Book review

We have reviewed a ton of books on innovation and innovators on what it is and isn’t, and how to become one. This book gets stuck right in to identify where some of the problems lie. Brainstorm Island First off, many corporate innovation efforts are trapped on what the authors call, “Brainstorm Island”: “Like an

Entrepreneurs as top athletes Always believed that a healthy mind is a key success factor in running and growing a business and that there is a huge overlap between sports and business. Entrepreneurs are the top athletes in the business world. With the same passion, the same ability to postpone gratification, with the same ability

Marketing is a struggle Our clients are struggling with marketing. It has become incredibly complex. The marketing mix, the communication mix, the channels available, measurement, the pressure on budgets, proofing the ROI, understanding social media and understanding technology are all hot topics. Marketing gets bad press And marketing sometimes gets a bad press. Not accountable,

Strategy For me, it all started with “Thriving on chaos” by Tom Peters and “The mind of the strategist” by Kenichi Ohmae. Quite a few years later “Funky business” really triggered the need for understanding strategy. Constant flux. In a world of constant flux, chaos, Moores law, hyper-competition and data overload, planning and strategy become

How do executives make decisions? My Bookbuzz colleague Alan Jordan has done a lot of work with executives on the way they think and make decisions. The key book is Kahneman’s “Thinking fast and slow”, but we have used other books such as “This will make you smarter”. The internet   With clients we have

“It’s either about out thinking the competition, or even better, about finding new, even greater opportunities” so says Max McKeown in “The Strategy Book”. Opportunities “Opportunities the competition hasn’t found yet or opportunities the competition doesn’t understand because it hasn’t done the kind of thinking that you have. There are always better ways of doing

All the management idea we assume are solid, are in effect false. Don’t trust analysts, boards, high profile CEOs and consultants. Management systems such at TQM and ISO don’t work. In fact you need mistakes for innovation. And true innovation is about changing the taste of the customers; don ask what they want, give them

Teams Why is it so difficult to successfully manage teams today? The author cites two main reasons: Teams are using the wrong model to organise themselves Teams are not keeping pace with the rapid changes in their business environments Command and control The underlying model in almost all teams today is command and control.  It