Creative Strategy

More about the book

William Duggan's 2007 work demonstrated how innovation occurs in business and aligns with modern neuroscience on idea formation. In his latest book, he provides a step-by-step guide for individuals and organizations to implement this method for their own innovations. Duggan addresses the critical issue of how innovation truly unfolds. While other creativity and strategy methods focus on research and analysis, they often lack guidance on developing actionable creative ideas or rely on the randomness of brainstorming. Instead, Duggan outlines a three-step method that mirrors the brain's natural process: breaking down a problem, searching for past examples, and creating new combinations to solve it. This approach reveals how innovation genuinely occurs. He explains how to apply these steps for innovation in various contexts, whether individually, as a team, or at the organizational level. The key middle step involves a "what-works scan," encouraging a global search for effective ideas beyond one’s immediate environment. Real-world cases, from Netflix to Edison and Google to Henry Ford, illustrate this creative strategy. Moreover, Duggan shows how to integrate this approach with existing methods like Porter's Five Forces or Design Thinking, demystifying innovation and making it accessible.