Innovation Watch - Leader's Bookshelf

The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest. By Yochai Benkler. Crown Business.

iw — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:55:50 +0000

Harvard University Professor Yochai Benkler draws on cutting-edge findings from neuroscience, economics, sociology, evolutionary biology, political science, and a wealth of real world examples to debunk this long-held myth and reveal how we can harness the power of human cooperation to improve business processes, design smarter technology, reform our economic systems, maximize volunteer contributions to science, reduce crime, improve the efficacy of civic movements, and more. … Read more

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Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. By Simon Sinek. Portfolio.

iw — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:31:12 +0000

Why are some leaders and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their successes over and over? People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with why. Their natural ability to start with why enabled them to inspire those around them and to achieve remarkable things. In studying the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way — and it’s the complete opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY. Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. WHY is not money or profit — those are always results. Why does your organization exist? Why does it do the things it does? Why do customers really buy from one company or another? Why are people loyal to some leaders, but not others? … Read more

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Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing. By Roger Dooley. John Wiley & Sons.

iw — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:42:45 +0000

According to leading neuroscientists, 95 percent of all thoughts, emotions, and learning occur before we are ever aware of it. Yet, most marketing efforts forgo the vast subconscious and instead target the rational, conscious mind. If you want to get ahead of your competition, it’s time to stop selling to just 5 percent of your customer’s brain! Through the wonders of modern neuroscience, tools now exist that can help explain the brain’s cognitive processes. When you understand how your customers’ brains work, you can appeal to the powerful subconscious — and get better results for less money. Brainfluence explains how to apply neuroscience and behavior research to better market to consumers by understanding their decision patterns. Neuromarketing studies the way the brain responds to various cognitive and sensory marketing stimuli. Analysts use this to measure a consumer’s preference, what a customer reacts to, and why consumers make certain decisions. With quick and easy takeaways, Brainfluence contains key strategies for targeting consumers through in-person sales, online and print ads, and other marketing mediums. … Read more

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High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service: Inspire Timeless Loyalty in the Demanding New World of Social Commerce. By Micah Solomon. AMACOM.

iw — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:17:14 +0000

Are you finding customers more and more fickle, less and less loyal, and ever ready to jump off the handle and on to Twitter? Are you starting to sense that the way you’ve always done customer service simply isn’t working anymore? You’re right to be alarmed. Terrified, even. Social media, self-service technologies, and smartphones have created a disorienting new landscape for businesses that were chugging along just fine as recently as last month. You now hold the solution to those concerns in your hands. High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service is the guide that teaches you to harness the power of technology to build emotional connections with your customers — and generate fierce loyalty as a result. You’ll learn how to bulletproof your business against the increasingly challenging world of customer interactions, both online and off. This book is the tool you need to regain your balance in a world where socially empowered customers pound companies with ever-escalating expectations and where complaints can quickly go viral, with devastating results. … Read more

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The Collaboration Imperative: Executive Strategies for Unlocking Your Organization’s True Potential. By Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese. Cisco Systems.

iw — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:32:45 +0000

Do you want to lead the kind of company that can quickly seize any opportunity and solve any problem? The Collaboration Imperative: Executive Strategies for Unlocking Your Organization’s True Potential offers valuable executive strategies to unleash the hidden assets trapped inside your company-from talent and experience to the right answer and the next big idea. Free these assets through increased collaboration and you build a world-class organization that can tackle market opportunities with lightning speed…. Read more

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Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity. By Josh Linkner. Jossey-Bass.

iw — Tue, 15 May 2012 03:38:49 +0000

In Disciplined Dreaming, business innovator and jazz musician Josh Linkner shows exactly how you can create profitable new ideas, empower employees to flex their creative muscles, and tap into the power of creativity to sustain a competitive advantage over the long haul. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of successful CEOs, entrepreneurs, and artists, Linkner distills exactly how creativity can be encouraged, as well as its impact on the bottom line. Disciplined Dreaming outlines a proven, easy-to-apply 5-step process — Ask, Prepare, Discover, Ignite, and Launch — that will help you and your team develop your creativity chops. Through illustrative stories, real-world examples, and fun yet practical exercises, Linkner shows leaders and team builders how to become immediately more effective in discovering new routes to profitable solutions. … Read more

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Leapfrogging: Harness the Power of Surprise for Business Breakthroughs. By Soren Kaplan. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

iw — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:15:31 +0000

Leapfrogging is about changing the game – creating or doing something radically new or different that produces a significant leap forward. How did Gatorade revitalize itself in the wake of Red Bull and Starbucks? How did OpenTable come to be? How did Four Seasons become the world’s leading luxury hotel brand? What makes one leader or company thrive while others languish in mediocrity? Soren Kaplan gives business leaders the tools to do exactly what they’re taught to avoid: embrace uncertainty and invite surprises. Gain new insights from Gatorade, Intuit, OpenTable, Philips, Four Seasons, Colgate-Palmolive, Kimberly-Clark, Etsy, Apple, Google, and many others. Learn how breakthroughs apply to any organization or business function. Obtain practical tools for game-changing innovation. Leapfrogging connects new research, unconventional strategies and practical tools for navigating the seemingly “messy” process of achieving business breakthroughs. … Read more

