Rating: 5.0 stars
Reviewed by Alice D. for Readers Favorite – 04/21/2012
“Do Not Invent Buggy Whips” is a highly well-written treatise on inventing a successful product. Author Thurber writes that “innovation is something that has not been done before” but he cautions that radically new ideas are rarely successful and clearly tells the reader to reinvent a product such as the iPod which evolved from the MP3 player which came from the Discman whose predecessor was the Walkman, the cassette player and the boom box. Reinventing a successful product means that this new product will be creatively disruptive, that is, it will make what comes before it obsolete but this reinvented product must satisfy a real or perceived need of potential customers. But customers must care about this product and Author Thurber cautions, this new product should not negatively impact the lives of others.
Thinking of developing a service or an idea, this is the book to read and take seriously beforehand?
Kenneth Thurber has written this short but superb book that should be required reading for all potential business majors and inventors. In five sections, he spells out clearly about new ideas,if they will overtake present products on the market, how the concept of that new idea can be applied, gives good examples of reinventions that worked or didn’t, and what the future of a product might be. The formatting of “Don’t Invent Buggy Whips” is excellent and its table of contents and index are well-laid out and useful. Starbucks, the Ford Mustang, and John Wayne’s famous words are discussed as well as reworkings of the nursery rhyme “Little Bo-Peep”, They all help make this book a little gem of an offering for business people everywhere.