>Mavericks at Work
WHY THE MOST ORIGINAL MINDS IN BUSINESS WIN
William C. Taylor & Polly LaBarr
To Chloe, Paige, and Grace— mavericks at home
WCT
To my parents— who held me close, but never fenced me in
PL
Contents
INTRODUCTION
The Maverick Promise
PART ONE
RETHINKING COMPETITION
Chapter 1
Not Just a Company, a Cause: Strategy as Advocacy
What ideas is your company fighting for? • Can you play competitive hardball by throwing your rivals a strategic curveball? • Changing the channel: The one-of-a-kind network that transformed television.
Chapter 2
Competition and Its Consequences: Disruptors, Diplomats, and a New Way to Talk About Business
Can you be provocative without provoking a backlash? • Why strategic innovators develop their own vocabulary of competition. • Winning on purpose: The values-driven ad agency that carves its beliefs into the floor.
Chapter 3
Maverick Messages (I): Sizing Up Your Strategy
Why “me-too” won’t do: Make-or-break questions about how you and your organization compete.
PART TWO
REINVENTING INNOVATION
Chapter 4
Ideas Unlimited: Why Nobody Is as Smart as Everybody
How to persuade brilliant people to work with you, even if they don't work for you. • Why grassroots collaboration requires head-to-head competition. • Eureka! How one open-minded leader inspired the ultimate Internet gold rush.
Chapter 5
Innovation, Inc.: Open Source Gets Down to Business
Have you mastered the art of the open-source deal? • Why smart leaders “walk in stupid every day.” • Bottom-up brainpower: How a 170-year-old corporate giant created a new model of creativity.
Chapter 6
Maverick Messages (II): Open-Minding Your Business
Shared minds: The design principles of open-source leadership.
PART THREE
RECONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS
Chapter 7
From Selling Value to Sharing Values: Overcoming the Age of Overload
If your products are so good, why are your customers so unhappy? • How to build a cult brand in a dead business. • “Our customer is our category”—the retailer that sells a sense of identity.
Chapter 8
Small Gestures, Big Signals: Outstanding Strategies to Stand Out from the Crowd
Do you sell where your customers are—and your competitors aren’t? • Warm and scuzzy: How Howard Stern became the world’s most unlikely teddy-bear salesman. • Why the company with the smartest customers wins.
Chapter 9
Maverick Messages (III): Building Your Bond with Customers
Brand matters: The new building blocks of cutting-edge marketing.
PART FOUR
REDESIGNING WORK
Chapter 10
The Company You Keep: Business as if People Mattered
Can you attract more than your fair share of the best talent in your field? • How to find great people who aren’t looking for you. • Building the character of competition: Why the world’s friendliest airline unleashes the “warrior spirit” in its workforce.
Chapter 11
People and Performance: Stars, Systems, and Workplaces That Work
The first law of leadership: “Stars don’t work for idiots.” • How free agents become team players. • From bureaucracy to adhocracy: The many merits of a messy workplace.
Chapter 12
Maverick Messages (IV): Practicing Your People Skills
Hiring test: Is your design for the workplace as distinctive as your designs on the marketplace?
APPENDIX
Maverick Material
ENDNOTES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Nearly 25 years ago, the beloved and influential historian Daniel J. Boorstin wrote a much-praised book called The Discoverers—A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself.
