The Innovator's Spirit
Discover the Mindset to Pursue the Impossible
by Chuck Swoboda
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date May 05 2020 | Archive Date Feb 04 2021
Greenleaf Book Group | Fast Company Press
Talking about this book? Use #TheInnovatorsSpirit #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
2021 Axiom Business Book Award Winner in Business Intelligence/Innovation
Innovation isn't optional—it's imperative
Everyone wants to create new products and services, find new customers and markets, stay ahead of the competition, and work smarter instead of harder. Yet with all the focus and attention on innovation, the term has become an overused buzzword rather than a real, tangible concept. If you want to seriously pursue innovation—you need to strip away the hype.
Real innovators need to transcend the existing ideas, rules, and patterns to discover exciting new outcomes. They must step outside the best practice box and get their hands dirty. The spirit of a true innovator is rooted in wanting to do something that has never been done before, to solve problems that have never been solved, and to run through walls and leap over tall buildings to get there.
In The Innovator’s Spirit, author Chuck Swoboda—retired chairman and CEO of Cree, a company that fundamentally changed the way people experience light and drove the obsolescence of the Edison light bulb—explains that innovation is fundamentally about people and shows his readers how to develop a mindset of creativity, risk-taking, and hard work. He also instills in them a belief that there is always a better way.
Advance Praise
“In The Innovator’s Spirit, readers will learn that now more than ever before, encouraging innovation and recognizing disruptive threats are paramount to long-term success. Chuck provides valuable insights about how to understand what is necessary for capturing and maintaining your Innovator’s Spirit. This is a must-read for any business leader.”
—Robert Ingram, retired Chairman and CEO of Glaxo Wellcome
“The Innovator’s Spirit gives us the gift of the evolution of a true innovator’s mind and his accumulated wisdom and experience from leading, as CEO, an innovative company. Chuck tackles the extraordinary challenge of how you scale innovation by multiplying innovators who have the talents and beliefs to overcome the natural obstacles that tend to favor stability over turbulence.”
—Gerald D. Bell, PhD, Founder and CEO of Bell Leadership Institute and New York Times best-selling author
“Everyone doesn’t get a trophy. In The Innovator’s Spirit, Swoboda delivers the key traits common among innovators and innovative organizations. He captivates readers by weaving his own experiences in leading a high-growth tech company with stories of iconic innovators and their innovations. This is an inspiring guide for anyone, from those with the courage and ideas to change the world to the ones who already have.”
—Neal Hunter, Serial Entrepreneur and co-Founder, former Chairman, and CEO of Cree, Inc.
“Rules and process kill innovation. However, conventional management teaches us that rules and process are needed to grow and scale a business. In The Innovator’s Spirit, Chuck Swoboda lays out with candor and clarity how you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other and that it’s in the best interest of organizations to cultivate and protect the leadership mindset and spirit needed to solve complex problems. This is a must-read for anyone looking to solve an impossible problem and provides real world-changing value.”
—Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO of Red Hat
“The Innovator’s Spirit provides a tangible portfolio of personal leadership practices and assets, including the power of purposeful imagination, relentless conviction, and relationship synergy, that embody the Spirit that is the unapologetic pursuit of a better way.”
—Darren Jackson, former CEO of Advance Auto Parts and CFO of Best Buy
“The Innovator’s Spirit is a must-read for anyone trying to transform an organization. It outlines how a leader can foster a culture of risk-taking while allowing the organization to learn from its failures. Chuck Swoboda’s insights and experiences driving an innovative mindset are truly inspirational.”
—Michael Lovell, PhD, President of Marquette University
“In The Innovator’s Spirit, Chuck Swoboda reminds us that real innovation is about being a pragmatic idealist—to have the focus and the will to pursue what seems implausible while constantly understanding that nothing matters without commercial success and a broader purpose that can move the world forward.”
—Anthony Tjan, New York Times best-selling author, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist
“A frontline view of how organizations innovate to win, Chuck Swoboda tests your core beliefs and reframes them in ways that unleash your Innovator’s Spirit. I witnessed these ideas in practice with incredible outcomes that changed the LED industry.”
—Tom Werner, Chairman and CEO at SunPower Inc.
“Rapid change and disruption are necessary for success in most industries today. The Innovator’s Spirit offers an insightful, compelling, and candid platform for today’s leaders to reflect on and fuel their own innovative spirit. Telling the story of one of the most innovative companies in America, Swoboda beautifully and simply challenges us to think and act differently as we strive to create value in an increasingly complex world. Swoboda’s story makes risk and failure incredibly attractive norms for anyone wanting to bring meaning and life to their work. The Innovator’s Spirit is a joy to read; one can’t help but want to drive change after perusing the first few chapters!”
—Kristina M. Ropella, PhD, Opus Dean of Engineering at Marquette University
“Engaging . . . raw and real . . . practical and inspiring—this book on innovation is a standout. Chuck Swoboda has written a great how-to book, portraying the best innovators as misfits, underdogs, and even pirates. He shows us how to leverage dissatisfaction into innovation. Enjoy!”
—Betty Noonan, Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer at nVent Inc.
“Innovation is the key part of any successful business. My father started Trek in a small barn with three employees. Today, one of the ways we evaluate leaders at Trek is their ability to see something bigger than the barn. My father had that ability, and we want every leader at Trek to have it too. The Innovator’s Spirit can help you see something bigger whether you are a product manager, an engineer, or work in the finance department.”
—John Burke, President, Trek Bicycle Corporation
Marketing Plan
National trade marketing and sales campaign
National broadcast and print publicity campaign
Advance distribution of Digital ARC via NetGalley to reviewers, bloggers, journalists, librarians, booksellers, and media
Online marketing campaign including targeted advertising, trade advertising, and advance giveaways
Watch for author and book updates at chuckswoboda.com
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781732439160 |
| PRICE | $24.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 288 |
Featured Reviews
Amit V, Reviewer
We are seeing slow transition from filament bulbs to CFL and now to LED lights. It has been made possible by innovators like Cree which is pioneers company which made blue LED.
It's former CEO takes us through various possible reasons why his company could do what it has achieved.
Book is written in typical interesting nonfiction book with lots of real world stories to corroborate the principles outlined in the book.
It is divided into crisp chapters with minimal repetition.
Although we find common stories like kodak, apple, PARC, Fedex in there , but author has gone little ahead than common nonfiction books about innovation.
First time I got to read about huge failures of big firms like microsoft, Google and Apple and even Amazon.
No body tells you those stories even if saying that failure will occur in 90% of new efforts.
It is a very informative, deep and easy on mind work. To know about journey of LED is also fascinating.
A very interesting study about why innovation is must for big organisations to survive.
From basic reasons why innovation falls behind as company grows and how few firms are maintaining their innovative edge.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend to everyone interested to go deep in business and technology.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for review copy.
Librarian 296405
Quite simply an essential book - on the attitudes necessary to be an innovator. Most books focus on techniques orintegrating innovation practices into companies. Nothing wrong with that. But as an inventor and hopefully an innovator myself one day (yes, there is a difference and this book will tell you why) I found breath-taking gems (like the aforementioned definition) in every chapter. I am strongly thinking of writing out the takeaways (summarised atthe end of each chapter) on the wall.
It's been a while since I've read a non-fiction book I cannot put down but this one is at the top of my recomendation list for would be innovators. I can tell you - from personal experience - the attitudes necessary to work these ways are not intutitive. But they are necessary.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
