The Game-Changer by A G Lafley & Ram Charan

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The tagline of the book The Game-Changer reads ‘How you can drive revenue and profit growth with Innovation’. And the book actually talks about the practical things that you can do to drive innovation in an organization. That too using examples from an organization that is huge, global, and so-called old economy. Of all the Innovation books that I have read till now, this is the only one that seems to be written by someone who has practiced and lived innovation. There is Gyan, but I found all of it very practical. Having led an innovation initiative, I could relate to every challenge and every nuance mentioned in the book.

The Game-Changer by A G Lafley & Ram Charan

The Game-Changer by A G Lafley & Ram Charan

I had read the P&G case study a number of times in various Innovation forums, but for some reason, they always focused on the fact that P&G is the first company to incorporate 50% innovations from outside the organization. I always disregarded this by saying that P&G is in the consumer business. And they ought to listen to what their consumers say and want. But after reading this book, I certainly realized my short-sightedness and got to know all the meticulous planning and change management that went behind allowing the 50% innovations to be a part of the organization’s strategy.

The authors first establish the case for the fact that customers must be at the center of any innovation that the organization aims to achieve.

8 Aspects to Address

Then they go on to discuss the 8 aspects that need to be taken care of to achieve customer-centric innovations. These 8 aspects are:

  1. Motivating Purpose & Values
  2. Stretching Goals
  3. Choiceful Strategies
  4. Unique Core strengths
  5. Enabling Structures
  6. Consistent and reliable systems
  7. Courageous & connected culture
  8. Inspiring Leadership

Description with examples

They go on to describe each of these aspects with appropriate examples most of the time from P&G and at times from other organizations as well. Interestingly they wrap up each chapter with a few core questions that you as an innovation evangelist should ask yourself every Monday morning.

I would recommend this book The Game-Changer to anyone who is a practitioner of Innovation. It really speaks from the experience of someone who has lived through a very successful innovation journey. Thanks, Shankar for gifting me this book…🙂

Buy this book – The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation by A. G. Lafley & Ram Charan at Amazon India.

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