The Innovator's Path How Individuals, Teams, and Organizations Can Make Innovation Business-as-Usual

A guide to creating and sustaining a culture of innovation focused on business value

The Innovator’s Path introduces business readers to thought leader Madge M. Meyer’s unique, cross-cultural perspective on corporate innovation. The book presents eight essential disciplines (Listen, Lead, Position, Promote, Connect, Commit, Execute, and Evolve) that pave the way for individuals, teams, and organizations to continually innovate in ways that create new business value. The author overturns existing assumptions about inspiring and managing innovation, while offering new insights and practical advice for aspiring innovators and corporate leaders. Meyer demonstrates her points by telling the stories behind many of her award-winning results and adds engaging personal anecdotes to illustrate many of her points. The book also contains contributions from an extraordinary and diverse set of industry innovators.

Offers new ways for cultivating a mindset and culture of results-focused innovation and business value creation

• Equips CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CMOs, COOs, CTOs and aspiring innovators with proven principles and practices for leading innovation
• Focuses her readers' attention on the eight essential disciplines that help individuals, teams, and organizations innovate more successfully

Whether your focus is on your career, your team's success, or your organization's future, The Innovator’s Path provides you with the insights, strategies, techniques, and inspiration you need to accelerate your innovation progress.

MADGE M. MEYER is a public speaker, author, and founder of Madge Meyer Consulting, LLC. She has received twelve personal awards for her industry and community achievements. Formerly Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer & Technology Fellow at State Street Corporation, she oversaw the company's global Information Technology infrastructure teams, which earned thirty-two innovation and excellence awards under her leadership. Meyer also held executive positions at Merrill Lynch and IBM and serves on several boards in industry, academia, and nonprofit institutions.

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

Introduction Innovation and the 8 Disciplines

Defining Innovation

Making Innovation Business-As-Usual

Different Contexts

The 8 Disciplines

Chapter 1 Listen

Patience, Humility, Respect

Listen:  Levels of Effectiveness

Preparing Ourselves to Listen

How I Go about Listening

“Listening” to the Facts

Listening to What Is Not Being Said

Listen – Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

Chapter 2 Lead

Leadership Essentials

Leading with Passion

Leading with Vision

Respect, Trust, and Integrity

The Soft Skills of Leadership

Sound Judgment

Creating a Culture of Innovation

Lead: Levels of Effectiveness

Lead – Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

Chapter 3 Position

A Roadmap for Change

Positioning Our Sights

Developing Our Roadmap

Positioning For Change

Position: Levels of Effectiveness

Personal Positioning

Position – Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

Chapter 4 Promote

Branding

The Importance of Establishing a Baseline for Innovation

Promoting Our Innovation Ideas

Opportunities to Promote

Promote: Levels of Effectiveness

Promoting State Street’s Environmental Sustainability and Green Programs

Promote – Concrete Step for Putting This Discipline into Action

Chapter 5 Connect

Connect: Levels of Effectiveness

The Connect Culture

Connect and Cooperate

Connecting Strategy, Processes, and Systems Ways to Connect

Connecting with My Team

MIT Collaborative Initiatives and the Albright Challenge

Connect – Concrete Step for Putting This Discipline into Action

Chapter 6 Commit

Culture and Commitment

Innovation Management in the Safety Zone

The IBM Way

Funding as Commitment

Personal and Team Commitment

Commit: Levels of Effectiveness

Commit – Concrete Step for Putting This Discipline into Action

Chapter 7 Execute

Meeting the Highest Standard for Our Astronauts

Flawless Execution

Rapid Value Delivery

Putting the Pieces Together

Execute: Levels of Effectiveness

Server Certification Process

Execute – Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

Chapter 8 Evolve

Overcoming Success

Going Further Beyond

Continual Innovation, Not Constant Change

Clearing the Path

Adversity and Change

Evolve: Levels of Effectiveness

Evolving From Certification to Cloud

Evolve – Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

Afterword

Appendix I The Eight Disciplines – Summaries and Action Plans

Listen

Lead

Position

Promote

Connect

Commit

Execute

Evolve

Appendix II Biographies of Individuals Interviewed for This Book

Tenley E. Albright, M.D.

Deborah Ancona

Marc Andreesen

Eugene Y. Chan, M.D

Gerald Chertavian

Dean Kamen

Tarkan Maner

Tom Mendoza

Admiral Michael Mullen

Nathan Myhrvold

Samuel J. Palmisano

James S. Phalen

Linda S. Sanford

John Swainson

John Thompson

Ming Tsai

About the Author

Index

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