Book Reviews

Be Less Zombie: How Great Companies Create Dynamic Innovation, Fearless Leadership and Passionate People, reviewed

By Simon Cocking, review of Be Less Zombie: How Great Companies Create Dynamic Innovation, Fearless Leadership and Passionate People by Elvin Turner published by Wiley. See more about the book here.

Make innovation more remarkable, inevitable and profitable

‘Zombie’ companies cling to what kills them: Obsolete and frustrating ways of working that crush innovation and drain people’s motivation.

Be Less Zombie distils 10 years of field research amongst some of the world’s leading innovators into a pragmatic, actionable toolkit. Designed for managers who need more remarkable innovation with repeatable, scalable approaches, it shows readers how to:

  • De-risk bolder, more profitable innovation
  • Make innovation a predictable and measurable capability
  • Equip managers with essential tools and skills for leading innovation and transformation
  • Help teams find new capacity and energy to deliver today’s business whilst discovering tomorrow’s

Turner’s research also delves beyond the business world. He brings insights from a wide range of unexpected, expert sources including a guerrilla negotiator, a cage-fighter trainer, an X-Factor coach, a senior emergency room doctor, and a fashion designer.

Be Less Zombie: How Great Companies Create Dynamic Innovation, Fearless Leadership and Passionate People, reviewed

Coming in at almost four hundred pages there is a lot to take in across the chapters covered. And yet some of the chapters are only a few pages long, which strikes a strange note, as you barely get into something and then it’s finished and the book has moved onto something else. The illustrations are good and help lighten up the prose.

Overall it is a funny mix of length and yet with a feeling of racing through the topics with no time to delay, spare, or expand on aspects of what has been covered. There are fifty chapters, many of which come in at under eight pages long, which does leave the reader a little bemused by such a whistlestop tour of what, in many cases, are important topics, but only briefly discussed before, hurry, hurry, we have to move on.

The author knows his topic, and good ideas are mentioned, and at times even slightly discussed, but equally at times we were often left a little cold by such a fast spin through what is a fascinating topic.

??Elvin Turner is an award-winning innovation advisor to global corporations, government bodies, not-for-profit organisations, and start-ups around the world. He is also an associate professor at several business schools. For more information visit www.elvinturner.com

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