The Design Of Business: Why Design Thinking Is The Next Competitive Advantage [Hardcover]

Most companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a game—changing innovation like Apple's iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovative—they spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results.

Why? InThe Design of Business, Roger Martin offers a compelling and provocative answer: we rely far too exclusively on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.

To innovate and win, companies need design thinking. This form of thinking is rooted in how knowledge advances from one stage to another—from mystery (something we can't explain) to heuristic (a rule of thumb that guides us toward solution) to algorithm (a predictable formula for producing an answer) to code (when the formula becomes so predictable it can be fully automated). As knowledge advances across the stages, productivity grows and costs drop-creating massive value for companies.

Martin shows how leading companies such as Procter & Gamble, Cirque du Soleil, RIM, and others use design thinking to push knowledge through the stages in ways that produce breakthrough innovations and competitive advantage.

Filled with deep insights and fresh perspectives,The Design of Businessreveals the true foundation of successful, profitable innovation.

Roger Martinis dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a professor of strategic management at the school. He authored TheResponsibility Virus,The Opposable Mind, and many articles in leading business publications includingHarvard Business Review,BusinessWeek,Fast Company, andBarron's.

… among the most fundamental and comprehensive books ever written about the subject of business design and design thinking. —lc2