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Book Review: Ninja Innovation
February 8, 2013 | Dan Beaulieu, D.B. Management GroupEstimated reading time: 3 minutes
A book recommendation from Dan Beaulieu.Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of The World’s Most Successful BusinessesBy: Gary ShapiroCopyright: 2013, William MorrowKindle edition price: $10.99Hardcover price: $25.99 ($15.99 on Amazon)Here’s a great Ninja story right out of the book: “Twenty years ago we were in the midst of an intense battle between two different camcorder formats. The two were running neck and neck in consumer sentiment…and the battle was on.
"That year at the International CES in Las Vegas, Sanyo displayed an astoundingly tiny camcorder enclosed in glass...throughout the show crowds swarmed that transparent enclosure to take pictures of the amazing device. Competitors were blown away by something that represented a huge step forward in terms of engineering.
"After the show, I asked a friend at Sanyo how in the world they had gotten their camera so small. His response: They hadn’t. The “camcorder” didn’t even work. Sanyo just wanted to mess with their competitors.
"Simply by having an unexplained, impressive-looking prototype in a glass case, Sanyo became the talk of the show an three product development teams across the world into fits of consternation. Ninjas think outside the box-perplexing competitors through a head fake is both fair and clever.”
That story is what this book is all about--thinking outside the box, thinking like a true ninja.
I love books that are not only educational, but fun, and this is one of those books. Author Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of CEA, which owns and produces CES, the most influential and innovation-oriented trade show in the world, and he's seen it all. He's worked with most innovative companies in the world. Through that experience he has come to see how great companies work to gain an edge and become world leaders. From his years of experience, he's learned that the way of the ninja is the way that these companies thrive.
Knowing that successful people and companies must have discipline, he used his training in martial arts as a metaphor for what it takes to succeed in business. From that came The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses.
Here are just a few examples of the many gems that make this book both fascinating and inspirational:
- The only way you can defeat your opponent is to do something he does not expect. You must innovate or die.
- To be successful you must set goals; to achieve those goals one must have a strategy; and to fully execute that strategy one must never let failures get in the way.
- China has made strides (in innovation) already and every time I go to China I am overwhelmed by its investment in new buildings and infrastructure. They have new bridges, airports, convention facilities, and roads. They use flat willpower, and a captive press to push through these projects from launch to completion.
However, while China’s successes in manufacturing and building are notable, they are a far cry from leading the world in creation and innovation. Innovation requires the ability to challenge the status quo. But unlike Americans, the Chinese have not been taught or encouraged to do this. And they are just not catching on.
I don’t see how China can challenge the status quo successfully and still maintain the type of government they have today--it's just too deep a contradiction.
- Begin with the customer and work backward. We learn whatever skill we need to service the customer. We build whatever technology we need to service the customer.
- Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Please read this book. We all need to be more innovative, more creative, and more passionate about our companies and our industries. This book will help us make that change.