Books

What is an innovation ecosystem? It is a blueprint for the city of the future. An environment that not only supports innovation, but makes it inevitable. Over the last twenty years, Chicago has seen a revolutionary change in business culture and success, largely in part to the formation of an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship. The city has become a top-ten global innovation hub, and leads the country in diversity of industry and foreign direct investment.

Rising Together: The Story of Chicago’s Innovation Ecosystem shares the story of the people, organizations, and culture that led to this regional growth, as told through the lens of those who lived it.

Combining insights from over thirty industry leaders and founders playing outsized roles in its development, the authors weave together a narrative of the formation, growth, and potential future of the Chicago innovation ecosystem.

This book is a must-read for anyone in search of ways to build or grow a community fueled by collaboration, growth, and innovation. Learn firsthand:

— Which shared values can inspire an entire city to innovate: The C.H.I.C.A.G.O. Way

— How collaboration across industry and sector breeds innovation

— Why individuals play a critical role in leading and inspiring a region-wide movement

The lessons learned from understanding ways the ecosystem formed, collaborates and thrives serve as principles for how any innovator or entrepreneur can develop a culture and mindset of innovation for their organization, institution or region.

Featuring a foreword by Deepak Chopra and interviews with dozens of leadership pioneers, this book provides a seven-step prescription for creating a compassionately competitive work culture. This groundbreaking strategy shows how collaborators, not controllers, dare to create success by reshaping the workplace in unexpected ways, with a focus on topics such as humility, compassion, inclusiveness, and values-based decisiveness. The interviewees include Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; Mary Ellen Weber, former NASA astronaut; and Chris Zorich, former NFL star.

The right new products program can produce exponential growth..if all the pieces are in place. And that’s what this all-new edition of Tom Kuczmarski’s landmark book does. It broadens and deepens the message of previous editions with the introduction of a new approach whose greatest strengths are its simplicity, effectiveness, and proven results.

Called the MAP System, it provides a detailed guide to the secrets of developing a consistent stream of winners–sometimes even the kind of breakthrough product innovation that creates an entire new business unit or industry. It outlines the disciplined approach to creativity and newness that begins by determining customers’ needs and wants and by developing the internal culture that encourages the creative decision-making needed to make real innovation happen.

The MAP is a way of organizing for new product innovation by looking differently at the skills and tools that are already in every organization–but too often under-used or not used at all.

Key elements include:

M – for Measure, Manage, and Motivate
A – for Attitude, specifically for developing and Attitude or Culture of Intelligent Risk-Taking
P – for Plan, Process, and People

Arming yourself with the best market information, developing a risk-embracing culture, and organizing around a plan that reflects both: these are the essential elements of new product success.

In this all-new edition, the author shows how to marshal a company’s assets for greater growth and profitability. From conducting diagnostic audits to structuring new product blueprints and strategies through successful product launches to measuring and motivating team performance, this book will give you the tools for managing new product risk more creatively, improving your new product hit rates, and managing your programs more effectively.