big potatoes

Big Potatoes a manifesto for innovation

An interesting view on the current debate about innovation (i.e. there isn't any) A group of writers (Norman Lewis, Nico Macdonald, Alan Patrick, Martyn Perks, Mitchell Sava and James Woudhuysen) have published a paper called: Big Potatoes, A new 14 point Manifesto for Innovation. I really like the insight that the Great Depression saw real innovations from companies that have gone on to be durable brands of the new century; Nestlé, Penguin Books, General Electric and Texas Instruments. But so far the credit crunch has seen almost the opposite level of thinking.

"..The Big Potatoes Manifesto is call to arms: for leadership and risk taking, for accepting failure and unexpected outcomes as the necessary and inevitable path to success, for bold and ambitious experimentation and an end to the instrumentalist short-termism which has institutionalised a culture of limits..." MORE

  1. Think big!
  2. Go beyond the post-war legacy of innovation
  3. Principles, not models!
  4. In praise of ‘useless’ research
  5. Innovation is hard work
  6. For success, expect lots of failures
  7. Regard chance and surprise as allies
  8. Take risks
  9. Innovation demands leadership
  10. Innovation is every body’s responsibility
  11. Trust the people, not regulation
  12. Think global, act global
  13. The spirit of innovation knows no limits
  14. By, with and for humanity