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The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization

Average customer rating:

Innovation-in-depth
Easy suggestions for increasing innovation
Inspiring and fun
Ten Faces for everyone!
Excellent, thought provoking examples!

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
Thomas Kelley , and Jonathan Littman
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm
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ASIN: 0385512074
Release Date: 2005-10-18

Book Description

The author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout an organization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity.

The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation.

Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience managing IDEO, Kelley identifies ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation.

Filled with engaging stories of how companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill and Samsung have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.

Customer Reviews:

Innovation-in-depth.......2007-06-07

The Ten Faces of Innovation describes ten complementary personas - personality types or roles that contribute in different ways to creative teams:

Anthropologist - this is perhaps the most literal title, meaning people who have been professionally trained as social anthropologists to observe people and processes and interactions `with a fresh eye'. These are probably the biggest antidote to "But we've always done it like that" thinking.

Experimenter - willing to take a chance, maybe, but also willing to explore alternatives and test concepts through prototyping, trial-and-error and applied science.

Cross-pollinator - like a bee flitting between the private parts of flowers, the cross-pollinator spreads good ideas and techniques between specialisms, breaking down silos and sharing good practice

Hurdler - able to leap tall buildings (well project hurdles anyway) in a single bound. They are adept at finding ways over (or more likely around) around immovable obstacles to reduce the banging-your-head-against-a-wall bruising.

Collaborator - knits people and teams together by finding common interests and objectives. Sometimes described as the spider who weaves the web linking everyone to everyone else.

Director - nothing to do with the title on her business card, the Director provides clarity and direction, a rallying point for the troops yet with the humility to actively listen to input from the team.

Experience architect - with an uncanny knack of putting themselves in the customer's shoes, experience architects can visualize products and services at the point of use, no mean feat when they are barely on the drawing board and even the customers are an unknown quantity.

Set designer - this is a fascinating persona: someone who creates visual spaces and physical representations relating to the job at hand. Not really office architects as such, set designers invent scenarios and contexts. They are also comfortable to break unwritten rules and help people mix fun with work (now there's a thought!).

Caregiver - in the sense of nurses and doctors (no, not the teenage version), caregivers support their colleagues, providing a sympathetic sounding board and gentle encouragement when times are tough, and motivating and inspiring people to give there all at all times.

Storyteller - anyone familiar with The HP Way or the origins of Apple and Microsoft will recognize the value of constantly telling and re-telling inspirational stories as a way of reinforcing corporate culture. It's clear that this is a comfortable personal for author Tom Kelley since both books quite literally tell a story.

The book is peppered with genuine examples, most of which involve the genesis of familiar but once remarkable products that broke the mold in some way - style, design, functionality, whatever. Some of you reading this may have bought Palm V PDAs, for instance, on the strength of their sleek looks and brilliant user interface - the Graffiti stylus script language so close to English that anyone can pick it up with a few minutes' practice. How many of you appreciate the innovative use of glue instead of screws to bond the Palm V's case together, or the flat-pack lithium batteries inside? Like many other examples, the attention to detail and the multiple overlapping layers of innovation go well beyond the obvious external visual cues. This is innovation-in-depth.

Whether you are interested in applying innovation and creativity to work initiatives or life in general, the IDEO books are inspirational, instructional and fun to read - what a combination. Recommended.

Easy suggestions for increasing innovation.......2007-05-04

Welcome to an enjoyable, easy read - which is not to dismiss Tom Kelley's fine ideas. With the aid of Jonathan Littman, Kelley works throughout this book to show how innovation can be much more painless than most people think, and more fun. Kelley makes thinking collaboratively sound like a blast. In the process, he convinces you that your organization should nurture and cherish playing with ideas. Although he admits that his consulting company, IDEO, found itself grinding along on tedious projects at times, and that he has watched people shoot down perfectly good suggestions, his underlying message is one of open possibility. He presents 10 roles you can play during meetings, any one of which would be enough to add considerable value. By showing that these roles are temporary, he sends the message that if you want to stay competitive, you can change, and even must. As he examines everything from product names to rules governing how workers decorate their cubicles, Kelley demonstrates the many opportunities you have to create something new. The cost is often little or nothing; sometimes innovation simply means getting out of your employees' way. We recommend this book to managers who wish to break old patterns and encourage creative thought companywide.

Inspiring and fun.......2007-04-17

If you want to create an environment where innovation is the norm, what do you do? Tom Kelley doesn't have a prescription, but he does have some people he'd like you to meet. This book is about the roles that people in an innovation driven organization take on to create fresh new ideas on a regular basis.

If you're an individual contributor, this is a very helpful book both to understand the people around you and your own specific skills. What's more, although in some ways Kelley is describing personality attributes, he is also describing skill sets and ways of looking at the world that you can decide to cultivate. No one is going to be excellent at all of these roles- but that doesn't mean you can't strive to be well rounded!

As a manager, the main take-away lesson is that there are many different types of creativity that can reinforce each other if put together. The most important part of building a creative organization may come at the hiring stage, where you can most easily create a mix of the different personas. But if you're in a stable organization, as most of us are, you can use the "ten faces" to identify the different styles of creativity in your people, and use that information to form teams and projects to bring out their best.

The book is very heavy on anecdote and example. Every one of the ten personas has several stories that illustrate how such an approach can generate ideas that otherwise wouldn't have been considered. The Anthropologist will put themselves in the place of the average user or consumer, as did a woman who faked a pregnancy to see how she would improve the birthing experience at a major hospital. The Experience Architect will take a commodity service and turn it into a show that customers will enjoy for its distinctiveness, like the ice cream "cooking" at Cold Stone Creamery.

The persona that I found most intriguing, and perhaps also furthest from my own, was the Set Designer. Kelley believes strongly in the power of space to shape the minds of those who inhabit it, and just reading about some of the things that go on at IDEO is enough to make my own cube - which I had thought very nicely decorated - seem drab and uninspired.

"The Ten Faces of Innovation" is not a good book to read if you want to know exactly how to change your company, but it is an excellent resource for spotting the early creative behavior every innovator should want to encourage in their team.

Ten Faces for everyone!.......2007-03-26

Excellent book, I would recommend it to anyone.

Inspiring.

Particularly people working in project based situations.

