Thought-Provoking Books, Articles and Research Reports

Research Report: Innovation Insights
by Business Week and McKinsey Consulting

Key finding from the annual survey of senior executives.

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Article: Clayton Christensen's Innovation Brain

Interview in Business Week June 15, 2007

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Article: Embracing Risk to Grow and Innovate

Business Week, May 16, 2007

Risk, in the traditional business sense, is an assessment of the downside that might result from taking a particular action. If the perceived level of risk is too high, people working within a business-as-usual paradigm look for a less-risky alternative, or even forego action altogether. In the lexicon of most designers risk isn’t a measure of ‘the downside’; instead, it is a measure of upside and opportunity. If the risk isn’t great enough, designers might well ask themselves, “why bother?”

 

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Book: The Cluetrain Manifesto . . . the end of business as usual

by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger

Basic Books 2001

A classic on the impact of the internet.

"People of Earth ... A POWERFUL GLOBAL CONVERSATION HAS BEGUN. Through the internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter -- and getting smarter faster than most companies."

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Book: The Black Swan . . . The Impact of the HIGHLY IMPROBABLE

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Random House 2007

"A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principle characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and after the fact we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable."