DNA of Innovator Summary

The authors make distinctions between incremental and disruptive innovation; competency-
enhancing and competency-destroying technological changes; modular and architectural
innovations; sustaining and disruptive innovations. The authors classify innovators into four
types: startup entrepreneurs, corporate entrepreneurs, product innovators and process innovators.
Not all entrepreneurs can be regarded as innovative.
Innovators have the courage to innovate: which consists of challenging the status quo, and
being willing to take risks. Innovators have an important cognitive skill: associational thinking,
or synthesizing novel thoughts by connecting diverse inputs and fields. This cognitive skill can
be sharpened by four behavioral skills: questioning, observing, networking and experimenting.
Five chapters in the book are devoted to these skills. I have summarized these principles and
activities, along with some examples, in Table 1 below; the full chapters make for a more
detailed and interesting read of course.

Table 1: The Innovators DNA: Skills and Tips
Activities Examples Tips
Skill: Associating
Creating odd
combinations;
zooming in and out
to get details and
broad perspectives;
lego thinking to
graft ideas
Marc Benioffs invention of Salesforce.com as
enterprise software meets Amazon, and
Chatter as Facebook of business
communication; Google connecting academic
citation models to Web search; cities as hubs
of the Medici effect; TED conferences; Steve
Jobs cross-industry vision; Indra Nooyis
diverse experiences
Force new associations
(connect random concepts);
think of alliances with
random companies;
generate metaphors; build a
curiosity box (eg. IDEOs
Tech Box)
Skill: Questioning
Asking questions
to describe or
disrupt the
territory: what is,
what if, what
caused, why, why
not
Provocative questions about business
rationale/details (Orit Gadiesh, Bain), probing
questions about customer wants (A.G.Lafley,
P&G), packaging of new games (Mike Collins,
Big Idea Group), Five Whys (Taiichi Ohno,
Toyota), HLLs rural marketing with self-help
groups; JetBlues e-tickets
Engage in question-
storming in groups;
cultivate question thinking;
track your Q/A ratio; keep
a question-centred
notebook
Skill: Observing
Observe customer
tasks and better
ways to do them;
observe tech and
companies
Ratan Tata conceptualisation and marketing of
the Nano; Scott Cooks design of QuickBooks;
Chuck Templetons business OpenTable.com;
Corey Wrides language teaching model for
MovieMouth.com; Gary Crockers design of
surgical tools
Look for surprises and
workarounds; observe
customers and companies;
observe with all your
senses; travel to new places
Skill: Networking
Idea networking
(not just resource);
meeting people
from different
backgrounds; tap
outside experts and
commoners
Joe Martons use of Malaysian mangos teens
to create the drink Xango in the US market;
Kent Brown designing ceramic materials by
learning from films and sperm freezing
industry; European transportation expert
learning from beekeeping conferences; JetBlue
buying satellite TV company; Google and
P&G swapping employees
Expand your network
diversity; mealtime
networking; conferences;
start a creative community;
form a group of confidante
experts and peers
Skill: Experimenting
Taking apart
products and
processes;
prototyping and
pilots; immersing
in new experiences
Amazons evolution from books to full product
ranges, Kindle, cloud; Michael Dell
dismantling PCs; Virgin Groups evolution
from music to planes; Apples product
evolution; Nate Adlers scuba experience in
designing winter jackets; Max Levchin and
Peter Thiels founding of PayPal
Travel to new countries
and cultures; go trend-
spotting (e.g. Chris
Andersons books); read
about other disciplines;
dismantle products; test
new ideas

