How both entrepreneurs and nations can develop, harness, and utilize intellect, science, and technology to maximize innovation and growth.

Financial technology—or fintech—is gaining in popularity globally as a way of making financial services more efficient and accessible. In rapidly developing China, fintech is taking off, catering to markets that state-owned banks and an undersized financial sector do not serve amid a backdrop of growing consumption and a large, tech-savvy millennial generation. It is becoming increasingly likely that some of China’s fintech firms will change the way the world does business. In China’s Fintech Explosion, Sara Hsu and Jianjun Li explore the transformative potential of China’s financial-technology industry, describing the risks and rewards for participants as well as the impact on consumers. They cover fintech’s many subsectors, such as digital payment systems, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, credit card issuance, internet banks, blockchain finance and virtual currencies, and online insurance. The book highlights the disruption of traditional banking as well as the risks of fintech and regulatory technology. Hsu and Li describe major companies including Alipay and Tencent, developer of WeChat Pay and a wealth-management business, and other leading fintech firms such as Creditease, Zhong An Insurance, and JD Finance. Offering expert analysis of market potential, risks, and competition, as well as case studies of firms and consumer behavior, China’s Fintech Explosion is a must-read for anyone interested in one of the world’s breakout sectors.

Currently, the prime focus for US business plans should not be on the manufacturing process design and delivery processes, but on greatly improving innovation leadership, design engineering capability, and sales and marketing innovation. These three areas have been sadly lacking significant performance improvement during the past 20 years. The magic word for US business is "simplification." Most of the books written to date focus on the solution development aspect of the Innovation System Cycle, which is less than 15% of the total innovative system. Focusing on solution development is only the start -- the rest of the innovation system cycle is what turns an idea into a profitable business. The techniques in this book are directed at key tasks across the innovative process, such as maximizing quality, productivity, maintainability, usability, and reliability, while focusing on reducing the product cycle time and costs within the innovative process. This book uses more than 50 different approaches/concepts, which leads the reader in a very simple method for understanding, establishing, and effectively using an innovative system to provide a significant marketing advantage. Previous books have focused on what to do; however, this book focuses on how to do it. It transforms a complicated complex system into easy-to-use and understand methodology.

This compendium of the worst natural, man-made, and political catastrophes of all time is a chilling account of mass destruction, horrific plagues, shocking acts of terrorism and killer storms - proof that life can change in the blink of an eye.

Consultant Dundon describes the three components of innovation as creative thinking, strategic thinking, and transformational thinking. She argues that innovation is not restricted to right brainers or to new products and technologies, and that small steps of evolution can be as valuable as great leaps of revolution. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

How do you innovate, how do you structure your organization, your team, your personal life? You need a detailed plan and everything laid out for the future! Really? Well, maybe not always. Maybe you need to operate also with the Spaghetti Principle. Discover how you can embrace this special principle and really make innovation stick. Specifically, you will learn how to deal in today’s dynamic and uncertain environment. With practical examples from leaders and companies you will see how a totally different approach to strategy and innovation can revolutionize your work. With examples from fields as diverse as the Startup world, nature, opera, TED, Lars Sudmann will awaken you to an inspiring and thought-provoking journey of innovation. You will see innovation and experimentation with different eyes after reading this book. Lars Sudmann has been a CFO and a strategy manager at leading organisations. He is now a corporate advisor, university lecturer and explorer of what makes innovation and change possible. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lars Sudmann - Lars Sudmann is an explorer of innovation and leadership. He searches for the tools and strategies that the best leaders on the frontiers of leadership use and apply and makes these available for everyday users. His TEDx talks on leadership and innovation are top-ranked with more than 500.000 views, and he has been featured on Fast Company, BBC Capital, The Economist Career Network, Trends, The Chicago Tribune and many more. Professionally, he has had various roles, ranging from Innovation Portfolio Strategy manager, CFO Belgium at Procter & Gamble, Guest Professor on Decision Making, and Startup Board Advisor. He now advises corporates, SMEs, startups and high-performing individuals. More about Lars Sudmann can be found at www.lars-sudmann.com.

Three unassailable facts will strike you as soon as you start to read The Future of Innovation: • One: innovation is the new mantra; whether you're involved in teaching art and design, new product development for a blue chip consumer brand or responsible for providing public services to citizens; • Two: understanding innovation requires multiple perspectives; from culture and mindset, social and commercial context, new ways of working as much as new products or services; • Three: innovation is a journey; drawing on insights from around the globe is essential to accelerate our progress. Bettina von Stamm and Anna Trifilova have gathered together the thoughts and ideas of over 200 of the most creative innovators from business, professional practice and academia from nearly 60 countries. The contributors look at innovation from almost every angle. Their statements offer an unparalleled view of innovation and provide a depth of insight that is extraordinary. The editors' reflection on each statement and on the sections within the book, provide useful links between themes and reinforce the relationships between many of the ideas. Anyone interested in innovation (student, researcher or practitioner) will benefit from this global thought collection. The contributors' multiple perspectives, models, practical examples and stories provide a sense of innovation that no single writer could ever capture. The Future of Innovation is supported by the website www.thefutureofinnovation.org, where you can find even more contributions and tools that enable you to exchange, expand, elaborate and develop your perspectives on the future of innovation.