Readings on Innovation and Management to Enjoy in Summer
Vacations are perfect for discovering new readings that spark your curiosity and expand your knowledge. At INDPULS, we would like to suggest some of our favorite books on Management and Innovation to read this summer:
‘Great by choice’ by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen.
Marc Marcet, Innovation Partner at Lead to Change, recommends this work by Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great”. Collins and Morten Hansen explore why some companies thrive amid uncertainty and chaos in this book. The authors’ thesis argues that success does not primarily depend on luck but has a much more direct relationship with corporate culture and perseverance in habits that allow organizations to be better prepared. Therefore, 10x companies manage to stand out under the same circumstances as their competitors but with different behaviors.
Based on nine years of research and supported by rigorous analysis and illustrative examples, this book presents key concepts (such as the 20-mile march, firing bullets then cannonballs, or return on luck, among others) to build exceptional companies in turbulent times. It is a classic Collins: challenging, data-driven, and inspiring.
‘The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It’ by Sandra J Sucher and Shalene Gupta.
Julia Vilar, Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Consultant at Lead to Change, recommends this book revealing how trust is key to business success and can be lost and regained. “The Power of Trust” is the result of two decades of research and analysis of real cases where Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta identify how the key elements of trust are the foundation for building sustainable relationships with all company stakeholders. Stakeholder trust as a differential vector is a formula that combines moral leadership, process excellence, high corporate responsibility, and fairness in decisions.
The “The Power of Trust” model allows companies to learn how to build trust, maintain it, and, most importantly, regain it if lost, to generate new opportunities.
‘The Basics of Hoshin Kanri’ by Kanri Randy K. Kesterson
One of the books was recommended by Esteban Bretcha, CEO of Simon and president of INDPULS, during his presentation at the innovation meeting held at SWITCH. This work explains the Hoshin Kanri methodology for strategic deployment simply. This work system is based on the cooperation of the entire company to achieve long-term strategic objectives and effectively manage short-term plans.
The five fundamental principles of Hoshin Kanri are:
- Collaborative work
- Identification of critical objectives
- Definition of performance indicators
- Development of implementation plans
- Periodic review
‘Artificial Intelligence Explained to Humans’ by Jordi Torres
Another of our favorite readings is “Artificial Intelligence Explained to Humans” by Jordi Torres, Senior Researcher, and Expert Advisor in HPC & AI at BSC. This informative, enjoyable, and clear book helps us understand how AI works and clarifies some of the questions posed for the near future, such as: Will it solve problems that would take humanity centuries to solve? Will it make our work easier or leave us without it? What can AI do for us and against us?
‘Humanocracy’ by Gary Hamel
Xavier Marcet, president of Lead to Change, during his presentation on Innovation in Management at SWITCH, recommended this work that addresses and combats the bureaucratization that stifles creativity and initiative in companies, to achieve bold, entrepreneurial companies as agile as change itself.
