The Innovation Mindset: Eight Essential Steps to Transform Any Industry

Innovation requires more than a eureka moment. The vast majority of new product ideas never make it to market. Typically, this is because of the failure to address a real problem that a customer has experienced and is willing to pay to have solved. What do people and businesses need to know about the realities of innovating in order to develop products successfully?

Lorraine Marchand-a seasoned practitioner who has guided Fortune 500 companies and start-ups on developing and launching new ideas-lays out a step-by-step framework for spurring success. She shares her eight laws of innovation, a formula for driving significant and lasting transformation in any organization. Marchand emphasizes the frame of mind needed to spark the innovation process, underscoring the importance of creating a problem-solving culture and supporting personal curiosity, passion, and talent. She pinpoints the strengths shared by the big ideas that break through and debunks the myths that hold back aspiring creators. Drawing on her experience as a woman in a male-dominated field, Marchand discusses how to support entrepreneurship by women and highlights the contributions of underrepresented innovators.

Marchand’s how-to program for innovation is clear and easy to follow, featuring a toolkit of strategic templates and planning frameworks that are illustrated by helpful case studies. Written in authoritative but conversational language, The Innovation Mindset offers a practical plan for both the veteran with another great idea and the first-timer with a big dream.

Lorraine Marchand is general manager of life sciences at IBM Watson Health and has three decades of experience in new product development. She has held leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb, Covance, Cognizant, and IQVIA, and she cofounded four companies. Marchand is an adjunct professor of management and serves on the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program Advisory Board at Columbia Business School.

John Hanc writes for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Newsday, and Brain & Life. The author or cowriter of more than twenty books, he also teaches writing at New York Institute of Technology.