The Nine Lives of Innovation Stephen C. Lundin Tata McGraw-Hill 2009 Rs.250 Pp 170 | LOOPS The Seven Mike Chaet & Stephen C Lundin Tata McGraw-Hill 2009 Rs.225 Pp 127 |
Two books are under review here: one written by Stephen Lundin (Ph.D.) with Mike Chaet (Ph.D. too) which, one expects, will send the major business schools into loops around the world, and the other produced single-handedly by Lundin, the man who started off with Fish! (exclamation mark and all) and has now graduated to Cats. Fish! dwelt on the need to make the work place a fun place – good reading with several original insights (you can choose the attitude you take to work; play and have fun; make their day; be there), until he surprised us with his Cats. Cats are innovators, (and no, it is not an acronym) – though why they have to appear in feline garb is beyond understanding. But then, cats and cat lovers are not known for logic.
Although it doesn’t quite arouse the same emotions as the expletive “Rats!”, “Cats!” do arouse a multitude of reactions ranging over a whole lot of connotations from Cool Cats to the Catty. And none of them qualify as an inspiration for innovation. The book does not really explain the connection – between cats and creativity. But with the all too obvious intention of keeping the metaphor going throughout the book, the chapters and sections end up with ‘Cat Nips’, ‘Cat Pause(s)’, and ‘A Cat’s Eyeview of Life’. There is also a cat belt of varying degrees. There is no reference however to catnaps – perhaps because innovators don’t enjoy such luxuries?
The book first speaks of the four basic challenges to innovation, viz Doubts / Fears / Distractions; Being Normal (best summarised in the author’s quip that the last thing that a fish discovers is water); Failure; and Leadership & Energy (leaders have to know that innovation dies in toxic energy). The nine lives are actually nine different aspects of innovator behaviour – and has little to do with the furry little bundle that leaps into your lap without invitation. Much like ideas that leap into one’s mind... but, an innovator seldom lands sunny side up. More often than not, innovators manage to stagger back into the innovation mode after every failure or success. The entire play on Cats is based on the old attribute of the species – curiosity – something that can scarcely begin to describe the urges that compel the innovator forward. And there is also the memory lurking at the back of one’s mind, of the cat that was killed for its curiosity. Ever heard of innovation gone to the dogs?
And then there is Loops. Before reading this book, one could have easily presumed that tying-up-loose-ends is what closing-of-loops is all about. But a loop as an ‘essential key to success’? And there are seven of them... all looped (oops!), bound together to spell success in small business units. The front cover of the book includes a pointer: success in business is all about closing loops, and a parenthetical warning: you have to close the RIGHT loops – where lies the rub. The authors have adopted the Ken Blanchard style – a skit or playlet like record of people involved in the running of a business unit. The book however stretches the situation too far, assuming the reader’s credulity – and naivete. This is a story of a young heir to a small business, sent out on a ‘practical assignment’, and his interaction with his mother (who runs the family business), the employees (ideal in all respects, and starry-eyed about their deceased employer), and several successful businessmen in the town who seem to be paragons in management with several easy-to-see insights about their own successful business units. The main protagonist is asked by his professor (another admirer of ‘Dad’) to choose a proven leader as a part of his summer assignment for his course on Entrepreneurship. Of course, he chooses his own father (now deceased) who built up the business that the young man is expected to inherit. In the process he encounters the loops.
The first in the series of loops is Manage Your Experience Zones – areas that have the maximum customer contact (something the authors could have said directly, without getting us into this convoluted concept). Then we have Building a Winning Culture with Vision Moments – fairly straight, though designated as a loop!. Execute Fundamentals with a Loops Group, being the third loop, refers to setting up a group of businesspeople who can help each other succeed. Possible perhaps in small towns with small business interests – and then again perhaps not. Standardize Every Process, and Innovate Constantly, are a pair of straight loops. Live in the Real World – in loops? This refers to having plan B and plan C. Lead By Example, the last of the loops, needs no comment. But at the end of it all the reader is left wondering: what’s with these loops? Management literature is known for its jargon and rarefied theories than can make one go around in circles – or is it loops now?
No comments:
Post a Comment