Thought-Provoking Books and Articles

blink  by Malcolm Gladwell  (Soundview Executive Summaries)

The follow on to Gladwell's influential TheTipping Point. 

What Customers Want ... Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services

      by Anthony W. Ulwick, McGraw-Hill, 2005
For years, companies have accepted the underlying principle of using customer "requirements" to guide growth and innovation.  But twenty years later failure rates are still high and breakthrough innovations are still rare.  Ulwick argues that market researchers should silence the literal "voice of the customer" and focus on the jobs customers need to get done and aggressively uncover the measurable outcomes customers hope to achieve. 

Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators

         by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, Tuck School of Business,
         Dartmouth College, Harvard Business School Press, 2005

         excerpt published in Chief Executive magazine, January/February 2006
The book is an excellent treatment of ways corporations carry the orthdoxies and conventions of their core businesses into new growth ventures.  It provides interesting perspectivse on how to use the entrenched nature of those conventions to strengthen the distinct needs of new growth ventures.

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Creativity Overflowing
     Business Week, May 8, 2006
Whirlpool is reaping big dividends from its push to jump-start innovation.

Unleashing the Inner Innovator

      Stephen Shapiro, 24/7 Innovation