Table Of ContentPraise for Innovate Like Edison
“By drawing on the wealth of documents available in the Edison archive,
Michael J. Gelb and Sarah Miller Caldicott have succeeded admirably in
showing us how Thomas Edison operated as an ingenious inventor and a
sophisticated director of Research and Development…Accessible to anyone
looking for practical advice.”
—Paul Israel, director and general editor, the Thomas A. Edison Papers at
Rutgers University, and author of Edison: A Life of Invention.
“Reading Innovate Like Edison from start to finish on a flight from coast to
coast, I landed with three pages of actions to take that will bring innovation to
every corner of our business.”
—Cal Wick, CEO and founder of Fort Hill Company, author of The Six
Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning
“An engaging, accessible, and fascinating look at one of history’s most inventive
inventors.”
—Leonard Shlain, author of Art & Physics, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess,
and Sex, Time and Power.
“This is an urgently important book. The only competitive advantage, whatever
our field of endeavor, will be our ability to innovate, and this is the concrete
‘how to’ 25-step blueprint for putting all of us, including our nation, back on this
critical path. I’m not just reading, but studying this book with my children!”
—Verne Harnish, founder, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and CEO, Gazelles
Inc., author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
“Precisely what high tech needs today. Gelb and Caldicott have articulated the
core fiber of innovation culture for companies to naturally innovate and
compete…Required reading for executives, managers, and engineers alike.”
—Andrew J. Stein, chief marketing officer and geoscientist, Paradigm
Geophysical, BV
“This powerful and insightful book will inspire you with the brilliance of what
Edison achieved. Much more than that, it will tell you how he actually did it.
This book shines a bright and searching light on his daily habits of innovation. It
will open your eyes.”
—Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative
M J. G
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INNOVATE LIKE EDISON
The Success System of
America’s Greatest Inventor
Michael J. Gelb
and Sarah Miller Caldicott
DUTTON
DUTTON
Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario
M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.); Penguin Books
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL,
England
Published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © 2007 by Itzy
Photograph credits appear in backmatter
All rights reserved
The terms “Thomas Edison’s Five Competencies of Innovation” and “The
Edison Innovation Literacy Blueprint” are trademarks of Michael J. Gelb and
Sarah Miller Caldicott.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gelb, Michael.
Innovate like Edison: the success system of America’s greatest inventor /
Michael J. Gelb and Sarah Miller Caldicott.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-10121380-3
1. Creative ability in technology. 2. Technological innovations. 3. Edison,
Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847–1931. I. Caldicott, Sarah Miller. II. Title.
T49.5.G45 2007
608—dc22
2007026653
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publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of
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While the authors have made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers
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From Michael:
To the light and love of my life, Deborah Domanski.
From Sarah:
With deepest love to my children,
Nicholas and Connor,
and
To my great-great-grandfather
Lewis Miller and his enterprising daughter,
Mina Miller Edison.
From Michael and Sarah: To the fulfillment of Edison’s vision
of human progress through the
application of his timeless approach
to innovation.
