In my latest book, I, along with my coauthors Clayton Christensen and Jeff Dyer, uncover the code for the successful innovator in business – and beyond. Unlike other books that help organizations simply maximize execution, “The Innovator’s DNA” shows how execution alone can become a dead-end destination unless you cultivate enough competent innovators within your company to make crucial new discoveries.
“The Innovator’s DNA” comes from our eight-year international research project on the origins of disruptive innovations and how executives, entrepreneurs and employees build highly innovative companies. In collaboration with HOLT at Credit Suisse, my co-authors and I interviewed leaders of the world’s 50 most innovative companies – from Amazon and Apple to those at Google, Skype, and Virgin Group. We also conducted over 15,000 Innovator’s DNA survey assessments of leaders to show how creativity skills generate valuable new products, services, processes and businesses. We distilled our findings into five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting. By changing behaviors and regularly incorporating these “discovery skills” in your daily lives, anyone can improve their innovation aptitude.
The book, named Book of the Year for Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Chartered Management Institute in association with The British Library, builds on the ideas found in my Harvard Business Review (HBR) article of the same name, which received the 2009 McKinsey runner-up award for the best article in HBR.
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