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Detonate: Why - And How - Corporations Must Blow Up Best Practices (and bring a beginner's mind) To Survive
Reinvent best practices that have become bad habits
Without meaning to, and often with the best of intentions, most organizations continually waste precious time and money on processes and activities that don't create value and no longer make sense in today's business environment. Until now, the relatively slow speed of marketplace evolution has allowed wasteful habits to continue without consequence. This reality is ending.
Detonate explains how organizations built up bad habits, identifies which ones masquerade as "best practices," and suggests alternatives that can contribute to winning in the marketplace. With a focus on optimism and empowerment, it focuses on an approach and mindset which are critical to successfully compete in an era characterized by profound technological advances and uncertainty.
- Core themes challenge how you think about and approach problems
- Case studies illustrate the challenges you face and how to overcome them
- Recommendations are pragmatic and steer clear of suggesting a brand-new, complicated wiring diagram
- Actionable advice provides the first steps down an evolutionary path
If you want to compete differently in today's marketplace and to challenge the things your company does which you have a nagging feeling are actually just a waste of time - and maybe value-destroying - Detonate gives you what you need to ignite change.
Without meaning to, and often with the best of intentions, most organizations continually waste precious time and money on processes and activities that don't create value and no longer make sense in today's business environment. Until now, the relatively slow speed of marketplace evolution has allowed wasteful habits to continue without consequence. This reality is ending.
Detonate explains how organizations built up bad habits, identifies which ones masquerade as "best practices," and suggests alternatives that can contribute to winning in the marketplace. With a focus on optimism and empowerment, it focuses on an approach and mindset which are critical to successfully compete in an era characterized by profound technological advances and uncertainty.
- Core themes challenge how you think about and approach problems
- Case studies illustrate the challenges you face and how to overcome them
- Recommendations are pragmatic and steer clear of suggesting a brand-new, complicated wiring diagram
- Actionable advice provides the first steps down an evolutionary path
If you want to compete differently in today's marketplace and to challenge the things your company does which you have a nagging feeling are actually just a waste of time - and maybe value-destroying - Detonate gives you what you need to ignite change.
224 pages, ebook
Published April 3, 2018
58 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Geoff Tuff
11 books4 followersGeoff has almost 30 years of experience consulting to some of the world's top companies on the subjects of strategy, growth, innovation, and adapting business models to deal with change. Currently, he is a Principal at Deloitte and holds various leadership positions across its Sustainability, Innovation and Strategy practices. Prior to this, he led the innovation firm Doblin and was a senior partner at Monitor Group, serving as a member of its global Board of Directors. He is currently based in Deloitte's Boston office.
Geoff's work centers around helping clients transform their businesses to grow and compete in nontraditional ways. Over the course of his career, Geoff has worked in virtually every industry and he uses that breadth of experience to bring novel, cross-sector insights about how things might operate to clients stuck in industry conventional wisdom. Geoff has a particular strength in using facilitation and personal intervention to help clients make hard choices and take action.
For his entire career, Geoff has focused exclusively on helping companies grow. He has been instrumental in developing many of Monitor's - and now Deloitte's - core methodologies related to driving profitable topline growth for clients. His expertise spans the domains of design-driven innovation, new business model development, product launch and growth strategy, and business transformation.
Geoff is valued for his integrative approach to solving problems. He combines deep analytic and strategic expertise with a natural orientation towards approaches embodied in design thinking. His belief that human behavior is still - even in the digital age - the fundamental driver of economic value for companies allows him to bring a unique perspective to his clients struggling to shift their business models. He is a widely sought-after speaker and writer on the topic of growth through innovation. His writing has appeared in journals such as Marketing Management and Harvard Business Review and as a regular contribution to HuffPost. He is also co-author of the National Bestseller "Detonate: Why - and How - Corporations need to Blow up Best Practices (and Bring a Beginner's Mind) to Survive," released in May, 2018. In 2019, Thinkers50 named Geoff as finalist for the Distinguished Achievement Award in Strategy.
Geoff grew up in Canada and the UK, and came to the United States for university. He received his B.A., with honors, in English literature and creative writing, from Dartmouth College. He also holds a MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was an honors student. He currently lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife, Martha, and four sons.
