Book Review :- “Best Practices are Stupid”. 40 ways to out-innovate the competitions.- must read

December 3, 15

Book Review :- “Best Practices are Stupid”. 40 ways to out-innovate the competitions.

In Dec.,2012, I had read the above book and sent you all book review on 23^rd Dec.,2012. The same is given here just to brush up your information and with a wish that you may apply the same in your area or investments.

The book was written by Mr.Stephen M. Sharpiro. The book is about innovations, innovative practices and system. While reading this book, I felt that 40 ways suggested in the book could be applied to the area of investments also. So, here it goes. I have given my comments in blue.

1.     Not survival of the fittest but, survival of the adaptable.

When the pace of change outside your organization is greater than the pace of change within, you’ll get eaten

Your strong conviction in any investment idea needs to adapt to the market conditions.

2.     How can you avoid becoming a one hit wonder?

For too long, innovation has been relegated to the darkest recesses of R& D departments and to the conference rooms of barnstormers. But now is the time to bring innovation to the forefront of your business.

Good investment idea is not the prerogative of media and web analyst. You should go beyond that.

3.     Asking for an idea is a bad idea.

One of the most important yet, under considered measures in the innovation process is the signal to noise ratio.

Most investors are not ready to go beyond a TIP. More TIPs do not mean more money.

4.     Don’t think outside the box but find a better box.

Einstein once said, ‘If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and 1 min finding solutions.’’ Unfortunately, most companies spend 60 minutes finding solution to the problems that just don’t matter.

Most investors do not know, why they want to invest? And they spend time in knowing how to invest and where to invest!!

5.     Expertise is the enemy of innovation.

If you are at NASA and you have 100 aerospace engineers working on an   aerospace engineering challenge adding the 101  aerospace engineers may not help much. But, adding a physicist, a nanotechnologist, a chemist, a biologist or even a musician may move your solutions in a completely new direction.

Single minded focus for the sake of focus will not lead you to anywhere. All great investors draw their inspiration from various fields.

6.     The difference between a pipeline and a sewer is what flows through it.

Too many safe bets in the long run are unsafe.

What is safe for one may not be safe for you. Same way what is unsafe for one may not be unsafe for you. You need to find out your real purpose of investment before deciding about where and how.

7.     The Goldilocks principal.

Challenges can’t be too big (broad and abstract e.g. asking for new ideas.) or too small (overly specific e.g. an extremely technical problem that can be solved only by one discipline). They must be just right – framed in a way that maximizes the likely hood of finding a workable solution.

Find out just right investment for you. It may or may not be the best performing asset class.

8.     There is no such thing as know it all.

There is noting so stupid as an educated man. If, you get him off the thing that he was educated in.

Investment is a dynamic process; it can’t be done with static mind.

9.     What did Edison get wrong about innovation?

Challenge driven, open innovation is a massively parallel process where failures and successes happen at the same time.

Edison said “ I have not failed 700 times, I have found 700 ways in which way you can not find BULB”. My question is, if he had found out in first attempt, do you think he would have spent the time on finding other 699? You need parallel system to work in the filed of investments. HERE THE ROLE of consultant is very important.

10.              What do CISCO, LG Electronics, and GE have in common with American idol?

With the bounty based approach the success criteria are clearly defined. With the tournament based approach the winner is the best of the submissions.

You need to define your success criteria very clearly or any investment idea will appeal to you.

11.To Compete or not to compete that is the question?

Collaborations and competitions both serve as an important purpose in the process. As Graham bell once said “great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the               co-operation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than myself.

It goes for any successful investment also.

12.              Crowds are better at eliminating duds than a picking winner. 

Crowd sourcing is not intended to be a democratic tool designed to gather the whims and wishes of individuals. It is intended to source solutions and not opinion.

You should not invest on opinions of the media analyst; you should invest because it will meet your purpose.

13.              Lessons from Indian Jones.

The real treasure is found when you leave you office, do your fedora and bull whip and study customers with your own too eyes.

Real treasure is found with you going out not on TIPs.

14.Your market Research Sucks. 

The average person is only aware of about 5 percent of his or her thoughts and feelings on any given topic. Consumers can provide answers, but those answers may be incomplete at best and quite misleading at worst.

Research can tell you many things and may not tell you the real things. Do your own research also.

15.              Be the Aspirin for your customer’s pains.

Three requirements must be present for an individual to change. 1. Dissatisfied with the current state. 2. Must see a better state, if changes. 3. Must believe that he or she can reach that better state.  We often hear the expression “build it and they will come” but the innovation, a more accurate statement is “eliminate a pain and they will come”

Eliminate the losers from your portfolio and wealth will come on its own.

16.              Innovate where you differentiate.

All capabilities are equal but some are more equal then others. You do not innovate the same way for each capability in your business. And the way you innovate will not be the same as the way your competitors innovate.

