Disrupt Together: How Teams Consistently Innovate

Stephen Spinelli Jr. · Heather McGowan

Dec 2013 · Pearson Education

About this ebook

Spinelli and McGowan integrate a broad network of international leaders on innovation to demonstrate the tight linkages between innovation and opportunity recognition. Building on the award winning Philadelphia University curriculum redesign that is reshaping how innovation is taught worldwide, these experts highlight how to identify relevant opportunities more effectively than ever before. The team covers every facet of innovation, including design processes, team development, ethnography, audits and charrettes, opportunity shaping and assessment, business models, value delivery, systems thinking, and more. Master the art of innovation in teams! Disrupt Together introduces a breakthrough transdisciplinary, team-based approach to innovation that integrates business, design and engineering, and can deliver powerful results for both new ventures and existing companies with case study examples from education, healthcare, branding, and consumer product and service design. The book will serve as the definitive companion text for a growing number of innovation and entrepreneurship programs that either follow the Philadelphia University model or have been influenced by it. This guide will also be an indispensable resource for every business practitioner seeking to build innovative new organizations or reinvigorate innovation in existing firms. Contributors and Interviews from Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Continuum Innovation, Jump Associates, University of Pennsylvania, Becton Dickinson, Sapient Nitro, Ontario College of Art and Design, Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT Media Lab, Smart Design, and more. Foreword by Steve Blank.

About the author

Stephen Spinelli, Jr., Ph.D., current President of Philadelphia University, led the university’s strategic transformation. The University’s capital campaign of over $50 million included a $20 million single gift to endow the Maurice Kanbar College of Design, Engineering, and Commerce. Dr. Spinelli previously held several leadership positions at Babson College and serves on a number of boards, including the Berwind Corporation, Nextworth, and Planet Fitness. Dr. Spinelli is actively engaged in the community, serving on the boards of the VNA of Pennsylvania, the Episcopal Academy, and the Science Center. Dr. Spinelli is a national expert and frequent speaker and consultant in the area of franchising. Steve received his Ph.D. in Economics from The Management School, Imperial College (London), his M.B.A. from Babson College, and his B.A. in Economics from McDaniel College. He began his professional life as a cofounder of Jiffy Lube.

Heather McGowan is an entrepreneurial strategy consultant who works in both corporate and academic environments to lead and communicate transformational change through crafting a vision of future state while identifying, assessing, and addressing challenges to realize the goal. At Philadelphia University she was charged with creating the strategy, architecting the curriculum, and developing the advisory network for the innovative Kanbar College of Design, Engineering, and Commerce (DEC), which won the 2012 Core 77 international competition for innovation in design education. Heather has advised senior management in several start-up companies in strategy, business modeling, and financing and has brought more than 25 products to market. Heather holds a B.F.A. in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design and an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship from Babson College.