Nanovation: How a Little Car Can Teach the World to Think Big and Act Bold

by Kevin Freiberg, Jackie Freiberg, Dain Dunston

Overview

The Nano car disrupted an entire industry and changed the game in India forever. But this inspiring book is more than the story of one ingenious invention. Nanovation explains how revolutionary business thinking and product design can have profound effects on companies, industries, and the world. Discover the thought processes that bred innovation, the leadership that overcame adversity, the risks that were necessary to avoid failure, and how all of these efforts resulted in success beyond customers’ wildest expectations. This book will inspire you to contest management dogma, taken-for-granted assumptions, and updated systems—asking instead the tough questions of “What if?” and “Why not?” The process may even motivate you to overcome the toughest roadblocks in your career, the limitations of your business, and the biggest challenges facing your industry, In India, entire families-too poor to afford a car-crowd onto a single motor scooter every day to brave the tangled traffic of the streets. One evening, Tata Motor's then–venerable chairman Ratan Tata witnessed something on those rain-soaked streets that horrified him: an overloaded scooter lost traction in a busy intersection and sent several members of a family tumbling across the pavement. In that moment, the dream of Nanovation took root—and Ratan Tata perused it undeterred. When budget constraints, design restrictions, the rising costs of materials, and political agitation threatened to derail the project, Team Nano pressed on. This is the story of how they overcame insurmountable odds to create one of the greatest innovations in the auto industry.Do you have the eyes, the ears, and the hands to be a Nanovator? Endorsed by CEOs of high-profile, worldwide companies spanning many different industries, Nanovation encourages big ideas and even bigger action plans so that you, too, can make your mark.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595555250
Publisher:	HarperCollins Leadership
Publication date:	07/23/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Drs. Kevin and Jackie Freiberg are the authors of NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, an international bestseller, and Boom! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors Off Business-As-Usual. The Freibergs have a global consultancy that equips leaders for a world of change. They have been interviewed by CBS’s 60 Minutes and appeared on CNBC and the CBS Morning News. Their articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, India’s Economic Times, and USA Today.

Dain Dunston helps some of the world’s smartest companies build cultures of innovation. For more than 25 years, he’s coached leaders on how to communicate with their people to build teams that are branded to the bone. Dain has worked with leaders in many of the world’s top automotive, high-tech, health care, retail, and hospitality companies—IBM, Lilly, Bayer, Office Depot, Sherwin-Williams, Carlson, BMW and Audi—helping them link purpose to performance, inspiring game-changing breakthroughs and building great brands.

Table of Contents

Prologue xv

Part 1 The Nano Story 1

1 Nanovation Begins with Noticing 3

2 Leading Nanovation 15

3 A Culture of Thinking Big 29

4 The Nanovation Team 39

5 The Search for Nanovation 47

6 Shell Shock 57

7 Have an Ace in the Hole 67

8 People Ignore Design That Ignores People 79

9 From Silos to Seamless 91

Part 2 Defining Nanovation 97

10 An Impossible Dream in the Service of a Cause 99

11 A Cause Becomes a Movement 115

12 Nanovation Starts a Revolution 131

13 Nothing Short of Elegance 149

14 Start with Less; End Up with More 165

15 No-Apology Products 177

16 Return on Innovation 189

17 The Nano Revealed 205

18 A Legacy of Inclusive Growth 221

19 West Bengal? Are You Crazy? 239

20 Leading Through Crisis 257

21 Moving at the Speed of Yes! 277

22 Now You Can 307

Part 3 Finding What's Next! The Eight Rules of Nanovation 331

23 Rule 1 Get Wired for Nanovation 333

24 Rule 2 Lead the Revolution 357

25 Rule 3 Build a Culture of Innovation 375

26 Rule 4 Question the Unquestionable 403

27 Rule 5 Look Beyond Customer Imagination 423

28 Rule 6 Go to the Intersection of Trends 437

29 Rule 7 Solve a Problem That Matters 449

30 Rule 8 Risk More, Fail Faster, Bounce Back Stronger 461

Part 4 The Nanovation Effect 479

31 The Nanovation Effect 481

32 Now You Can, Too 501

Epilogue 507

Acknowledgments 509

About the Authors 519

Index 523