Find your company's unique innovation style, and nurture it into a powerful competitive advantage Praised by business leaders worldwide, Agile Innovation is the authoritative guide to survival and success in today's "innovate-or-die" business world. This revolutionary approach combines the best of Agile with the world's leading methods of Innovation to present a crisp, articulate, and proven system for developing the breakthrough capabilities every organization must master to thrive today and tomorrow. You already know that effective innovation doesn't happen by accident—it is achieved by careful design. Agile Innovation addresses the three critical drivers of innovation success: accelerating the innovation process; reducing the risks inherent in innovation; and engaging your entire organization and your broader ecosystem in the innovation effort. The key frameworks described here build on the proven success of Agile to provide a comprehensive and customizable Innovation Master Plan approach to sustained innovation improvement in the five critical performance areas: strategy, portfolio, process, culture and infrastructure. Major topics include: the power of Agile in the innovation process, how to overcome innovation risk, the best tools to evoke engagement and collaboration, branding as an integral element of innovation, and the best leadership skills and practices that create the special environment that enables transformative growth. Readers will learn specifically how to create better ideas, develop them more efficiently, and work together more profitably and effectively to achieve breakthroughs. The insights offered in this book are highlighted in 11 detailed case studies illustrating the world's best innovation practices at Wells Fargo, Nike, Volvo, Netflix, Southwest Airlines, NASA,The New York Times, and others, in dozens of specific business examples, in two dozen powerful and unique techniques and methods, and a full set of implementation guidelines to put these insights into practice. Key Insights: Understand how to implement the many ways that innovation efforts can be accelerated to achieve even greater competitive advantage Learn to create a culture of innovation, greater engagement, and rich collaboration throughout your organization Discover how to reduce risk and accelerate learning Implement your own unique plan to enhance collaborative innovation, from leadership through operations Integrate key agility principles into your strategic planning decisions for sustained improvement Explore dramatic new approaches to open innovation that optimize large scale innovation Apply the latest and best technology tools to enhance innovation, reduce risk, and promote broad participation. This is a must read book, a practical guide for fostering a culture of innovation, nurturing creativity, and efficiently developing the ideas that drive strategic growth. And since innovation is not imitation, you know that copying the ideas and strategies of other successful organizations will not produce the desired outcomes. Hence, all leaders must develop their own way of innovating and nurture the right style of collaborating for their own organization. This book will guide you to find your own unique pathways to success. Blaze your own trail to the high levels of innovativeness and organizational agility by learning from the expert guidance and practical, actionable advice offered throughout this important book.

The Agile Innovation Master Plan is the revised edition of The Innovation Master Plan by Langdon Morris. The classic work from 2011, The Innovation Master Plan, has been adopted in corporations and universities worldwide. This global framework for innovation management and strategy has now been updated with the latest thinking and best practices in Agile. Is there any doubt in your mind about the importance of innovation? Do you feel that innovation is vital to the future of your company? Then perhaps you've already discovered that the process of innovation is difficult to manage. It's risky, expensive, and unpredictable. Further, some leaders look at the innovations that come from companies like Apple or P&G, and think, "We don't have people or resources like theirs. We can't do that kind of magic." But the truth is that Apple's success, or P&G's, or Toyota's, isn't due to magic; it's because they follow a disciplined innovation process. So the best way for your firm to become an innovator is to adopt a systematic approach applies the best tools, and also goes beyond tools to help you manage the large scale risks and opportunities that your organization faces. This system elevates innovation to what it really should be, a strategic asset to your organization. Defining that system is the intent behind The Agile Innovation Master Plan.

This book presents unique insights and advice on defining and managing the innovation transformation journey. Using novel ideas, examples and best practices, it empowers management executives at all levels to drive cultural, technological and organizational changes toward innovation. Covering modern innovation techniques, tools, programs and strategies, it focuses on the role of the latest technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence to discover, handle and manage ideas), methodologies (including Agile Engineering and Rapid Prototyping) and combinations of these (like hackathons or gamification). At the same time, it highlights the importance of culture and provides suggestions on how to build it. In the era of AI and the unprecedented pace of technology evolution, companies need to become truly innovative in order to survive. The transformation toward an innovation-led company is difficult – it requires a strong leadership and culture, advanced technologies and well-designed programs. The book is based on the author’s long-term experience and novel ideas, and reflects two decades of startup, consulting and corporate leadership experience. It is intended for business, technology, and innovation leaders.

