The Change Maker's Playbook

Book excerpt: 2020 Book Excellence Award Winner How any leader can deliver business-changing innovation now. Any leader in any size company, no matter the size or sector, feels the pressure to innovate, find new ideas and business models, and create enduring customer value. There is no one formula or set process to find and execute the ideas that achieve these goals; customers set moving targets, shareholders are unforgiving and demanding, and society expects companies to care about much more than the bottom line. The fast and furious forces of change stimulated by technology, demographics, lifestyles, and economic, environmental, political and regulatory impacts -- or any number of these in combination – are easy to see. They are easy to talk about. They are easy to intellectualize. The problem? The answers are hard to execute and require nuanced combinations of leadership, skills, strategy and tactics. On top of that, innovation has moved from an abstraction that will matter at some distant date to a front-and-center deliverable that must show evidence of impact in the space of the calendar quarter. In the stories, tools, techniques and advice inside The Change Maker’s Playbook, leaders will find tangible steps to find and safeguard the plans that will deliver the sustainable business-changing impacts – new customers, new relationships, new sources of value and growth— their businesses need. Separated from the pack of academic and consultant innovation theories, Radin’s approach stems from her own experience sitting in the innovation hot seat at some of the world’s most demanding companies and is bolstered by interviews with 50 corporate executives, founders and startup investors representing media, e-commerce, payments, healthcare, government, professional services, and not-for-profit sectors. The book walks readers through Radin’s adaptive, 9-part framework, engaging them in ready-to-apply techniques. Her work shows leaders how to find the big ideas that will meaningfully address customer needs, take the insight from idea through implementation in a way that delivers in the short and long-term for the organization, and lead effectively through the obstacles that tend to derail or diminish innovation. Three phases – Seeking, Seeding and Scaling – organize the framework within an intuitive, logical and useable format, with concrete actions outlined every step of the way. The answer to the dilemma every business faces today is that innovation is exhilarating, rewarding and even fun when it is approached as a unique challenge, but it can also be polarizing, unpredictable, and scary. Success requires that leaders rethink how they lead innovation. Leaders know they must set aside preconceived notions of what works, and look to those who have already walked in their shoes. This is why The Change Maker’s Playbook was written, and why it will become an ongoing resource for any innovation leader. Table of Contents: Foreword The Change Maker’s Framework (image) Introduction Part I: Seeking Chapter 1: Discovering Real Problems That Matter Chapter 2: Purpose, Passion, Promise and Positioning Chapter 3: The Art Of Being Resourceful Part II: Seeding Chapter 4: Prototype, Test, Learn, Iterate Chapter 5: Business Model Linchpins Chapter 6: The Green Light Moment Part III: Scaling Chapter 7: Launch Chapter 8: Testing and Experimenting Chapter 9: Anticipating and Adapting Epilogue Acknowledgements Bibliography