《The Innovation Paradox》读后感100字

I started to read this book several month ago, thanks for the fragmentation of time，and special thanks for my friend Jade Su for sharing this book with me, as usual, I would like to sharing my book reivew here.

This book might suitable for the CEO who runs a startup Innovation company.

First, it is necessary to understand what is Innovation paradox. The author pointed out that the innovation paradox occurs when the aggressive pursuit of operational excellence and incremental innovation crowds out the possibility of creating breakthrough innovations. All industries experience breakthrough changes that make existing strategies obsolete. At these points, what made companies great can become their largest liability. If you want to redefine paradigms and offer new ways to look at the world ,you have to learn breakthrough innovation, breakthrough innovation is about questioning our values and beliefs, our mental models of how industries work, and our assumptions. for example, Zara (the international fashion company) has deeply ingrained assumptions about how people shop for clothes and how companies should serve them- and it has paid off. Breakthough innovation is not only about managing uncertainty and learning from successes; it is also about learning from failures. Managing breakthrough innovation requires the Startup Corporation to handle each of the different acivities of strategic discoveries: inspire, attract, combine, learn, leverage, and integrate. The most impressive activity for me is -inspire-is about creating rich environments that stimulate people to come up with new ideas. (Personally I like this kind of working environment).

A few of the unspoken principles that guide innovation at successful startups include:

1. Copy and combine from others

2. Learn as quickly and as cheaply as possible

3. Manage risk effectively

4. Govern transparently

5. Execute

None of these principles on its own is enough to foster breakthrough innovation, and each has a unique contribution to a startup’s ability to develop breakthrough innovations.

In this book , the author also think that Design thinking and human-centered design play important role in creative companies. Design thinking and human-centered design have also developed a broad array of techniques to both stimulate and refine ideas, moving from observation and insights to framing the problem, generating ideas, and fine-tuning concepts. For example, Steelcase, an office furnishings manufacturer with a $2 billion market cap, has created a think tank called Workplace Futures.

This innovation truth has relevance to today’s business economy. Success there demands nonstop innovation. Genuine innovation cannot be achieved with obsolete formulas. Only an entirely new mindset will revolutionize managers’ thinking on this subject. According to the author, the key to innovation lies in taking risks. Doing this requires changing the way we think about success and failure. In a rapidly changing economy, managers will confront at least as much failure as success. Does that mean they’ll have failed? Only by their grandfather’s definition of failure. Both success and failure are steps toward achievement, say the authors. After all Coca Cola’s renaissance grew directly out of its New Coke debacle, and near- bankruptcy forced IBM to completely reinvent itself.

In a concluding section it suggest that we follow the lead of great coaches such as John Wooden and Phil Jackson and de-emphasize winning. Paradoxically, they say, this could be the best way to win. They call this approach “Samurai Success” after the Japanese warriors who focused their attention on full participation in a contest rather than on its outcome. The less we chase success and run from failure, the authors conclude, the more likely we are to genuinely succeed.