Rich with experiences from the author.

Many good stories in this book.

Memorable phrase from the Experimenter - "Fear makes failure more likely and experimentation nigh impossible".

We need to have a vocabulary about innovation instead of the typical management or leadership focused books.

Some parts are a little repetitive, but well worth it.

Excellent, thought provoking examples!.......2007-03-19

This book outlines what IDEO believes to be the 10 key types of individuals who help foster innovation. Remember that IDEO's entire purpose for being is to create innovative solutions to business problems. Kelly understands this and uses his real life examples to illustrate a point but expects corporations to take baby steps in comparison. For example, IDEO is very free with their environment, so much so that the team found an antique bombers wing and fixed it to a main wall in their Boston office.

It is an excellent and interesting read and is highly recomended. Just don't expect it to be a step by step guide. It gives you some concepts, poses a number of thought provoking questions and leaves it up to the reader to determine what changes could make the most impact on your company.

The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation

Average customer rating:

Not even worth one star
BEWARE! Digital version is only a 10 page summary!
From information-processing machine to knowledge-creating co
A look at knowledge creation
An essential book on knowledge management

The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation
Ikujiro Nonaka , and Hirotaka Takeuchi
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation
Working Knowledge
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ASIN: 0195092694

Book Description

How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? The concensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skillful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies work and reveal how Japanese business methods allow them to create new knowledge. The authors point out that there are two types of organizational knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers, wedded to such approaches as "benchmarking" and "best practices," focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge, and to disseminate it throughout the organization. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Zen Buddhism, to classical economists, to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of knowledge creation with cases studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Mitsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself with the master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the knowledge acquired on the frontline. Likewise, the best organizational structure is what they call a "hypertext" organization, which takes the best aspects of bureaucratic and task force approaches (they point to Sharp as a successful example of hypertext organization). Because the competitive environment and customer preferences change constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to blend the best of East and West, to create knowledge, and to use it to make successful new products and services.

Download Description

Manufacturers around the world have learned much from Japanese manufacturing techniques. However, any company that wants to compete on knowledge must also learn from Japanese techniques of knowledge-creation. Managers at Japan's most successful companies recognize that creating knowledge is not simply a matter of processing objective information. Rather, it depends on tapping the tacit and often highly subjective insights, intuitions, and ideals of employees.

Customer Reviews:

Not even worth one star.......2005-11-21

I was very disappointed by this book. Not only was it painful to read, because it dragged on and was full of academic nonsense, the authors views were also unconvincing and based on old research.

This book is outdated and not relevant to the way Japan is today. The authors use a lot of research and examples from the 80s and even the 70s. They make the claim that Japanese firms experienced a lot of success in the late 70s and 80s because of their superior ability to "create knowledge." They seem to be in complete denial that Japan's economic bubble had anything to do with this "success" that they are talking about. Also, the book was written over 10 years ago, before the financial crisis and before people realized that a lot of this so-called success was just cooked in the books by accountants.

They do give some reasonable examples of knowledge creating firms that are successful, but that's all they are, just a few examples and not an accurate representation of the whole picture of Japanese Management. Also, most of the examples are of Japanese manufacturing firms. What about the service sector? Suspiciously they did not use examples of companies from Japan's service sector, which are extremely inefficient and not the text book perfect examples of successful "knowledge creating" firms.

The theories and models in this book are a bunch of overly abstract vague pretentious academic nonsense. The real life examples are so nebulously related to the theories and models that most successful (or unsuccessful) companies can be used as examples.

If you want to read a bunch of nonsense based on old research with the names of Harvard professors and some philosophy thrown in to make the nonsense seem legit and intelligent, then by all means, read this book. But if you are like me and want to learn about Japanese management, don't waste your time or money on this book.

BEWARE! Digital version is only a 10 page summary!.......2004-03-16

Don't get caught like I did.

From information-processing machine to knowledge-creating co.......2002-08-28

This book is the classic in the organizational learning approach. But it¡¯s more than that. This book is not about lean production or Japanese kaizen system, but about how to enhance a firm¡¯s adaptability to turbulent environment through knowledge creation. with suggesting new concept of knowledge-creation as the tangible base of organizational capabilities or innovation, this book serves as the bridge between organizational learning school and resource-capabilities view.
As the being to survive in environment, the firm processes signals or information from environment. Knowledge is the framework to process info to interpret the state of environment. Up to 1980s, the company was viewed as information-processing machine. Indeed, firm is the flow of information. That kind of view has been justified against the business reality. Actually, it¡¯s the very picture of bureaucratic organization which culminated in GM¡¯s M-form model. Here, CEO like Jack Welch is the hero. Such an organization is effective when the environment is stable and predictable. But since 1970s, things have changed. Uncertainties have been amplified with the hypercompetition on global scale. Now the framework to interpret the signal from environment, itself should incessantly and systemically be adapted to turbulent reality. Knowledge and innovation have come the words of the day. Not surprisingly, there has been growing dissatisfaction with traditional organizational structure. Kao¡¯s CEO, Maruta put it in this way: ¡®The intelligence of a firm does not come from the president nor top management. That must come from the gathering of all knowledge of all members.¡¯ This book is about to how to build organization as the effective innovation site. To do so, all the available knowledge in and out of company should be able to be mobilized and freely flow throughout the firm. For instance, front line employees are constantly in direct touch with the outside world. They can obtain access to the up-to-date info on the market, technology, or competitors. But their knowledge is, in most cases, not able to be expressed in explicit way. Generally, it¡¯s the tacit knowledge. But to survive more and more intensified competition, the firm should be apt to mobilizing their tacit knowledge. To achieve such a goal, task force or bottom-up organizational model emerged. In those model, the creative knowledge worker, in Peter Drucker¡¯s term, is the hero. But in those models, knowledge tends to be confined to narrow front line, and comes and goes with creative employees. And worse, the firm can¡¯t react as an efficient unit to threats from environment. As a result, innovation is the haphazard event. So there should be some integrating mechanism like hierarchy. To be efficient unit, knowledge should flow all over the company. Here, authors rediscover the significance of middle managers. They play the role of midwife and amplifier of knowledge from front line employees and between various divisions in the firm. They coordinate the flow of knowledge and maintain the firm as a coherent knowledge-creating unit. In short, the firm should be organized as the melting pot of member¡¯s knowledge. Authors take examples from Japanese firms to illustrate what¡¯s like such a site.

