The Good: Practical and simple advice on how to come up with new products and services by cherry-picking, then combining, others' ideas.
The Bad: Author Murray often repeats his main points—even some of his anecdotes
The Bottom Line: An entertaining, easy-to-read romp through the history of innovation, from Gutenberg to the Google guys, plus a method that appears to actually work.Borrowing Brilliance:
The Six Steps to Business Innovation
by Building on the Ideas of Others
By David Kord Murray
Gotham; 293 pp.; $26
The author of Borrowing Brilliance, David Kord Murray, has an impressive résumé. Not only is he a rocket scientist who worked on numerous projects for NASA and the Pentagon but he's also a successful entrepreneur, having sold Taxnet, a company he co-founded that specializes in e-filing software, to H&R Block (HRB) in 2005. And in between those items on his CV is a strong hint that he practices what he preaches. When Murray was head of innovation at Intuit (INTU)—the creator of TurboTax, which allows users to e-file—he saw a brilliant idea, borrowed a chunk of it, and made a killing. His book encourages everyone to give it a try. After all, he argues, it worked for Johannes Gutenberg, George Lucas, and the Google guys.
Murray uses personal anecdotes and scores of examples to build the case that cherry-picking the ideas of others is a vital part of the research and development process. For instance, Google is heralded for borrowing concepts from library science to improve Web searches. Gutenberg's printing press borrowed from the gear used by winemakers and olive-oil producers. George Lucas? It's a longish list. Such nuggets spice up Murray's six steps, which start with defining the problem you want to solve, then searching for solutions used by others with similar problems, followed by a process of refining the material you gather. link..
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