The Design of Business – Roger Martin


Hey innovator! Yeah you the guy/girl reading Seth Godin’s “Linchpin“!
Do you find yourself constantly at war with the risk-averse bean-counters in your life?

Do you walk into your office and KNOW that the way things are done here are not the way to get things are done out there in the new digital, collaborative and flat world?

Get your hands on this book.

Ow ow ow ow ow. That’s the sound I make when I read this book, I haven’t spent this much time reading something in six months. It made my ears bleed daily as it was written for B-School people who carry Blackberrys and shout things that make them sound like Power-Rangers “synergize!” ….. but darn was it worth it.

For the “linchpins” who are all about problem solving but want some tools for the office to combat and communicate with the board, the CFO, head of admin, the naysayer – it’s here, this is it.

The book explains the concepts of “Design Thinking” Vs. “Product Development”, productivity Vs. results focus and “The Goal” Vs. “Reliable Results”.

How did Proctor and Gamble take “risks” on new products when they are one of the biggest corporate assembly lines in the world? How did Steve Jobs get the guts and sleep at night giving the green light to a music player in an already crowed market ( the ipod was doomed at first proposal by the board but saved by design thinking ).

Not the easiest reading but fascinating to get through. I haven’t had a payoff like this in ages. This is why Roger Martin is a leading global thinker, was Dean of one of Canada’s top business schools and why he is called to write for the Harvard Business Review so often. If you’re not following him on Twitter, do it now.

You will gain tools to respectfully and more effectively get your ideas approved and understood.

Check it out!

Shame about the cover though. People kept thinking I was reading the autobiography of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.

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