A look at knowledge creation.......2001-11-26

I came to this book through a reference in Novak & Gowin. What caught my eye was that someone was willing to talk about an epistemological stance other than the analytic, reductionist view held in science. For the most part, I found this book's understanding of Western epistemology to be reasonable; I can't speak for the Japanese epsitemology cited. What interested me, and for which I recommend the book, is their view of knowledge creation. The case studies lend weight to their view, but they do explicate a possible model for turning subjective knowledge into explicit knowledge. They suggest a management model for making it happen. The book is very well written and edited.

I believe the book needs a very careful read *outside* the business community. I would put this book down as the business version of Feynman's *The Character of Natural Law*.

An essential book on knowledge management.......2001-09-28

This is perhaps one of the most important books presently available on knowledge management. The authors demonstrate how 'knowledge' is vital to innovation within Japanese firms, with clear distinction made between 'tacit' and explicit' knowledge. An effort is made to distinguish the differences between Japanese and Western firms through an emphasis on the importance of 'tacit' knowledge and a 'middle-up-down' management process. Other than Chapter 2 (a review of philosophical background relating to epistemology which might put some readers off), this book has minimal jargons and complexities and would be an easy and enjoyable read even for non-academics. The arguments presented by the authors are well-illustrated with relevant industrial examples. Overall, this is a book that not only brings a new perspective to knowledge management but also raises questions for the ardent researchers who might ponder over its relevance to non-Japanese firms.

Shaking Up the Schoolhouse: How to Support and Sustain Educational Innovation (Jossey-Bass Education)

Average customer rating:

Pretentious with little practical value for teachers
A book full of educational administration wisdom.

Shaking Up the Schoolhouse: How to Support and Sustain Educational Innovation (Jossey-Bass Education)
Phillip C. Schlechty
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0787972134

Book Description

"Once again, Phil Schlechty demonstrates why I consider him to be one of the clearest minds in American education. He knows how important public education is to our democracy and has real ideas for making it better. This book is a must-read for policymakers at any level and for those who think and care about school improvement."
--Paul D. Houston, executive director, American Association of School Administrators

"Schlechty shares leading-edge insights and offers practical guidance to anyone who affects student learning. His suggestions are wonderful dialogue starters for educators searching for ways to make dramatic improvement in schools."
--Dennis Sparks, executive director, National Staff Development Council

In this visionary book, renowned educator Phillip Schlechty argues for change-adept school systems. He not only challenges educational administrators, teachers, teacher leaders, legislators, and policymakers to recognize the need for transformation, but also shows how they can grow into skillful leaders of lasting change. Shaking Up the Schoolhouse begins with an incisive discussion of the dangers and opportunities in reworking school systems. Drawing from decades of experience and from actual cases, the author describes the essential characteristics of change-adept organizations. He then presents a practical framework for helping teachers to overcome obstacles in the learning experience, from reviewing the competition to improving student engagement through more effective standards. Schlechty also focuses on empowering principals, superintAndents, and school board members as they struggle with structural and cultural change in their schools and communities.

Customer Reviews:

Pretentious with little practical value for teachers.......2001-07-28

In his preface to Shaking Up the Schoolhouse, Phillip Schlechty describes his belief of what should be educatorýs mission. He states that the business of Ford is not to provide stockholders ýwith a decent return on their investment.ý But rather, ýto produce an automobile that people will buy at a price that will keep the company in business and provide company stockholders with a decent return on their investment.ý He uses this as an analogy for schools. He argues that schoolsý business is ýto provide students with experiences that ensure that these educational ends are attained for all, or nearly all, children.ý Consequently, ýeducation is not the business of schools.ý

This simple, logical premise is deeply flawed. He implies that all successful companies must operate this way. They do not. The Coca-Cola Companyýs mission, for example, is ýto provide value to its shareholders.ý Would Schlechty argue that Coke, the worldýs most recognizable brand, is wrong? Fordýs approach may be a decent model for success. But it is hardly the model all should emulate.

Part One, ýUnderstanding the System,ý is most successful. He discusses the things with which schools must compete if they are to get and hold the attention of students. They include the Internet, television, music, video games, and film. He is especially astute when he points to the mobility students have today as a major factor for taking their attention away from schools.

Cars and portable music were early culprits in making interesting diversions more accessible. These ýmade it possible for young people to listen to Elvis Presley and other ýforbidden musicý beyond the hearing of parents.ý Similarly, paperbacks and cheap magazines became readily available. Consequently, if students craved reading, there was no guarantee they would read material sanctioned by the local school district. This portability has increased exponentially with the information age. More information might be available to kids. But getting students to concentrate on knowledge we think is important is greater challenge. Further, the increase of divorce and non-traditional families has further complicated things.

In Part Two, ýCreating Quality Learning Experiencesý, he suggests how educators use their skills to regain studentsý attention. More accurately, he offers one suggestion ý ýEducational leaders must focus on those things that result in learning.ý Those things he calls ýtasks,ý ýactivities,ý and ýwork.ý

But he never offers one concrete example of successful implementation of his thesis. There is no inspiration from a history teacher that got kids passionate about World War II. Nowhere is there an example of an activity employed by an English teacher to get a pupil to see the world differently after reading a poem. Nor does he give examples of specific programs that failed.

Midway through, it looks like heýll offer a reasoned account of an experience and its influence in the classroom. He recalls visiting a bar where people were playing a trivia game. Patrons had electronic keypads hooked up to a network with other players. They could compare their scores with other bar patronsý across the country. He is awed by their enthusiasm. Put another way, he discovers Trivial Pursuit.

He doesnýt arguer for wiring all classrooms with similar devices. But he does recognize the value in the interaction of people with others inherent in this activity. He smartly suggests that the communal aspect of the game is key to its success and potentially is a key to understanding what might get students interested in learning. Unfortunately, he stops there. Should such games be used in the classroom? Why or why not?

His fascination with the game is another indication why the book fails. He seems to have had his head in the sand for what is going on in the world. Does he know what things are pulling studentsý focus? Has he heard of ýJeopardy,ý or ýWho Wants to be a Millionaire?ý He needs to be forthright in addressing what specific things are taking their attention from us now. Educators to realize that they have an obligation to see what cultural shifts are pulling the attention of students.

