Business leaders today responsible for revenue growth and competing effectively know that real innovation requires moving beyond known business models, towards customer insight-driven opportunities for value and growth that sustain businesses and brands.
Any leader in any size business, no matter the size or sector, feels the pressure to innovate, find new ideas and business models, and create enduring customer value. There is no one formula or set process to find and execute the ideas that achieve these goals; customers set moving targets, business owners and/or shareholders are unforgiving and demanding, and society expects companies to care about much more than the bottom line.
The fast and furious forces of change stimulated by technology, demographics, lifestyles, and economic, environmental, political and government or regulatory impacts - or any number of these in combination – are easy to see. They are easy to talk about. They are easy to intellectualise.
The answers to these challenges are hard to execute and require nuanced combinations of leadership, skills, strategy and tactics. On top of that, innovation has moved from an abstraction that will matter at some distant date to a front-and-centre deliverable that must show evidence of impact in the space of the calendar quarter.
“The Change Makers Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation in Any Company”, is for leaders who understand that the world is changing in ways that will affect their mission and bottom line.
This book is rooted in practice. It does not stop at theory, strategic insights, or ideas. It is packed with tactics that work:
• Part I, Seeking starts with what it means to discover insights into problems, define the brand's purpose, and find and define compelling concepts. It establishes the change maker mindset - the leadership demanded to get from napkin sketch to market success.
• Part II, Seeding tackles the skills, tools, and capabilities to validate and refine concepts for market readiness, shape the business model, and determine a viable execution path.
• Part III, Scaling focuses on taking great ideas toward the ranks of sustainable businesses, assuring adaptability through the future forces of change.
The book walks readers through Radin’s adaptive, 9-part framework, engaging them in ready-to-apply techniques. Her work shows leaders how to find the big ideas that will meaningfully address customer needs, take the insight from idea through implementation in a way that delivers in the short and long-term for the organisation, and lead effectively through the obstacles that tend to derail or diminish innovation. Three phases – Seeking, Seeding and Scaling – organise the framework within an intuitive, logical and useable format, with concrete actions outlined every step of the way.
As author Amy Radin states, "Success is happening for those who adopt a new mindset, tactics, and commitment, and who establish their purpose. These are the change makers - they are few in number, and are worthy of encouragement and support".
Reference: Amy J. Radin: The Change Maker's Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation in Any Company
