Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition

Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition

By Stephen M Shapiro

A concise manual for starting and nurturing a culture of innovation in any organization. Innovation isn't just about generating new ideas; it's about staying one step ahead of the competition. Business expert Shapiro shows managers and employees how to reach their full potential, offering 75 tested strategies for boosting innovation in any workplace.

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Book Information

Publisher: Portfolio
Publish Date: 09/29/2011
Pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9781591843856
ISBN-10: 1591843855
Language: English

What We're Saying

December 22, 2011

Over the course of this week, we will be introducing, by category, the candidates for the 2011 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards. Even though only one of the candidates can win the big prize, good business books deserve an audience, and perhaps one on this list will be the winning book. . READ FULL DESCRIPTION

October 14, 2011

Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition by Stephen M. Shapiro, Portfolio, 224 pages, $22. 95, Hardcover, September 2011, ISBN 9781591843856 Imagine a company that has zeroed in on an opportunity to solve a problem or fulfill a need. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

October 13, 2011

Innovate

By Porchlight

Readers of this blog might be familiar with books on innovation by authors like Steven Johnson, Stephen Shapiro, Clay Christensen, and others. How do the ideas we read in these books get put to use? Are they just words on pages or screens, or do they translate to our activities? READ FULL DESCRIPTION

May 10, 2012

Yesterday, Stephen Shapiro was in town for our private LeaveSmarter event, sponsored by BMO Harris/M&I Bank and Whyte Hirschboek Dudek. His talked focused on ideas from his recent book, and 800-CEO-READ Business Book Award winner for 2011, Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition. According to Shapiro, the main problems we have with being innovative, is how we think about things, the kind of questions we ask, and what we already know about the challenges we face. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 10, 2012

The time has come! Drum roll, please. . READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 04, 2012

What was the Best Business Book written in 2011? Watch this 90 second video and find out more. Ok, so we didn't tell you what the best book was. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Full Description

What if almost everything you know about creating a culture of innovation is wrong? What if the way you are measuring innovation is choking it? What if your market research is asking all of the wrong questions?

It's time to innovate the way you innovate.

Stephen Shapiro is one of America's foremost innovation advisrrs, whose methods have helped organizations like Staples, GE, Telefónica, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and USAA. He teaches his clients that innovation isn't just about generating occasional new ideas; it's about staying consistently one step ahead of the competition.

  • Hire people you don't like. Bring in the right mix of people to unleash your team's full potential.
  • Asking for ideas is a bad idea. Define challenges more clearly. If you ask better questions, you will get better answers.
  • Don't think outside the box; find a better box. Instead of giving your employees a blank slate, provide them with well-defined parameters that will increase their creative output.
  • Failure is always an option. Looking at innovation as a series of experiments allows you to redefine failure and learn from your results.

Shapiro shows that nonstop innovation is attainable and vital to building a high-performing team, improving the bottom line, and staying ahead of the pack.

About the Author

Stephen M. Shapiro is an expert on innovation, a popular speaker, and the author of Personality Poker. He previously led a twenty- thousand-person process and innovation practice during a fifteen-year tenure at Accenture. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Investor's Business Daily, Entrepreneur Magazine, and The New York Times.

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