Itýs been 50 years since Elvis signaled the dawn of a revolution. What would Schlechty recommend to a science teacher trying to get a kid more interested in chemistry than Marilyn Manson? What should a social studies teacher do to shatter the false image of World War II perpetrated by Disneyýs ýPearl Harborý? He will not say.

Schlechty is further hampered by convoluted language that does little to make his case accessible or succinct. Here is an example of Schlechtyýs eloquence:

To understand whether students are expending enough effort on a task, it is important to understand both the learning goals and the performance goals associated with the task and to assess as well the extent to which the learning goals are being supported by or suppressed by the performance goals, which are the center of so many of todayýs efforts at assessment of student learning.

Huh?

His epilogue hypothesizes about public education in the year 2020. He envisions a world where public education is increasingly becoming the exception. Home schooling and private schooling are on the rise. American society is retreating into a world of subcultures. We no longer learn from our commonalities, but pride ourselves on what divides us. It is a frightening scenario that he imagines coming to pass if public education continues on its current path and if school vouchers become a reality.

He ends offering a brief theory on what vouchers might mean to American education. With governmentýs money, there are potential pitfalls for private schools that might find that the money comes with strings attached. Given the recent Senate vote demanding the Boy Scoutsý access to school property, it is a very real possibility. His discussion is lucid, concise, direct, and specific. Ironically, he ends with very identifiable ideas that the 220 preceding pages lack.

A book full of educational administration wisdom........2000-12-02

In his latest book, "Shaking up the school house." Phil Schlechty hits lots of home runs. I am always amazed at the clarity and intelligence of his thoughts. This is probably not something that you would read in a review of a book about educational administration, but I found the book gripping and difficult to put down.

The theme that came through from "Inventing better schools" that the teacher's job is to engage the students in meaningful learning is developed in the "WOW" (working on work) framework.

To be hung in lights is his argument that judging schools on student outcomes or standardised tests is fallacious and he argues that students produce scores not schools. Accountability processes therefore need to examine the educational processes not just the outcomes.

Part 3 which examines transformational leadership is very good and Schlechty's 14 competencies for school leaders is very useful to practitioners who wish to review their performance against descriptors of an excellent model of school leadership.

I have just finished my first reading of the book and I was blown away by reading so much common sense in one book. Now, I am off to get my pencil and see what I missed in the first reading!

Neil MacNeill Principal Perth, Western Australia.

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change Series)
Average customer rating:

Repetitive

Business calssic

just great book

A Marketing Student

Good, but very condensed

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change Series)
Clayton M. Christensen
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0875845851

Amazon.com

What do the Honda Supercub, Intel's 8088 processor, and hydraulic excavators have in common? They are all examples of disruptive technologies that helped to redefine the competitive landscape of their respective markets. These products did not come about as the result of successful companies carrying out sound business practices in established markets. In The Innovator's Dilemma, author Clayton M. Christensen shows how these and other products cut into the low end of the marketplace and eventually evolved to displace high-end competitors and their reigning technologies.

At the heart of The Innovator's Dilemma is how a successful company with established products keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing. Succinct and clearly written, The Innovator's Dilemma is an important book that belongs on every manager's bookshelf. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

Book Description

The Innovator's Dilemma demonstrates why outstanding companies that had their competitive antennae up, listened astutely to customers, and invested aggressively in new technologies still lost their market dominance. Drawing on patterns of innovation in a variety of industries, the author argues that good business practices can, nevertheless, weaken a great firm. He shows how truly important, breakthrough innovations are often initially rejected by customers that cannot currently use them, leading firms to allow their most important innovations to languish. Many companies now face the innovator's dilemma. Keeping close to customers is critical for current success. But long-term growth and profits depend upon a very different managerial formula. This book will help managers see the changes that may be coming their way and will show them how to respond for success. The Management of Innovation and Change Series.

Download Description

Revised, updated, and with a new chapter, this book continues to take the radical position that great companies can fail precisely because they do everything right. It demonstrates why outstanding companies lose their market leadership when confronted with disruptive technology--and it explains how to avoid a similar fate. Drawing on insights from a number of industries--such as the computer and disk drive industries, discount retailing, minimills, pharmaceuticals, and the automobile industry--Christensen shows why good management often turns out to be all wrong--and what to do about it.

Customer Reviews:

Repetitive.......2007-06-23

It was a hassle getting through this book, but overall it was worth it. A lot of good lessons learned, but he says the same things over and over again. Read the first and last chapters and you'll be fine.

Business calssic.......2007-06-17

The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen is a must read book for any person interested in keeping their business moving forward or for any person starting a business. Christensen clearly exposes the traps that cause successful companies to stop innovating and succumb to innovative new firms. The material is presented as a series of fascinating case studies with commentary.

just great book.......2007-05-12

Just great book for those considering start their own business.
Would be helpful for bean counters in large corporations too.

A Marketing Student.......2007-04-09

I advised my professor to add this book to his reading list and contemplate making this required text. Filled with examples, this book helps open one's eyes. Another tool to avoid marketing myopia. A very enjoyable read.

Good, but very condensed.......2007-03-28

Classic business book. This audio-book version is very well narrated, but it's a very abridged version so don't expect all the details from the printed version. There's enough material for the listener to understand the concepts and it's REALLY nice to be able to listen while driving in the car, etc.

Average customer rating:

Ideas Which Make One Think
This book is garbage.
A book for all who love teaching
humanistic education living and breathing

Freedom to Learn (3rd Edition)
Carl R. Rogers , and H. Jerome Freiberg
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0024031216

Customer Reviews:

Ideas Which Make One Think.......2005-03-08

I was very impressed with the honest questions, the hard to ask questions that Rogers asks about education. In the beginning chapter, he admits that there are disturbing questions worthy of great debate, questions whose answers will form the foundation for students and learners. What will education do to take the edge off of racial tension? How will education help prevent civil and world wars? Back in 1969, Carl Rogers saw some disturbing trends. He talked about the possible student revolts against this conservative and rigid institution which could be very harmful to the entire process. Some of his worst nightmares are taking effect today. School violence in our inner cities is sky rocketing with no end in sight. Child are losing respect for their teachers at a very young age. There seems to be a lot less respect for educators than there was 25 years ago when I was in school. Rogers was also concerned with profit-making corporations getting too much of a hand in education. This is a big concern these days with the society taking on more and more of a corporate feel. If Dr. Rogers saw education at a crisis point in 1969, then where are we now??

