Reverse Innovation

So, a while back I won this book.
I was reading the Harvard Business Review and I commented on a post about innovation and creativity. My comment won me a copy of the author's book. I'm glad I posted because the book was really freakin good.

Reverse Innovation is a newly coined phrase that references how innovation can flow from developing countries upstream into developed countries. It doesn't have to be a push from rich to poor. It can go poor to rich.

The authors explain the follies of global corporations trying to scale down rich-world products with minimum localization and selling them to poor countries. It rarely works. You need local growth teams to innovate from a clean slate in order to deliver legitimate offerings in poor countries. And once those products are developed you can take that and flow it back up to the rich countries or tweak it for other marginalized poor sectors.

The book has a good helping of examples showing how global companies like GE or Pepsi reverse innovate properly. This isn't doom and gloom about how not to do it, this is a positive book citing examples from companies that have learned (often the hard way) on the proper course of reverse innovation. It's interesting shit.

The book is a call-to-action to shake up false notions of security and to focus on innovation in poor countries. Emerging markets are key to success at home.

I dug this and would definitely recommend it. It flows well and is pretty conversational. It doesn't come across like a text book. It doesn't come across overly formal or academic. It's clearly rooted in research and field study, but it's not intimidating.

Dig it.