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Uprising: How to Build a Brand — And Change the World — by Sparking Cultural Movements. By Scott Goodson. McGraw-Hill.

iw — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:19:25 +0000

Movement marketing is changing the world. It’s the new way forward for anyone trying to win customers’ loyalty, influence public opinion, and even change the world. In Uprising, Scott Goodson, founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog, the world’s first cultural movement agency, shows how your idea or organization can successfully ride this wave of cultural movements to authentically connect to the lives and passions of people everywhere. We are in the midst of a profound cultural transformation in which technology is making it easier than ever for anyone to share ideas, goals, and interests. Working with companies and brands ranging from SmartCar to Pampers to Jim Beam to India’s Mahindra Group, StrawberryFrog and Goodson have led a paradigm focal shift away from one-on-one selling to sharing. The examples and guidance in this book will prepare you to find, connect to, and even lead the next big movement. … Read more

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Repeatability: Build Enduring Businesses for a World of Constant Change. By Chris Zook and James Allen. Harvard Business Review Press.

iw — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:13:08 +0000

Is radical reinvention the key to winning in today’s fast-paced world? Judging by the results of some of the world’s best-performing companies, no. In Repeatability, Chris Zook and James Allen — leaders of Bain & Company’s influential Strategy practice — warn that complexity is a silent killer of profitable growth. Successful companies endure by maintaining simplicity at their core. They don’t stray from, or regularly discard, their business model in pursuit of radical renovation. Instead, they build a “repeatable business model” that produces continuous improvement and allows them to rapidly adapt to change without succumbing to complexity. Building on a multiyear study of more than two hundred companies, Zook and Allen show how some of the world’s best-known firms combine a core differentiation model with speed, adaptability, and simplicity to land them at the top for long periods of time. … Read more

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The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty. By Carmine Gallo. McGraw-Hill.

iw — Wed, 02 May 2012 02:59:03 +0000

Apple Stores earn more money per square foot than any other retailer. At the core of Apple’s success and intense customer loyalty, however, aren’t just “Insanely Great” products, but great people who are informed, empowered, and motivated to deliver an unbeatable customer experience. In The Apple Experience, internationally bestselling author Carmine Gallo details the principles and practices behind this total commitment to the customer and explains how your brand can achieve outstanding results by delivering this same high standard of service. With The Apple Experience, you can improve the return on your investment in retail by adding real value to every customer interaction. Better still, any business that deals with people — employees or customers — can adopt the techniques to achieve Apple-like market dominance by enriching lives, building loyalty, and reimagining the customer experience. … Read more

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Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty and Create the Future. By Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer and Paul B. Brown. Harvard Business Review Press.

iw — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:46:52 +0000

In a world where you can no longer plan or predict your way to success, how can you achieve your most important goals? It’s a daunting question. But in today’s environment, where change is the only constant, it’s a question everyone must answer. This is true whether you are an innovator or an entrepreneur, a manager or a newly minted graduate. The first step, say the authors of this book, is this: “Just start.” In other words, take action now and learn as you go. Written by a trio of seasoned business leaders, Just Start combines fascinating research with proven practices to deliver a reliable method for helping you advance toward your goals — despite the uncertainty that is all too common today. Babson College President Leonard Schlesinger, organizational learning expert Charles Kiefer, and veteran journalist Paul B. Brown share their own deep and varied experiences and draw from a source where striving amid constant uncertainty actually works: the world of serial entrepreneurship. In this world, people don’t just think differently — they act differently, as well. … Read more

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Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles. By Ruchir Sharma. W. W. Norton & Company.

iw — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:08:07 +0000

As an era of easy money and easy growth comes to a close, China in particular will cool down. Other major players including Brazil, Russia, and India face their own daunting challenges and inflated expectations. The new “breakout nations” will probably spring from the margins, even from the shadows. Ruchir Sharma, one of the world’s largest investors in emerging markets for Morgan Stanley, here identifies which are most likely to leap ahead and why. After two decades spent traveling the globe tracking the progress of developing countries, Sharma has produced a book full of surprises: why the overpriced cocktails in Rio are a sign of revival in Detroit; how the threat of the “population bomb” came to be seen as a competitive advantage; how an industrial revolution in Asia is redefining what manufacturing can do for a modern economy; and how the coming shakeout in the big emerging markets could shift the spotlight back to the West, especially American technology and German manufacturing. … Read more

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