Endless Innovation

Endless Forms of Innovation

Long-time readers of Endless Innovation no doubt realize that the inspiration for this blog's title derives from Darwin's famous quote from the final sentence of The Origin of Species about "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful..." Anyway, this being the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species as well as the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, both Yale and Cambridge are jointly recognizing Darwin through a traveling exhibit called Endless Forms.

For anyone visiting the NYC area over the next month or so, the exhibit at Yale (taking place at the famed Center for British Art) is a must-see. Brilliantly curated, the exhibit analyzes the impact of Darwin's radical ideas on artists of the 19th and 20th century. This past weekend, I had the unique opportunity to visit the exhibit, check out the catalog and pick up some additional books on and about Darwin. Interestingly, the tagline for Yale's Darwin exhibit is identical to the one that I'm using as the tagline for this blog, only in its full, unabbreviated state:

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

As only the curators of an exhibit at Yale could pull off, the exhibit is "a fitting homage to one of the intellectual giants of the 19th century in his bicentenary year." Boola Boola!

[image: Endless Forms at Yale's Center for British Art]

The business book category: In search of innovation

In the Wall Street Journal, former Ogilvy & Mather CEO Kenneth Roman recently reviewed the new bestseller-to-be from Marcus Buckingham, Go Put Your Strengths To Work. If the title sounds vaguely familiar, it should be - the new book builds on the same exact script as Mr. Buckingham's earlier book (Now, Discover Your Strengths). As described by Mr. Roman, the new book sounds like a self-improvement handbook, full of tests, drills, plans, surveys and, of course, links back to a special website called Simply Strengths for even more tests and plans. The last paragraph of the review is what got me thinking that things need to change within the business book category:

"Mr. Buckingham seems sincere in his desire to help people. But this is less a book than a business. His own strengths lie in the time-honored methods of many successful self-help entrepreneurs, who turn their thinking into brands that encompass book publishing, speaking engagements, training and development programs - and an online clearinghouse for the entire enterprise..."

Much as the Hollywood blockbuster machine continues to crank out a steady pablum of comic book hero action flicks, teen movies, horror-slasher films (are we up to Saw III already?) and formulaic love stories, the business book publishing machine also cranks out a steady diet of the same types of books, over and over -- and over -- again. (Yeah, yeah, I know there's a long tail of content, but where is it within the business book category?)

Which leads to an inevitable question... What's the last business book that you read that wasn't:

(1) a mega-bestseller (i.e. Good to Great) or a spin-off of a previous bestseller (i.e. Good to Great for Nonprofits);
(2) a breathless survey of cool management practices at cool company X (i.e. Starbucks, Google, Jet Blue);
(3) a "get rich quick" book (anything by Robert Kiyosaki);
(4) a consulting mumbo-jumbo book from a consultant trying to drum up business (these books include lots of really clever acronyms and really clever diagrams, but they're always a bit snooze-inducing);
(5) a list of 7 highly effective whatevers;
(6) a "How I did it" tell-all book from a celebrity CEO like Donald Trump or Carly Fiorina;
(7) a cute "little book" like Who Moved My Cheese? or Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun that can be fully digested in about 30 minutes while hanging upside down in an airport lounge (curiously, these books are always written by a Ph.D.);
(8) The collected writings and/or musings of a management legend like Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, or Peter Drucker.

In the worst case scenario, of course, the likes of The Donald and Robert Kiyosaki team up to write a book together! (In the next-worst case scenario, Robert Kiyosaki asks his wife to carry on the family book franchise!)

Every week, I scan the business bestseller lists, and frankly speaking, I don't see much -- ever -- that really interests me. Yeah, I pick up the occasional Jim Cramer mega-bestseller (Boo-yah Skeedaddy!), but to be honest, I don't read much of the bestseller drivel that makes it to the tops of the chart unless I get it for free. (Malcolm Gladwell is an exception - I'm willing to pay full-freight for his books!) If I'm at the Strand, I may buy one of these books for $1 if I spot them on one of those cool outside book carts, but I feel a bit guilty about that. (not guilty about paying $1, but guilty about actually reading one of these books!)

What do you think? How can the business book category become more innovative?

Full disclosure: I'm currently working on a book about innovation called "Endless Innovation" -- I already have the website, the next step is the t-shirt and the DVD!

Chameleons: Survival of the Most Innovative

European innovation blogger Hannes Treichl has suggested a possible mascot for the Endless Innovation blog: the chameleon. What creature - if not the chameleon - best represents the fact that business is truly the survival of the most innovative? Thanks, Hannes!

[picture: Karma Chameleon]