Inquiry-based living and learning means one should not be afraid of looking stupid by asking
dumb or uncomfortable or controversial questions: which can be a problem in some cultures, the
authors observe.
Mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of for an innovator. IDEOs slogan is to fail often to
succeed sooner. Google defines good failures as ones where you know why you failed, where
you learned relevant knowledge for the next project, and which are not big enough to damage the
brand.
A good methodology designed by Alex Osborn and Bon Eberle for rethinking and
recombining ideas goes by the acronym SCAMPER: substitute, combine, adapt,
magnify/minimize, put to other users, eliminate, and reverse/rearrange.
An idea mundane in one group can be valuable insight in another, the authors recommend,
as a reason to use networking to bridge structural holes or gaps between networks and idea
spaces. For example, both Steve Jobs and Marc Benioff (Salesforce.com) took spiritual trips to
India for new insights.
Networking produces serendipity, and thus lucky entrepreneurs make themselves stumble
onto ideas. For example, one of the innovative features that Steve Jobs wanted in the Apple II
was a powering mechanism that did not require a fan because he found the noise of a desktop
computer to be distracting. He got the ideas for the OS and user interface from a visit to Xerox
PARC. The use of fonts came from a college calligraphy class. Through networking activities he
came across the company Industrial Light and Magic, which he bought and renamed as Pixar.
Innovative thinking has transformed not just companies but entire industries. The scale and
speed of innovation capacity in an organization largely depends on the leaderships commitment
to innovation in terms of resources, recruitment, processes, culture, and business strategy.
Companies need a mix of managers with discovery and delivery skills; particularly innovative
companies, though, have top managers with a strong component of discovery skills, unlike
mainstream companies. Unfortunately, business schools teach people how to be deliverers and
not discoverers, the authors lament.
The second part of the book describes how innovative business leaders have transformed their
entire companies into becoming more innovative, by shaping their people, processes and
philosophies (or cultures). Four chapters are devoted to these DNA principles of innovative
companies, and I have summarized them in Table 2 below.

Table 2: DNA of Innovative Companies
Framework Examples
PEOPLE: Immersing in innovation
(not just delegating); making
curiosity infectious; recruiting for
complementary skills; mentors and
trainers for support; senior positions
for innovation and design
Apples motto to new hires: Surprise me; Google
Labs Aptitude Tests and Code Jam to hire
innovative employees; P&Gs A.G.Lafley making
innovation a team effort; Pierre Omidyar hiring
execution experts to complement his discovery
skills; BIG groups innovation networks
PROCESS: Internal networking
spaces and events, external
networking (open innovation) with
entrepreneurs, combining discovery
processes
Jeff Bezos personally showing innovative
approaches to solve problems; Keyence sales staff
observing assembly lines; P&G teaming up with
third party matchmakers InnoCentive; IDEOs
group data-collection and TechBox
PHILOSOPHIES: (culture)Innovation
is everybodys job; disruptive
innovation is part of the innovation
portfolio; coordinate small project
teams; take smart risks
P&G soliciting innovative ideas from all
employees and not just R&D; Southwest Airlines
safe spaces for soliciting challenging questions;
Jobs advice to Disney to dream bigger; Amazons
small teams (two pizza teams); Googles small
teams of 3-6 people

The book ends with a call to readers to take the innovation message and method to the next
generation: children. They suggest that parents ask their children not just what they did in school,
but what they asked in school. Read creative books with children, play word games with them.
Take children to workplaces; get them to meet kids from different backgrounds. Take them to
flea markets and dismantle or make things together. Take them on trips.
Act different to think different, the authors succinctly sum up.
The book has many insightful quotes about innovation; here are some of my favorite quotes
below.
Question the unquestionable. Ratan Tata
I havent failed; Ive just found 10,000 ways that do not work. Thomas Edison
Creativity thrives best when constrained. Marissa Mayer
You dont invent the answers; you reveal the answers by finding the right question. Jonas
Salk
Observing is the big game changer in our company. Scott Cook
The anthropologists role is the single biggest source of innovation at IDEO. Tom Kelley
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a prototype is worth a million words. David
Kelley
Innovation is part and parcel with going down blind alleys. Jeff Bezos
Companies are like sharks. If they stop moving, they die. Marc Benioff