Smart Things to Know About, Smart Things to Know About Innovation & Creativity [Paperback]

Dennis Sherwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2001 | Series: Smart Things to Know About (Stay Smart!) Series (Book 33)

Smart people recognise that innovation and creativity aren't the same thing. Leading out-of-the-box guru shows you how to fill your life and organisation with both.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Smart Things to Know About Innovation & Creativity Smart is a breakthrough series that offers a completely new learning experience for hassled business people. The books deliver all that the fast-track executive needs to shine and perform. Each book delivers a sharp introduction to the basics as well as experiences and tips from the frontiers of the subject and the insights of the hottest gurus. Smart books have been selected to feature only those subjects which matter most to today's business professional. The Smart series brings these subjects together to equip the next generation with the secrets of success. Each Smart book contains icons, features and signposts to help you use the ideas in your career and business:
* Smart things to say: gives you inside tips and tricks
* Smart quotes: what the experts say
* Smart people to have on your side: make friends with the gurus
* Killer questions: ideas to make your colleagues jump
* Smart answers to tough questions: helps you stay out of trouble and ahead of the game!
* Smart voices: real people from smart companies

From the Back Cover

Why is it that so many of us find it difficult to be creative? When so many organizations worldwide are desperate to hire and keep people who are creative, innovative and flexible, why is it that they so often inadvertently encourage exactly the opposite behaviours? Why do great ideas take so long to get approval? And why is it that by the time an idea breaks through into the mainstream of the business it has become sanitized? Enter leading innovation and creativity guru, Dennis Sherwood. Smart Things to Know About Innovation & Creativity shows the difference between the two, and how you can fill your life and company with both. Here are just some of the Smart issues to know about innovation and creativity:
* The ability to generate new ideas is within us all. It's a skill that can be learnt and its application enhanced with practice. But how?
* The invention, development and successful launch of new products and services is very important but it isn't the only way that innovation creates value in business. How can we put innovation at the heart of the whole business?
* Before you can generate new ideas you must be willing to unlearn existing ones. But how can you 'unlearn'?
* Did you know creativity isn't about luck or genius, but a deliberate search for new patterns of component parts that already exist?
* Once the generation of stunning new ideas starts to fly - and it will - how do we evaluate all the ideas and decide which ones to take forward?
* If you are going to put innovation to work you will need the culture of the organization to be right behind you. What do you have to do to change your current culture to make it truly innovative?
Innovation is fundamentally about risk. Smart business managers are not daunted by risk. In fact they know that in today's business climate being safe can be even more risky than taking that first step into the unknown. Smart Things to Know About Innovation & Creativity shows you how to take those first steps in a - surprise - innovative and creative way! Smart Quotes: "Unlike cutting costs, or making an acquisition, innovation does not happen just because the chief executive wills it. Indeed, it is confoundedly difficult to come up with new ideas year in, year out - especially brilliant ones. Underneath the gurus' diagrams, lists and charts, most of the available answers seem to focus on two strengths that are difficult to create by diktat: a culture that looks for new ideas, and leaders who know which ones to back." The Economist, December 4, 1999

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Capstone; 1 edition (June 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841121460
• ISBN-13: 978-1841121468
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,417,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dennis Sherwood now runs his own consulting business, The Silver Bullet Machine Manufacturing Company Limited, which specialises on organisational creativity and innovation. Dennis studied physics at Clare College, Cambridge University (MA), molecular biophysics at Yale University (MPhil), and biology at the University of California at San Diego (PhD); Dennis is also a Sloan Fellow (with distinction) of London Business School. Dennis was for 12 years a consulting partner with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells, and subsequently Coopers & Lybrand; he was an Executive Director with Goldman Sachs; a partner in Bossard Consultants; and Managing Director of the UK operations of SRI Consulting.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A practical book, August 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Smart Things to Know About, Smart Things to Know About Innovation & Creativity (Paperback)

Dennis Sherwood's book is a breath of fresh air, because he shows you how to be creative in simple, practical steps. I feel confident that every single person in a company, or organisation, could learn the techniques - and that, new ideas will flow by following this systematic process.

Ther are very few business books which explain the 'how to' and this one should be celebrated.