The Maker Revolution. Building a Future on Creativity and Innovation in an Exponential World

In this fascinating exploration of one of the most celebrated and innovative minds, best-selling author Alan Axelrod cuts through the myths and reverence surrounding Edison’s “genius” to show how the inventor was, in fact, an ordinary man who created extraordinary work. While many of us believe that creativity, like genius, is something that just happens by chance or destiny, Edison’s life demonstrates that creativity of the very highest order can indeed be summoned up at will, and even reduced to a reliable working method and set of principles.

Smart guidelines for building flexible, innovative companies Beat the System is a follow-up to Robert MacDonald's controversial but successful first book, Cheat to Win. Packed with proven, real-life advice, Beat the System shows readers how to deal with the bureaucracy that can smother the creativity and entrepreneurship essential to long-range business success. Beat the System teaches readers how to beat the bureaucratic system by building entrepreneurial cultures in their businesses, their departments, or even their individual jobs. MacDonald skillfully describes how business cultures develop, how bureaucratic procedures and processes seep into them, and how to build an entrepreneurial culture even as we live in a bureaucratic world. At the heart of his system are practical steps that create a sense of ownership among employees, invites their participation, creates a common mission, fosters an entrepreneurial atmosphere, and shares the rewards with all. Robert W. MacDonald (Wayzata, MN) is a true visionary in the financial services industry who rose from a door-to-door insurance salesman to the CEO of Allianz Life of North America. He was also the founder, CEO, and chairman of LifeUSA.

China's changing course, and sustainable success requires a shift in strategy The End of Copycat China helps business executives and investors understand how China's economy is shifting from one based on heavy investment to one on services and consumption by providing insight that help shape effective strategy. Drawing from over 50,000 interviews with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, private equity investors, private Chinese companies, and multinationals, this book describes how Chinese firms are increasingly focused on innovation rather than copying what worked in America and how consumers are evolving with their hopes, dreams and aspirations. China's growth model of the last three decades is becoming increasingly ineffective, as relying on heavy investment and exports is becoming less and less feasible. Fifty percent of China's growth in 2013 stemmed from consumption, the government is establishing a Free Trade zone in Shanghai and ending the dominance of state-owned enterprises. This book provides a roadmap for companies and investors looking to navigate these changes and capture emerging trends, with deep insight and practical guidance on what innovation looks like in the new China. Survey the development of innovation taking place in China's economy, from an insider's perspective Consider the changes that must take place to shore up the broken growth model Examine the consumer trends emerging in the midst of rapid market evolution Understand how China's rise will impact its neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia China's dramatic shift toward consumption presents a tremendous opportunity for foreign business, but traditional tactics are outdated at best, financially fatal at worst, as local competitors focus on innovation and move up the value chain and as consumers look for new brands and categories to spend money on. New strategies are needed to keep pace with the changing regulatory and consumer environments, and «business as usual» won't get very far. The End of Copycat China is the business guide to this emerging market, with expert guidance from the inside.

