The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

by Rowan Gibson
Released March 2015
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118740248

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Ever wonder where big, breakthrough ideas come from? How do innovators manage to spot the opportunities for industry revolution that everyone else seems to miss?

Contrary to popular belief, innovation is not some mystical art that's forbidden to mere mortals. The Four Lenses of Innovation thoroughly debunks this pervasive myth by delivering what we've long been hoping for: the news that innovation is systematic, it's methodical, and we can all achieve it.

By asking how the world's top innovators—Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and many others—came up with their game-changing ideas, bestselling author Rowan Gibson identifies four key business perspectives that will enable you to discover groundbreaking opportunities for innovation and growth:

  • Challenging Orthodoxies—What if the dominant conventions in your field, market, or industry are outdated, unnecessary, or just plain wrong?

  • Harnessing Trends—Where are the shifts and discontinuities that will, now and in the future, provide the energy you need for a major leap forward?

  • Leveraging Resources—How can you arrange existing skills and assets into new combinations that add up to more than the sum of their parts?

  • Understanding Needs—What are the unmet needs and frustrations that everyone else is simply ignoring?

    • Other books promise the keys to innovation—this one delivers them. With a unique full-color design, thought-provoking examples, and features like the 8-Step Model for Building a Breakthrough, The Four Lenses of Innovation will teach you how to reverse-engineer creative genius and make radical business innovation an everyday reality inside your organization.

    "Rowan Gibson has done a superb job of 'unpacking' what it takes to innovate."

    —Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

    "Can you develop an innovative mind? Yes, you can. And this book is the manual."

    —John and Doris Naisbitt, authors of China's Megatrends and The Global Game Change

    "An excellent piece of work for practitioners and organizations who seek to have innovation as part of their DNA."

    —Camille Mirshokrai, Managing Director of Leadership Development, and Partner at Accenture

    "Rowan Gibson's The Four Lenses of Innovation will inspire you to think big, look afresh at the challenges you face, and take bold action to change the world."

    —Robert B. Tucker, author of Driving Growth Through Innovation

    Table of contents

    1. Cover Page
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright Page
    4. Dedication
    5. Preface
    6. Acknowledgments
    7. Introduction
    8. PART ONE: THE MIND OF THE INNOVATOR
      1. The Elusive Source of Creative Genius
      2. Challenging Orthodoxies
      3. Harnessing Trends
      4. Leveraging Resources
      5. Understanding Needs
      6. The Four Lenses of Innovation
      7. Time for an Innovation Renaissance
      8. Lessons to Take Away
    9. PART TWO: THE POWER OF PATTERNS
      1. Seeing Things from a Fresh Perspective
      2. What’s Wrong with Our Brains?
      3. The Pattern-Recognition Principle
      4. Why We Stop Noticing
      5. The Pattern of the Crowd
      6. Resistance to Change
      7. Patterns and Innovation
      8. Sharpening Our Perceptive Powers
      9. A Power Tool for Creative Thinking
      10. Lessons to Take Away
    10. PART THREE: LOOKING THROUGH THE FOUR LENSES
      1. “Here’s to the Crazy Ones”
      2. What Exactly Is an Orthodoxy?
      3. Meet the Challengers
      4. On a Path of Disruption
      5. Innovation Means Shifting Assumptions
      6. Ready to Rethink Everything?
      7. Lessons to Take Away
      8. Seeing the Future in the Present
      9. A Global “Change Bomb”
      10. The Race for Tomorrow
      11. Learning to Ride the Waves
      12. Meet the Trend Surfers
      13. The Man from the Future
      14. Fast-Forward Companies
      15. It’s Happening Now!
      16. The Next Big Thing for Your Business
      17. Lessons to Take Away
      18. Repurpose, Redeploy, & Recombine
      19. How Would You Define Google?
      20. Leveraging Resources in New Ways
      21. Extending the Boundaries of the Business
      22. Stretching into New Spaces
      23. Unlimited Potential for Growth
      24. Exploiting Underutilized Assets
      25. What Else Could We Do with This?
      26. Leveraging Resources from Others
      27. Lessons to Take Away
      28. Innovating from the Customer Backward
      29. Do Customers Really Know What They Want?
      30. What’s Wrong with It?
      31. Understanding Particular Customer Groups
      32. Innovating for Local Needs and Tastes
      33. Matching What Is Possible with What Is Needed
      34. Lessons to Take Away
    11. PART FOUR: HOW BIG IDEAS ARE BUILT
      1. The Archimedes Principle
      2. Rethinking the Universe
      3. 8 Steps to Building a Breakthrough
      4. Inventing the 20th Century
      5. Unpacking the Creative Process
      6. “Say Good Bye to the Bag”
      7. Different Routes to Big Ideas
      8. Lessons to Take Away
      9. What Exactly Is an Insight?
      10. Do Insights Come from Breakthrough Thinking? Or Does Breakthrough Thinking Come from Insights?
      11. A Practical Definition of Insights
      12. Understanding Ideation
      13. Stepping Stones for Creative Thinking
      14. Improving Your Capacity for Radical Innovation
      15. How Powerful Are Your Insights?
      16. Working with the Four Lenses
      17. Lessons to Take Away
    12. Notes
    13. Image Credits
    14. Index
    15. About the Author

    Product information

    • Title: The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking
    • Author(s): Rowan Gibson
    • Release date: March 2015
    • Publisher(s): Wiley
    • ISBN: 9781118740248