Page 37 - Free the Idea Monkey
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THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND INNOVATION
Our world is transformed every day by Idea Monkeys who drive
innovation. A simple way to see their effect on an organization is
to look at what happens to a company or industry after they arrive.
Just Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Jack Welch at GE, Lou
Gerstner at IBM, Reed Hastings at Netflix, Meg Whitman at eBay or
Evan Williams at Twitter. If you want a classic case of the effect of
monkey business, consider what happened when Steve Jobs left and
later returned to Apple. Each of these leaders used business-brilliant
ideas to change the way products and services go to market.
It’s easy to think about creating change by altering business
models, but you can drive innovation from any department. Phil
Knight of Nike relied on branding to turn shoes into status symbols,
and Peter Lynch of Fidelity used his beautiful financial mind to turn
Magellan into one of the most sought after funds.
“Change before
you have to.”
— Jack Welch
22 M E E T T H E I D E A M O N K E Y
