Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age

Greg Satell

McGraw-Hill Education, 2017

Agent: Jill Marr

We're entering a new era of innovation. Learn the strategies of the world's most inventive startups, corporations and scientific institutions. 

Today, managers are often told that they must "innovate or die," but are given little useful guidance on how to go about it. Sure, there are many books and articles that champion one approach or another, but till now there has been no effective guide to help executives find their way through the tangled jungle of competing ideas. 

In this book you will find: 

  • Insights into how the world's top innovators implement their innovation strategies.
  •  
    • A step-by-step guide to creating your own innovation playbook to win markets and run circles around your competition!
  • A simple-to-use framework for identifying the optimal innovation strategy that is most likely lead to a successful outcome.

The truth is that there is no one "true path" to innovation, no silver bullets and no shortcuts. There are, however, effective strategies that managers can pursue to dramatically increase their chances of success. Thoroughly researched, backed by original reporting and told through compelling stories of innovative organizations such as Google, IBM, Experian, Argonne National Laboratory and MD Anderson Cancer Center, Mapping Innovation will give managers what they have been looking for, a strategic playbook for navigating a disruptive age.

Reviews:

"Greg is a talented writer, which comes naturally given his wide-open thinking and overall fantastic strategic perspective that is refreshingly different."
Suzy Deering, Chief Marketing Officer, eBay


"Satell writes brilliant stuff about what it actually takes to design and implement an innovation strategy. It's the kind of stuff I find useful to discuss with my students in my class and the executives I coach."
Robert Sutton, Professor of Business and Engineering at Stanford University IDEO Fellow, Author of Scaling up Excellence, and Weird Ideas That Work  


"Innovation in a startup isn't the same as innovation in large company, just as pursuing a fundamental discovery in a scientific lab isn't the same as building an application on top of an initial insight. In Mapping Innovation, Greg Satell helps us make sense of it all and apply the right strategies to the right problems. It's a great read too."
Steve Blank, Lecturer - Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School, Author of The Startup Owner's Manual


"Greg is a superb blend of integrity, creativity and professionalism. Insightful, responsive and diligent, he always makes sure he gets the facts straight. In my field, where life and death hang in the balance, that's really important and I appreciate it immensely."
Ron DePinho, President, MD Anderson Cancer Center



"Many people write about innovation. Greg Satell is one of my favorites. He combines thorough research and innovative viewpoints with a practical style that makes his work relevant to practitioners. Greg's work has always been an insightful and enjoyable source for my own thinking."
Alex Osterwalder, Inventor of the Business Model Canvas and Author of Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design


"Greg Satell has a deep instinct about how innovation and technology are changing business. His unique writing perspective makes us all smarter by his inquiry into the inner workings of the innovation experience. We all learn from his journey of discovery."
Dr. James Canton, Chairman and CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, Advisor to The White House and the National Science And Technology Council, Author of Future Perfect and Extreme Future


"I'm always delighted to read what Greg Satell has to say about business and technology. His insights--which draw from such diverse areas as history and science--are must-reads."
Samuel Arbesman, Research Fellow, The Long Now Foundation, Author of The Half Life of Facts and Overcomplicated
 

"Greg Satell's writing offers a thought-provoking take on innovation in media, science, and technology, which helps me think more clearly about issues in my business. He is also adept at situating today's challenges in a broader historical context, which makes it a great read too."
Michael Rubenstein, President, AppNexus


 
"What sets Greg apart from other observers of the innovation scene is his broad range of vision and references, his practical experience and the effectiveness of his writing. There are few people that I know who can weave these three attributes together as well as Greg has done. I think that he has made a mark on social media and through his Forbes and Harvard Business Review writing that has made him one of the more visible commentators on innovation related issues today, and I would look forward to any innovation-project that he is associated with."
Bill Fischer, Professor of Innovation Management, IMD, Author of Reinventing Giants and The Idea Hunter
 

"Greg Satell is a thoughtful, insightful and entertaining writer. His articles always make me think. I would read and recommend any book Greg writes."  
Saul Kaplan, Founder and Chief Catalyst, The Business Innovation Factory, Author, Business Innovation Factory
 

"Innovation and strategy must be closely intertwined for organisations to succeed, yet they are often treated as two distinct areas. Greg Satell is one of the best thinkers today at the intersection of the two. He has an excellent grasp of the theory involved, and combines it well with his practical experience as a manager and strategist."
Tim Kastelle, Associate Professor of Innovation Management, University of Queensland