Exprovement

Book excerpt: Can an outdated or failed solution in one industry bring disruption to another? Can a racing team improve industrial manufacturing productivity? Can science fiction offer entrepreneurs valuable lessons in innovative thinking? Such examples lie at the core of exprovement, which is an exponential improvement borne out of drawing parallels between the seemingly unrelated. Henry Ford revolutionized the automotive industry by comparing and correlating his business with the meat-packing industry. Through the various examples highlighted in this book, Hersh Haladker and Raghunath Mashelkar emphasize that searching for growth opportunities within an offering's existing industry usually results in incremental improvement, whereas exponential improvement can be achieved by drawing parallels from outside of the current context. This book will inspire leaders to look outward for parallels, keeping in mind that 'obvious' comparisons can at best lead to improvement, whereas 'unexpected' ones can lead to exponential improvement and perpetuate a legacy of innovation.