Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small

The new book Why Not? Is a primer for fresh business thinking, for problem-solving with a purpose, and for bringing the world a few steps closer to the way it should be. The book’s co-authors are bi-monthly columnists for Forbes magazine. Barry Nalebuff is a professor of economics at the Yale School of Management, and the co-author of Co-opetition and Thinking Strategically. Ian Ayres is an economist and professor of law at Yale Law School.

Nalebuff and Ayres have spent their careers asking questions, solving problems, and bringing fresh ideas to market. Their innovative approach will help you take the things we all see, every day, and think about them in a new way.

For example:

• Why not have telemarketers pay you for your time when you take their call?
• Why not sell a mortgage that automatically refinances when interest rates drop?
• Why not offer insurance that protects home buyers against market declines in the value of their houses? And
• Why not sell a generic first-class postage stamp that remains valid when rates go up?

All of these examples are ideas that resulted from asking, “why not?”

Whether you want to start a new business, or to improve your skills at innovating within a corporation, the ideas in this summary will show how to create new ideas and find exciting new business opportunities. We’ll begin with an overview of the four tools for innovation. Next, we’ll examine each of those tools in more detail. And finally, we’ll discuss how you can get other people to “buy in” to your ideas.