Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.4063
EAN: 9781422177808
Feature: ISBN13: 9781422177808
ISBN: 1422177807
Label: Harvard Business School Press
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2009-11-09
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Studio: Harvard Business School Press

• ISBN13: 9781422177808
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Most companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a game-changing innovation like Apple's iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovative-they spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results.


Why? In The Design of Business, Roger Martin offers a compelling and provocative answer: we rely far too exclusively on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.

To innovate and win, companies need design thinking. This form of thinking is rooted in how knowledge advances from one stage to another-from mystery (something we can't explain) to heuristic (a rule of thumb that guides us toward solution) to algorithm (a predictable formula for producing an answer) to code (when the formula becomes so predictable it can be fully automated). As knowledge advances across the stages, productivity grows and costs drop-creating massive value for companies.

Martin shows how leading companies such as Procter & Gamble, Cirque du Soleil, RIM, and others use design thinking to push knowledge through the stages in ways that produce breakthrough innovations and competitive advantage.

Filled with deep insights and fresh perspectives, The Design of Business reveals the true foundation of successful, profitable innovation.

Customer Rating:
Summary: The Design of Business
Comment: In order to win in business, today's companies need to latch on to the idea of design. This is at the heart of Roger Martin's //The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is The Next Competitive Advantage//, which focuses on a deep understanding of customers, creative resolution of tensions, collaborative prototyping, and continuous modification and enhancement of ideas and solutions. It falls somewhere between the exploration of new knowledge (or innovation) and the exploitation of current knowledge (or efficiency).

Design thinking is a way to push knowledge through stages in ways that produce breakthrough innovations and competitive advantage. //The Design of Business// maps the route followed by successful design thinkers in business, science, and the arts. Colorful stories and practical guidelines illustrate how to: combine proof-based analytical thinking with possibility-based "abductive thinking"; change structures and processes to move knowledge from one stage to the next; develop the key tools of design thinkers--observation, imagination and configuration; defend design thinking to employees, boards, and investors; and revamp financial planning and reward systems to encourage bold ideas.

As a shift or departure to typical business thinking, Martin's //The Design of Business// can serve as the new foundation of profit and success.

Reviewed by Dominque James

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Book of Thousand Veils
Comment: I was interested in learning more about "design thinking" and how it applied to businesses and purchased the book. After all, Martin had a strong reputation in the field and I wanted to read what the best in the field had to say about the subject.

The first chapter whetted my appetite; I was able to get a glimpse of what design thinking could offer. In the subsequent chapters I learned about a few more pieces of the puzzle as the author seemed to remove some veils. But the more veils removed the more it looked the same: cloudy with some allure of the beauty hiding behind the veils. Most salient attributes, repeated over and over again, are "reliability vs validity," "traditional vs. design thinking," "backward looking vs. forward looking," "inductive and deductive reasoning vs. abductive reasoning."

The fundamental argument set forth is this: Reliability oriented managers of the traditional organizations try to find comfort in reliability based on historical data. Future does not necessarily a repeat of the past; ergo, reliability based thinking is old fashioned and traditional. Contrary to this, validity based thinking seeks validity in the unfolding future. Now, all this is very attractive thoughts to me. But ...

The writing has far too many examples of how successful design thinking worked for P&G, Herman Miller, RIM, and others. The amount of explanation of what design thinking is, how abductive reasoning works, or how design thinking can be learned or taught is generally missing. Ironically, despite the forward looking strength of design thinking, most of the narrative is the backward looking evidence seeking in nature, and thus, one could argue that it leans towards the antithesis of design thinking: reliability orientation.
You will leave this book somewhat frustrated and not really understanding what design thinking is. The author spends much more time making a case against reliability oriented, traditional thinking than for forward looking design thinking.

Now, some will likely say that if I don't get it design thinking is not for me. Who knows, maybe they are right. But I would have expected a book with a stronger presence in the domain of design thinking rather than in the backward looking traditional thinking, and make the core idea clearly presented rather than talking around it by way of examples. Read chapter 7 (the last chapter) first, that may help alleviate the above problems to a small extent.

The book succeeds, however, in getting you read more about design thinking and abductive logic, and is entertaining.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent book that gets the mind thinking...
Comment: Other reviewers have given a great review of the book and its contents, so I will not try to duplicate their comments. What I will say, as someone in the business world thinking about how to add more design thinking and innovation to a very 'financials' based organization, this was a great book that opened my mind to new possibilities. While the book isn't necessarily prescriptive, it does offer many insights and is very approachable (i.e., quick and easy read) for those who know nothing of the design / design thinking world. I echo an earlier comment that any exec having anything to do with products or innovation, or really any exec at all, should at least be familiar with the concepts descussed in the book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very relevant and highly convincing
Comment: Roger does an amazing job of explaining the concept of design thinking in his latest book. With the construct of "knowledge funnel", Roger explains pretty much all of the thinking that happens in an organization and gives you a new tool-set to think about designing businesses, products and organizations.

Various designers have attempted to advocate the relevance of design to business. However, most of their arguments are centred around an artistic framework and unfortunately fall short of convincing a result-oriented business manager. This book written by a professional management thinker embraces design thinking and builds such a solid frame work around it as to leave no doubt of its importance to business in the next decade.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book!
Comment: Design Thinking is not a new line of thought for Roger Martin, but in this book he excelled himself. This very well written book, clearly demonstrates why a company able to balance analytical with intuitive thinking will be the best fit for value creation in the near future.
This book won Best Book in Innovation & Creativity at "The 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards of 2009".
It's really worth reading!The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage

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