You Can Kill an Idea, but You Can't Kill an Opportunity: How to Discover New Sources of Growth for Your Organization

Reviews You Can Kill an Idea, But You Can't Kill an Opportunity: How to Discover New Sources of Growth for Your Organization Pam Henderson (New York: Wiley, 2013)Most of us are problem solvers; in our quest to create and capture value for our organizations, we strive to identify problems and create ideas to solve them. Often, we are attracted to inter- esting or tough problems. Creating a multitude of new ideas to solve them becomes compelling. In You Can Kill an Idea, however, Pam Henderson suggests we should look at another starting point: not problems or ideas, but spe- cific opportunities. Rather than solving problems, we should seek to leverage that specific opportunity for the benefit of our organizations and the world. This approach is about opportunity-driven thinking, rather than problem-focused or idea-centered thinking; in fact, delib- erately killing ideas that won't lead to growth is, in Henderson's view, the start- ing point for growth.In seven chapters, presented in an unconventional and engaging print format, You Can Kill an Idea introduces opportunistic thinking, showing how and where to look for opportunities and then how to farm and mine "killer ideas" to leverage the opportunities iden- tified. The book is colorful, fun to read, and full of real-world stories-both historical and contemporary-that are both relevant and sufficiently compel- ling to shift mindsets and make readers into "opportunity thinkers." The histor- ical anecdotes mostly refer to explorers whose journeys of discovery are set in the context of seeking, finding, creating, and harvesting opportunities. Indeed, these tales of exploration are directly related to opportunity thinking; as Henderson explains, the word opportu- nity originated from the Latin ob portu, which described the right wind and tide conditions to carry vessels and their wares to their destination.Where do we look for opportunities? You Can Kill an Idea identifies six sources of opportunities, each thoroughly expli- cated with real-world examples and takeaways:^ Organization-people, culture, and the role of "the crowd"^ Technology-enablers and differen- tiators of products and services^ Expression-the elements of mean- ing associated with the product or service, including brand, logo, and design^ Business Model-the mechanism for monetizing offerings^ Market-customers and their needs^ Environment-external factors, in- cluding trends, regulations, larger culture, economic forces, and other elementsAlthough these sources have different weights depending on the nature of the business, relationships among them are very important, as they all have to come together in a coherent way to produce growth. Interrelationships may func- tion in any of three ways: as tensions (for instance, between what markets want and what technology enables), as synergies (for instance, technology and expression coming together in the realization of a product design), or as connections (for instance, between or- ganizations or across an ecosystem).Although Henderson stresses the benefits of close cross-functional col- laboration for creating connections and synergies and argues that a lack of such collaboration will result in failure, this is the one point in the book where a bit more insight and discussion would be welcome. …