In the book, CR also differentiates experiental (self-directed)learning from meaningless rote type learning, where there is no personal context for connection. To have freedom to learn, a person's self-confidence and curiousity grows along with intense curiousity to learn more, to have initial learning build on itself to create something brand new.

This book made me think of the unnecessary regimentation which still plagues much of public education. Students should be encouraged (like in the movie "Dead Poets Society") to do their own dance, to fill their own sails with self-directed discovery.

Rogers' concept of congruence has a lot to do with what he is talking about here. The ability to be real in a relationship is much like the teacher being real in accepting the true needs of the student. It is only with empathic listening, not regimentation, with honestly instead of false airs of playing the education game, with a person-centered approach to education and career related goals, not wishes imposed from the outside.....that, I believe, is what he is getting at. A teacher, he says, "must be a person to his students", not a faceless embodiment of a cirricular requirement nor a sterile tube through which knowledge is passed from one generation to the next."

He sums up his feelings about developing optimal climates for student learning, in a person-centered way:
"If we are to have citizens who can live constructively in this kaleidoscopically changing world, we can only have them if we are willing for them to become self-starting, self-initiating learners. Finally, it has been my purpose to show that this kind of learner develops best, so far as we now know, in a growth- promoting, facilitative, relationship with a person."

This book is garbage........2004-12-10

I am totally disgusted by this book for at least two reasons.

By page 32, the authors have referred to pregnancy as a disease, a "pathology," and "a medical emergency" several times. It is cited as evidence of poor performance of the public schools. First of all, pregnancy is not a disease. It is the way by which we reproduce ourselves. Many consider it to be desired for the continuation of our species. Secondly, of course female sexuality would be blamed for the failures of the state. Whenever the men in power fail us, they have to drag some teenage girl out into the street and shave her head, right? "If my magic did not protect you in battle, it was because my wife was menstruating."

They keep insisting that public schools are necessary for the function of democracy. Because they seem not to want to admit that democracy is not the modus operandi of the United States (remember slavery, the draft, the election of 2000?), the public schools just being another cog in the machine that oppresses working people, they postulate that if only the public schools were reformed, democracy would somehow thrive here. Their interpretation of the evidence that the public schools are prisons at best, sometimes torture chambers, is interpreted to mean that public schools are the balm that will heal the ills of the other "pillars of support" : families, culture, religion, community.

On page 31, the authors give us in support of their theory a story about a public school teacher beating a child with a wooden board. The doors to the classrooms in this school are padlocked, so without a key, they can be opened neither from within or without. Clearly, the children are regarded as slaves, locked in cages, with no concern for their human rights, or even if they survive in the event of a fire. Yet the authors continue to extoll the virtues of our public schools. They are the bedrock of democracy.

A book for all who love teaching.......2000-03-26

I'm writing to you to tell you that the book is not out of print! At least my local bookseller quoted me £23 for it only yesterday!

I rate the book very highly, and the reason I want a copy is so that I can present it to my daughter on her graduation as a teacher. If you confirm to me that it is out of print I shall go back to my bookseller (who may, of course, be wrong!).

Best regards,Paul

humanistic education living and breathing.......1998-04-27

Humanistic education alive and well!! Did John Dewey start this lineage, or does it go back farther still? This book is both an introduction and an advanced course in the heart and soul of relating to students as individuals, not classes. Following Carl Roger's death, H. Jerome Freiberg co-wrote this Third Edition at the invitation of Roger's daughter. Freiberg keeps the best of the old and supplements it with up-to-date research. His touch is so deft and his philosophy so congruent with Roger's that I had trouble telling one author's voice from the other's as they alternated first-person chapters. One chapter is a summary of Aspy and Roebuck's Kid's Don't Learn from People They Don't Like, a hard-to-find out-of-print book that provides some surprising (to me) statistical support for humanistic education. Freiberg also cites Arthur Combs, author of A Personal Approach to Teaching: Beliefs That Make a Difference, another out-of-print book that with Zen-like simplicity cuts through all the debate about teaching technique to reveal that it's how teacher's FEEL about students, not so much what they do, that creates healthy learning places for people to grow. I highly recommend FREEDOM TO LEARN, and it also contains a wealth of resources for teachers wishing to follow this "path with a heart."

Creating Great Schools: Six Critical Systems at the Heart of Educational Innovation (Jossey Bass Education Series)

Average customer rating:

The Last Hope for Our American Democracy

Creating Great Schools: Six Critical Systems at the Heart of Educational Innovation (Jossey Bass Education Series)
Phillip C. Schlechty
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents (Jossey Bass Education Series)
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SCHOOL LEADERSHIP THAT WORKS: From Research to Results

ASIN: 0787976903

Book Description

In Creating Great Schools, Phillip C. Schlechty—one of the nation’s best-known experts on leadership and change in schools—offers a hands-on primer that will help arm school leaders with the tools they need to buck the system from within. Creating Great Schools shows educational leaders how they can sustain continuous innovation and improvement in order to create truly great schools. Schlechty outlines the six critical systems that define the norms and expressions of the school’s organizational culture¾recruitment and induction, knowledge transmission, power and authority, evaluation, direction, and boundaries¾and shows what it takes to lead effective systemic change in order to sustain new values and direction. The book is filled with effective strategies and offers guidelines for introducing the “disruptive innovations” that are necessary to change the fundamental norms of an educational organization and truly revitalize a school. He offers suggestions for working through the thorny issues that arise from the efforts to introduce new norms and provides school leaders with valuable insights of the critical rules, roles, and relationships in schools.

Customer Reviews:

The Last Hope for Our American Democracy.......2006-10-18

As a school principal who has been guided by the framework of Dr. Schlechty for a dozen years, I truly believe that those who roll up their sleeves and do the work in schools everyday know that to move a school "from good to great", each of these systems need to be in place. Not an "easy read" by any means, Phil Schlechty continuously causes the reader to really think about the importance of the engagement of students and staff in the design of the learning process. To become a learning organization, the values, beliefs, roles and relationships of those involved must be clearly defined at the highest level. Schools can no longer metaphorically reflect a hospital, factory or prison model to survive the next decade, much less the next century. Leadership and engagement must occur at every level of the organization, whether it be an individual school house or a school system.

