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Creative Strategy: A Guide for Innovation
William Duggan's 2007 book, "Strategic Intuition," showed how innovation really happens in business and other fields and how that matches what modern neuroscience tells us about how creative ideas form in the human mind. In his new book, "Creative Strategy," Duggan offers a step-by-step guide to help individuals and organizations put that same method to work for their own innovations.
Duggan's book solves the most important problem of how innovation actually happens. Other methods of creativity, strategy, and innovation explain how to research and analyze a situation, but they don't guide toward the next step: developing a creative idea for what to do. Or they rely on the magic of "brainstorming" -- just tossing out ideas. Instead, Duggan shows how creative strategy follows the natural three-step method of the human brain: breaking down a problem into parts and then searching for past examples to create a new combination to solve the problem. That's how innovation really happens.
Duggan explains how to follow these three steps to innovate in business and any other field as an individual, a team, or a whole company. The crucial middle step -- the search for past examples -- takes readers beyond their own brain to a "what-works scan" of what others have done within and outside of the company, industry, and country. It is a global search for good ideas to combine as a new innovation. Duggan illustrates creative strategy through real-world cases of innovation that use the same method: from Netflix to Edison, from Google to Henry Ford. He also shows how to integrate creative strategy into other methods you might currently use, such as Porter's Five Forces or Design Thinking. "Creative Strategy" takes the mystery out of innovation and puts it within your grasp.
Duggan's book solves the most important problem of how innovation actually happens. Other methods of creativity, strategy, and innovation explain how to research and analyze a situation, but they don't guide toward the next step: developing a creative idea for what to do. Or they rely on the magic of "brainstorming" -- just tossing out ideas. Instead, Duggan shows how creative strategy follows the natural three-step method of the human brain: breaking down a problem into parts and then searching for past examples to create a new combination to solve the problem. That's how innovation really happens.
Duggan explains how to follow these three steps to innovate in business and any other field as an individual, a team, or a whole company. The crucial middle step -- the search for past examples -- takes readers beyond their own brain to a "what-works scan" of what others have done within and outside of the company, industry, and country. It is a global search for good ideas to combine as a new innovation. Duggan illustrates creative strategy through real-world cases of innovation that use the same method: from Netflix to Edison, from Google to Henry Ford. He also shows how to integrate creative strategy into other methods you might currently use, such as Porter's Five Forces or Design Thinking. "Creative Strategy" takes the mystery out of innovation and puts it within your grasp.
- GenresBusiness
178 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2012
10 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 6, 2024
Book is concise and to the point. I felt like part 1 was good a teaching the overall points and methods and would be worth reading on its own.
Part 1 gave a good overview of the method. Part 2 was really an exploration comparing and contrasting creative strategy to other common methods used. Part 3 is examples.
Part 1 gave a good overview of the method. Part 2 was really an exploration comparing and contrasting creative strategy to other common methods used. Part 3 is examples.
May 6, 2013
'Creative Strategy: A Guide For Innovation' seeks to show groundbreaking ways in which creativity and strategy should be part of the same idea process, not individual components. Newer research refutes the separation between right and left brain, and yet, that's how we continue to approach finding new ideas. Duggan proposes a method that uses our strategic experience with our creative ability to make connections to come up with better solutions.
There are three phases to the process and a grid is given to show the process. Examples are in the book of how the grid is used in some real life examples. There is a large section of the book that looks at existing thought on creativity and another section on strategy. Lots of competing methods and thoughts are discussed and dismissed or partially credited for their contributions to innovation. Initially, this came across as a little self-serving since they were all held up to the Creative Strategy method and found lacking. Upon further thought, I had to admire the depth of research the author went to in the field. Having researched a few of the sources, they do seem to lack exactly what creativity actually looks like to derive a workable business innovation.
A short read, but one that attempts to be more specific than many of the other sources I've read to date. If you are looking for a process to guide you to innovation, this gives a much clearer path.
There are three phases to the process and a grid is given to show the process. Examples are in the book of how the grid is used in some real life examples. There is a large section of the book that looks at existing thought on creativity and another section on strategy. Lots of competing methods and thoughts are discussed and dismissed or partially credited for their contributions to innovation. Initially, this came across as a little self-serving since they were all held up to the Creative Strategy method and found lacking. Upon further thought, I had to admire the depth of research the author went to in the field. Having researched a few of the sources, they do seem to lack exactly what creativity actually looks like to derive a workable business innovation.
A short read, but one that attempts to be more specific than many of the other sources I've read to date. If you are looking for a process to guide you to innovation, this gives a much clearer path.
October 8, 2015
Definitely worth reading for Duggan's pedagogy on the Insight Matrix and 3 Phases to develop creative strategy. Very fluffy in parts, and terse in others - but short and very digestible. He lays into several other methods - and in many ways the 2nd part of the book acts as literary criticism of business concepts of strategy and creativity. Amusing and insightful - but also a bit tedious in "building the ground" for why his method of creative strategy solves for the deficits of these other methods.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews