Weird Ideas That Work (Paperback)

Sutton says that companies should aim to fail more, and faster. How else will they know what works and what don't? Surprisingly, a lot of big name firms like General Motors, Xerox, Procter & Gamble; McDonalds use his ideas and hire him as a consultant.

As I mentioned earlier, the book is full of real life business examples of what he recommends. He says that companies should reward failure as well as success and punish only inaction and cites a former head of IBM, who refused to accept the resignation of a manager who made a mistake that cost the company $10 million. The Manager was told, "You can't be serious. We just spent $10 million educating you".

Says Sutton in the book that Procter & Gamble, invited & consulted him saying they wanted to fail more. They told him they wanted more new products to make it to the supermarket shelves and flop there, rather than dying in the laboratory. But why don't they want their products to succeed? Well, they do, but the research shows that nine out of ten new ideas fail and the key to finding a workable one is to maximise creative output, then weed out the duds as quickly and cheaply as possible. So, expect a new & strange shampoo from P&G next time around. Could be a result of following Rob's ideas. :-)

The book is definitely an interesting read, littered with a good number of business tips here and there, over all, the contents require a big elbowroom for them to be implemented. As obvious, the ideas in the book present a lot of risk and perhaps the reader should look for another book from Rob Sutton to manage those risks. Read it, but don't get weird!! ;-)

Robert Sutton differentiates between what he calls 'exploitation' - repeating proven and successful procedures, and 'exploration' - generating and exploring new ideas and new ways forward. He suggests that even organisations like Intel and McDonalds, which rely heavily on duplication of a successful formula, need to foster some innovation. It is really a question of what percentage of time and resourcing should be allocated to each area of the business.

Sutton argues that the innovative parts of organisations should be managed differently and that one of the major factors undermining innovation is organisational culture. The pressure to conform to organisational norms, including ways of managing and evaluating people, all too often stifles creativity and true innovation. The 'weird ideas' are ways of breaking out of this mould.

Among the weird ideas, Sutton adovates changing the approach to recruitment - instead of selecting 'clones', deliberately bringing in misfits - people who will resist or be slow to conform, who may be uncomfortable to manage or to work with, or even people who are surplus to requirements. One, to my mind ethically dubious, technique he suggests is using recruitment interviews to poach ideas from job applicants. Other of the weird ideas focus on encouraging employees to challenge their managers and the status quo, to push the boundaries and do their own thing. Managers should either stand back and allow people to explore, rewarding failure as well as success, or step in to provoke creative conflict or throw in provocative or 'weird' ideas, or to encourage people to ignore past history and reinvent the wheel.

All the ideas carry a strong element of risk. Although Sutton recognises this, I do not think he gives enough weight to finding ways of mitigating and managing these risks. It is, nevertheless, an interesting and thought-provoking book which I would strongly recommend to anyone whose organisation needs a higher degree of innovation.

The 11 and a half ideas in it are certainly weird - have you ever seriously considered hiring people you didn't need or encouraging staff to defy superiors? But once the author explains them, they make practical sense. They are not a random selection of contrarian bright thoughts, but real tips. The book itself evolved over a number of years as the author, a Professor at Stanford, discussed them, tried them out, weeded out the 'weird ideas that don't work', and mastered when to apply - and when not to apply - them.

There is also an evolutionary philosophy behind the ideas. Not the old 'struggle for survival' stuff, but the importance of variation (Darwin himself considered this the most important part of his theory).

Unlike so many business books, where you have to wade though stodgy managementese and diagrams that put Hampton Court Maze to shame, Sutton tells his story in attractive, clear English. There is also a very healthy dose of deadpan humour - how can you not relish a business book that recommends at one point: 'be boring!'. This last piece of advice is not one the author takes himself.