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The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing [Hardcover]

Kevin O'Connor (Author), Paul B. Brown (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)


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Book Description

August 12, 2003
How did Kevin O’Connor help create DoubleClick, the innovative marketing technology company...two software companies...dozens of products...and now the “disappearing” DVD, a product that will turn the home video market on its head?

Sheer brilliance? While O’Connor is very smart indeed, he credits his success to applying Thomas Edison’s famous saying that “genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” In other words, the breakthrough product or service that is the result of sheer genius alone is the exception.

Great ideas that form the basis of new companies or that can make a hero of someone toiling in the corporate world are within reach of us all.

“But wait,” says O’Connor, “ideas are cheap.” Just as important is doing something with them—a process that will turn the best ideas into something that people need. In other words, O’Connor argues convincingly, innovation can be systematically forced.

The Map of Innovation is O’Connor’s step-by-step approach to devising lucrative new products and services and bringing them to market, through a process that has proven itself time and again in many different industries. Too often, people trying to innovate focus on things that don’t matter or waste their time trying to find answers to questions that can’t be answered. O’Connor shows why the map of innovation centers on getting right the five make-or-break fundamentals: creating a large number of viable ideas; picking the right idea to pursue; creating a highly focused strategy to bring the idea to market; getting the money to fund the strategy; and hiring the best people. With Kevin O’Connor, the proof of the value of methodical innovation is in the pudding. He helped start companies that have employed thousands of people and created billions in shareholder value.

Anyone can get lucky once, but for success to strike three times and to include many successful products, there has to be a method and map, and any company, big or small, working on any product or service can benefit from O’Connor’s time-tested tactics.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What if innovation could be made routine-if assembly-line procedures could churn out brilliant ideas on command? O'Connor, the founder of online ad wholesaler DoubleClick and an unremitting entrepreneur, relishes innovative ideas-from a youthful scheme to shock a troublesome raccoon to DVD rentals that self-destruct instead of having to be returned-and offers here a "reproducible" process that will "force innovation" and "improve both the numbers and the quality of ideas." He calls it the Brainstorming Prioritization Technique, which turns out to be a lot like garden variety brainstorming, with voting to winnow out the likeliest ideas followed by "research" into the best idea; when BPT is used to pair business opportunities with new technology, O'Connor says, "solutions pop out." The process remains somewhat mysterious-BPT relies on "really smart and innovative people," some of whom should be experts on the issue at hand, and others who should have a "knack for creativity in any area"-and O'Connor concedes that "not everyone who applies these principles will be successful-in fact, few of you will." Indeed, after a while he rather drops the subject of innovation and concentrates on general advice on entrepreneurship and marketing. Here the book comes into its own, with practical and colorful tips on negotiating with venture capitalists, launching new products, sales and telemarketing, hitting up friends and relatives for money and motivating workers with stock options instead of cash. None of this material is wildly innovative, but O'Connor and co-author Brown present it in a breezy, acerbic style that cuts through managerial cant.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

O'Connor started three highly successful companies, including DoubleClick, which is usually lumped with Ebay and Amazon.com as one of the few Internet survivors. Dubbing himself a "serial entrepreneur," he has developed a methodical approach toward product innovation that has a contrary assumption that new ideas can be forced out and made to happen, an approach reminiscent of such great inventors as Thomas Edison. At the outset, O'Connor admits that there is about a 10 percent chance of generating a great idea and a 10 percent chance of actually bringing it to fruition, making for a probability of 1 percent chance of success. Given such poor odds, why should anyone make the effort in the first place? The early stages of product innovation are often the most exciting, but it's the ability to stick with it that distinguishes the winners. By creating a large number of viable ideas, sticking to a strategy, getting and keeping the money, and hiring a smart team, the chances of succeeding are vastly improved. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (August 12, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400048311
  • ISBN-13: 978-1400048311
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #632,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
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2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This has probably become my most underlined book, October 21, 2003
By 
John C. Dunbar (Sugar Land, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing (Hardcover)
This is one of my best business innovation, entrepreneur, start up books.

Each page is packed with practical wisdom for the new business startup, and the established business.

His information on how to innovate was very good. The author believes in always adding technology to a need. I thought his methods of creativity were somewhat simplistic. But the way he applied them to searching for business solutions was excellent.

The most important advice that I received from the book was in hiring. He suggests that you "Hire Smart At......". You'll be surprised with his recommendation. I had always thought that A. David Silver's advice on start up entrepreneur's was right on (find someone with a hurt), but O'Connors is closer to what I was trying to elucidate but couldn't.

Highly recommended, one of my current favorites.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What an intriguing idea..., September 1, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing (Hardcover)
...that innovation can be forced. That is, that there is an actual template you can follow to come with better products and services.
If a consultant posed the premise, I'd have my doubts. But this is written by a guy who has started a series of successful companies and who is actually in the business of being an entrepreneur (and not writing books.)
Well worth your time.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on creating something new, September 16, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing (Hardcover)
I admit I read this book with a good bit of skepticism. I read Twyla Tharp's new book on creativity with even more. How does one "teach" innovation and creativity? It has to happen organically, doesn't it? Well, this book shows exactly how to create an environment in which product development can evolve naturally. The author has a number of major products, services, and companies under his belt, and there are really sound checklists for encouraging a workplace in which creativity and innovation can happen - and be recognized and rewarded.
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