Our current politicians who use the rhetoric of "no child left behind" to define schools, need to sit up and take note that it was a "free and public education for all" at the grass roots from which our democracy has been able to sustain and flourish, not one that promotes an elitest system driven by government. I recommend this book as a tool for everyone who has the passion and heart to see that our children are prepared to survive in the world in which they will live. Conversation about and the action of these six critical systems must occur throughout communities for the survival of public education itself.

The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations (Leadership Network Innovation Series, The)

Average customer rating:

Must read for any church considering multi-site
Good, but not great
A Must Read For Growing Churches
Awesome Book!
Thinking About Your Church Meeting in Different Locations? READ THIS BOOK

The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations (Leadership Network Innovation Series, The)
Geoff Surratt , Greg Ligon , and Warren Bird
Manufacturer: Zondervan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders (J-B Leadership Network Series)

ASIN: 0310270154

Book Description

This book captures the story of a widespread movement of churches that are expanding their ministries to include multiple formats, venues, and locations, using dozens of in-the-trenches examples, identifying the primary reasons churches succeed as well as how they overcome common snags on the route to “one church—many congregations."

Customer Reviews:

Must read for any church considering multi-site.......2007-06-08

Geoff Surratt and team provide an amazing resource for any church considering a multi-site strategy. This book is extremely informative, asks probing questions to help you think through why you want to go multi-site, how to do it, etc. They provide great tools to help you create timelines and budgets. It has been a fabulous resource to help my church start moving aggressively toward our vision to go multi-site. Before reading the book, I didn't know where to start. Since reading the book I feel like I have a much better understanding of the challenges and opportunities and I have a better idea of how to get our church moving towards this goal.

Good, but not great.......2007-05-29

The book is good, but comes across as a "how-to" manual, rather than as an opportunity to give testimony of the Lord's faithfulness. I'm sorry if that sounds cynical, but I'm not convinced that as Christians, passionate for the Lord's glory, we need that kind of approach as we seek new ways of creatively sharing the good news about Jesus.

A Must Read For Growing Churches.......2007-03-08

A wonderful book that gets you thinking about a vital growth barrier- your facility. There is no one way to go multi-site, and I really like how this book shares the various different ways of expanding our church without either building a larger facility or starting another church altogether. A great win-win! We will definately be going multi-site and my leadership will be reading this book as a next step.

Awesome Book!.......2007-01-18

This book is right on and I believe completely that this is the way the Lord is moving His Church. In a time of mega churches, it takes mega dollars to make them happen. I see the multi-site church revolution as being a way where God takes awesome churches, doing awesome things and allowing them to grow horizontally vs. vertically for a fraction of the dollars. Our church is moving in this direction and it is so much more strategic than to build a bigger building. Thanks for the inspiration! Todd - Horizons Community Church, Ham Lake, MN.

Thinking About Your Church Meeting in Different Locations? READ THIS BOOK.......2006-07-11

I love this book. Here is why!

* It's original. I have not found another book that discusses this model of reproduction.

* It is full of relevant information. These guys have done their homework. They have researched the issue thoroughly.

* It's short. 200 pages.

* It's full of stories. The book is full of stories of real life churches and leaders who have listened to God and are pioneering this model. I learn a lot from stories.

* It focuses on application. At the end of every chapter there are workouts that will help you apply what you've read. There are assessments, checklists, charts, and graphs to help you wherever you are at in the process.

* It is written for all kinds of churches. Churches of any size and any age. It's written for rural, suburban and/or urban churches. This book does NOT say that multi-site is the ONLY model and it does NOT say there is only ONE WAY to do multi-site. It is full of principles that can be applied whatever your situation.

If you are even thinking about doing church in multiple locations it would be beneficial to invest a few dollars and read this book.

Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation

Average customer rating:

Documented and thoughtful
Knowledge Enabling not KM !!
Highly Recommended!
Sustainable advantage through knowledge enabling
Focus on knowledge creation, but what about integration?

Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation
Georg von Krogh , Kazuo Ichijo , and Ikujiro Nonaka
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series)

ASIN: 0195126165

Book Description

When The Knowledge-Creating Company (OUP; nearly 40,000 copies sold) appeared, it was hailed as a landmark work in the field of knowledge management. Now, Enabling Knowledge Creation ventures even further into this all-important territory, showing how firms can generate and nurture ideas by using the concepts introduced in the first book. Weaving together lessons from such international leaders as Siemens, Unilever, Skandia, and Sony, along with their own first-hand consulting experiences, the authors introduce knowledge enabling--the overall set of organizational activities that promote knowledge creation--and demonstrate its power to transform an organization's knowledge into value-creating actions. They describe the five key "knowledge enablers" and outline what it takes to instill a knowledge vision, manage conversations, mobilize knowledge activists, create the right context for knowledge creation, and globalize local knowledge. The authors stress that knowledge creation must be more than the exclusive purview of one individual--or designated "knowledge" officer. Indeed, it demands new roles and responsibilities for everyone in the organization--from the elite in the executive suite to the frontline workers on the shop floor. Whether an activist, a caring expert, or a corporate epistemologist who focuses on the theory of knowledge itself, everyone in an organization has a vital role to play in making "care" an integral part of the everyday experience; in supporting, nurturing, and encouraging microcommunities of innovation and fun; and in creating a shared space where knowledge is created, exchanged, and used for sustained, competitive advantage. This much-anticipated sequel puts practical tools into the hands of managers and executives who are struggling to unleash the power of knowledge in their organization.

Customer Reviews:

Documented and thoughtful.......2004-04-16

This book made me discover knowledge management. It is very well documented, very thougthful, easy to read... An excellent starting point.

