The Innovation Race

The Innovation Race

by Andrew Grant, Gaia Grant
Released August 2016
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780730328995

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Book description

If innovation is a race: Who wins? Who loses? Who gets eliminated? – and how is it possible to stay ahead of the game?

The Innovation Race takes readers on a lively global adventure to explore the current state of innovation. Along the way best-selling authors Andrew and Gaia Grant search for clues on how to stay ahead in the race and design a more sustainable future. Asking the critical questions - Why do we innovate? Are we at risk of innovating for the sake of innovation? What could we be doing better? - the Grants reflect on whether, if in the race to come up with ‘the next big thing,' we may be losing the purpose behind the process. They then outline how to navigate the key paradoxical challenges that can either frustrate or fuel innovation to change the game. By taking the latest academic research and presenting it in an accessible way, the Grants present a compelling case for forging a new path for the future.

The Innovation Race provides concrete strategies to support purpose-driven sustainable innovation through deep cultural transformation. A unique profiling tool reveals current organisation positioning along with potential opportunities and challenges. A practical culture change model then provides clear direction for proactive change. With economists estimating that up to 80 per cent of growth comes from new ideas and innovations, this thought-provoking book provides the strategies and tools to learn how to create an innovation culture for long term success.

  • Identify your own sweet spot for innovative thinking
  • Learn the strategies to transform your organisation
  • Engage and motivate employees toward innovative action
  • Excel in implementing a deep cultural shift

The Innovation Race will make you reassess what you assumed you knew about innovation, help boost the innovation process to new levels and bring your organisation to the forefront.

Table of contents

  1. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
  2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  3. PREFACE
    1. The innovation challenge
    2. Who should read this book?
    3. Notes
  4. PART I PREPARATION FOR THE GLOBAL REALITY RACE
    1. CHAPTER 1 THE AMAZING INNOVATION RACE
      1. Technology vs tradition
      2. Addicted to adrenaline
      3. Why do we need to innovate responsibly?
      4. Keeping pace with the race
      5. Disruptors and breakthroughs
      6. Playing snakes and ladders: evolution or revolution?
      7. Transformational innovation: beyond exploration and exploitation
      8. Bridging the innovation purpose gap
      9. The dark side of desire
      10. Changing the culture to change the game
      11. Roadblocks and fast-forward advantages
      12. Purpose-Driven Innovation (PDI)
      13. Back to the future
      14. Notes
    2. CHAPTER 2 SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES
      1. The value of shifting perspectives
      2. Psychological blocks and enablers
      3. Culture to culture — creative insights from different cultural perspectives
      4. Why are we so different? Genetics or geography
      5. Some other clues to differences — politics and power
      6. Comparing apples and rambutans
      7. Linear vs circular thinking
      8. Hollywood and the westernisation of innovation
      9. The inevitable shift towards a global village
      10. Starting to see things differently
      11. Notes
    3. CHAPTER 3 ARE YOU A TOURIST OR TRAVELLER?
      1. Seeing from the heart's mind
      2. Commercial innovation that connects
      3. Shukanteki and kyakkanteki: elements of authentic empathy
      4. Are you a tourist or traveller?
      5. Travel stretches the open mind
      6. Fresh ideas from the fringe
      7. Notes
    4. CHAPTER 4 PICASSO AND THE PARADOXICAL INNOVATION PROCESS
      1. Imagination ➔ Ideation ➔ Implementation
      2. What if ?
      3. The tension that frustrates or fuels innovation
      4. Shadow and light: the power of paradox
      5. Einstein and the ambidextrous organisation
      6. Leading between the ponds and the pits
      7. Strategies for Purpose-Driven Innovation (PDI)
      8. On the fast track to Mars
      9. Notes
  5. PART II DESTINATIONS
    1. CHAPTER 5 LIBERATE
      1. Challenging the systems
      2. Oppressive control: behind the motives of mighty monarchs
      3. The pride before the fall
      4. Are we scaling the pyramid?
      5. Inequality impacts innovation, innovation impacts inequality
      6. Where did that cheap t-shirt come from?
      7. The race to dominate
      8. Education for empowerment
      9. The Singapore sprint
      10. More creative courage, fewer constraints
      11. Can there be too much freedom?
      12. The deeper purpose: to dominate or to progress?
      13. Applications for the organisation
      14. Notes
    2. CHAPTER 6 INITIATE
      1. Initiating innovation through openness
      2. A cultural safari in the minibus bubble
      3. Tourist traps
      4. A risky experiment
      5. Proximity and the printing machine
      6. Connected cities and lucky errors
      7. Viral connections
      8. Faster than the speed of light
      9. The internet as the ultimate enabler
      10. Hyperconnection: the paradox of connection and isolation
      11. Too close for comfort: is there such a thing as too much openness?
      12. Targeted openness
      13. Applications for the organisation
      14. Notes
    3. CHAPTER 7 MOTIVATE
      1. When TV came to town
      2. Motivation for finding collaborative solutions
      3. Ancient wisdom and modern metropolises
      4. Outwit, Outplay, Outlast
      5. The neuroscience behind the tragedy of the commons
      6. The rice paddy principle
      7. $1000 buzzers and booths
      8. The power of the collective
      9. Trust in the tribe
      10. Can there be too much of a collectivist approach?
      11. Solving the prisoner's dilemma
      12. Authentic collaboration — beyond ‘tit for tat’
      13. Applications for the organisation
      14. Notes
    4. CHAPTER 8 TRANSFORM
      1. The implementation challenge
      2. Unpacking the American Dream
      3. The essence of the entrepreneurial spirit
      4. From cultivators to innovators
      5. The world's most optimistic country?
      6. Bodyguards and bombs
      7. Hurricane survivors and adaptors
      8. Relying on resilience
      9. The cosmic bet
      10. In the hands of higher powers
      11. The inverse relationship between fatalism and innovation
      12. Learned helplessness or enabled action?
      13. Is it possible to be too optimistic and flexible?
      14. Applications for the organisation
      15. Notes
  6. PART III THE FUTURE OF THE RACE
    1. CHAPTER 9 PAWNS AND PLAYERS
      1. Innovation roadblocks and fast-forward enablers
      2. Are you smarter than a third grader?
      3. Changing the status quo
      4. The inherent value of ethical innovation
      5. Can strong company cultures block innovation?
      6. Out of the shark tank
      7. The sociological equivalent of splitting the atom: transitioning to higher stages
      8. True organisational culture change
      9. Deciphering the code
      10. Notes
    2. CHAPTER 10 FUTURE TRENDS
      1. It's time for the real game changers
      2. The innovation agenda
      3. How to change a culture to change the game
      4. Doing things differently
      5. Pawns, players — or empowered producers
      6. To be continued …
      7. Notes
  7. INDEX
  8. MORE WAYS TO GET INNOVATIVE
    1. Keynote
    2. Simulation
    3. Workshops
    4. Assessment
  9. ADVERT
  10. EULA

Product information

  • Title: The Innovation Race
  • Author(s): Andrew Grant, Gaia Grant
  • Release date: August 2016
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780730328995