Antifragile – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
One of the reasons Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a hero a Blood Street Associates is because his philosophy is really what open innovation is all about though the coupling isn’t frequently made. A business can become more anti-fragile by soliciting ideas externally rather than a NIH (Not Invented Here) mentality where the business stakes it’s future and limited resources on a few in house product improvements where failure is expensive. External failure is free (asymmetric upside) – and solicited ideas can often be licensed for a fraction of what the R&D and assorted failure would cost. There is much more to his antifragile theories than this – to anyone who wants to stretch their intellect, we heartily recommend reading Antifragile.