Knowledge Enabling not KM !!.......2002-06-18

I had a pleasant surprise when a friend of mine decided to gift me "Enabling Knowledge Creation" by Georg Von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo and Ikujiro Nonaka. It forms a sequel to "the Knowledge Creating Company" co-authored by Nonaka and Takeuchi published in 1995 . The first book was a seminal work which has profoundly influenced my views on Knowledge Creation (Nonaka refuses to entertain the concept of KM , resolutely denying that Knowledge
can ever be managed!) along with writers like Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak. However, the first book was open to a lot of criticism saying that it was just too "theoretic", "vague" and "generalised" ...Nonaka et al try and get more hands on, and tool bookish with this book.

However, this book is likely to disturb people who have read and formed ideas about KM by reading works of the American thought leaders.

In the start of the book the authors try and make the difference explicit.

In a passage titled "what's wrong with knowledge management?" they spell it out :

Pitfall I: KM relies on easily detectable, quantifiable information.
Pitfall II: KM is devoted to the manufacture of tools.
Pitfall III: KM depends on a Knowledge Officer.

While the premises of Knowledge Enabling and Creation are:

Premise I: Knowledge is justified true belief, individual and social, tacit and explicit.
Premise II: Knowledge depends on your perspective.
Premise III: Knowledge Creation is a craft , not a science.

The authors reiterate that organizational Knowledge Creation involves five main steps :

1. Sharing tacit knowledge
2. Creating concepts
3. Justifying concepts
4. Building a prototype
5. Cross-leveling knowledge.

To facilitate this the following 5 enablers need to be in place :

1. instill a knowledge vision
2. manage conversations
3. mobilize knowledge activits
4. Create the right context
5. Globalize local knowledge

The book is rich in case studies which show how different companies that follow these concepts are growing in leaps and bounds and innovating over others who remain stuck in the KM paradigm.

The authors note that in the Knowledge journey companies can be mapped in 3 phases, which might or might not be sequential.

1. The Risk Minimisers , whose focus is capturing and locating knowledge. The tools they use are data warehousing, datamining, Yellow pages, IC-Navigator, Balanced Scorecard, Knowledge Audits, IC-Index, Business Information Systems, Rule-based systems [these firms still view knowledge as a resource that needs to be collected and managed]

2. The Efficiency Seekers, who focus on transferring and sharing knowledge. The tools they use are internets, intranets, Lotus Notes/Groupware, Networked organization, knowledge workshops, knowledge workbench, Best Practice Transfer, Benchmarking, Knowledge-gap analysis, Knowledge sharing culture, Technology transfer units, Knowledge transfer units, Systems Thinking

3. The Innovators who enable Knowledge creation are typically those who embrace a knowledge vision, managing conversations, creating the right context, mobilize knowledge activists, globalize local knowledge, professional innovation networks, new organizational forms, New HRM-systems, new corporate values, project management systems, corporate universities, communities and storyboards.

Highly Recommended!.......2001-03-21

Dust off those liberal arts degrees before opening this challenging treatise on knowledge management, written by a trio of academics who call themselves "constructionists," quote Sartre and speak passionately of "post-modernism." Their work explains how to gain initiative and constructive input from workers by modifying traditional command structures - a grounded approach that is much more realistic than the revolutionary conversions called for by other experts. Managers who balk at the thought of granting autonomy or increased access to their employees may well be converted away from their hierarchical dogma here. We at getAbstract particularly recommend the lively knowledge-creation case histories and the wonderful section explaining how companies can create valid, imaginative futures. (What if IBM had imagined a world in which software was more important than mainframes?)

Sustainable advantage through knowledge enabling.......2000-06-05

In the many publications on Knowledge Management, the writings by Von Krogh and Nonaka (and, in this case, Ichijo) stand out in a number of aspects: 1) their emphasis of knowledge "management" as an essentially human and social process 2) their emphasis on linking knowledge management with strategic focus and business results 3) the inspiring examples and writing style.

This book is a clear showcase of these elements. It provides a profound yet pragmatic guidance on the road to becoming a learning organisation. Where capturing & locating, and transferring & sharing knowledge are essential in achieving competitive advantage through knowledge, the real source of sustainable advantage is, as the authors claim, the continuous creation of new knowledge, as a result of developing a strategic vision and an enabling organisation and culture to realise that (evolving) vision.

Being involved in implementing a number of the concepts in our organisation, I am convinced this book provides many ideas and tools that will help today's corporate world in reshaping our business for the knowledge economy.

Highly recommended!

Focus on knowledge creation, but what about integration?.......2000-05-30

The author's of this book are leading thinkers in the KM field. Perhaps the best way to describe this book is as a sequel to Nonaka's earlier 1995 book. But, we all remember what happened to Scarlett, again a much touted sequel. Although this book was a slight disappointment since Nonaka has set reader's expectations a little too high with his earlier groundbreaking title "The Knowledge Creating ompany" that, for the most part, defined KM as we know it. An academic reader will appreciate they theoretical insights provided and extensive references to supporting literature. But there are some aspects that this book underplays: 1. Knowledge creation is fine, but knowledge integration is perhaps as important---an issue to which the authors pay little attention. 2. Excellent ideas aside, this book underplays the significance of empirical evidence and most cases tend to be descriptive qualitative analyses. 3. The role of technology is highly underplayed. 4. The book has "sufficient" overlap with the authors' research papers in the uropean Management Journal. For academic readers who have read those, this might be a little disappointing. 5. The concept of KM and it's relationship with innovation at architectural and component levels is not described in much detail.

On the positive side, you will find that: 1) Lots of issues that were barely touched upon in Nonaka's preceding book are described in further detail. 2) The book is very well written and the tone is accsible to both academic and non-academic readers. 3) the concept of BA is elucidated in further detail Readers who do not follow academic research journals might find that an interesting extension. 4) A link between strategy and KM is well illustrated. For businesses, KM is of little value if there are no results. The authors describe how to look for those results (or in lay terms, ROI). Academic readers will also find Nonaka's recent paper in a recent issue of Organization Science (2000) to be of much interest. Academic readers must also realize that the approach here seems to be "post modern," and indeed quite qualitative in the European research tradition.

Customer Reviews:

A great help for introducing change.......2007-02-04

Fearless Change is a catalogue of patterns for introducing change in a company. Personally I've been in the role of change agent for years and this book provided me many "ah-hah"s which you get from reading good patterns. Most of the patterns I've applied in the past. Now I realized it and I got a name for them, which makes me more able to reuse the patterns. Some of the patterns were new to me and I've applied them immediately in my work.

