Agile Innovation: The Revolutionary Approach to Accelerate Success, Inspire Engagement, and Ignite Creativity
by Langdon Morris, Moses Ma, and Po Chi Wu
Praise for Agile Innovation
Agile Innovation promises to profoundly transform businesses and institutions. By bridging the worlds of Agile and traditional innovation, the authors enable the transformation of self-organizing toward self-optimizing teams, and offer a map for the journey to the self-actualizing organization. This book is a strategic imperative for anybody aiming for success in a brutally competitive, digitally-accelerated business world.
—Errol Arkilic, CEO, M34 Capital and co-creator of the Innovation Corps
This thought-provoking and inspirational book is a must read for anyone seeking to master the art and science of innovation and accelerated business development. Simply put, it’s a map that will lead you and your organization to exponential breakthrough success in the new Digital Gold Rush.
—Jack Canfield, Coauthor of The Power of Focus and The Success Principles
Innovation is about speed. Agility. The old methods of innovation are slow and rarely involve those who matter most: front-line workers. This book absolutely changes the game and it will change the way you innovate. Don’t delay. Read it now!
—Stephen Shapiro, author of the bestselling Best Practices Are Stupid & 24/7 Innovation, and formerly Director of Accenture’s Global Process Excellence Practice
Agile Innovation is a must read for anyone interested in what will become one of the major stories of the next few decades. The global innovation landscape is undergoing profound changes and companies challenging the traditional innovation concept are poised to win. No one is better placed than this team to provide key insights about the blend of agility & innovation.
—Tan Yinglan, Author of Chinnovation and Partner, Sequoia Capital
As an advisor to hundreds of startups, I’m very interested in learning all I can to help foster innovation in rapidly shifting markets. Agile Innovation is a game changer. The authors have brought to us a valuable resource that is filled with pertinent case studies and practical advice. It’s one of the best innovation books I’ve read in years and I think its approach can elevate the art and science of innovation at any organization.
— Akira Hirai, CEO Cayenne Consulting
This book is an outstanding addition to the ‘bible of best practices’. It is certainly a unique treatise on successful, high impact innovation in the explosive new global digital age. More universities around the globe should be offering courses centered on this book’s valuable content.
—Dr. Dixon R Doll, General Partner, DCM Venture Capital, Past Chairman, US National Venture Capital Association
Finally, a comprehensive book has been written to narrow the gap for companies seeking to make innovation a core driver of sustainable growth and positive financial impact. Today’s corporate leaders must build a culture of agile innovation and this outstanding book is the perfect manual for business today.
— Harry W. Kellogg, Vice Chairman, Silicon Valley Bank
Nothing has been written about more in the business world over the last decade than Innovation. However, the authors have brought something quite new to the discussion by weaving together many of the threads into a complex and colorful fabric that will aid any organization in fostering and utilizing innovation to grow and prosper. This idea-packed book will provide valuable lessons for those thoughtful business leaders who realize, as the authors note, that the risks of innovation are far less than the risks of not innovating.
– Elliot E. Maxwell, Director of the Internet Policy Project at the Aspen Institute, formerly Special Advisor on the Digital Economy to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Agile Innovation is a tremendous leap forward in innovation thought leadership. The authors first synthesize the best prevailing innovation practices of today and then take it to a whole new level. This ground-breaking book has just the right mix of examples and advice, including hands-on methods and detailed management practices. As a result, this book is an absolute gem.
—Jacob Hsu, Chief Executive Officer, Symbio.com
There really is no option but innovation. The authors teach you the art of innovation: building the right innovation processes; reducing innovation risks; amplifying innovation through collaborations; and developing innovation leaders. An insightful and practical methodology for winning through Agile Innovation.
— George Bickerstaff, Managing Director, M.M. Dillon & Co
Morris, Ma and Wu have taken what are on reflection two blindingly obvious bedfellows and put them together in a story that makes sense, and just as important, is a fascinating read. The Agile Innovation concept is not just a good one for start-ups to consider, it also presents a disciplined approach for managing what a great many large corporations currently do not manage well.