2020 has been a challenging year worldwide for many businesses and we have not come out of that phase entirely in 2021. At the same time, we witnessed the acceleration of Cloud led Digital Transformation, changing the ways we work, communicate, collaborate, and share our workspace and creating a globally accepted new normal. More than ever before, senior management and leadership teams need to identify a rigorous approach, drive competitive advantage for their business, create value addition, and become more effective in this work from home, zoom-based collaboration and still achieve our business metrics, which have also naturally evolved due to the global pandemic. Effective disruption is dependent on fast universal adoption, then only it will be real and the transformation will be effective. Understanding the key drivers of change, leveraging the powerful capabilities from technologies with a collaborative platform can aid an organization to prepare for digital transformation. Building a Digital Future provides a clearly defined roadmap for executing this change. Based on their industry experience of leading and implementing digital transformation globally, authors Lipi Sarkar and Vinnie Bansal distil proven ideas, creating a blueprint of powerful and workable frameworks for executing a successful digital transformation with Dynamics 365 and accelerating businesses during a global pandemic. Each chapter of the book is curated with best practices, real life examples, pitfalls to avoid, and salient points to remember. This book enables organizations to truly embrace the benefits of digital transformation by anchoring Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform at the core of their business. The frameworks, examples and customer stories in the book revolves around how it drives faster disruption, enhances customer experiences, empowers overworked business users. The real-life customer stories across various sectors and countries (namely Virgin Atlantic, Etihad Airways, G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers, Breville, Heathrow Airport, Hickory Farms, Ste Michelle Wines and many more) brings an idea of key business challenges and the solutions implemented to address them. Building a Digital Future is written for C-suite stakeholders, senior management, Programme Directors or Managers, Implementation Consultants, and Business Managers who are considering a Digital Transformation to improve efficiencies across the business of finance and operation, supply chain, retail, and customer relationship management–sales, marketing, or services. This book covers Digital Transformation with the powerful technology platform Microsoft Dynamics 365 which offers process capabilities across all business areas, provides powerful tools to automate time-consuming tasks, and drives innovation and improvements through an evergreen system post implementation. The concepts of digital transformation are laid out and take you through a step-by-step transformation journey, highlighting any pitfall that you need to be aware of. Many Dynamics 365 books offer advice for implementation or mastering the system, but Building a Digital Future is the first complete playbook of how businesses can transform to thrive in the digital age. Building a Digital Future is the must-have guide to help your Dynamics 365 program.

Life is not exactly a bed of roses for most innovation leaders and intrapreneurs—those assertive, innovative, corporate risk-takers who passionately turn ideas into profitable products. They take on corporate sacred cows and face down challenges that would cause less driven and less talented people to quickly throw their hands down in defeat. They struggle daily to unleash entrepreneurial thinking while dealing with an army of people fiercely dedicated to maintaining the status quo. The question for business leaders is simple: How can innovation leaders and intrapreneurs freely operate in a corporation that wants to keep things the way they are? The answer is also simple…Read The Open Innovation Revolution. This practical guide reveals that, without the right people to drive innovation processes, your odds of success shrink dramatically. And as open innovation becomes the norm, developing the right people skills—networking, communicating with stakeholders, building your personal brand and the ability to sell ideas—is essential for your innovation leaders and intrapreneurs. Starting with a foreword from world-changing innovator and bestselling author Guy Kawasaki, The Open Innovation Revolution looks closely at: Open innovation—the visionary model that more and more companies are adopting Innovation leaders and intrapreneurs—and the essential elements that must be put in place for these people to thrive The people-related roadblocks that can impede innovation and some ways these can be overcome The personal leadership skills you will need to develop as an innovation leader or intrapreneur Written by innovation thought leader Stefan Lindegaard, The Open Innovation Revolution helps you know if open innovation is right for your organization, and then shows you how to prepare those within your organization to make the leap into the challenging, new world of open innovation.

