Innovate Like Edison

Read Sarah Miller Caldicott's posts on the Penguin Blog. Michael J. Gelb, author of the international bestseller How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, and Sarah Miller Caldicott, a descendant of Thomas Edison, introduce a revolutionary new system for successful innovation. Bestselling author Michael J. Gelb and Sarah Miller Caldicott introduce a carefully researched, easy-to-apply system of the five success secrets inspired by the creative methods of Thomas Alva Edison. The greatest innovator in American history, Edison set the stage for America’s global leadership in innovation by his focus on practical accomplishment. Now Gelb and Caldicott apply the best practices of this American genius to contemporary business situations to help today’s leaders harness their own innovative potential. Innovate Like Edison is a blueprint for success that will enable executives and entrepreneurs to revitalize their own ingenuity and thrive in today’s culture of innovation.

The must-read summary of Michael Gelb and Sarah Caldicott's book: "Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America’s Greatest Inventor" This complete summary of the ideas from Michael Gelb and Sarah Caldicott's book "Innovate Like Edison" shows that Thomas Edison is the greatest innovator in American history: he generated a record-breaking 1,093 US patents and 1,293 international patents over 62 successive years. He founded the world’s first research lab and General Electric. These have formed the basis of some of today’s billion dollar industries. This summary shows the results of the research of Edison’s competencies and strategies. It suggests that his exceptional innovations skills are based on five competencies and twenty-five best practices. It recommends such strategies as developing a solution-centered mindset, harnessing mastermind collaboration and focusing intensively on creating value. These general suggestions are broken down into practical measures: it explains how to create the best multi-disciplinary teams, and why you should recruit the best possible people. They believe in rewarding collaborators generously, and discuss the best ways to network. "Innovate like Edison" also includes tactical, long-term advice, such as when to consider up-scaling. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Understand key concepts • Increase your business knowledge To learn more, read "Innovate Like Edison" and discover Thomas Edison's systemic approach, and how to implement it.

This book develops a systematic approach to the role of failure in innovation, using the laboratory notebooks of America's most successful inventor, Thomas Edison. It argues that Edison's active pursuit of failure and innovative uses of failure as a tool were crucial to his success. From this the author argues that not only should we expect innovations to fail but that there are good reasons to want them to fail. Using Edison's laboratory notebooks, written as he worked and before he knew the outcome we see the many false starts, wrong directions and failures that he worked through on his way to producing revolutionary inventions. While Edison's strengths in exploiting failure made him the icon of American inventors, they could also be liabilities when he moved from one field to another. Not only is this book of value to readers with an interest in the history of technology and American invention, its insights are important to those who seek to innovate and to those who employ and finance them.

In this fascinating exploration of one of the most celebrated and innovative minds, best-selling author Alan Axelrod cuts through the myths and reverence surrounding Edison’s “genius” to show how the inventor was, in fact, an ordinary man who created extraordinary work. While many of us believe that creativity, like genius, is something that just happens by chance or destiny, Edison’s life demonstrates that creativity of the very highest order can indeed be summoned up at will, and even reduced to a reliable working method and set of principles.

Thomas Edison holds over a thousand patents in his name, including the electric light bulb, the phonograph, and motion picture camera. He is considered among the world's most prolific inventors, with a work ethic and vision for the future that helped change the modern world. And with all of the advances in current technology that he helped to invent, just imagine: What Would Thomas Edison Be Doing Today? Author Sarah Miller Caldicott, a great-grandniece of Edison and expert in his methods, sets out to answer just that. Inventing the Future is a well-researched, intriguing look at how Edison would innovate today using new technology, and how modern day thinkers can adapt his proven innovation methods to their advantage. It also includes 7 steps anyone can take to start thinking like an innovator, and offers a hands-on view of how creativity and risk-taking come together to design powerful concepts that create new markets. Learn the strategies needed to remove innovation barriers, begin driving the breakthroughs of the future, and change the way you do business. Stimulate your ability to imagine what's possible.

How Thomas Edison's system for collaboration can benefit any team Thomas Edison created multi-billion dollar industries that still exist today. What many people don't realize is that his innovations were generated through focused approaches to teamwork and collaboration. Authored by the great grandniece of Thomas Edison, Midnight Lunch provides an intriguing look at how to use Edison's collaboration methods to strengthen live and virtual teams today. Edison's four phases of collaboration success offer a simple yet powerful way to see how different combinations of live and digital resources can multiply results and deliver outstanding ROI now. Shows how to draw together individuals from diverse disciplines, ensuring multiple perspectives and rapid problem-solving Explains how to mix specialists and generalists on the same team, preventing groupthink and discouraging a culture of "superstars" Reveals the steps needed to reskill team members for collaboration in the digital era Team members from any field can take Midnight Lunch to their project meetings, engage instantly, identify action steps based on the book, and generate high-impact results.

Dispelling the myth that innovation is invention & revolution, this text argues that innovators past & present have employed a strategy of technology brokering to source, develop & exploit new ideas. It provides a clear set of recommendations for managing the innovation process in organizations.