Find out your USP, Your Core Area, develop the same….and invest.

17.              Ever notice how one size fits all never really fits at all?

It is important to know how your differentiators translate into your innovation strategy. This helps cascade priorities down to the lowest levels of the organizations.

You must see where your USP is adding value in your investment venture. Then only you will able to keep a track of it.

18.              Best practices are sometimes stupid.

The competitors are like Tiger Woods. Best Practices won’t keep you alive in the current environments.

If you invest where everybody invests, you will also get what they get!!

19.              Simplification is the best innovation.

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer any thing to add but when there is no longer anything to take away.

Good investment idea may not be giving you the best return, buy it should not take away your capital!!

20.              Motivate like Maslow.

Stop recognizing people for doing their jobs. When you hire someone to work for you, it should be expected that they are competent. When you recognize people for doing what they are hired to do, it reinforces a culture where the status quo is good enough.

Motivate your team like Maslow did. All people are not at the same levels.

21.              You get what you measure but will you get what you want? 

Too many innovative measurements systems are designed in a way that inadvertently creates undesirable behaviors.

Measurement of your performance should not only look at the results but also at the quality of efforts.

22.              The performance paradox.

If you want to go faster, stop focusing on speed, if you want to be more creative stop measuring creativity. Paradoxically, what organizations hyper focus on their goals, they are less likely to achieve those goals.

Lord Krishna has said the same thing…. you have right to do the KARMA and not for the results.

23.              Time pressure kills creativity.

Asking people to be creative and giving them a little breathing room can do wonders to enhance creativity.

You can’t get a baby in a month by putting 9 men to work. Baby needs 9 months to develop fully.

24.              Failure is always an option.

Failures is always an option, it is the corner stone of our approach to the scientific method. Any result is a result.

It is your interpretations of results that make you failures or success. Just see the result as a result.

25.              View the world through a different lens.

As an innovator, don’t get too attached to your idea. Being right can be enemy of good innovations.

See any investment idea, from different perspective.

26.              Hire people you do not like.

The person you like the least is the person you need the most.

You can invest with borrowed funds on personal advice. Most do the opposite; they invest personal funds with borrowed advice. You do not like to hire an investment consultant, but that is what you need.

27.              Why the pyramids are one of the seven wonders?

Everyone in the company plays a role in driving innovation.

See your investment and your life, your family members in totality.

28.              Top down Philosophy should be left to convertibles.

Central control is a fatal conceit. You may just control yourself out of business.

You need layers to control the investments. You alone can’t handle all things.

29.              Use the reality TV show Model.

The competitions are as much about generating buzz and stimulating interest in innovations as they are about finding specific solutions.

You can follow reality show model among your friends and fellow investors about specific investment idea.

30.              Get your knowledge workers doing knowledge work.

One way to make time is to get your knowledge workers doing knowledge work.

Engage your consultants for what they are paid for.

31.              Encourage your employees to get on their soapbox.

The speaker corner concept is a useful technique for driving new thinking. It is a free market in action.

Encourage your team members, family members to speak on the subject of investments. You may be surprised with their feedback.

32.              Shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Creativity is just having enough dots to connect.

Always use the simple way to reach your goals.

33.              Someone else has already solved your problem.

The most useful question in the world of creativity - who else has solved this problem?

Do not spend time in re-inventing the wheel. Just find it and use it for your purpose.

34.              Adapt your product to a different environment.

Sometimes the best innovation is about taking something that already exist and adapting it for a new environment.

Find out new applications and new ideas from the existing one. Have you seen the mobile from just communications, it had gone beyond it.

35.              Don’t put the NO in Innovations.  

In the improvisational game “yeah, but: the objective is to tell a story, one person at a time without using the words “yeah, but.

Just do it. Without doing, you will never comprehend the importance of the idea.

36.              How can you make the impossible possible?

What if you could become masterful at making the seemingly impossible? What if, instead of looking for realistic solutions to challenges. You started with solutions that seemed impractical?

Challenge yourself.

37.              Stand in someone else’s shoes.

Each morning when you wake up, make believe you are some one different.

When you look an investment idea from other’s point of view, you may get the different perspective about the same.

38.              Innovations are a child’s play.

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it.

Find out just right investment goals. Not too high, not too low. This requires lot of soul searching and guidance.

39.              Sometimes its logical to be Illogical.

Illogical combinations can lead to truly logical solutions.

Look at all possible combination and situation before you invest.

40.              Predict what the competitions will do next.

In these rapidly changing times, creativity can be even more valuable for determining what the marketplace and your competitors will do next.

Look at where other investors are investing; it will give you some idea.

My Personal Call:-

By far this is the lengthy email I have ever sent. Take time to benefit from the same.
Each one of the 40 strategies – if used – will change your life forever.

Wish You ALL A THINKING THURSDAY.

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Live With Passion…Invest With Passion.

Hitesh Parikh.