Robert's Rules of Innovation

A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival

Innovate or die may be heavily associated with the technology world. A new book, Robert's Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival by Robert F. Brands with Martin J. Kleinman (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) provides practical guidelines to start and nurture a culture of sustainability for innovation.

Sustainable Innovation

Innovation, according to Brands, can be products and services such as those offered by banking, real estate and insurance. A good example the author provides is the reverse mortgage. Innovative products such as the iPod have led to innovative services such as iTunes.

"Innovation is a holistic strategy for building organizational culture, empowering the passion to create, developing creative environments that can execute effectively, and creating the potential for market leadership," writes Brands.

Innovation is not a luxury; it is more of a do or die situation. If a company does not keep innovating, it will not stay competitive and will not survive.

Robert's 10 Rules of Innovation

The author offers 10 rules for starting and staying innovative including:

• Inspire
• No risk, no innovation
• New product development process
• Ownership
• Value creation
• Accountability
• Training and coaching
• Idea management
• Observe and measure
• Net result and reward

Brands uses the better part of the book to define these 10 steps. At the end of the book he provides checklists for implementing each step.

Innovation Methods

Throughout the book, Brands highlights several methodologies for adapting the innovative mindset throughout a company. He discusses the Innovation Audit to assess three components:

• Innovation strategy to determine a company's ambitions and platforms for growth
• Innovation process to analyze a company's history of innovation delivery performance
• Innovation Organization is assess to determine the innovation team for knowledge, empowerment and motivation

Intellectual Property

While the book itself covers a highly interesting topic and one that often gets forgotten, it also covers helpful information on intellectual property including:

• Patents, both utility and service
• Trademarks
• Servicemarks
• Copyrights

Brands tells readers that "virtually anything made my mankind, from machines to human cells, from computer chips to DNA molecules" can be patented.

Engineer Sustainability

Yet another important aspect of this book is the section titled Engineer Sustainability. This is a phrase the author uses to create the tools needed to nurture an innovation culture over time. A few tips for this section include:

• Develop imagery and symbols to bring the program to life.
• Create regular activities to help build a sense of purpose.
• Create structure for innovation contributions.

Flowcharts and Checklists

The book is a hands-on tool in that the author provides helpful flowcharts of starting and growing an innovative culture in a company as well as applicable checklists for each of the 10 rules of innovation in the appendices of the book.

Constant change for growth is often the hardest management theory to implement. Building a culture of innovation within a company can certainly help spur change and growth. This book is a good place to learn how to encourage innovation thinking. It is a short 202 page read and well worth the time to consider.