I've just finished reading a book that can be appealing to a number of innovators,

especially those eyeing at bigger and risky new projects in their organizations. The
book is entitled ‘Big Think Strategy: How to Leverage Bold Ideas and Leave
Small Thinking Behind’ and is written by Bernd Schmitt.

Bernd Herbert Schmitt is a professor of international business in the marketing

department at Columbia Business School, Columbia University in New York. He is
known for his research, books, speaking and consulting on customer experience,
customer happiness, branding and innovation and for his work on Asian markets and
consumers. He has written several other influential books in the areas
like Experiential Marketing, Customer Experience Management, and Happy
Customers Everywhere.

Review about title of the book:

Through his book, Schmitt is really interested in helping firms shake off the old focus
on smaller, more incremental products and projects and seek new, disruptive
thinking. He distinguishes this by calling it ‘Big Think’ as opposed to ‘Small Think’.
Though his definition of Big Think truly fits into the context of what he is trying to
convey, but the use of the term Small Think to refer to the traditional way of strategic
thinking does not seem to be convincing enough. Being risk averse doesn’t always
mean that the thinking behind it is small. Sometimes, taking a step back is important
in order to take a huge leap forward. So, according to me the title of the book should
not contain the term ‘Bad Think’.

Purpose of the book:

We all know that businesses need creative and innovative strategies to compete. But
as Schmitt points out, conventional corporate wisdom, which refrains risk taking and
rewards small thinking, discourages the kind of bold ideas needed to change
markets. Big Think Strategy is the antidote to such corporate inertia. Through
business case studies and explanations on cultural phenomena, Schmitt uncovers the
essence of bold leadership and the sources of revolutionary change.

Content:
According to Schmitt, the Big Think is:

 About creativity and leadership

 About visionary leadership
 About bold ideas and actions
 About integration across core ideas
 About long term, lasting impact

Small Think is the opposite of these concepts - safe, conservative, incremental, and
short term. Schmitt uses GE and Jeffrey Immelt as an example of a firm that moved
from traditional Small Think to Big Think. Immelt realized that GE could not grow
quickly enough without innovation and Big Think, and challenged his direct reports to
create three Imagination Breakthroughs each year. These are radically new ideas that
must generate at least $100m in growth. Immelt regularly reviews these ideas and has
set aside funding for these new ideas. That’s putting this management talk into action.
Schmitt suggests that there are six tasks associated with Big Think:

1. Sourcing "new" ideas

2. Evaluating the ideas
3. Turning the ideas into a Big Think Strategy
4. Executing the strategy
5. Leading the Big Think
6. Sustaining Big Think

As far as evaluation is concerned, Schmitt's advice is to first ask - is it a Big Idea, then
look to see if it is feasible. In the chapter on turning ideas into a strategy, Schmitt offers
a framework for identifying how the innovation one has identified can be put into
practice. It's based on a two by two matrix.

The rest of the book looks at how to implement new strategies based on this
framework. Basically Schmitt boils it down to:

 Transcendence
 Opposition
 Essence
 Integration
Transcendence offers something far beyond what has been expected. Opposition offers
something that seems in contradiction to the expected order (producing the Mini when
the prevailing auto choice was an SUV). Essence is reducing to the indispensable
offering and having full control over those indispensable factors. Integration is
bringing together concepts that were considered mutually exclusive. These actions
provide the basis for choosing which Big Think Strategy will work best in your situation
and competitive landscape.

The last two chapters of the book have to do with leading and sustaining a big change
program. As you might expect, these actions require leaders with big visions and thick
skins. They need passion for the Big Think Strategy and need to work not only with the
quantitative data, but also with their gut instincts. It's hard for a consultant or a book
to define all of the steps necessary to implement such a strategy, and what's really
required is the dogged determination to stick with the program, what Schmitt calls
perseverance.

I found this to be a great book to motivate any innovative thinker, but it is targeted at
the senior executive leaders of the firm. Only they have the ability to engage and create
dramatic change as is described in this book. One small quibble with the book is that
it really doesn't address the cultural changes that would be necessary to make the types
of changes Schmitt suggests are possible actually happen. Probably the largest barrier
to the types of ideas Schmitt promotes are internal and bureaucratic. No CEO, no
matter how visionary or how passionate, can overcome a conservative, slow moving,
risk averse team without dramatically impacting the corporate culture.

This book belongs on the desk of every CEO. It's not just for those who want to change,
but also for those who think change may be necessary. It has some excellent examples
of organizations which have implemented a Big Think strategy and have succeeded in
changing their business. It is a good book for advocacy of innovation and significant
change for those firms mired in small, incremental changes who are rapidly losing
ground to firms that are more aggressive and willing to take on more dramatic change.