Business thinking between the covers

Dangerous Guide to Leading Innovationes

by Simon Gardner, Nick Fawcett, Sharron Fenemore and Phil Davis

Bloomsbury €12.99

This is a breezy self-help guide for those interested in shaking up their organisations, with lots of practical ideas, key learning points, and summaries at the end of chapters. It is written by a team of management consultants from Impact Innovation, a boutique firm whose clients include John Lewis, the BBC and the NHS.

Among the more “dangerous” suggestions in the book is to use the rumour or threat of a new powerful competitor in your market as a catapult for innovation. The threat of Tesco entering the financial services market in the UK, for example, reverberated through the industry long before the retailer actually decided to do it.

Encouraging a culture that questions the status quo and having a more dynamic workspace environment are important. Leaders should develop a personal stretch zone, challenging their beliefs about themselves and their colleagues, is the advice here.

However, contrary to the book’s title, the authors generally believe that the best way of achieving innovation is to introduce small gradual steps, working within the permission levels allowed in the organisation to achieve small wins, rather than going for a big “make or break” initiative.

Adaptability

by Max McKeown

Kogan Page €19.99

In this book, strategy and innovation expert Max McKeown draws on millions of years of evolution, and comes up with a practical and strategic set of rules to take adaption from a coping to a winning strategy. The ability to adapt faster and smarter than the immediate challenge is what distinguishes adapting to win from merely adapting to cope. This fast-paced approach to adaptation is what is required for the times we are living in, the author contends.

The first step in adaptability, he says, is to recognise the need for adaption, preferably long before survival is threatened. The second step is to understand the precise changes required and to know how reactive behaviour fits into every specific situation. The third stage is implementation. To achieve a result, a good strategy is to focus on the smallest possible change to create the biggest possible long-term impact.

Most social groups have a strong collective bias towards keeping things the way they are, even when individually they would like to see change, he observes.

A mixture of what is said and what is not manages to avoid tricky issues and even when issues are confronted, there is often a gap between intent and actual change, he says.

Tough Calls

by Allan Leighton

Random House €12.99

Allan Leighton is credited with turning around Asda, the loss-making supermarket chain he once described as a basket case, into a profitable operation that was later sold to Walmart for £6.7 billion. This book looks at how to make good decisions in difficult circumstances. He shares insights based on his own experiences and also interweaves the thoughts of other leaders interviewed for the book, including Sir Stuart Rose, Sir Terry Leahy and Charles Dunstone.

Good leaders, he observes, are never panicked when things are going wrong. They continue to make decisions in a calm manner but with the speed and urgency required. They don’t shy away from difficult calls or having tough conversations and are not afraid to consult widely with colleagues.

Every well-executed decision has three parts to it, he notes. Firstly, there is the strategic, where the big ideas are initiated and the analysis is done. Then, there is the operational level where the big idea is translated into a credible plan. Finally, there’s the tactical or execution level, where it all happens.

All three elements should be up for discussion in a well-run company, but Lord Dannatt’s golden rule should be remembered: “While tasks can be delegated, responsibility never can.”