What We’re Reading From the Aug. 1, 2011 Issue of CIO Magazine

The Innovator’s Manifesto

Deliberate Disruption for Transformational Growth

By Michael E. Raynor

In the search for the next big innovation, Raynor argues, being agile isn’t enough. Failed experiments are a waste of money. You need a better way to determine which ideas are likely to work. That predictor, he says, is disruption. If an idea targets a relatively undesirable segment of the market, is autonomous enough to have its own business plan, and can adapt to new markets as it takes off, its odds of success—regardless of the business using it—go up significantly. Crown Business, $23

Rural Broadband: Are We There Yet? 

By Richard Bennett, for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Research If you think the world’s going mobile fast, wait until you read this handy breakdown of the Federal Communications Commission’s “2011 Broadband Competition Report.” The area served by wired broadband hardly increased at all between 2009 and 2010, but use of mobile broadband, including 4G and satellite Internet, shot up. In particular, businesses should be aware that if their customers or employees live in rural areas, they may not have any devices that connect to the Internet over wires. www.itif.org/files/2011-rural-broadband.pdf

The Third Screen 

Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile

By Chuck Martin

Book With the smartphone explosion and the mobile broadband trend mentioned above, by now you’ve surely been approached by someone from marketing who wants your help targeting customers through their always-handy cellphones. This book breaks down the psychology and habits of these mobile consumers so you can work with your CMO to decide which features are most important to build and which can be set aside for now. It’ll make the marketing department feel better understood and save you the hassle of trying to deliver the world. Nicholos Brealey Publishing, $28.95

@jbuford

By Jeanine Buford

Blog Buford is the VP of IT at Keystone Human Services, a nonprofit that serves people with mental disabilities. She retweets economic, political and disaster-relief news. Sometimes she seeks advice or tosses in thoughts like, “I don’t love my iPad 2. It feels heavy and awkward and entirely unnecessary. Maybe my expectations were too high.” http://twitter.com/jbuford

Brainsteering

A Better Approach to Breakthrough Ideas

By Kevin P. Coyne and Shawn T. Coyne

Book The Coyne brothers, managing directors of a strategy consultancy, have found through experience and research that brainstorming just doesn’t work, and that those who honestly assess the method can see its pitfalls. They advocate a process they call “brainsteering,” which focuses on asking the “right” questions to unlock the creative process and arrive at breakthrough ideas. As they explain in detail, brainsteering focuses and steers participants through ideation techniques. They persuasively argue, using real-world examples, that everyone can generate great ideas if they focus on good questions rather than right answers. Harper Business, $26.99