Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, The

Product Author Bios

Dave Stewart is  founder and chairman  of Weapons of Mass Entertainment, an idea  factory described by  the LA Times as 'a media  company for the new world’. A multimedia entrepreneur,  his career spans more than 25 years and over  100 million album sales. As well as being one half of Eurythmics with Annie Lennox, Stewart has  worked with some of the best including Bono,  Mick Jagger, Gwen Stefani, Sinead O’Connor,  Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, winning best  songwriter and best producer 4 times as well  as numerous Grammy and Life Time Achievement  Awards. Described by Dylan as ‘a fearless  innovator’, Stewart was recently named one of  the 100 Most Creative People in Business  by Fast Company Magazine. Stewart is  an acclaimed public speaker and regularly  advises businesses on creativity and  innovation. He is a key advisor to  mobile phone giant Nokia, where he has the  unique title of ‘change agent’, and has  created a number of  game-changing ventures in the  entertainment industry. Stewart is an  accomplished photographer and filmmaker, and  also makes a mean vodka martini.

Mark Simmons is a branding expert, innovator and the co-author of Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass and Join the Revolution. Over the past twenty years he has been a senior global marketer at Coca-Cola, run advertising agencies in the UK and US, been an adviser to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, and is the co-founder of useless.org, a social enterprise dedicated to helping people use less and give more. Mark frequently speaks at conferences about creativity, marketing and branding. He passionately believes in the power of ideas to make a positive difference in business and society and works with organizations around the world to put this into practice.

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The Business Playground is the definitive guide to creativity and innovation

Written by musician/entrepreneur Dave Stewart and branding expert Mark Simmons, The Business Playground offers a revealing look at what creativity is and how to apply it in business through an inspiring mix of scientific studies, anecdotes, high-profile interviews, and thought-provoking games that you can play alone or with your co-workers.

The Business Playground is not your average business book. Former Eurythmics band member Dave Stewart turns on his rock and roll charm with personal, inspirational stories from his own career as well as interviews with such innovative and influential thinkers as Mick Jagger, Microsoft’s Paul Allen, and Twitter’s Evan Williams. The legendary Sir Richard Branson makes a guest appearance as the author of the book’s foreword where he sets the tone for this quirky, fun, emminently useful guide to creative business thinking.

Whether you’re running a one-man show or heading up a multinational corporation, you’ll discover new techniques for finding and harnessing your creative abilities and putting them to work for your business in this entertaining book.

The Business Playground includes real-world examples of innovation in action, as well as substantial and practical techniques that you can use immediately to aid in creative thinking and problem solving. Play the games at the end of each chapter and you’ll learn how to:

• Ask the right questions so you can find the right answers
• Rediscover, train, and utilize your innate creative abilities
• Conduct “the perfect brainstorm”—yes, such a thing really does exist
• Create a work culture that’s conducive to creativity
• Help people collaborate with others within and outside of the organization
• Kill ideas that aren’t working before they waste too much time and too many resources

Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful Brilliant, September 19, 2010 By  Bassam Tarazi (New York, NY) - See all my reviews    Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, The (Voices That Matter) (Paperback) There aren't many books that I read that leave me dumbfounded and questioning why it was I did whatever it was I was doing, in the manner that I was doing it. Stewart and Simmons utilize humor, real world examples, games, and downright wit and logic to get their point across that mentally "loosening it up a bit" is the best way to go about finding your creative avenues. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking to break the mold of monotony at work or for anyone looking to find that creative spark in whatever he/she is chasing in life. I carry this book (and a notebook for all of my new ideas!) around with me wherever I go. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful An unusual and top recommendation for business and general libraries alike, October 18, 2010 By  Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews This review is from: Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, The (Voices That Matter) (Paperback) THE BUSINESS PLAYGROUND offers a fine survey from a musician and entrepreneur and an advertising and branding expert, who offer important links to business pursuits and creativity. From how successful innovations became business winners to using teams to get ideas out of the corner and into production, the lively and personal tone of this treatment, peppered with vignettes, makes this an unusual and top recommendation for business and general libraries alike! Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful The Playground of Fun, August 23, 2010 By  Ariane Colenbrander "ariane c" (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews    This review is from: Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, The (Voices That Matter) (Paperback) The Business Playground Where Creativity and Commerce Collide by Dave Stewart and Mark Simmons In their book, The Business Playground, Dave Stewart (yes, of Eurthymics fame) and branding guru Mark Simmons take you on a journey filled with play, exploration, and creative process in this colourful guide to unlearning conventional business ideas. The book is broken down into 12 unique chapters that each offer a quick read either in succession or in random order. There's a nifty "board game" at the end of each chapter that can bring your business team new inspiration when they've hit a stumbling point. These two authors have certainly been around the block in terms of creative enterprises and their humour and individuality lead to a fun and engaging experience. Recommended for medium to large businesses seeking new ways to break out of a traditional office environment and engage its creative juices. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment

