Braden Kelley observes in his new book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire: A Roadmap to a Sustainable Culture of Ingenuity and Purpose that “successful organizations are typically built around one or more key customer insights that allow them to solve their customers’ problems better than their competition.” But as the company grows, focus shifts and drifts, and soon that insight into the customer is lost. Companies “unintentionally erect barriers to innovation as they become ever more efficient and profitable.”
Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire takes on these innovation barriers in three parts: Part 1 is about vision, how to unblock it and set realistic innovation goals. Part II zeros in the on what for me is central to successful innovation: customer focus. “Broadcasting the Voice of the Customer” is one of the many takeaways from the book that companies can immediately act on and quickly reap high value. Part III tackles the organization, recognizing the importance of purpose and passion in building innovation into an organization. There is also a super useful customer journey visual framework in the Appendix, an excellent tool that companies can put right to work in bringing the voice of customer back into the core of their organization.
The combination of both roadmap and easy to implement tool kit, extensive use of case studies and Braden’s passion and purpose in helping companies innovate successfully clearly coming through makes Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire a recommended read for executives, managers and the broader innovation community. You can download a free sample chapter here.
