a triarchy press publication
The Innovation Acid Test:
Growth Through Design and Differentiation by Andrew Jones
Publication Date: 3 April 2008
No. of Pages: 196
Book type: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-9550081-5-3
List Price: £20.00
Inspection Copy for lecturers
Read a PDF of the Introduction of this book
What links the world's most dynamic, successful companies - the companies that are transforming the way we live our lives? Rootling around in the Googlemould, Dr Andrew Jones has unearthed some remarkable connections and consistencies.
In The Innovation Acid Test, he lays out for us the defining practices and procedures of a select few of these companies - Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods, Starbucks, Google, Innocent Drinks, Shanghai Tang and others. He pieces them together to reveal a pattern of distinctive ways in which they differentiate themselves from traditionalist firms: from managing their businesses and running their workplaces to talking to their customers and recruiting, motivating and rewarding their employees.
From this pattern, he constructs an intriguing model, built on the principles of architecture, design and anthropology. Finally, he sets out the ground rules for implementing that model and creating organizations that are equipped not merely to 'manage the known' but also to 'build the unknown'.
The result is a book that will catch the imagination of any reader interested in work and organizations.
Today, Generation Y employees and ever-more-demanding customers are setting the agenda for business. The Innovation Acid Test offers a clear guide for any company seeking to transform itself into the kind of human-centred enterprise that is equipped to meet these challenges.
Andrew Jones was trained as a cultural anthropologist, receiving his Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For the past ten years he has been a university lecturer and organizational consultant to businesses in the US and the UK. He taught anthropology, management, and organizational behaviour at the University of Alabama, Birmingham for many years, and more recently he has been Lecturer of Leadership in the Department of Management Learning and Leadership at Lancaster University Management School in the UK.
He has consulted with companies in the food and drinks industry, construction and building, executive education, software, for-profit education, and sports-management. He currently works with the innovation agency, Aquifer Design, which develops tools and technologies for innovation, and with the innovation practice at Mettle Group. Mettle Group, which has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, and London, is an organizational consultancy that helps companies to align strategy with culture and leadership. He is also Visiting Lecturer of Innovation and Leadership at Lancaster University Management School. He is based in Austin, Texas.
He has published articles in magazines including Leadership, Culture & Organization, Organizational Dynamics, Human Organization, Consulting Times, and Professional Manager. This is his first book.