Geoff's work centers around helping clients transform their businesses to grow and compete in nontraditional ways. Over the course of his career, Geoff has worked in virtually every industry and he uses that breadth of experience to bring novel, cross-sector insights about how things might operate to clients stuck in industry conventional wisdom. Geoff has a particular strength in using facilitation and personal intervention to help clients make hard choices and take action.
For his entire career, Geoff has focused exclusively on helping companies grow. He has been instrumental in developing many of Monitor's - and now Deloitte's - core methodologies related to driving profitable topline growth for clients. His expertise spans the domains of design-driven innovation, new business model development, product launch and growth strategy, and business transformation.
Geoff is valued for his integrative approach to solving problems. He combines deep analytic and strategic expertise with a natural orientation towards approaches embodied in design thinking. His belief that human behavior is still - even in the digital age - the fundamental driver of economic value for companies allows him to bring a unique perspective to his clients struggling to shift their business models. He is a widely sought-after speaker and writer on the topic of growth through innovation. His writing has appeared in journals such as Marketing Management and Harvard Business Review and as a regular contribution to HuffPost. He is also co-author of the National Bestseller "Detonate: Why - and How - Corporations need to Blow up Best Practices (and Bring a Beginner's Mind) to Survive," released in May, 2018. In 2019, Thinkers50 named Geoff as finalist for the Distinguished Achievement Award in Strategy.
Geoff grew up in Canada and the UK, and came to the United States for university. He received his B.A., with honors, in English literature and creative writing, from Dartmouth College. He also holds a MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was an honors student. He currently lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife, Martha, and four sons.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 15, 2018
This book had glimmers of greatness, buried in advice so common as to be boring. The first two chapters were used to convince us that the world is changing faster and we can't rest confidently in the way we've always done it. I agree. And it's been said so many times for so long that it should have been the first two paragraphs. But there are moments of special insight, like the ideas on different ways to do strategic planning, so it wasn't a wasted read.
September 7, 2018
Do what you've always done and get what you've always gotten. Conventional thinking doesn't do much for your business and Detonate helps point out some fundamental changes that can help move your business forward. Two quotes from the book sum it up well:
But we believe we have entered an era in which continuing to blindly follow business playbooks may cause an existential threat to the average business. Detonate is our solution to this problem.
When you make the safe choice, and when you avoid pain – and when you run with the herd – it's hard, by definition, to stand out from the pack in the eyes of your customers.
But we believe we have entered an era in which continuing to blindly follow business playbooks may cause an existential threat to the average business. Detonate is our solution to this problem.
When you make the safe choice, and when you avoid pain – and when you run with the herd – it's hard, by definition, to stand out from the pack in the eyes of your customers.
July 16, 2018
An applicable perspective of how and why companies should blow up their corporate playbooks in the logical pursuit of innovation, not process.
January 9, 2024
Think for a second about how many companies set off on what they believe is a pioneering journey in their field.
Thousands of hours, relentless dedication, and untold expenses all devoted to bringing to life market-transforming ideas.
Yet after the big launch day comes and goes, there’s not so much buzz in the air as there are yawns and cricket songs.
It’s a common scene in boardrooms across industries, from tech to pharma, aerospace to consumer goods.
Companies often get so cozy with doing “business as usual” that they mistake tiny tweaks for earth-shattering innovation, a far cry from the breakthroughs they desperately need.
The real question is this: In their single-minded pursuit of innovation, how many of these companies actually step out of their comfort zone?
How many truly make that leap into the unknown, ready to take risks and turn their world upside down?
Detonate is a real-world guide to what works and what doesn’t in the arena of business innovation.
Written by Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach, both principals at Deloitte, with extensive backgrounds in innovation and strategy, this book challenges outdated corporate practices and gives readers exciting new alternatives that can make all the difference.
Tuff, known for his integrative problem-solving and strategic insights, and Goldbach, an expert in overcoming cognitive biases in leadership, assert that traditional business playbooks are leading countless companies to irrelevance.
“We have entered an era in which continuing to blindly follow business playbooks may cause an existential threat to the average business,” they declare.
A bold statement, to say the least, one that makes you wonder: Are you just following the herd, or are you ready to create a new path for your company?
Personal Note: Throughout my thirty-year career, working in and with industries such as Aerospace, High-tech, Healthcare, and beyond, I’ve witnessed countless business theories emerge and fade away.
Yet, Detonate distinguishes itself from the rest. This book isn’t about dry theories.
Every one of the ideas and hands-on tactics in the book closely match the business realities I’ve seen and experienced firsthand.
