Inventoritis - Don't love your Baby Too Much.

I read a great book by Tatsuya Nakagawa and Peter Paul Roosen called "Overcoming Inventoritis: The Silent Killer of Innovation". When Tatsuya first sent me the book, I instantly thought - SYNNEX - distribution - this must be a book on how to turn your inventory faster. Having the right inventory and turning it fast is key to any well run distributor.

But the book is about Inventors or Creativity. The gist of the thesis is all organizations need innovation to grow and thrive but all companies have built in characteristics that stifle creativity. The book covers a series of interesting case studies to point out the challenges and how some successful companies overcame the obstacles.

One clear message is "falling in love with your invention is a sure way to fail".

The book build us up to my favourite chapter (7) which has the answer. 12 ways to overcome Inventoritis.

1 - Assume the product or idea is terrible. Challenge and re-challenge.

2 - Know your customer, industry and business well. I notice that everyone else's business is easy and the grass is always greener there but when I invest, I lose money.

3 - Build a solid leadership bridge between marketing, engineering and sales.

4 - Make a commitment to self-improvement

5 - Be prepared to give up control. Control needs to be where the best good for the innovation is.

6 - Steal ideas from others and let them steal your ideas. I have always said "Ideas are a dime a dozen - implementation is what counts"

7 - Budget the time to help others and ask for help. Interesting, I am better at giving help than asking for it. Something I should work on.

8 - Lead with process.

9 - Create a slogan for the strategy.

10 - Leverage your resources (This is a huge part of the key to success in general)

11 - create a network or outside advisors. I would modify this to say just a network of people who can influence the market, spread the word, sometimes advise, challenge etc.

12 - Now you don't think I am going to just give you the full list. Read the book (the list is on page 92)

The book can be downloaded for free at Tatsuya's company web site - Atomicacreative.com.