[.ca] Build Your Own Garage : Blueprints and Tools to Unleash ... (ISBN 0743202600)

From Amazon.com:
Ever since Hewlett-Packard emerged from one in 1939, a "garage" has come to symbolize the no-holds-barred mentality that fosters the kind of creativity that drove this company--and the dozens more it spawned--to heights theretofore unknown. Bernd Schmitt, a Columbia Business School professor who has written several well-received marketing books (Experiential Marketing, Marketing Aesthetics) takes this image to the next level in Build Your Own Garage by relaying strategies that readers can adapt to their own enterprises whether they are housed in a converted parking structure or not. As one might suspect from a book that advocates the unorthodox, Schmitt chooses to deliver his ideas in an unconventional manner. Each chapter begins with an elaborate short story by Laura Brown that encapsulates its central concepts (such as a vampire tale based on Bram Stoker's Dracula that illustrates how "the strictures of traditional corporate culture are enough to suck the life energy out of anyone"). Also sprinkled throughout are photographs and images by graphic artist Gail Anderson, which simultaneously reinforce the book's themes (on topics including technology, branding and "customer experience management") and distance it from buttoned-down management tomes that espouse the very group-think Schmitt is trying to eliminate. Those seeking new ideas who are not turned off by unique presentations should find this intriguing. --Howard Rothman

Wake-Up Call for Traditional Marketing Literature:
Finally somebody tearing down the "dusty" rules and old-fashioned formats of how to write a marketing book. This book is not only creative, well thought-out, and informative it is especially fun to read. An absolute must-read!

Sparking Corporate Creativity:
Having read Schmitt's books on marketing, I was very interested to see him branching out into the field of corporate creativity. "Build Your Own Garage" is a really interesting, quirky book that sparks the imagination and also offers practical, concrete tools that managers can use. I believe that "Build Your Own Garage" is the first business book on creativity that really expresses the complexity of the creative process. Encouraging and managing creativity in a large organization is not a simple job. Schmitt and Brown approach the topic from different angles--analyzing the role of creativity in business organizations, detailing real-world examples of creative initiatives, and also offering creative "business parables" to show different facets of creativity in the workplace. (Look especially for the vampire story about "the Corporate Undead"!) For all its quirkiness, "Build Your Own Garage" deals with corporate creativity in a down-to-earth way. This is not a giddy, dot-com, anything-goes approach to creativity. The book fully acknowledges the importance of business fundamentals and proposes a variety of realistic techniques to improve performance through creativity. Not surprisingly given Schmitt's background, the chapter on Branding is particularly strong. "Build Your Own Garage" is a quick and enjoyable read that offers some useful insights into corporate creativity. I highly recommend it.

Excellent!:
I found this book very fun, and very practical (an unusual combination!). The authors show how to make even an established legacy business more creative and dynamic. The book is timely, and applicable to the real-world, "post-interntet-boom era AE managers still need to bolster their bottom line with innovation. I've ordered copies for all my line managers.

Clever stories but no handbook:
The book benefits from amusing anecdotes but is very light on actual help for putting in place a workable framework for managing business innovation.

Build Your Own Garage:
Another brilliant book fom Bernd Schmitt (the man behind "Experiential Marketing"). Very creative, great ideas about managing and adding creativity to yr organization. I loved the website too --buildyourowngarage.com. Very creative, hand-drawn design!