cover image Innovation You: Four Steps to Becoming New and Improved

Innovation You: Four Steps to Becoming New and Improved

Jeff Degraff. Ballantine, $25 (256p) ISBN 978-0-345-53069-1

For more than 20 years, Degraff (Leading Innovation) has taught innovation and creativity to students at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and has consulted on the same topics to global powerhouses like American Airlines, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Pfizer, and Toyota, earning the moniker "Dean of Innovation." He aims his message at the general reader who wishes to change something in his or her life. Sharing proven techniques for thinking imaginatively, Degraff divides the book into four sections designed to help the reader see how to inject creativity into his or her life, to learn helpful approaches to innovation, how to test and experiment, and how to understand the long-term cycles that drive innovation. Throughout, Degraff illustrates his points with useful illustrations ranging from the companies he's worked with to individuals he has taught, observed, or known in his personal life. At heart a self-help book, this work uses business thinking to help the reader take the emotion out of the problem, consider how to identify his or her style of innovation as well as the best ways to consider the desired change. A useful guide to thinking about career changes, entrepreneurial leaps, or general self-improvement, Degraff's newest work is a must-read for those contemplating change and wanting to make more creative decisions. (Aug.)