The Game-Changer by AG Lafley and Ram Charan

Using the stories from Proctor and Gamble, Lego, DuPont and many other businesses whose corporate culture and bottom line have been reconfigured to embrace, reward, stimulate, and grow from innovation, this book describes the process of innovation. It is full of practical wisdom that anyone could implement to move towards a systematic culture of innovation. Read this to learn how to evaluate the comparable risk and reward of suggested innovations when looking short-term, mid-term, and long-term. The authors view failed innovations as stepping stones to successful ones especially when the written reflections explains why things failed. A lot of emphasis is given to how to "create a social process" that fosters innovation and to how to assign criteria, i.e. the metrics of innovation. Great insight is provided about the necessary attributes of the members and the leaders of innovation teams.

What grabbed my attention as a strategy that I can adapt to my role as a consultant to nonprofit organizations who contributes significantly to strategic planning to build organizational capacity is the description of Proctor and Gamble's "Innovation Gym". This is a dedicated space that teams (in my case nonprofit boards) can visit to achieve specific goals related to problems that will be solved through innovation. The facilitators that run the Innovation Gym provide unusual resources and activities that are designed to stimulate creative solutions and connect the expertise of participants from very different backgrounds. This approach is very relevant to the work of nonprofit organizations who are committed to creating solutions for serious social problems and for the funders who are dedicated to provide "venture" capital that allow these solutions to be tried.

A Game-Changer is an innovation that opens a new "frontier"- and brings new options that totally change the way everyone does something. A cell phone and the invention of plastic, for instance, are two examples of game-changing innovations. Making the hunt for either "disruptive" or "incremental" innovations part of the daily work at a company causes an organic growth potential to ensure its future.

I highly recommend this book as an idea stimulator for anyone.


Lafley, A.G. and Charan, Ram, The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation. (c) 2008. Crown Business. New York.