CoolSearch – Michel Syrett

There never has been a time when changes in taste, social outlook and lifestyle have been faster and more fundamental. Coolsearch shows that the revolution that is going on inside the workplace and that which is taking place in the marketplace are two sides of the same coin. Traditional divisions between work and play and between home and the office are being eroded. Twenties-somethings are using their mastery of new technology to transform product development, marketing and merchandising as consumers and ideas generation and decision making as workers. But how can older companies with deeper vested interests and complex hierachies keep in touch with the needs generated by the new generation? Syrett and Lammiman show how street-wise market research, better use of technology, shorter decision making hierarchies, corporate venturing and bottom up leadership has helped a variety of seeming dinosaurs get abreast of the trends. Stories and case studies of companies such as IKEA, GMT, 3M, and L'Oreal and their championing the latest trends and thinking are throughout the book. Coolsearch draws on original research by the authors on how new ideas are inspired and shaped in organisations as well as on interviews with leading thinkers in innovation including London Business School's Costas Markides, Strategos's Gary Hamel and Insead's W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.