With 26 inspiring chapters, this book celebrates the wisdom of some of the most recognized thought leaders of our day: emerging and established experts who share their unique vision of what the organization of the future should look like and must do to survive in the turbulent 21st Century. Outsmart Your Rivals by Seeing What Others Don’t, Jim Champy Organization Is Not Structure but Capability, Dave Ulrich & Norm Smallwood The Leader’s Mandate: Create a Shared Sense of Destiny, James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner A Different Kind of Company, Srikumar S. Rao Free to Choose: How American Managers Can Create Globally Competitive Workplaces, James O’Toole Managing the Whole Mandate for the Twenty-First Century: Ditching the Quick-Fix Approach to Management, Paul Borawski & Maryann Brennan The Values That Build a Strong Organization, Thomas J. Moran Revisiting the Concept of the Corporation, Charles Handy Mobilizing Emotions for Performance: Making the Most of the Informal Organization, Jon R. Katzenbach & Zia Khan Beyond Retirement: Mature Workers Are Essential Talent for Organizations of the Future, Richard J. Leider The Best Hope for Organizations of the Future: A Functioning Society, Ira A. Jackson Reframing Ethics, Spirit, and Soul, Lee G. Bolman &Terrence E. Deal Environment Drives Behavior and Expectations, Bill Strickland with Regina Cronin Dynamic Organizations for an Entrepreneurial Age, Christopher Gergen & Gregg Vanourek Multidimensional, Multinational Organizations of the Future, Jay R. Galbraith Designing Organizations That Are Built to Change, Edward E. Lawler III & Christopher G. Worley Refounding a Movement: Preparing a One-Hundred- Year-Old Organization for the Future, Kathy Cloninger Three Challenges Facing Nonprofits of the Future: People, Funding, and Strategy, Roxanne Spillett Pioneering the College of the Future: Building as We Walk, Darlyne Bailey The Organization of the Future Will Foster an Inclusive Environment, Lee Cockerell The Leader as Subculture Manager, Edgar H. Schein The New High-Performance, Horizontal Organization, Howard M. Guttman The Leadership Blueprint to Achieve Exponential Growth, David G. Thomson Leadership Judgment: The Essence of a Good Leader, Noel M. Tichy & Christopher DeRose The Leader of the Future, William A. Cohen Leadership by Perpetual Practice, Debbe Kennedy

"If you're as interested in Japan as I am, I think you'll find that The Power to Compete is a smart and thought-provoking look at the future of a fascinating country." – Bill Gates, «5 Books to Read This Summer» Father and son – entrepreneur and economist – search for Japan's economic cure The Power to Compete tackles the issues central to the prosperity of Japan – and the world – in search of a cure for the «Japan Disease.» As founder and CEO of Rakuten, one of the world's largest Internet companies, author Hiroshi Mikitani brings an entrepreneur's perspective to bear on the country's economic stagnation. Through a freewheeling and candid conversation with his economist father, Ryoichi Mikitani, the two examine the issues facing Japan, and explore possible roadmaps to revitalization. How can Japan overhaul its economy, education system, immigration, public infrastructure, and hold its own with China? Their ideas include applying business techniques like Key Performance Indicators to fix the economy, using information technology to cut government bureaucracy, and increasing the number of foreign firms with a head office in Japan. Readers gain rare insight into Japan's future, from both academic and practical perspectives on the inside. Mikitani argues that Japan's tendency to shun international frameworks and hide from global realities is the root of the problem, while Mikitani Sr.'s background as an international economist puts the issue in perspective for a well-rounded look at today's Japan. Examine the causes of Japan's endless economic stagnation Discover the current efforts underway to enhance Japan's competitiveness Learn how free market «Abenomics» affected Japan's economy long-term See Japan's issues from the perspective of an entrepreneur and an economist Japan's malaise is seated in a number of economic, business, political, and cultural issues, and this book doesn't shy away from hot topics. More than a discussion of economics, this book is a conversation between father and son as they work through opposing perspectives to help their country find The Power to Compete.