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Praise For Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, The

"In this thoroughly enjoyable and highly instructive book, Dave Stewart and Mark Simmons tell you how we all can tap into our best creative selves, the way we could when we were children. Who knew having so much fun was the key to success!"
– Laura Ziskin, Motion Picture Producer (including Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3, Pretty Woman, To Die For and As Good as It Gets) and co-founder of Stand Up to Cancer

"Commercial growth is driven by creativity. This book gives you the keys to the car."
– Andrew Robertson, President and CEO, BBDO Worldwide

"Brainstorming with Dave Stewart is a rare privilege. He's a genuine one-off in his creativity and his willingness to disrupt the status quo. If you can't work with Dave in person, this book is the next best thing—an insight into another way of getting innovation to take root in your organisation. It's all about attitude of mind. <,em>The Business Playground will help you raise the game with your team."
– Christopher Rodrigues CBE, Chair of Visit Britain, International Personal Finance plc, The Almeida Theatre and The Windsor Leadership Trust. Past President and CEO, Visa International

"The Business Playground reminds us that instilling a good dose of humour and a bit of fun and games to the process is one of the most powerful creative tools an organisation has to driving performance, collaboration and shareholder value in a highly demanding environment."
– Stephen Davis, President, Hasbro Studios

"Innovation requires vision, intuition, courage and ability to see what others don't see. Dave has them all."
– Tero Ojanperä, Executive Vice President, Services and member of the Nokia Group Executive Board

"Dave's knowledge and experience from all aspects of the music business is applied to the entire world of business - sheer brilliance!"
– John Meglan, President and Co-CEO, Concerts West/AEG Live

"Dave and Mark's enthusiasm for creativity and how it can be applied in business leaps off every page. The Business Playground will bring out the creative child inside of all of us and I can’t imagine many readers being left uninspired to try it out for themselves. Their mix of insights about creativity, revealing examples, anecdotes, interviews with creative thinkers and games make for an entertaining and informative read. If you get half as much out of this book as I did you're in for quite a treat."
– Richard Branson (from the Foreword), Virgin

Online Sample Chapter

The Business Playground: Idea Spaghetti

Table of Contents

Foreword by Richard Branson

INTRODUCTION
Why business needs creativity

CHAPTER 1: HOW TO PLAY
When we unleash our natural creative potential, anything is possible.

CHAPTER 2: IDEA SPAGHETTI
Having lots and lots of ideas increases the chance of having some really great ones.

CHAPTER 3: SCAVENGERS
Always on the hunt for things to innovate.

CHAPTER 4: THE ANSWER IS IN THE QUESTION
Why getting the best answer means asking the right questions in the first place.

CHAPTER 5: LEFT BRAIN, MEET MR RIGHT
Helping the two halves of our brains work together.

CHAPTER 6: BRAIN FLASH
Using visualisation to come up with creative solutions.

CHAPTER 7: THE IDEA COMMUNE
Working (and playing) with others to come up with ideas.

CHAPTER 8: FAR OUT
Think big and don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

CHAPTER 9: SHOE SWAPPER
Looking at problems from different perspectives.

CHAPTER 10: CONNECTED
The art of putting unconnected things together to create something completely new.

CHAPTER 11: KILL THE IDEA
Choosing which ideas to focus our time, money and energy on.

CHAPTER 12: BLAST OFF!
Creating environments that put creativity into orbit.

CONCLUSION

Downloadable Sample Chapter

Download Chapter 2: Idea Spaghetti

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 4 and Index)

Errata

Page 22, first paragraph: Edison's lab was in Menlo Park, NJ, not Menlo Park, CA.