Ten Types of Innovation by Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, Helen Walters - Book review

Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs

By: Larry Keeley, Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn

Published: April 15, 2013
Format: Paperback, 276 pages
ISBN-10: 1118504240
ISBN-13: 978-1118504246
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.






"We wanted to make a book that would reveal the whole, remarkable, and important emerging discipline of innovation, because so many people now see the urgent need to innovate. They sense that old ideas ad structures must give way. They imagine that newer, better futures are out there, lurking in the loaming, just out of reach", write innovation effectiveness expert co-founder of Doblin, Larry Keeley; design strategist at Doblin, Ryan Pikkel; leader at Doblin, Brian Quinn; and writer and editor at Doblin, Helen Walters, in their groundbreaking and innovative results oriented book Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs . The authors describe a fresh, reliable, and repeatable approach to innovation through thinking differently about how the innovation process really works.



Larry Keeley (photo left), Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters understand that innovation is critical for companies. The authors point out that firms have no choice but to innovate, and the very survival of the business may depend on it. Despite that importance of innovation to companies, many business leaders and entrepreneurs have no understanding of how the innovation process works in practice.

Even front line innovators themselves are uncertain as to how ideas are generated and transitioned into innovations that solve problems for themselves or their customers. The authors present a systematic approach to innovation, through ten different but related forms of innovative process, that gets results with predictable reliability over and over again.



Ryan Pikkel (photo left), Larry Keeley, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters recognize that innovation requires a team and a collaborative effort. As a result, the authors present a comprehensive innovative process that can be used again and again, and in many different ways. Not only is innovation a repeatable and predictable system, but the authors share how the ten innovation types can become part of the very fabric of the company culture.

With the ten types integrated completely within the very organization and its thinking, the authors also demonstrate how these concepts can be used in conjunction with one another to provide real breakthrough outcomes.



Brian Quinn (photo left), Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel, and Larry Keeley share the ten basic types of innovation,and they demonstrate how to incorporate them into the company DNA, as the standard innovative process. The authors cover the following aspects of innovation:

* Innovation: A new discipline leaving the lab
* Ten types of innovation: The building blocks of breakthroughs
* More is mightier: Mix and match innovation types for greater impact
* SPot the shifts: See the conditions that birth breakthroughs
* Leading innovation: use better plans to build breakthroughs
* Fostering innovation: Installing effective innovation inside your organization
* Appendix: Putting these principles into practice



For me, the power of the book is how Helen Walters (photo left), Brian Quinn, Ryan Pikkel, and Larry Keeley combine a complete theoretical framework for innovation, with the practical and hands on techniques for transforming that framework into an effective and repeatable process. The authors share a holistic approach that not only encompasses the types of innovation but also its role within the very heart of the company as well. Instead of the usual expensive research and development strategies, that so often result in expensive failures, this systematic approach offers a more cost effective methodology, that also achieves superior results.

The authors share their ten types of innovation in a very user friendly, color coded format. With the coding used throughout the book the ten types, that cover configuration, offering, and experience based innovation, any solution can be found in either the category, or by blending two or more principles into a larger whole. The authors also enhance their concepts by sharing case studies of the principles in action in real world settings.

I highly recommend the comprehensive and systems based book Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs by Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters, to any business leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, and innovators who are seeking a clear and concise process for transforming their failed or ineffective innovation techniques into a complete and readily applicable process that achieves real breakthroughs. This book will change the way your entire organization thinks about and approaches innovation forever.