Like The Pencil, Henry Petroski’s The Toothpick is a celebration of a humble yet elegant device. As old as mankind and as universal as eating, this useful and ubiquitous tool finally gets its due in …

Oliver Sacks’s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our own brains, and of the human experience. In Musicophilia, he examines the …

A hundred years ago, companies stopped generating their own power with steam engines and dynamos and plugged into the newly built electric grid. The cheap power pumped out by electric utilities didn’t just change how …

Concepts once purely fiction — robots, cyborg parts, artificial intelligence — are becoming part of everyday reality. Soon robots will be everywhere, performing surgery, exploring hazardous places, making rescues, fighting fires, and handling heavy goods. …

The Taste of Conquest offers up a riveting, globe-trotting tale of unquenchable desire, fanatical religion, raw greed, fickle fashion, and mouthwatering cuisine — in short, the very stuff of which our world is made. In …

If you’re in your twenties, you’re likely feeling the combination of the excitement of this defining decade and the pressure to figure out your entire life. The thrill of newfound independence and opportunity can be …

Many of today’s best brands are powered by the technologies, traits and trends of the digital channel. Old mass-marketing push tactics are being superseded by the pull of an online population prolifically creating, sharing and …

Innovation is becoming its own discipline, its own function in companies today. Established companies are clamoring for breakthrough innovation, but are typically held back by the highly reliable, repeatable processes of their management systems. But …

In Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things industry professional Calvin L. Hodock examines eight typical innovation blunders that, time after time, undermine the success of new product development. From “dead-on-arrival products” to “fatal frugality” and …

Underlying the concept of leadership branding is an important distinction between leaders and leadership. Good leaders, Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood emphasize, come and go, but a company’s leadership must deliver results over the long …

Leadership is failing in many forums and failing at an increasing rate as technology accelerates and complicates our existence. Inside, you’ll discover the keys — the source — to embodying and performing the well-known but …

“Communities of creation.” “Innovation networks.” “Open market innovation.” “Crowdsourcing.” Whatever you call it, companies increasingly recognize the urget importance of reaching beyond their four walls to identify new sources of creativity and innovation. Translating such …