— Larry Campbell, knowledge management expert
Innovation is too often discussed in the abstract, almost as a spiritual totem. The authors of Agile Innovation de-mystify innovation, and lay out a thoughtful road map for readers to understand how to create innovative organizations. It should be on the reading list of anyone who wants to prepare their companies for the rest of the 21st century. All our portfolio companies will certainly receive a copy!
—Gary Rieschel, Founder and Managing Director, Qiming Venture Partners
Finally, here’s a book that pulls far away from the me-too peloton of innovation tomes. Enlightening, energizing and execution-oriented, Agile Innovation should be at the top of the reading list for professional services firms leaders.”
—Andrew Dietz, CEO of Creative Growth and author of The Opening Playbook: A Professional’s Guide To Building Relationships That Grow Revenue.
Agile Innovation is an essential survival guide for businesses large and small in what is an ever-changing but always fiercely competitive “innovate or die” environment. A clear and thought-provoking synthesis of the principles of Agile development that have revolutionized software development, extrapolated to a set of best practices for innovation generally.
—Gordon Davidson, Fenwick & West.
Agile Innovation is more than a wake-up call! It is about survival issues in a fast changing, highly complex world. A “real must read” for all leaders & managers who are responsible not only for the further development, but also for the survival of their organizations.”
—Mark Schmid-Neuhaus, MD, German Fairness Foundation
Agile Innovation pours a very potent brew of innovation insight and wisdom. This is required reading for anyone hoping to thrive in the highly competitive international marketplace in the 21st century. It distills the essence of the innovation spirit into an agile process.
—Jerome Conlon, Former Global Director Marketing Insight, Nike, VP Brand Planning Starbucks and Sr. VP Marketing & Program Development NBC, President Brand Frameworks, LLC.
Sustainable Innovation: the speed to innovate and the ability to foster a culture or constant creativity is becoming a critical function for organizations given the fast pace of today’s global business. Agile Innovation captures the essence of this domain in a succinct, informative and highly engaging manner.
—George Thomas, Partner and Director, IBM Corporation
Agile Innovation is a very creative and practical book. It borrows very sharp, useful and pertinent learnings from the AGILE methodology to make the innovation process effective and agile. The book has important lessons for all – Senior Leaders, middle managers and young managers.
—Ravi Arora, Vice President, Tata Sons
A True Masterpiece! Agile Innovation is taking us in our journey to a whole new level of innovation. The powerful collaboration between three talented experts has brought out the best book on innovation ever!
—Signe Gammeltoft Frantzen, Partner, SandS Design
If there is one book to read on Innovation, we would strongly recommend this. It is an innovation on innovation with a fully integrated approach. It provides a complete guide from plan to implementation, with the agile approach to manage the process and mitigate risk. This is must-have for management to achieve higher chance of success.
—Alfred Pang, CEO, TSM Singapore
Agile Innovation provides wisdom, framework, process and tools that guide people accomplish great innovation results through collaboration, quick response to change, and iterative working philosophy. It’s really a great book about implementing innovation.
—Arthur Lok, CEO, China Institute for Innovation.
Agility meets Innovation. This is a concept blend that will thrive in facilitating exponential value creation in years to come. The book harmonically covers people, leadership, methodological, technological, implementation, and even philosophical aspects related to this novel integration. It’s a great book and I strongly recommend it!
—Fabián Szulanski, Director, Learning Lab, Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires.
Langdon Morris, Moses Ma and Po Chi Wu, have produced Agile Innovation when it is most needed by the market. As we continue to see an evolution from “we must innovate!” to “how do we innovate?” this commonsense approach to moving your organization from simply talking about innovation to actually achieving innovation breakthroughs is simply elegant.
— Brett Trusko, President, The International Association of Innovation Professionals, Texas A&M University, New York University
This book is a must read for practitioners of innovation. The principles of Agile Innovation can unleash the transformative potential from every corner of an organization, creating sustainable competitive advantage.
—Annie Donovan, CEO, CoMetrics
Agile Innovation has the potential to move the entire field forward, through the clarity of its writing and the importance of its message. If you are going to read only one book on innovation this year, make it this one.
—Pascal Baudry, Founder, WDHB Consulting Group