The Innovator's Cookbook

The good news is that recent years have seen considerable progress in identifying important variables that affect the probability of success in innovation. I’ve classified these variables into four sets: (1) taking root in disruption, (2) the necessary scope to succeed, (3) leveraging the right capabilities, and (4) disrupting competitors, not cust

the world’s work is done in Low Road buildings, and even in rich societies the most inventive creativity, especially youthful creativity, will be found in Low Road buildings taking full advantage of the license to try things.

In business, originality isn’t enough. To be creative, an idea must also be appropriate—useful and actionable. It must somehow influence the way business gets done—by improving a product, for instance, or by opening up a new way to approach a process.

But the great thing about design thinking is it’s accessible to everyone. It involves mental muscles that some people haven’t been using lately, but that everybody has from their childhood.

For instance, whenever an industry has a steadily growing market but falling profit margins—as say, in the steel industries of developed countries between 1950 and 1970—an incongruity exists. The innovative response: minimills.

The most successful scientists often are not the most talented, but the ones who are just impelled by curiosity. They’ve got to know what the answer is.” Albert Einstein talked about intrinsic motivation as “the enjoyment of seeing and searching.”

Of all the things managers can do to stimulate creativity, perhaps the most efficacious is the deceptively simple task of matching people with the right assignments. Managers can match people with jobs that play to their expertise and their skills in creative thinking, and ignite intrinsic motivation. Perfect matches stretch employees’ abilities. T

When it comes to granting freedom, the key to creativity is giving people autonomy concerning the means—that is, concerning process—but not necessarily the ends. People will be more creative, in other words, if you give them freedom to decide how to climb a particular mountain. You needn’t let them choose which mountain to climb. In fact, clearly s

So in my particular case, a lot of my creative behavior has come from looking at technologies, new tools, and thinking, “You know what, this allows you to do something that nobody ever thought to do before.”