Why some ideas survive and others die

I have had so many ideas that died and few that survived. I have always wondered why. This book by Chip & Dan Heath gives a definitive answer. They do not merely put forth a hypothesis but prove their theory with concrete examples. This is one book you would wish your competition does not get hold of.

For more information about the book

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A brief review of this book from Hindu Businessline

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very useful report from BCG on Innovation.

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That is the name of a book I read during these Diwali days. The book is written by two designers and is full of exercises to 'Wake up your brain', as they call it. Here is one I found very interesting:

" What's that amazing smell? Did you know that the average human being is able to recognise approximately 10,000 different odours? That's a lot of smells! Our sense of smell is much stronger than we give credit for.

We can recall smells with a 65% accuracy rate after a whole year.

Visual accuracy decreases 50% after just three months! Fact is... we remember smells. Your task is to remember at least twenty of them. Write down twenty things that smell great when they are cooking. Mmmmmm..."

I tried this exercise and it is amazing. I realised it wasn't just the smell but a whole lot of emotions and feelings that went with it. I remembered anecdotes with minute detail. It was like a vivid flash back. I just could not recall the smell alone. The feelings, the visuals and experience seemed to go with it!!

Try this if you feel like it - it is really enjoyable. (Don't blame me if you feel really hungry!)

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A very useful book about how Toyota manages Innovations consistently & wins. For those who may have missed the "40 years, 20 million ideas" (I think that is the correct title) which explained detail about the legendary Toyota Suggest System, this book is a great gift. For the first time I find some one ably managing the apparent dichotomy between creativity, discipline & process. The section called the 'A day in the life of an idea' is brilliant. It shows how the process works for the Los Angeles Police Department in improving efficiency in booking cases! Excellent.

Then found Mathew May's (author) manifesto in Guy Kawasaki's blog ( http://guykawasaki.typepad.com/ElegantSolutions.pdf)

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