Author(s): Matt Kingdon

Business

The new book from the team behind the international bestseller Sticky Wisdom Matt Kingdon and his team at ?WhatIf! are the experts on innovation and The Science of Serendipity is set to become the teaching on innovation for big business. Based on ?WhatIf!'s 20 years of innovation consulting and rooted in unique insights from household names including Disney, Google, Nike, and Microsoft, this book sets out to show large organisations exactly how to implement innovation. According to Matt, the most successful innovation often comes through 'happy accidents' -- yes you need hard work and careful planning...but most of time the real magic comes from chance encounters, from things that went wrong, from happy accidents -- serendipity. The natural tendency for organizations to get a grip on their processes, to standardize, to recruit steady hands -- all of this is understandable. But it's also fatal. Innovation has no chance. This book explores the reality of how organizations get messy, how they allow the madness, the unfamiliar, even the threatening to enter the gates. It's about marrying the seemingly opposing forces of reassuring logic with the instability of 'shaking it up'.
The Science of Serendipity shows how this blend is practically achieved. How to harness innovation in large organisations through blending the necessary rigor and process with the acceptance of the unexpected, the messy and the accidental How to captialise on the 'happy accidents' that often produce the most successful innovation Easy to read and fast paced with practical advice alongside the theory Includes learning summaries, activities and top tip checklists