Adding Values

by Dany Jacobs

Many people equate innovation with technology, a dangerous half-truth and a serious underestimation of the tremendous variety of innovative thinking. Dutch strategy expert Dany Jacobs has devoted his professional life to the study of competition and innovation in a variety of industries--from dredging to horticulture, airplane manufacture, cocoa, steel and fashion. According to this new illustrated text on the cultural aspect of innovation, the more radical an innovation, the more distant it is from what we know and recognize, and therefore the greater the risk of failure. That's not necessarily bad. It is, however, possible to decrease this cognitive distance by understanding the cultural aspect of innovation. Are firms looking for customer-victims or for customer-co-creators? Society never stands still. Innovations and social changes interact, co-evolve. While free creativity is wonderful, it is sometimes more rewarding to think of productive creativity. In Darwinian terms, the survival and further development of innovation is not only about variety (creativity), but also about understanding and influencing selection.

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008