An Innovator's Tale: New Perspectives for Accelerating Creative Breakthroughs

Citation

(2002), "An Innovator's Tale: New Perspectives for Accelerating Creative Breakthroughs", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951gae.004

An Innovator's Tale: New Perspectives for Accelerating Creative Breakthroughs

An Innovator's Tale: New Perspectives for Accelerating Creative Breakthroughs

Craig HickmanJohn Wiley & SonsISBN 0-471-44388-3£18.50

This is one of the (relatively) new breed of storyline business books – combining a gripping yarn (hopefully) with important business lessons (equally hopefully!). This one is a tale of corporate corruption, mortal danger and triumphant innovation, and even has a love interest to complete the recipe. It is fast paced, easy to read and almost in the unputdownable category.

So, it's a good read … but does it teach?

It uses the storyline to introduce its topic –’the S path to growth through innovation – for creative breakthrough. The tale focuses on the trials and tribulations of a newly-promoted vice president (for new product development), Taylor Zobrist, who has been thrust into a world of corporate turnaround, duplicity, and espionage. Readers learn by her example as she discovers and applies four different levels and five critical stages of innovation, while struggling to contain the damage done by stolen business secrets, computer hacking, and high-level company officers who are not quite what they seem to be.

She is set the challenge of generating $50m in revenue and $10m in profit within three months for her company, Carter-Crisp Foods. If she fails, the Carter-Crisp family-dominated board will accept a predatory offer of $650m from main rival, the Nibblers Corporation.

Faced with this seemingly impossible challenge, Zobrist takes her team off to a retreat in Santa Barbara. Here she introduces the four perspectives of innovation:

1. 1.

   improve core businesses;

2. 2.

   exploit strategic advantages;

3. 3.

   develop new capabilities; and

4. 4.

   create revolutionary change.

As the story unfolds, we are introduced to the four Is of the perspectives: incremental, insightful, inventive and ingenious; and then the four Is of the four stages of innovation: imagine, integrate, isolate and illuminate. These Is take one along the S path to growth.

As the book nears its climax, the final I, immerse, is revealed.

This is an interesting and intriguing (there go those Is again!) way to get over a message. Worth reading for the lessons – and to find out if Zobrist pulls it off.