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The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People
PepsiCo’s award-winning chief design officer reveals the secret to creating life-changing putting human needs at the center of any design process.
“Innovation is an act of love—or at least it should be. Always. It is a gesture of empathy, respect, generosity, of one human being’s devotion to another,” writes Mauro Porcini at the beginning of this extraordinary book.
It is in part a memoir by one of the world’s leading designers—the first chief design officer at both 3M and Pepsi. But even more, it is a manifesto for a genuine, authentic, and deeply humanistic approach to design, one that aims to create personal and social value first and financial and economic value afterward.
In every industry, new technologies have lowered the barrier to entry like never before. Either you design exceptional products or somebody will beat you to it. Porcini shows, through example after example and story after story, that the key to real, world-changing innovation is to put people first—not only the people we innovate for but also the people who lead the innovation process.
Putting people first requires what Porcini calls people who are in love with people, who have a genuine fire in them to create meaningful solutions for actual human beings. In this book, he describes them, celebrates them, and details their superpowers so you can find them, hire them, grow them, and retain them.
Some are qualities you might expect—the ability to dream combined with the ability to execute. But when was the last time you heard an executive ask prospective hires if they were kind, optimistic, curious, or humble? Porcini uses his journey across startups and multinational corporations, through successes and failures, to create a handbook for modern innovators.
“Innovation is an act of love—or at least it should be. Always. It is a gesture of empathy, respect, generosity, of one human being’s devotion to another,” writes Mauro Porcini at the beginning of this extraordinary book.
It is in part a memoir by one of the world’s leading designers—the first chief design officer at both 3M and Pepsi. But even more, it is a manifesto for a genuine, authentic, and deeply humanistic approach to design, one that aims to create personal and social value first and financial and economic value afterward.
In every industry, new technologies have lowered the barrier to entry like never before. Either you design exceptional products or somebody will beat you to it. Porcini shows, through example after example and story after story, that the key to real, world-changing innovation is to put people first—not only the people we innovate for but also the people who lead the innovation process.
Putting people first requires what Porcini calls people who are in love with people, who have a genuine fire in them to create meaningful solutions for actual human beings. In this book, he describes them, celebrates them, and details their superpowers so you can find them, hire them, grow them, and retain them.
Some are qualities you might expect—the ability to dream combined with the ability to execute. But when was the last time you heard an executive ask prospective hires if they were kind, optimistic, curious, or humble? Porcini uses his journey across startups and multinational corporations, through successes and failures, to create a handbook for modern innovators.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2022
34 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 20, 2022
It’s difficult for me not to get overly excited about Mauro’s book. I’m a fan of Mauro. Have always been. So I’m heavily biased. Regardless, this is an important book with an important message and here’s why:
I’ve always been fascinated by design thinking and remember Mauro’s intro in the company as it were yesterday (I was living & working in Dubai at the time) and the presentation he shopped around to “plug” design in the company -at the time a new & almost alien idea. He’s persisted in his passion and approach and has changed the face of the PepsiCo and PepsiCo’s brands with what he and his team accomplished so far.
This book is a book about innovation & innovators and forms a great blueprint for any company (but also for any individual) to incorporate “design thinking in action” in their day to day.
You can build your design-thinking by following 3 skills (being entrepreneurial + enhancing deep human empathy + enabling others to be successful) and in doing so you can count yourself in Mauro’s “unicorns” club !
Of all concepts in the book the most inspirational one is the idea of “people in love with people” … it’s Mauro’s gift to all of us ; I love it : it builds good leaders, it brings people together, it’s a great base for company culture, and …it leads to deep fascination on how to make the world a better place. We should all aspire to that.
Mauro also pivots away from the human for whom we innovate to the human being who innovates; the innovation driver. Key!
This book has a few very inspirational behind-the-curtains stories, with one of my favorites being “Pepsi Perfect” (banking on the Back To The Future movie), a “culture bomb” before that was even a thing; explaining how it all unfolded.
What Mauro and team achieved through the years is phenomenal. Every year Mauro sends around a book with the design work of his team. It’s a thick one - showing the amazing design accomplishments …it always makes me feel #pepsicoproud when it lands in my mailbox.
Mauro drives big change but he didn’t do it single-handedly. One thing that I find amazing as well about this book is that Mauro mentions a lot of his team members by name. A recognition of his ability to spot and groom talent but also a wonderful testimony of the empowerment Mauro gives to his team. I know most of the people he mentions and have worked with a lot of them in some capacity or other since joining PepsiCo’s headquarter(s) and global teams in 2013 and can testify that our PepsiCo designers are amazing!
I’ve always been fascinated by design thinking and remember Mauro’s intro in the company as it were yesterday (I was living & working in Dubai at the time) and the presentation he shopped around to “plug” design in the company -at the time a new & almost alien idea. He’s persisted in his passion and approach and has changed the face of the PepsiCo and PepsiCo’s brands with what he and his team accomplished so far.
This book is a book about innovation & innovators and forms a great blueprint for any company (but also for any individual) to incorporate “design thinking in action” in their day to day.
You can build your design-thinking by following 3 skills (being entrepreneurial + enhancing deep human empathy + enabling others to be successful) and in doing so you can count yourself in Mauro’s “unicorns” club !
Of all concepts in the book the most inspirational one is the idea of “people in love with people” … it’s Mauro’s gift to all of us ; I love it : it builds good leaders, it brings people together, it’s a great base for company culture, and …it leads to deep fascination on how to make the world a better place. We should all aspire to that.
Mauro also pivots away from the human for whom we innovate to the human being who innovates; the innovation driver. Key!
This book has a few very inspirational behind-the-curtains stories, with one of my favorites being “Pepsi Perfect” (banking on the Back To The Future movie), a “culture bomb” before that was even a thing; explaining how it all unfolded.
What Mauro and team achieved through the years is phenomenal. Every year Mauro sends around a book with the design work of his team. It’s a thick one - showing the amazing design accomplishments …it always makes me feel #pepsicoproud when it lands in my mailbox.
Mauro drives big change but he didn’t do it single-handedly. One thing that I find amazing as well about this book is that Mauro mentions a lot of his team members by name. A recognition of his ability to spot and groom talent but also a wonderful testimony of the empowerment Mauro gives to his team. I know most of the people he mentions and have worked with a lot of them in some capacity or other since joining PepsiCo’s headquarter(s) and global teams in 2013 and can testify that our PepsiCo designers are amazing!
March 28, 2023
A well written story
The author promised VA good story and he delivered a good story. I especially appreciated the section on the difficulty of being a unicorn. The author sent well behind the visual name dropping of important persons by providing both story and context for the mention of the famous persons.
The author promised VA good story and he delivered a good story. I especially appreciated the section on the difficulty of being a unicorn. The author sent well behind the visual name dropping of important persons by providing both story and context for the mention of the famous persons.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews