Reading Alan’s new book:
Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths , Alan Webber stimulates, inspires, challenges and helps us understand what makes for a life well-lived and work well-done. Reflecting 40 years of experience as observer, participant and agent provocateur, Alan has gathered 52 gems of wisdom (on how to lead and innovate in these extraordinary times).
What always ticks me off about innovation books is the authors desire to feed you more methodology, I’m looking to be inspired by new market and customer insights (and find the ability to adapt and shape new ideas). What’s refreshing (and rather desirable) about this book is the age old habit of identifying new ways to solve old problems.
# Business model innovation. The mandate to compete is driving companies to go beyond product and service innovation to meta-innovation–competing on new business models. If you want to challenge your rivals, you don’t simply out-produce them, you out-think them with a business model that undercuts their whole way of doing business. Innovation has gone meta.
# Education. The spread of learning makes innovation a global phenomenon; at the same time, young, bright, technologically savvy students are able to test their ideas and creativity without waiting for traditional jobs in traditional companies to give them permission to innovate. Education not only makes people smarter; it makes them eager to use what they’ve learned to do new things.
# Design Thinking. We’ve got new tools and new disciplines that are teaching us how to apply all those right-brain notions. Design gives shape to instinct; technology makes it possible to model design; the need for differentiation in the market provides big rewards for outstanding design. It’s a system that works, producing design-driven innovation, differentiated products and services, and competitive rewards.