Getting Back in the Box

“… if you always have to think outside the box, maybe it’s the box that needs fixing.”

That’s one of my favorite quotes (albeit paraphrased slightly) from Malcolm Gladwell [source article link].

And now, the forward-thinking Douglas Rushkoff has written a business book seemingly riffing off that profound line.

Over the next few weeks, Rushkoff will be posting short excerpts on his blog from his to-be-published book -- GET BACK IN THE BOX: Innovation from the Inside Out. Sure, Rushkoff is preaching to this choir of one … but that’s cool … cause what he is preaching sure is tasty. Here’s an excerpted excerpt:

American companies are obsessed with window dressing because they’re reluctant, no, afraid, to look at whatever it is they really do and evaluate it from the inside out. When things are down, CEO’s look to consultants and marketers to rethink, rebrand or repackage whatever it is they are selling, when they should be getting back on the factory floor, into the stores, or out to the research labs where their product is actually made, sold, or conceived. Instead of making their communications less [Saatchi & Saatchi] and more [Craigslist], they should be reinventing their core enterprise. >>MORE

Comments

[Jim Seybert (on FoolsBox)]

John - good catch. I'll want to add this to my reading list. Thanks.

Reminds me of a newspaper ad I saw a few years back - picture of Chris Evert, the tennis star, standing against a net. The headline was "Take away the lines and the game becomes much easier."

It was an ad for United Airlines new on-line check-in service - but what struck me was how REALLY DIFFICULT tennis would be if you took away the lines.

Without lines, both players would run around like some Monty Python skit until one of them dropped dead of exhaustion.

Lines - boundaries (the "box") - make it easier for us to know where to achieve our objectives. Even the most innovative among us will do better if they have some sense of what's expected in the end.

Anyway - thanks again for the book tip.

[David Polinchock]

I've read a draft and it's an excellent book! In fact, Doug will be speaking at the Lab in December at a launch event for the book. You should come out and hear him speak! We'll post more about it on our blog next week.

David