It’s a conversation with two brilliant minds in strategic innovation, offering us a masterclass that’s absolutely essential.
Read my full review on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/dG3_6PV3
Thousands of hours, relentless dedication, and untold expenses all devoted to bringing to life market-transforming ideas.
Yet after the big launch day comes and goes, there’s not so much buzz in the air as there are yawns and cricket songs.
It’s a common scene in boardrooms across industries, from tech to pharma, aerospace to consumer goods.
Companies often get so cozy with doing “business as usual” that they mistake tiny tweaks for earth-shattering innovation, a far cry from the breakthroughs they desperately need.
The real question is this: In their single-minded pursuit of innovation, how many of these companies actually step out of their comfort zone?
How many truly make that leap into the unknown, ready to take risks and turn their world upside down?
Detonate is a real-world guide to what works and what doesn’t in the arena of business innovation.
Written by Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach, both principals at Deloitte, with extensive backgrounds in innovation and strategy, this book challenges outdated corporate practices and gives readers exciting new alternatives that can make all the difference.
Tuff, known for his integrative problem-solving and strategic insights, and Goldbach, an expert in overcoming cognitive biases in leadership, assert that traditional business playbooks are leading countless companies to irrelevance.
“We have entered an era in which continuing to blindly follow business playbooks may cause an existential threat to the average business,” they declare.
A bold statement, to say the least, one that makes you wonder: Are you just following the herd, or are you ready to create a new path for your company?
Personal Note: Throughout my thirty-year career, working in and with industries such as Aerospace, High-tech, Healthcare, and beyond, I’ve witnessed countless business theories emerge and fade away.
Yet, Detonate distinguishes itself from the rest. This book isn’t about dry theories.
Every one of the ideas and hands-on tactics in the book closely match the business realities I’ve seen and experienced firsthand.
It’s a conversation with two brilliant minds in strategic innovation, offering us a masterclass that’s absolutely essential.
Read my full review on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/dG3_6PV3
June 21, 2019
In their book Detonate, Tuff and Goldbach, outline strategies to "blow up" codified thinking within organizations and encourage innovation at all levels. They demonstrate how the four principles of Detonate - focus on changing human behavior, leverage a "beginner's mind", embrace impermanence, and employ "minimally viable moves" to test and learn - can be applied to many business processes that have "always been done a certain way".
Tuff and Goldbach's assertion that the fundamental element of business is changing human behavior - whether that be customer or employee behavior - really resonated with me. I think this is an excellent perspective to leverage when trying to drive change in a digital age. I also liked their assertion that the types of questions leaders ask need to change to encourage more innovative thinking. I would've liked to have see more examples and anecdotes of these practices in action throughout the book.
I recommend Detonate to any leader looking for fresh ideas on how to drive innovation and digital transformation in a constantly evolving operating environment.
Tuff and Goldbach's assertion that the fundamental element of business is changing human behavior - whether that be customer or employee behavior - really resonated with me. I think this is an excellent perspective to leverage when trying to drive change in a digital age. I also liked their assertion that the types of questions leaders ask need to change to encourage more innovative thinking. I would've liked to have see more examples and anecdotes of these practices in action throughout the book.
I recommend Detonate to any leader looking for fresh ideas on how to drive innovation and digital transformation in a constantly evolving operating environment.
January 22, 2019
Coming from a large company, the stories told about challenges in innovation and change were hilarious and all too true. It was an easy read -- just over 200 pages -- and I breezed through it. The text gave me several new (to me) concepts to follow up on later on. The ideas of how to "Detonate" the old ways and transform your company were practical and relate able. I was quite motivated to blow up half my company by the time I finished.
August 12, 2019
Working for a pretty risk adverse organization, I did really enjoy the idea of this book, hence the 4* rating. As with most business books, however, this could've been a white paper and didnt need the length. (I always love when they put tons of blank pages between chapters and whatnot to beef up the page count). Would recommend reading chapters 1 and 12 and then if you want more info delving into the other chapters.
May 4, 2019
The best business book I have ever read. Malcolm Gladwell meets digital transformation how-to, with both the wit and behavioral expertise of Richard Thaler. Spot-on analogies and observations to exemplify and support excellent approaches. I'm sold.
June 17, 2019
So, light, so airy, so... Meh.
October 18, 2019
Perfect guide for organisational transformation and change.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews