The next book: an invitation

The next book I’m writing is about innovation: how and why new ideas develop the way they do. I’ve signed a deal with O’Reilly, publishers of my first book and work is well underway.

I’ve chosen innovation because it’s central to everything many of us want: for things to get better. But it’s also a misunderstood and violently misused term. It’s commonly abused in the tech sector, where you see it used as a filler word in naming and describing things: Innovation is the lorem ipsum of current bussiness and technology marketing filling in when people are too lazy to say what the mean.

The word even surfaces now in marketing literature for ball point pens and pizza, begging the questions:

  • Have we forgotten what innovation is?
  • How is innovation different from ‘good’ or ‘new’?
  • What are the common misconceptions about how innovation happens?
  • Can anyone innovate or just those born to do it?
  • What can we learn from innovations of the past, if anything?
  • Is the internet age that different in how innovations are found, developed and promoted than the work of Newton, Edison and Ford?

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and my aim is to explore these kinds of questions and answer them.

This blog post serves to invite all of you to participate in the development of the book. I’ll be discussing my ideas on this blog, linking and commenting to related findings along the way. I’m hoping you’ll chime in, give feedback and participate in the writing of a good book.

For starters:

  • I’m looking for nominations for people to interview. Who is the most innovative person you know? Have worked with? Have ever heard of? Give me a link or an e-mail address and I’ll put them on my list.
  • Are there other books, references or websites I should know about? What’s the best story of innovation you’ve read?
  • Or just say “Go Scott! Looking forward to the book!” :)

(Update: get interviewed for the book online and share your innovation stories.)

50 Responses to “The next book: an invitation”

  1. Jeremy Vernon

    Thomas Kelley is regarded as an expert in the field of innovation. He’s written two books on it and is general manager for a company that bases their success solely on innovation – Ideo.

    I would guess that his email is tkelly@ideo.com , if not the Palo Alto Office contact is a John Ravitch, jravitch@ideo.com.

    His books are The Art of Innovation (that naming scheme sounds familiar), and The Ten Faces of Innovation.

    He would be my first vote.

    Reply
  2. Ryan Money

    Scott I wish you the best of luck in writing your book and also I look forward to reading it. As far as innovation goes I would definitely talk to Clayton Christensen of the Innovators Dilemma fame.

    Ryan

    Reply
  3. damian

    Yes, yes, yes! This is a great idea.

    As you rightly suggest, the term innovation is used by every marketer to describe his latest product or service. In fact, I have seen it in the brand values of quite a few companies who are clearly not innovators of any kind. Perhaps it would be good to explore all the so called ‘innovative’ companies and challenge them to justify their association with the term.

    When you do find some true ‘innovators’ I’d like to see some insight into their mindset. What do they do that’s different to other people? Is it a way of thinking which challenges everything? or is it more complex? What can i do, to be more innovative?

    There’s a lot of good stuff to explore in this subject. I’m looking forward to reading it.

    Reply
  4. Eric Nehrlich

    One question which I think would be really interesting is exploring what makes for a culture of innovation. I think that innovation is not the result of individuals working alone – it’s of groups working together building off of the results of others. What can be done within a company to foster such innovation? Within a society? I have some ill-formed ideas, but I’d love to find out what others think.

    Reply
  5. Douglas Irvine

    Great news! I’m looking forward to the book.

    I’d like to see you address the issue of cultural barriers to innovation. For example, more than ten years ago the technology existed for people to find, tour, and close on a home purchase completely online. But even today, it is not commonplace due to cultural resistance.

    Today, Web 2.0 concepts are sweeping the public internet. However, business lags behind. So please write about how innovators overcome cultural issues or perhaps how they just get lucky and time it right.

    Thanks

    Reply
  6. Chris Woodruff

    Scott — Good luck on the new book. If it is half as good as the Art of PM it will be a classic. I would suggest talking to Phil McKinney about innovation. Phil is the CTO of HP and has many interesting insight into innovation. I bet he has forgotten more than most of us have learned. he also has a podcast call Killer Innovation at http://www.killerinnovation.com

    I have another question… will there ever be a audio version of the Art of PM? I would enjoy listening to it while driving to client sites and the office. Thanks.

    Reply
  7. Scott (admin)

    Jeremy / Ryan:

    Thanks for the tips. I’ve read Kelly and am very familiar with IDEO. I’d like to interview some folks there and we’ll see if I can network my way to them :)

    Christensen’s Innovator’s dilemna is a classic – I’ve read it a couple of times. But I haven’t made my way through his other books yet – have any of you?

    Reply
  8. Scott (admin)

    Jason: How breakthroughs happen is one of the better books I’ve come across so far. My reading/research list included a big dump of books with “innovation” in the title – many of them have been forgettable but Hargadon did a fine job of making clear points and backing up what he claims with stories and reporting.

    Reply
  9. Mario Santoyo

    Scott: I’ve been following Kathy Sierra’s (Heads First Book Series) blog for about a year, and I strongly belive you should, in case you have not heard about her or read any of the books in the series, pay a little visit to her site and grab some sample chapters via o’reilly. I might sound “passionate” about this, but I really think you should interview her and perhaps her co-authors.

    Link to Kathy’s blog (and incidentally an interesting note about product innovation): http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/11/how_to_come_up_.html

    Reply
  10. Alexis Leon

    Hi Scott,

    It’s nice to know that you are writing another book and that too on innovation. I really liked your first book—The art of PM. In fact I reviewed it for Computing Reviews. I wish you all the best for the next book. I don’t know whether you have read the following books, but they are good reads in my opinion. Please do check them out.

    1. Harvard Business Review on Innovation by Clayton M. Christensen (ISBN: 1578516145)
    2. Engines of Innovation by Richard S. Rosenbloom (ISBN: 0875846750)
    3. Breakthrough Thinking (2nd Edition) by Gerald Phd Nadler, Shozo Phd Hibino (ISBN: 1559584211)
    4. A Whack On The Side Of The Head by von Oech (ISBN: 0446674559)

    Reply
  11. Alexis Leon

    Hi Scott,

    There is something that always interested me–invention and innovation. Are they the same or are they different? Invention means discovery or finding. Innovation is the introduction of something new.

    So, if necessity is the mother of invention, who is the mother of innovation? Is it scarcity, difficulty, limited resources, pressure or something else?

    Here is a blog that deals with innovations (Innovation Weblog)–http://www.innovationtools.com/Weblog/innovation-weblog.asp

    Reply
  12. Sandra

    Looking forward to the book, Scott!

    I suggest exploring the question of “what makes the difference?” in three areas:

    1) individual level – between equally intelligent & creative individuals, what makes one an innovator and the other not? (an interesting read on this line is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention” https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060928204/scottberkunco-20/ )
    2) group / organization / company level – between groups with equal resources, why are some more successful than others at producing true innovations?
    3) societal level – between equally interesting and useful innovations, what makes one embraced by society and the other not? (There are a variety of interesting examples put forth by James Burke in his series “Connections” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_(science_historian)

    To me the exploration of these questions would not only help us understand innovation but help us recreate the necessary environment to support it…

    Reply
  13. Bill Stevenson

    I’d recommend Guy Kawasaki and Jonathan Ive.

    Oh, and “Go Scott, I’m looking forward to the book!” :)

    Reply
  14. Steven Levy

    Scott, why not look outside the industry of creating “things” and look at those who create art? How do musicians innovate within the confines of a band/group and a record contract? Why not see if you can talk to Jac Holzman (founder of Elektra Records), say, or Robbie Krieger (the Doors), or Roger McGuinn (the Byrds); the latter two have websites through with you might be able to reach them. What about visual artists such as Dale Chihuly who rely on others in various forms of collaboration?

    Reply
  15. Scott (admin)

    Thanks all for the notes and recommendations so far! You guys rock.

    Steven: I’m definitely doing this. The book will have some focus on technology, but I’m pulling from diverse sources as much as I can. The better research accounts I’ve found do incorporate people from different perspectives: Csikszentmihalyi’s work often cuts across fields (arts/sciences) as does Joel Levy’s Origins of everyday things.

    I can’t say how much of the diverse reading I’ve been doing will surface directly in the book, but has definitely influenced my thinking and approach to the book itself.

    Reply
  16. kareem

    Scott-
    Great topic! Would like to read about decision markets and their role in innovation.

    James Surowiecki writes in The Wisdom of Crowds:
    There’s a division of Eli Lilly called e.Lilly, which has been experimenting with using internal stock markets and hypothetical drug candidates to predict whether new drugs will gain FDA approval.

    And there’s a great article on Rite Solutions, who is using a decision market to manage new product development: http://tinyurl.com/eeej7.

    Also, would love to hear any stories about innovating in big companies!

    Kareem

    Reply
  17. Lisa Sieverts

    How about Edward deBono on Creative Thinking? I believe he passed away recently but his books and institute live on.

    Reply
  18. Scott (admin)

    Edward De Bono has some great stuff – Particularly Six thinking hats and Lateral Thinking. But so far the book is higher level than techniques for how to come up with ideas, but we’ll see.

    Btw: according to his website, he’s still alive and kicking.

    Reply
  19. Michelle Peterson

    BusinessWeek just came out with their list of the top 25 most innovative companies for 2006. Apple – no surprise – tops the list. They conclude that a focus on design plays a large role in many of the companies on the list. They included not just “product innovation” but also “process innovation” and “business model innovation”. It’s an interesting read:http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_17/b3981401.htm

    Reply
  20. Michelle Peterson

    Doh! I just saw that you already did a whole blog entry on this article! :-) Obviously, I’m not up-to-date on reading your site. {blush!}

    Reply
  21. Imran Ali

    If you’d like to know more about innovation from inside the belly of the beast, I’ll be happy to connect you with people inside Orange, Wanadoo and France Telecom’s R&D community :)

    Reply
  22. Joey Mallari

    Go Scott! Looking forward to the book! (Can I get a signed copy?)

    Reply
  23. Typhoon

    A few simple questions to ask, that tell you about innovation:

    – what could you now not live without, but a while ago was not needed, or did not exist?

    – what do you take with you (in mind and physically) every day?

