ALIEN THINKING

A smart new model for innovative thinking and problem solving from three top innovation experts at IMD Business School in Switzerland.

How do people come up with truly original ideas? For the past decade, the authors of this book have studied individuals who have made leaps of creativity - inventors, scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, and artists - and concluded that there are five patterns of thinking that distinguish them from the rest of us.

These five patterns - Attention, Levitation, Imagination, Experimentation and Navigation - lead to a fresh and flexible approach to problem-solving. Alien thinkers know how to free the imagination so it can detect hard-to-observe patterns. They practice deliberate ways to retreat from the world in order to see the big picture underlying a problem. And, they have learned how to change their prototype ideas in systematic ways to reflect feedback and the constraints of reality.

Through surprising and compelling stories, the authors show how readers can adopt their five patterns of thinking and use it to develop world-changing ideas. From the WHO's first major breakthrough in treating the Ebola virus, to the balloonist Betrand Piccard's first circumnavigation of the Earth without using fuel, and a British inventor's device that creates electrical power from human footsteps, ALIEN Thinking can help any of us find innovative solutions to the most difficult problems.

The authors are consultants to some of the world's largest companies, from SAP to Maersk, Cisco to Nestle, but the book has broad appeal beyond just the standard business readership. It has an easy-to-apply concept illustrated by memorable stories from many fields beyond business, and a lively writing style. It's backed by strong academic research, but with an accessible style that will appeal to a broad audience and give it a long life.

Cyril Bouquet is a Professor of Innovation and Strategy at IMD, where he orchestrates all kinds of innovation journeys for companies that seek to create the future.

Jean-Louis Barsoux is a Research Professor at IMD and has published extensively in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. He is also the author of several books on management, including the award-winning Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome: How Good Managers Cause Great People To Fail.

Michael Wade is a Professor of Innovation and Strategy at IMD and holds the Cisco Chair in Digital Business Transformation. He is the Director of the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation. Michael has published nine books, more than thirty case studies, and appears frequently in the mainstream media.