Best practices for managing projects in agile environments—now updated with new techniques for larger projects Today, the pace of project management moves faster. Project management needs to become more flexible and far more responsive to customers. Using Agile Project Management (APM), project managers can achieve all these goals without compromising value, quality, or business discipline. In Agile Project Management, Second Edition, renowned agile pioneer Jim Highsmith thoroughly updates his classic guide to APM, extending and refining it to support even the largest projects and organizations. Writing for project leaders, managers, and executives at all levels, Highsmith integrates the best project management, product management, and software development practices into an overall framework designed to support unprecedented speed and mobility. The many topics added in this new edition include incorporating agile values, scaling agile projects, release planning, portfolio governance, and enhancing organizational agility. Project and business leaders will especially appreciate Highsmith’s new coverage of promoting agility through performance measurements based on value, quality, and constraints. This edition’s coverage includes: Understanding the agile revolution’s impact on product development Recognizing when agile methods will work in project management, and when they won’t Setting realistic business objectives for Agile Project Management Promoting agile values and principles across the organization Utilizing a proven Agile Enterprise Framework that encompasses governance, project and iteration management, and technical practices Optimizing all five stages of the agile project: Envision, Speculate, Explore, Adapt, and Close Organizational and product-related processes for scaling agile to the largest projects and teams Agile project governance solutions for executives and management The “Agile Triangle”: measuring performance in ways that encourage agility instead of discouraging it The changing role of the agile project leader

Is there any doubt in your mind about the importance of innovation? Do you feel that innovation is vital to the future of your company? Then perhaps you've already discovered that the process of innovation is difficult to manage. It's risky, expensive, and unpredictable. Further, some leaders look at the innovations that come from companies like Apple or P&G, and think, "We don't have people or resources like theirs. We can't do that kind of magic." But the truth is that Apple's success, or P&G's, or Toyota's, isn't due to magic; it's because they follow a disciplined innovation process. So the best way for your firm to become an innovator is to adopt a systematic approach applies the best tools, and also goes beyond tools to help you manage the large scale risks and opportunities that your organization faces. This system elevates innovation to what it really should be, a strategic asset to your organization. Defining that system is the intent behind The Innovation Master Plan.

Due to the exponential pace of technological and societal change and the need for organizations to stay ahead of that change (to thrive) or to stay in step with that change (just to survive), it is crucial that they innovate, and thus that the methodology used to manage the organization's innovation efforts and investments be rigorously structured to support those efforts. Even better would be an approach that assists in shaping the pace of change to your organization's advantage.The Agile Innovation Master Plan (how to align innovation with strategy - the CEO's guide) by Langdon Morris provides such a framework, offering organizations a comprehensive approach to agile innovation management. I am dedicating this effort to further the advancement of that book, which I consider to be Langdon's seminal work on managing innovation. If you have not yet read The Agile Innovation Master Plan, I strongly urge you to put this book down and come back after you have done so; this book is part instructional and part lessons-learned, and some of the terminology and passages will refer back to it for context.But why the need for this book?Having successfully implemented The Agile Innovation Master Plan in our company, I realized that I could help organizations accelerate implementation of this most-important framework by providing an operational overview of that experience. My hope is that by reading this book you will be able to contextualize what I learned during our implementation of the "five key tracks of an effective agile innovation management system," apply it to your specific situation and be able to hit the ground running in an efficient manner. As in all things related to innovation, it was a learning experience, but if I can help you skip the bumps and bruises along the way, I will fulfill a major goal of this book.

As contrary as it sounds, "planning" -- as we traditionally understand the term--can be the worst thing a company can do. Consider that volatile weather events disrupt trusted supply chains, markets, and promised delivery schedules. Ever-shifting geo-political tensions, as well as internal political upheaval within U.S. and global governments, derail long-planned new ventures. Technology failures block opportunities. Competitors suddenly change their product or release date; your team cannot meet the pace of innovations in your market niche, leaving you sidelined. There are myriad ways in the current business environment for a company's well-considered business plans to go awry. Most business schools continue to prepare managers to be effective in stable and predictable environments, conditions that, if they ever existed at all, are long gone. The Agility Shift shows business leaders exactly how to make the radical mindset and strategy shift necessary to create an agile, entrepreneurial organization that can innovate and thrive in complex, ever-changing contexts. As author Pamela Meyer explains, there is much more involved than a reconfiguration of the org chart and job descriptions. It requires relinquishing the illusion of control at the very foundation of most management training and business practice. Despite most leaders' approaches, "Agility is not simply accelerated planning." Unlike many agility books on the market, The Agility Shift provides specific, actionable strategies and tactics for leaders at all levels of the organization to put into practice immediately to improve agility and achieve results.