The book is organized in three parts. The first part tells short stories on the different phases of change. These stories already made me understand the basics of the patterns and how they were related. The second part has a couple of case studies. Personally I found this part rather boring, but it was very short. The third part of the book is the actual pattern catalogue which provided the needed details.

The book was easy to read and, except for the case studies, didn't make me feel bored at any time. I've learned an awful lot from the book and it gave me some new tools in my toolbox when trying to introduce change.

I've rated this book 4 stars, which should have been 4.5 starts, but I don't have that option. I wouldn't want to give it 5 stars for the small boring parts and since I wouldn't call it perfect yet, but close! The books is an absolute must for anyone introducing change in an organization though!

Patterns for change.......2006-10-24

Another patterns book -- it certainly is a popular type of book these days. I got about half-way through this one before someone else wanted to read it. What can I say? Not bad. Recommended reading if you're trying to introduce a change in the way people work. The stories or case studies are pretty readable. But I'm not sure how much it helps to give little (pattern) names in brackets inside every other sentence. Pick up any book about industrial success like Marriot or The HP Way and you'd probably do just as well. The important thing is to read about others' similar successes and how they did it, and always to get help from lots of other people.

An useful catalog.......2006-03-02

Just like all books on patterns, this gives you the feeling of 'oh, this is soooo obvious' the first reading it. The fact is that a second after reading it you start thinking and talking about brown bags, angles and evangelists and refer to the book all the time. Linda and Mary Lynn give us an idiom, a very very useful idiom.

Also, the book is funny. Must read.

Change will always be hard, but this book helps a lot.......2005-05-29

Change is hard. I've been part of companies that merged, were acquired, acquired others, downsized drastically, changed the CEO, moved corporate headquarters to another state and completely changed their target market. The change was difficult in each of these circumstances. That's not particularly surprising. What is surprising is that change is also difficult when doing something as seemingly simple as changing the company health plan. I wish I'd read this book before going through those changes.

A large part of my current work is in helping companies manage the transition from how they currently develop software to developing software with an "agile process." The book codified some of the things I've done for years without thinking about why but more importantly it also presented ideas I hadn't thought of. For example, the "Champion Skeptic" pattern says to designate a skeptical, strong opinion leader to be the "official skeptic." I've always made a point of involving these skeptics because they can become your best advocates if you convert them. However, I've experimented with the idea as presented here and it works well.

Change will remain hard, even after reading this book. But, you'll be much better prepared and you should find many of the patterns here very helpful.

Powerful, yet simple, change toolkit.......2005-05-12

I had found myself moderately successful at introducing new ideas and influencing change in my organizations, but never knew why, or how to improve my ability to influence and sustain the change effort. The lightbulb was illuminated immediately upon getting a few patterns into this book- I had been, in one way or another, using some of these patterns without realizing it. Opportunities I had failed to take advantage of in the past became obvious as well in many patterns that were new to me, and in the past went unrecognized (next time, they will either be easy to spot or part of the plan in the first place!)

Once you are able to recognize techniques as patterns, influence becomes something much more controllable. This is a powerful, easy-to-use (and reuse) toolkit for introducing ideas and influencing change. I believe that those experienced in influencing change will find a well thought out set of techniques and those unsure of even how to start will have a great roadmap and set of practices to start with and to invoke as-needed as their change efforts evolve.

Achieving Business Value From Technology

Average customer rating:

Clear modern thinking about Business Value
Well written, well organized, very practical

Achieving Business Value From Technology
Tony Murphy
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Making Technology Investments Profitable: ROI Roadmap to Better Business Cases
Business Plans That Win $$$: Lessons from the MIT Enterprise Forum
The IT Payoff: Measuring the Business Value of Information Technology Investments
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From Business Strategy to IT Action: Right Decisions for a Better Bottom Line

ASIN: 0471232300

Book Description

PRAISE FOR ACHIEVING BUSINESS VALUE FROM TECHNOLOGY

"Clearly, IT investments have never before played such a critical part in business growth. The book addresses the weakness existing in most management systems involving the lack of a systematic process to realize the economic benefits of the IT investment and provides a clear A-Z methodology for business to bridge this gap. This book is clearly written for all levels and backgrounds in business management and is a must-do for those whose business involves IT, is considering IT, or would like to significantly tailor IT investments for their economic advantage."
—Professor Richard P. Wool, University of Delaware, President and CEO, Cara Plastics Inc.

"Tony Murphy addresses the difficult question of the value of IT investments head on. He translates an elegant theory into effective practice. The case studies in the book effectively reinforce his key messages."
—Dr. Dermot Moynihan, Senior Vice President, World Wide Chemical Development, GlaxoSmithKline

"This book is the answer to most CIOs' need for a well-structured, pragmatic, and easily implemented set of tools and practices designed to answer the universal problem of managing and measuring IT's contribution to the business. Tony Murphy's unique blend of practical experience, industry best practice, and excellent communication skills provides the reader with a valuable-and highly readable-guide on how best to achieve that elusive objective of reliably realizing the business benefits of IT investments."
—Michael Rice, oup Director of IT, Kerry Group plc

"At Oxfam we are one year into a three-year IT strategy based on the principles Tony Murphy lays out in this book, and there is a real, positive difference in how IT is perceived, and in its real strategic position within the organization. If you have ever wondered just how you can gain strategic alignment for your IT function, and then how to make the practical link to IT investment for the organization, Tony has provided a framework that joins them both."
—Simon Jennings, Head of Information Systems, Oxfam GB

Customer Reviews:

Clear modern thinking about Business Value.......2002-10-18

Clearly written, this book debunks some myths and sets a modern path towards pursuit of business value. We need plain talking books that bridge the business/IT divide and tell it the way it is.

Great reading and immediately useful.

Well written, well organized, very practical.......2002-10-08

I was leary when I saw the words "practical guide" in the title as I find that the phrase is often far from the truth. I guess I was in a gambling mood because I took a shot and found that this is a rare case where the advice here is actually implementable. The book includes detailed case studies, very specific advice on appropriate measures or "pillars" as the author calls them of IT project value, and lists of sample questions and metrics for each pillar.

All in all this is a very useful book for justifying IT projects particularly in today's environment when your pal the CFO is squeezing every penny trying to get blood out.

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