The case study method of teaching in most business schools is blamed for a lack of creativity, innovation, and a risk-averse mindset among most managers. They have been training the brains of young MBAs to learn from what has happened rather than look around in the moment and discover what problems can be solved in newer ways.
In this book, Hersh Haladker and Raghunath Mashelkar take sources of discovery and learning to a whole new level. They quote Heraclitus who sums up what the book is all about – “The unexpected connection is more powerful than the one that is obvious.”
This book will leave readers awestruck. The authors show how an outdated or failed solution in one industry can bring disruption to another. For example, looking at how a racing team works can improve industrial manufacturing productivity.
The authors seem to have coined a new word ‘Exprovement’, which is exponential improvement borne out of drawing parallels between seemingly unrelated events or experiences. Their best example is how Henry Ford revolutionized the automotive industry by looking at how the meat-packing industry worked. It made him wonder if an assembly line idea of the meat industry could work in the car-making industry. It did, and the rest is history.
The authors emphasize that searching for growth opportunities within an offering’s existing industry usually results in incremental improvement, whereas exponential improvement can be achieved by drawing parallels from outside of the current context.
One of the reasons for Dr. Raghunath’s phenomenal success as an eminent scientist is his clarity of vision and how effortlessly he communicates it. This shows in the book as well.
Dr. Mashelkar’s previous book ‘From Leapfrogging to Pole-vaulting: Creating the Magic of Radical yet Sustainable Transformation’ (Penguin 2019) introduced the 10X concept of thinking for solving the world’s seemingly unsolvable problems like massive poverty, illiteracy, and climate crisis. His new book easily complements Leapfrogging to Pole-vaulting.
Harsh Haladker, an innovation expert trained at The Royal College of Art from Imperial College London, has deftly captured the intricacies of ‘exprovement’ and has made it accessible.
This book will be a huge asset to anyone who wants to make a big impact in a shorter time frame. The two books read together are certain to make the reader believe that solutions are not that out-of-reach.
