Innovation for Underdogs: How to Make the Leap from What If to Now What

Dr. Pensak's book makes innovation easy and explainable. It opens your eyes to a really simple process of stretching your mind to unlock its creative capabilities. His belief that the most successful companies listen to their employees and customers is right on. If you are going to have a successful company in these tough economic times, management must foster an environment that lets people be more creative than they ever have been in their lives and then reward them for it. Review by J. Noonan

Dr Pensak has written an insightful, informative and transformative book about one of the important ingredients of our knowledge based economy:innovation. Innovation must be nurtured in today's world. It is America's "special sauce". It is what sent man to the moon, it is what created the internet, and it is what will help us to solve the problems we confront in today's complex global economy. It is imperative that we continue to encourage young minds to expand their ability to think in creative ways. This book helps us to recognize the elements that lead to innovation and does so in an interesing and fun way. Dr Pensak helps us to recognize creative energy and shows us how to stretch our minds to create. This is a MUST read.

Dr. Pensak writes about how he started and continues to innovate new ideas everyday. Everyone can look around at what is needed then create new ways to solve the problems with what is already here. Dr. Pensak helps you understand the process and how you too can be an innovator.

Truly a book that will help you recognize your own creative energy and how to capitalize on innovative ideas!

This is a fascinating book -- truly informative and fun to read. It is one that brings to life real-world examples that illuminate how something is transformed from an idea into a reality in the marketplace. More importantly, Pensak has the credentials to back him up -- as the inventor of the firewall which was the world's most important invention to transform computer security, he was also the Chief Scientist at Dupont for many years, and has taught at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Never boring and always interesting - readers begin to understand how innovation begins with the smallest ideas (ie; making drugs that only need to be taken once a day versus 5 times) to something as large as making an international conglomerate compete effectively in today's global marketplace. The book expounds on everything innovation-related: from processes to products, from near-catastrophe to capital. A nice plus that is different from other books on innovation, Pensak gives hope to the entrepreneur and inventor -- teaching them "how to think" about innovation and how to make peace with the dozens of ideas many have at once, in order to get one to marketplace successfully. He chronicles what can go wrong and how to avoid it, and ends one of the last few chapters with one of the most pressing issues of our time, global warming and clean energy. Included is an insightful chapter on financing the venture, as well as historical perspective on the world's earliest innovators. An insightful read and page-turner.