Book Is Now for Sale; I'm headed for Atlanta

Innovation Passport is finally for sale. It can be found on Amazon, B&N and dozens of other venues. If you go to the FOAK page on the IBM site, you'll find instructions for a 35% discount (and free US shipping).

I've been getting lots of questions about the book. The primary ones are what is it about and who is it for. It is about collaborative innovation, in particular about the experience that IBM has had bringing together its researchers with key clients to bring things into the marketplace. There are lots of tips and lessons about how to do this, all grounded in 14 years of experience. While there are specifics in areas like legal concerns, I'd say that the people part of collaboration predominates. Innovation is a social activity, and that's something that can get lost as we develop processes and rules. You'll find the complete FOAK process and a good number of rules in Innovation Passport, but you'll find more direction on getting people with different values, needs, cultures, disciplines and languages working together.

As to who the book is for, I'd say the primary audience is folks who are interesting in doing innovation activities. This is not a book about theory. It is not abstract. The starting point was the projects that have been funded by the program: reports were read and there were interviews with many of the participants. Mary Jo lives in the center of all this. I was the sometimes naive questioner or just a bug on the wall. So, if you need to make new things actually happen, you should find useful ideas here (as well as a look toward the future). I'm hoping business people, researchers, entrepreneurs, executives and managers will be able to put our hard-won lessons to use.

Questions? Please feel free to post them here. Or send me a note at forgingthefuture@gmail.com I'll be in Atlanta Oct 1-3 for anyone in that area, San Jose on Nov 15-17. NY most of the rest of the time. I'm always looking for good conversations, interviews and speaking opportunities.
Peter
(I do not work for IBM and my views do not reflect IBM's views)