Imagine innovation

Review by Linda Donald of IMAGINE by Ian Hunter - a Penguin book released 04.08.08.

Imagine – Imagine innovation, what Wedgwood, da Vinci, Mozart, Eiffel, Disney (and many others) can teach us about innovation. By Ian Hunter, published by the Penguin Group, RRP $40.00





As finance companies tumble and businesses struggle, a how to book on innovation is very timely.
And the good news is great innovation is not necessarily the product of genius. Ian Hunter describes it as the process of generating wealth from new ideas, taking what resides in your imagination and converting it into reality. The question is – How do you do it?

Tapping into the exploits of some of history’s greatest innovators, Hunter offers seven innovation pillars - vision, creativity, knowledge, time, resources, focus and persistence - supplemented by key points and kick-starts, for business inspiration.
The senior University of Auckland Business school lecturer, innovation and entrepreneurship specialist, makes it clear innovations don’t always occur as singular events, instead many are combinations of product/process/service and organisational innovation.

Hence Isaac Singer dramatically improved an early sewing machine model, then, realizing the average person did not have the money to purchase the machine, invented hire purchase.
Hunter further explains incremental innovation can be better for the marketplace “as it is a more natural extension of everyday life”. To understand the difference between this and breakthrough innovation, he traces Walt Disney’s ten year progression from cartoon drawing and ‘Laugh-O-Grams” to launch of the immortal Mickey Mouse.

Likewise innovation requires persistence. “It is not defined by how you start, but by whether or not you finish”, says Hunter. It took fifteen years for New York architect Alfred Butts to triumph with his innovative kitchen-table board game, ‘Lexico’. The breakthrough finally came when it was taken on by a larger company and renamed ‘Scrabble’.
A five page bibliography, index and two appendices are provided. The first appendix has checklists to help assess innovation capabilities as an individual or organization, while the second lists the positives and weaknesses of five creativity tools, plus suggested reading.
Hunter concludes “innovation is both achievable and a choice” and ‘Imagine’ successfully links accomplishments of our creative heroes with feasible recommendations for innovation in everyday work and life.

Appeared in September 2008
NZ Business
Usefulness 8/10
© L Donald 2008
All rights reserved.