Innovating to Win in Business - A Book Review

There are two types of corporations; those which are growing, and those which are dying. It appears there is no other option. Either they are growing and experiencing increased shareholder's value and increased quarterly profits, and positioning themselves for future sales, or they are losing market share to their competitors and their business models are stagnant and not evolving things fast enough with the changes in the free market place and the every changing consumer buying behavior.

Obviously, the key to staying up with what's going on has to do with innovation. And if this is a topic that interests you; innovation in business, then I'd like to recommend a very excellent book for you to read, and one that I personally own which has helped me in my own company. In the book is;

"Winning through Innovation; A Practical Guide To Leading Organizational Change and Renewal" by Michael L. Cushman and Charles A. O'Reilly III, 1977.

There were some great quotes in this book that really made me think, actually the entire book is totally excellent. It seems that the author hit the nail on the head when he stated; "All too often short-term success provides for long-term corporate failure." And he also explains how companies get too big and cumbersome, and therefore, fail to innovate; "The irony of success is the building of the bureaucracy."

Nordstrom's policies allowing their employees to use your best judgment was example given in the book as a revolutionary innovation in retailing, which just proves you can innovate in any type of business in any industry even one like retailing. The book goes into great length on the topic of business innovation and it has chapters on; change, product life cycles, innovation, and visionary leaders.

Indeed, I believe this book is great because it is a precursor to the theory of the inflection point in innovative companies. I'd like to recommend this book to you for your business library. Please consider it all.