The Innovation Paradox

Zusatztext Harlan Cleveland President Emeritus! World Academy of Art and Science Truth always seems to come in small paradoxical packages. This [one]...reveals the fusion of opposites as the essence of truth. Informationen zum Autor Dr. Richard Farson has led several organizations noted for innovative programs. Farson helped found the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in 1958 and remains its president. In this capacity he directs its International Leadership Forum, an Internet-based think tank that brings influential leaders together to consider critical policy issues. A University of Chicago Ph.D. in psychology, Farson has been a Naval officer, college dean, research director, organizational consultant, and a member of the Human Relations Faculty of the Harvard Business School. He is the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed Management of the Absurd , now published in 11 languages. He lives in La Jolla, California. Klappentext In The Innovation Paradox, Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes argue that failure has its upside, success its downside. Both are steps toward achievement, and the two extremes are not as distinct as we imagine. In today's business economy, it's not success or failure -- it's success and failure that lead to genuine innovation. History's great innovators, from Thomas Edison and Charles Kettering to Bill Gates and Jack Welch, saw failure as an important stepping-stone -- and with this groundbreaking book, you too can learn how to become more failure tolerant, more risk friendly, and therefore more innovative. Today's most prominent businesspeople agree that The Innovation Paradox has the formula for failure and success down to a science,Make no mistake: If you're looking to reinvent yourself, your ideas, or your business model, this book is your sure-fire way to start. Leseprobe Chapter 1: The Success-Failure Fallacy One must be God to be able to distinguish successes from failures and not make mistakes. -- Anton Chekov A management consultant wrote a brief bio for his thirtieth college reunion. In it, he included the usual information: work, family, achievements. By most measures, this man was unusually successful. He was the father of thriving children, head of a respected think tank, and author of a best-selling book. After reviewing his paragraph, however, the consultant realized that it read more like a resumé than an honest report to his classmates. "Why would I write such a stilted, half-true account of my life for friends who knew me when?" he asked himself. As a lark, the consultant decided to write a longer, more candid report about what his life had actually been like. It began: Because I didn't receive a single "A" in college, I couldn't get into medical school. Instead, I worked as a lifeguard, but got fired at the end of the summer. My next job, selling advertising in the Yellow Pages, was interrupted by breaking my leg badly while skiing. This gave me three months to think about what to do with my life. Since I'd enjoyed my psychology courses in college, I thought I might try to become a school psychologist. So, I enrolled at UCLA to pick up psychology and education courses, but got kicked out of student teaching because I couldn't get along with my supervisor. Back to lifeguarding. Then I noticed that a prominent psychologist was giving a summer seminar at my alma mater, so I quit my job and enrolled. This experience was electrifying. The psychologist invited me to study with him at the University of Chicago. I was so intimidated by that most serious academic institution, however, that I put off going there for a year. Just before receiving my Ph.D. from Chicago, I was given a one-year fellowship on the Harvard Business School faculty. I left there at the end of the year with almost everyone mad at me. The report went on like this for several para...

Product details

• Authors: Richard Farson, Richard Evans Farson, Ralph Keyes
• Publisher: Free Press USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 09.07.2003
• EAN: 9780743225939
• ISBN: 978-0-7432-2593-9
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 215 mm x 10 mm
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Miscellaneous