world’s leading authority on innovation
When it comes to innovation, Curt Carlson and Bill Wilmot of SRI International know what they are talking about—literally. SRI has pioneered innovations that day in and day out are part of the fabric of your life, such as:
•The computer mouse and the personal computer interface you use at home and work
•The high-definition television in your living room
•The unusual numbers at the bottom of your checks that enable your bank to maintain your account balance correctly
•The speech-recognition system used by your financial services firm when you call for your account balance or to make a transaction.
Each of these innovations—and literally hundreds of others—created new value for customers. And that’s the central message of this book. Innovation is not about inventing clever gadgets or just “creativity.” It is the successful creation and delivery of a new or improved product or service that provides value for your customer and sustained profit for your organization. The first black-and-white television, for example, was just an interesting, cool invention until David Sarnoff created an innovation—a network—that delivered programming to an audience.
The genius of this book is that it provides the “how” of innovation. It makes innovation practical by getting two groups who are often disconnected—the managers who make decisions and the people on the front lines who create the innovations—onto the same page. Instead of smart people grousing about the executive suite not recognizing a good idea if they tripped over it and the folks on the top floor wondering whether the people doing the complaining have an understanding of market realities, Carlson and Wilmot’s five disciplines of innovation focus attention where it should be: on the creation of valuable new products and services that meet customer needs.
Innovation is not just for the “lone genius in the garage” but for you and everyone in your enterprise. Carlson and Wilmot provide a systematic way to make innovation practical, one intimately tied to the way things get done in your business.
Teamwork isn't enough; Creativity isn't enough; A new product idea isn't enough
True innovation is about delivering value to customers. Innovation reveals the value-creating processes used by SRI International, the organization behind the computer mouse, robotic surgery, and the domain names .com, .org, and .gov. Curt Carlson and Bill Wilmot show you how to use these practical, tested processes to create great customer value for your organization.
Customer Reviews:
Highly Motivating.......2007-08-13
If creativity can be learned, this book teachs you how. I think this is an excellent book to jumpstart the creative process. I also recommend Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers, as it has a new and interesting theory on brainstomring.
Excellent Book.......2007-08-13
This book doesn't really break new ground, but it systematically guides the reader to think through innovation and creativity in a disciplined manner. The theories toward the end about using disciplined innovation to attempt social and cultural change in the US are very interesting. Definitely a page-turner....
Tremendously Useful.......2007-06-21
This important and timely book deals with one of the most important issues of our times, our ability to successfully innovate. It is one of a very small number of books that addresses the "how" of innovation and not just the "what." The author's demonstrated success at helping create many important innovations makes them uniquely qualified to address this topic. The book makes fundamental points that are simple to understand but critically important.
First, they make the point that we are in the "exponential economy" where extremely rapid improvement is the rule. They show that the exponential economy is a consequence of our being in the knowledge age and they list the four basic conditions necessay for exponential improvement. They then use this model as the basis for their innovation model. Their rational is simple: if you do not innovate exponetially in the exponential economy, you will go away fast.
Second, they make the point that in the knowledge age we require a broader definition of customer value to succeed, in addition to cost and quality. This is certainly true, but this is one of those rare books where customer value is defined in a comprehensive and useful way. It also ties this definition, for the first time, to the widely used and often confused term "value proposition," which they define as "NABC" (i.e., where N stands for the customer's need, A stands for the approach to satisfy this need, and B stands for the benefits per cost resulting from this approach when compared to the competition, C).
Third, they make the case that we are currently doing a poor job at innovation. Even a small improvement in our ability to innovate would have a huge positive impact on growth and prosperity. We are at a point with our poor innovation results that is reminiscent of manufacturing in the 1950's, when product quality was extremely poor. Deming proved that by changing the way we work, product quality could be profoundly improved while simultaneously lowering costs. The Total Quality Management (TQM) movement pioneered by Deming is now used by all manufacturing companies. Like Deming with quality and cost, they argue that large improvements in our ability to innovate are possible. But we are now in the knowledge age, not the manufacturing age, so new innovation processes are required based on a comprehensive definition of customer value, not just quality and cost. In addition, TQM tends to produce incremental results. We need new innovation best practices that result in both incremental and transformational innovations.
Fourth, they argue that to improve our innovation results the process of innovation must be thought of as a "discipline." That is, it needs to become a subject that can be taught, learned, and improved. But the focus needs to be on knowledge workers who produce both incremental and transformational innovations.
Fifth, they propose that there are "five disciplines of innovation" that must be mastered if one is to be systematically successful at innovation. Several of these disciplines have been written about extensively (e.g., innovation teams, although here they make several new important observations) but others have not been (e.g., the process of innovation).
Sixth, and most importantly, they persuasively argue that failure at any one of the five disciplines of innovation can, and almost always does, lead to failure. This observation explains why large improvements in our ability to innovate are possible. Even small improvements in the five disciplines can produce a surprisingly large impact on one's innovation success rate. This is a fundamental point that has been missing in previous management books.
Finally, they show how these ideas can be used by the individual professional, their teams, and their enterprises. Read this book and compare what it describes to what you are now doing. You likely have enormous room for improvement.
Practical and engaging .......2007-06-05
Everybody talks about "innovation" these days, but here's a practical guide to getting it right. Carlson writes in an engaging manner, with real-world examples. It all just seems to make sense when you read it. Any company or organization out there that wants long-term success would do well to follow the five disciplines described in this book.
Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want.......2007-03-01
It has been often suggested that innovation comes from an isolated Aha! Carlson and Wilmot strongly contend that successful innovations come from a disciplined approach that creates value through new products, processes, services, or even marketing campaigns. One of their messages is to work on ideas that are profitable not just interesting. They suggest quantifying value in order to identify important innovation opportunities. They teach the reader how to create well tuned value propositions, and even those 10-minute elevator pitches. The authors provide examples their Need, Approach, Benefits per costs, Competition thinking process. This is not one of those magical matrices, it is a realistic approach that requires understanding customer and market needs, identifying costs and benefits, as well as, the value to investors and management. I thought this was a great book even before Business Week (18 Dec 2007 p.156) identified it as one of the top 2006 Business Books. "Innovation: The five disciplines for creating what customers want" is an easy to read, useful volume that helps readers to focus on the value of their idea or innovation as compared to alternatives. I would like to use this book in a course to help students to examine their business ideas
Book Description
Marketing Management: Knowledge and Skills, 7/e, by Peter and Donnelly, serves an overview for critical issues in marketing management. The text strives to enhance knowledge of marketing management and advance student skills so they can develop and maintain successful marketing strategies. The text does this through comprehensive text chapters that analyze that marketing process and gives students the foundation needed for success in marketing management and through 45 cases (16 of them new, many others updated) that go beyond traditional marketing principles and focus on the role of marketing in cross-functional business and organization strategies.
Customer Reviews:
Complete but completely dull.......2005-11-07
Half the time reading this book is like reading a dictionary. I think I must have read 100 sentences that begin with "XXX can be defined as .... ". The authors do a complete coverage of the topics but in such a dull and routine way it is hard to keep your attention on the reading. On a plus side, there are about 40 case analyses that are pretty good, but of course they weren't written by the authors. Of course if you're like most people, your professor has chosen this book and you have to get it whether you like it or not.
Book Description
Marketing Management, 8/e, by Peter and Donnelly, serves as an overview for critical issues in marketing management. The text strives to enhance knowledge of marketing management and advance student skills so they can develop and maintain successful marketing strategies. The text does this through comprehensive text chapters that analyze the marketing process and gives students the foundation needed for success in marketing management, and through 40 cases (12 of them new, many others updated) that go beyond traditional marketing principles and focus on the role of marketing in cross-functional business and organization strategies.
Customer Reviews:
Textbooks - Booo.......2007-09-06
Hisssss
I guess it is alright, but it doesn't matter you HAVE NO CHOICE!
HAHAHA
Good marketable book outside, not so good inside.......2006-07-27
I expected more about this book, firts of all, only a quarter of the book contain the elementary Marketing principles and the remainder only cases. But the worse, there is not connection between cases and theory, not just one case example analysis, not reference at all in chapters with cases. If I had wanted to buy cases of marketing management without analysis, I were going to the Harvard Bussiness online to buy the school cases.
Also in the back cover they say about "New Videos: Approximately 50% of the video segments are brand new for this edition", Sincerely I don't know where are those videos, no CD, no DVD, nothing in the website of book: [...] By the way, that website is too poor, in comparison to other website of books.
Summarizing too expensive book for few effective information.
Book Description
Marketing Strategy is presented from a perspective that guides strategic marketing management in the social, economic, and technological arenas in which businesses function today. This text helps to develop a customer-oriented market strategy and market plan.
Customer Reviews:
What a great text!.......2007-08-23
This text makes for very interesting, up to date reading. A great textbook for my Marketing Management Course. It is also excellent as the examples used are from some of the most recent times and so one is able to identify with the information. Two thumbs up!
Book Description
Strategic Marketing 8/e by Cravens and Piercy is a text and casebook that discusses the concepts and processes for gaining the competitive advantage in the marketplace. The authors examine many components of a market-driven strategy, including technology, customer service, customer relationships, pricing, and the global economy. The text provides a strategic perspective and extends beyond the traditional focus on managing the marketing mix. The cases demonstrate how real companies build and implement effective strategies. Author David Cravens is well known in the marketing discipline and was the recipient of the Academy of Marketing Science’s Outstanding Marketing Educator Award. Co-author Nigel Piercy, has a particular research interest in market-led strategic change and sales management, for which he has attracted academic and practitioner acclaim in the UK and USA.
Customer Reviews:
Too complex .......2006-09-13
While marketing is a complex subject, the authors are so caught up in the sounds of their academic prose. It assumes you remember concepts from previous chapters and does not do a good job of explaining important marketing concepts.
It is very dry reading. The case studies are old even as of the print date.
This book is so complex, that it is the first text book I have read that requires you to read all the side bar information.
Unfortunately this book was chosen by a professor who is no longer teaching the class in my school's MBA program. The new teacher also feels the text book is way too complex to get much out of it. I expect material to be something I can understand, not "geek" speak!
Books:
- Mobile Media and Applications, From Concept to Cash: Successful Service Creation and Launch
- Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh (Cultural Icons series)
- Phrases That Sell : The Ultimate Phrase Finder to Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas
- Phrases That Sell : The Ultimate Phrase Finder to Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas
- Planned Giving: Management, Marketing, and the Law (Wiley Nonprofit Law, Finance, and Management Series)
- Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
- Principles of Marketing (Principles of Marketing)
- Principles of Marketing (Principles of Marketing)
- Principles of Marketing (Principles of Marketing)
- Professional Practice for Interior Designers, 3rd Edition
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- WORDS THAT WORK: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAY, IT'S WHAT PEOPLE HEAR
- Philosophy for Kids : 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder ... About Everything!
- Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies
- Effective Group Discussion: Theory and Practice
- How to Write Fundraising Materials That Raise More Money: The Art, the Science, the Secrets
- Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe
- Julie, or the New Heloise: Letters of Two Lovers Who Live in a Small Town at the Foot of the Alps
- Accountant's Handbook of Formulas and Tables
- Field Guide to the U.S. Economy: A Compact and Irreverent Guide to Economic Life in America, Revised
- Critters of Wyoming Pocket Guide
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