    For me its all about the way I communicate with others.
    I moved cities for the first time and VoIP, SMS, and Email are huge in my life. Simple, fast, and changed the way I communicate. Not that they are the definitive ducks nuts yet – as I still hand write letters, and often turn them all off for a lazy afternoon; as these innovations have reduced our capacity to plan and our privacy away.

    I also think a nod to good “artful” innovation should be made too. I like some devices because they are a useful tool; but love others due to the pure ease of use. Interaction which is smooth and predictive is gold.
    eg. the ipod interface

    Reply
  24. Navneet Bhushan

    Scott – Suggest you explore http://www.triz-journal.com for a book on Innovation. My personal experiences indicate that TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), if not the ultimate, but definitely will be a great source of Innovations world over from now onwards!!

    Please let me know when your book is out!!!

    Wish you success!

    Reply
  25. Daniel Holland

    IMHO invention is that which wasn’t before and could not be achieved without some form of chemical, metalurgical, biological, or etc. formula/process

    Innovation is just the combining of existing technologies to form something new.

    Do we label successful products as innovative and failed products as innovative or merely failures? My guess would be failures.

    Innovation is the result of asking a question that is relevant to the situation which realizes answers outside of the existing context. This can be used for any existing process/product/service, etc.

    For example I’m looking at my TV right now and wondering why the trim can’t be a different color other than grey or black…why not offer a trim selection, why are there buttons on the face if I use the remote 100% of the time? Why not make that part of the TV detachable and the trim interchangeable? It has HDTV printed on the trim, why not just make that a removable sticker since the person purchasing the TV already knows it’s HD…that’s why they bought it?

    So the question is will the buyer want the technology or something that matches the decor or both? How can we mate the available to the preferred? If a buyer entertains then will the artifacts in their residence spur discussion or do we rely on their guest’s own experiences for the sole discussion points…what allows the greatest opportunity for interaction devoid of silence?

    Think about a plotter making a circle, it’s a digital circle meaning that there are equal movements on the x and y

    Reply
  26. Daniel Holland

    IMHO invention is that which wasn’t before and could not be achieved without some form of chemical, metalurgical, biological, or etc. formula/process

    Innovation is just the combining of existing technologies to form something new.

    Do we label successful products as innovative and failed products as innovative or merely failures? My guess would be failures.

    Innovation is the result of asking a question that is relevant to the situation which realizes answers outside of the existing context. This can be used for any existing process/product/service, etc.

    For example I’m looking at my TV right now and wondering why the trim can’t be a different color other than grey or black…why not offer a trim selection, why are there buttons on the face if I use the remote 100% of the time? Why not make that part of the TV detachable and the trim interchangeable? It has HDTV printed on the trim, why not just make that a removable sticker since the person purchasing the TV already knows it’s HD…that’s why they bought it?

    So the question is will the buyer want the technology or something that matches the decor or both? How can we mate the available to the preferred? If a buyer entertains then will the artifacts in their residence spur discussion or do we rely on their guest’s own experiences for the sole discussion points…what allows the greatest opportunity for interaction devoid of silence?

    Think about a plotter making a circle, it’s a digital circle meaning that there are equal movements on the x and y axis, whereas a true circle is comprised of a center point and some point beyond moving in a continuous motion until intersection. Innovation is minimizing the equal movements on the x and y axis and invention is finding a way to create a center point and another point in constant motion until intersection.

    Reply
  27. got here by coincidence

    I just love innovation! I am an ordinary guy and I love to innovate and I love to hear and get excited about innovative stuff. Good sign of innovation is about turning little bit green, little bit reluctant… envy I mean! When noticing some great stuff, but, I would say, even in this condition, it’s the innovation which rocks and pleases, the beauty of it.

    I would suggest you to find your way into everyday life of innovation, not just big names, there is so much innovation floating around, it’s not only smart and successfull who are innovative, I believe in grassroot innovation!

    Great topic for a book, would love to read it (I plan to).

    Reply
  28. google.com

    Hi, after reading this remarkable paragraph i am also happy to share my experience here with friends.

    Reply

Pingbacks

  1. […] I’m on chapter 4 of the next book and as part of the research I have a tall stack of books with the word innovation in the title. Many have the same theme: Do these 5 things and magic will happen. Your competitors will stumble in your wake. Profits and promotions will be your dominion. Beautiful people will talk to you. You’ll be 5 inches taller and 10 lbs slimmer. And they assume you have enough power, as CEO or VP, to make innovation happen. But the better concern, the more interesting and cynical question, is this: […]

  2. […] As I’m on the home stretch of finishing the first draft of the book, I’ve read nearly 100 books on innovation, plus various studies, papers, magazines, and more than 100 interviews with innovators of various kinds. One trend I’ve found is the high number of “innovation efforts” within established companies, and how rarely they have any effect. […]

  3. […] Ran a fun session on the innovation book. Had a great crowd, exchanged ideas, laughed and had good times all around. Many of the myths I heard are already in the book, but heard some comments that I’m still thinking about (If you have more thoughts, let em fly). Thanks to all that were there. Also sat in on Scott Ruthfield’s excellent session on innovation in big orgs. […]

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