The New Killer Apps: How Large Companies Can Out-Innovate Start-Ups

by Paul B Carroll, James Madara (Foreword by), Chunka Mui

Overview

"An erudite anthem for large companies reshaping themselves to innovate and compete with agile startups."

-- Kirkus Reviews A Kirkus Indie Books of the Month Selection and recipient of a Kirkus Star for "Exceptional Merit"

"An important book for the boards and managements of every company dealing with the avalanche of technological change."

-- Jack Greenberg, Chairman of Western Union and former CEO of McDonald's

"This book's eight innovation rules represent the difference between big companies leveraging their assets or getting their assets whooped."

-- Guy Kawasaki, Former chief evangelist of Apple and author of APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur

"This is the best business book I've read in very many years. It absolutely nails how to and how not to innovate."

-- Sam Hill, Author of Radical Marketing and former chief marketing officer at Booz Allen

"Great work! The more I read, the more I couldn't put it down."

-- Philip Fasano, Executive vice president, Kaiser Permanente and Author of Transforming Health Care

Overview

The New Killer Apps reverses the conventional wisdom that start-ups are destined to out-innovate big, established businesses. Through crisp analysis and compelling case studies, Mui and Carroll show that this just isn't true. Or, at least, it need not be. Yes, small and agile beats big and slow, but big and agile beats anyone. This book offers a roadmap for how large companies can Think Big, Start Small and Learn Fast. In doing so, they can get out of their own way, take advantage of their natural assets, and vanquish both traditional competitors and upstarts by nurturing and unleashing their own killer apps.

There's certainly a lot on the line. A perfect storm of technological innovation-combining smartphones and other mobile devices, ubiquitous cameras and sensors, social media and "big data" analytical tools-means that more than $36 trillion of stock-market value is up for what Mary Meeker at Kleiner Perkins is calling "reimagination." Large companies will either do the reimagining and lay claim to the markets of the future or will be reimagined out of existence.

Table of Contents

Foreword by James Madara, M.D., CEO, American Medical Association

GETTING STARTED

Introduction: A Road Map for Corporate Innovation-Big and Agile Beats Anyone

Case Study: Google Cars and $2 Trillion in Auto-RelatedRevenue Up for Grabs

PHASE ONE: THINK BIG

Rule 1: Context Is Worth 80 IQ Points

Rule 2: Embrace Your Doomsday Scenario

Rule 3: Start with a Clean Sheet of Paper

Case Study: Carmakers Must Take a New Road

PHASE TWO: START SMALL

Rule 4: First, Let's Kill All the Finance Guys

Rule 5: Get Everyone on the Same Page

Rule 6: Build a Basket of Killer Options

Case Study: Auto Insurance in a World Without Accidents

PHASE THREE: LEARN FAST

Rule 7: A Demo Is Worth a Thousand Pages of a Business Plan

Rule 8: Remember the Devil's Advocate

Case Study: Are Hospitals DOA?

Conclusion

Afterword: Moving from Innovation to Invention

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780989242011
Publisher:	Devils Advocate Group
Publication date:	12/16/2013
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Chunka Mui is the coauthor of the bestselling "Unleashing the Killer App." Paul Carroll wrote the bestselling "Big Blues." Together, they also coauthored the award-winning "Billion Dollar Lessons."

Editorial Reviews

★ 2013-12-17
Couched as an us-vs.-them guide for corporations in the realm of technology innovation, this perceptive book shows how big companies can defeat the nimble upstarts through the strategic use of resources, the implementation of three principles and the following of eight rules. Mui (co-author Unleashing the Killer App, 2000) and former Wall Street Journal reporter and editor Carroll's (co-author Billion Dollar Lessons, 2008) latest joint work builds on the idea that, to beat startups, large companies must leverage their greater assets (e.g., people, resources, branding, supply chains, distribution networks, customer relations, and market and customer data) in the context of six key technological innovations: mobile devices, cameras, sensors, social media, the cloud and "emergent knowledge." Three principles guide the approach: first, "Think Big," the initial phase in redesigning a business, which calls for starting fresh, embracing the context of the business environment and considering potential worst-case scenarios; second, "Start Small," as in make sure everyone in the company is on the same page, and don't rush to let financial projections limit or run the company, since those numbers can be inaccurate; and third, "Learn Fast" regarding rules about the value of showing versus telling and welcoming a devil's advocate into strategy planning. The clear, engaging prose is highlighted by plenty of anecdotes and four case studies. Additionally, many readers will find the afterword—"Moving from Innovation to Invention"—well worth their time, especially if they wish to create their own technological earthquakes instead of merely using disruptive technologies to their advantage. The partisan pro–big-business stance shouldn't prevent the other side—e.g., startups, entrepreneurs, small-business owners—from taking advantage of these insights to see what their savvy, outsize competitors will soon be up to. The sagacious, well-rounded guide will also appeal to investors, teachers, students, journalists and historians, all of whom might have a vested interest in the future of the tech industry and the next big thing. An erudite anthem for large companies reshaping themselves to innovate and compete with agile startups.

Kirkus Reviews