I’ve been doing a lot of “innovation” reading and wanted to mention a few books I found helpful.  The common theme in these three very different books is finding that place or opportunity in the market where something new and different is needed. One is personal (Branson), one is conceptual (The Medici Effect) and one is strategic (Seizing the White Space).  All are worthwhile.

Read These Books:

Richard Branson, Business Stripped Bare, Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur. I found this business autobiography a delightfully easy and highly insightful read. Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy, but this guy makes it look like more fun than a barrel of airlines and record companies. Particularly interesting is the “how” around creating the versatile Virgin brand. I also like how he deals with the emotional element of innovation, specifically dealing with Fear.  Fearlessness has in fact become part of the Virgin brand equity. Inspiring.

The Medici Effect, What Elephants & Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation, by Frans Johansson.  Most books about the nature of innovation are fairly dry and unexciting books to read.  Something about the dissecting of the process with analysis kills the inherent excitement it contains. This book is an exception to the boring innovation book rule, it manages to explain some of the mystery of the process while creating excitement in you about it.  This book explores how you think, and how you need to change your thinking to be a better innovator. It goes all the way back to the original innovators, the Medici family.  Fascinating.

Seizing the White Space, Business Model Innovation For Growth and Renewal, by Mark W. Johnson (with a foreword by P&G’s A.G. Lafley).  This is a scholarly, valuable, and important book.  It explores a fundamental, and typically unexplored, area of innovation.  It goes beyond what most innovation books focus on — which is product development .  Instead, it goes to the deeper and more strategic roots of innovation, business models. I found the examples illuminating, for instance how the combination of the iPod and iTunes transformed Apple. In one stroke Apple changed its fortunes by getting into a new business — lifestyle media. Apple might very well have been history had they not done this. Read this book if you want your eyes opened on every aspect of business models. Comprehensive.