Innovation X:Why a Company's Toughest Problems Are Its Greatest Advantage

Today, more than ever, innovation is at the heart of business success.  Yet, all too many innovations get stalled, squashed, sidetracked, or warped beyond recognition by byzantine organizational processes and decision-making edifices.

Some companies have attempted to deal with these internal roadblocks by sequestering specialized innovation teams away in exotically decorated cubicle-less offices, or by sending employees to seminars on thinking outside-of-the-box.

And yet, one recent study revealed that executives still give odds of worse than a coin-toss as to whether innovations developed with formal processes will have the desired market impacts.

Clearly, innovation is broken.  But innovation is not the problem.  The problem is the problem, and it can be the solution.

Our summary of Innovation X, by Adam Richardson, defines a new class of business problems called X-problems.  These tough new challenges thwart conventional planning but present massive opportunities.

Richardson is a creative director at frog design, inc., a global innovation and design consultancy, where he has worked with companies such as HP, Intel, Yahoo, Motorola, and Logitech.  His background combines experience in product development, interaction design, product strategy, and customer research.

In Innovation X, Richardson outlines a proven process for turning X-problems into profitable innovations.  By following his simple yet powerful framework, you will learn how to harness customer insights, create integrated offerings that meet customer needs in new ways, build new competitive advantages by expanding into unfamiliar territories, and stay flexible in a fast-moving environment.