About this item
From one of today's foremost innovation leaders, an inspiring and practical guide to mastering change in the face of uncertainty. The world will never be slower than it is right now, says Beth Comstock, the former Vice Chair and head of marketing and innovation at GE. But confronting relentless change is hard. Companies get disrupted as challengers steal away customers; employees have to move ahead without knowing the answers. To thrive in today's world, every one of us has to make change part of our job. In Imagine It Forward, Comstock, in a candid and deeply personal narrative, shares lessons from a thirty year career as the change-maker in chief, navigating the space between the established and the unproven. As the woman who initiated GE's digital and clean-energy transformations, and its FastWorks methodology, she challenged a global organization to not wait for perfection but to spot trends, take smart risks and test new ideas more often. She shows how each one of us can - in fact, must -- become a "change maker." "Ideas are rarely the problem," writes Comstock. "What holds all of us back, really - is fear. It's the attachment to the old, to 'What We Know.'" Change is messy and fraught with tension, uncertainty and failure. Being "change ready" calls for the courage to defy convention, the resilience to overcome doubts, and the savvy to know when to go around corporate gatekeepers to reinvent what is possible. Among the practical takeaways Comstock offers: * The power of discovery - bringing the outside into your organization. It'is about turning the world into a classroom. * Find a spark - provocateurs who challenge established ways of thinking can be a powerful catalyst for change. * Give yourself permission - every change maker must learn to give herself permission to push outside expectations and boundaries. Confronting today's accelerating change requires an extraordinary degree of problem-solving, collaboration, and forward-thinking leadership to unlock every person's potential. Imagine It Forward masterfully points the way.
About the Author
Beth Comstock is change maker who has helped people grapple with rapid-fire change and open up their companies to transformation. Before she ever led the reinvention of a team or a business, she learned to rely on her curiosity to provoke change in herself. She infused her life with the habit of discovery, seeking out new ideas, people and places and in turn she built a career path from storyteller to chief marketer to GE Vice Chair. And now author.Beth knows what it is like to work on the front lines of change. In nearly three decades at GE, she led efforts to accelerate new growth and innovation, initiated GE's digital and clean-energy transformation, developed new businesses and increased GE's brand value. She created GE Ventures, oversaw GE Lighting, and was the company's Chief Marketing Officer. As President of Integrated Media at NBC Universal, Beth oversaw ad revenue and the company's digital efforts, including the early development of hulu.com. Earlier in her career, she held a succession of marketing and communications roles at GE, NBC, CBS and Turner Broadcasting/CNN. Beth is a director at Nike, trustee of The National Geographic Society and former board president of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Museum. She graduated from the College of William and Mary with a degree in biology.
