Why do so many game-changing innovations start on a napkin sketch in restaurants vs. drafting tables inside monster bureaucracies that famously chew up and spit out innovation?
We answer that question— and show how to innovate inside big bureaucracies — with five inspiring stories of successful game-changers.
About the Book
Why do so many game-changing innovations start on a napkin sketch in restaurants vs. drafting tables inside monster bureaucracies that famously chew up and spit out innovation?
We answer that question— and show how to innovate inside big bureaucracies — with stories of five game-changers:
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A pentagon executive discovered an innovative way to cut casualties from roadside bombs at an informal dinner meeting. Then worked under the nose of the Pentagon monster to swiftly get the life-saving innovation to the battlefield.
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A lowly graduate student helped lay the foundation of the Internet by collecting regular conversations at a Chinese Restaurant in Palo Alto.
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A Disney executive forged a deal to bring a breakthrough in Augmented Reality to market over drinks at a bar in San Francisco.
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A Washington DC insider catalyzed numerous game-changing national security innovations by creating “supper clubs” where different actors in the innovation “food chain” could brush elbows, eat, drink and tell war stories.
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A Pentagon staffer “abused” existing military tech to cut IED deaths in two short months
These five game-changers kicked off big innovations over meals or at a bar and they all succeeded spectacularly inside monster bureaucracies by employing highly informal strategies not taught in any business school or book on innovation.
About the Authors
Eric Haseltine, PhD, is a named inventor on 60 patents and former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering. He served as Director of Research at NSA and Director of Science and Technology for the US Intelligence Community. Currently Chairman of the Board of the US Technology Leadership Council, he is author of 3 books on innovation, science and technology, including his recent espionage techno-thriller: The Spy In Moscow Station.
Chris Gilbert, MD, PhD, is a physician, writer, and speaker who has pioneered innovative techniques in holistic and integrative medicine, described in her recent book on mind-body medicine, The Listening Cure. Dr. Gilbert, who had private practices in France and California and served with Doctors Without Borders in Africa and Asia, is a certified specialist in Hyperbaric Medicine, and also regularly serves as medical consultant to TV and Motion Picture productions.