Find your company's unique innovation style, and nurture it into a powerful competitive advantage Praised by business leaders worldwide, Agile Innovation is the authoritative guide to survival and success in today's «innovate-or-die» business world. This revolutionary approach combines the best of Agile with the world's leading methods of Innovation to present a crisp, articulate, and proven system for developing the breakthrough capabilities every organization must master to thrive today and tomorrow. You already know that effective innovation doesn't happen by accident—it is achieved by careful design. Agile Innovation addresses the three critical drivers of innovation success: accelerating the innovation process; reducing the risks inherent in innovation; and engaging your entire organization and your broader ecosystem in the innovation effort. The key frameworks described here build on the proven success of Agile to provide a comprehensive and customizable Innovation Master Plan approach to sustained innovation improvement in the five critical performance areas: strategy, portfolio, process, culture and infrastructure. Major topics include: the power of Agile in the innovation process, how to overcome innovation risk, the best tools to evoke engagement and collaboration, branding as an integral element of innovation, and the best leadership skills and practices that create the special environment that enables transformative growth. Readers will learn specifically how to create better ideas, develop them more efficiently, and work together more profitably and effectively to achieve breakthroughs. The insights offered in this book are highlighted in 11 detailed case studies illustrating the world's best innovation practices at Wells Fargo, Nike, Volvo, Netflix, Southwest Airlines, NASA,The New York Times, and others, in dozens of specific business examples, in two dozen powerful and unique techniques and methods, and a full set of implementation guidelines to put these insights into practice. Key Insights: Understand how to implement the many ways that innovation efforts can be accelerated to achieve even greater competitive advantage Learn to create a culture of innovation, greater engagement, and rich collaboration throughout your organization Discover how to reduce risk and accelerate learning Implement your own unique plan to enhance collaborative innovation, from leadership through operations Integrate key agility principles into your strategic planning decisions for sustained improvement Explore dramatic new approaches to open innovation that optimize large scale innovation Apply the latest and best technology tools to enhance innovation, reduce risk, and promote broad participation. This is a must read book, a practical guide for fostering a culture of innovation, nurturing creativity, and efficiently developing the ideas that drive strategic growth. And since innovation is not imitation, you know that copying the ideas and strategies of other successful organizations will not produce the desired outcomes. Hence, all leaders must develop their own way of innovating and nurture the right style of collaborating for their own organization. This book will guide you to find your own unique pathways to success. Blaze your own trail to the high levels of innovativeness and organizational agility by learning from the expert guidance and practical, actionable advice offered throughout this important book.

How to win market leadership in a fast-changing world In the past, companies could pick a strategy and stick with it, maintaining a competitive edge for years. But today, companies surge ahead, fall behind, or even disappear in mere months. If you and your company are going to thrive for the long run, you need to continuously evolve, change, and stay a step ahead of your competition. The ability to see and capitalize on new opportunities is the cornerstone of agility. Successful technology-based firms like Google, Tesla, and Amazon have all mastered agility within their core business practices, but companies in any sector can—and must—learn to spot new opportunities and make the right choices about what to invest in, what to change, and what to abandon. The Agility Advantage first shows how to identify those aspects of your business where agility is most crucial—where the business environment is changing fast—and which elements have the greatest impact on the customer’s decision to buy. Amanda Setili then shows how to master the three components of agility: Market agility: Gain ideas from your most demanding and forward-thinking customers and from outside your industry. Engage, observe, and mix with customers to identify the opportunities created by their changing demands. Decision agility: Anticipate the changes that may affect you and turn even troubling trends into opportunities. Design your strategy to maximize learning and to manage risk. Generate diverse alternatives and make fast, fact-based decisions about which to pursue. Execution agility: Build new capabilities, shed what doesn’t fit, and take the first steps in a new direction. Experiment, then reinforce and build on what works. Enlist and inspire your organization around a compelling purpose and grant employees the autonomy and resources to continuously adapt and adjust course. The future will present more opportunities but narrower windows to capture them. With a wealth of valuable information and practical strategies, The Agility Advantage is essential reading to help any organization adapt and thrive—both today and tomorrow.

Established companies are clamoring for breakthrough innovation, but are often hamstrung by the highly reliable, repeatable processes of their management systems. Based on years of research, Grabbing Lightning shows how twelve companies have tried to develop a capability for sustainable breakthrough innovation and outlines best practices for your organization. The authors show how the management system for innovation is different from the traditional one in that it allows?and even encourages?mistakes and failures in order to promote learning. Grabbing Lightning outlines the three building blocks of breakthrough innovation (BI) and shows what it takes to become an organization that values the BI management system.