Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Todays business climate demands breakthroughs, not incremental improvements. Innovators take steps forward, but leapfroggers reinvent their markets and organizations. Where do their game-changing ideas come from? How can you leap over the competition rather than stumble into oblivion? In this revolutionary book, Soren Kaplan shows how to use the power of surprise to blow up the limits holding back your business—and your thinking.
How did Gatorade revitalize itself in the wake of Red Bull and Starbucks? How did Etsy come to be? How did Four Seasons become the worlds leading luxury hotel brand? What makes one leader or company thrive while others languish in mediocrity? Kaplan gives business leaders the tools to do exactly what theyre taught to avoid: embrace uncertainty and invite surprises.
Leapfrogging connects new research, unconventional strategies and practical tools for navigating the seemingly messy” process of achieving business breakthroughs. Drawing upon his twenty years of hands-on experience, Kaplan shows that any organization or business function can leapfrog—and he delivers a game-changing formula for rethinking your business:
Use unexpected events and surprises to create focus and direction
Push personal boundaries to challenge mindsets and assumptions
Apply intuition and personal judgment in strategic decision-making
Tap into failure as a catalyst for success
Manage the paradoxes of organizational innovation
Synopsis
Today's business environment demands leapfroggers--those who create rapid, disruptive innovation, not small improvements. A leading innovation pioneer shows that businesses often ignore the very thing that could lead them to game-changing products--the power of surprise. How did Gatorade revitalize itself in the wake of Red Bull and Starbucks? How did Etsy come to be? How did Four Seasons become the world's leading luxury hotel brand? What makes one leader or company thrive while others languish in mediocrity? Kaplan gives business leaders the tools to do exactly what they're taught to avoid: embrace uncertainty and invite surprises. Leapfrogging connects new research, unconventional strategies, and practical tools for navigating the seemingly "messy" process of achieving business breakthroughs. Listen in and leapfrog your way to success today
About the Author
Soren Kaplan is a Managing Principal at InnovationPoint, where he works with organizations including Visa, ColgatePalmolive, Medtronic, Disney, Philips, PepsiCo, and numerous other global firms. He previously led the internal strategy and innovation group at HewlettPackard (HP) during the roaring 1990s in Silicon Valley and was a cofounder of iCohere, one of the first web collaboration platforms for online learning and communities of practice. He is an Adjunct Professor within the Imagineering Academy at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. He holds Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Organizational Psychology and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, two daughters, and a hypoallergenic cat.