After a brief semantic exploration of the term wealth, the chapter raises the question of what makes a country rich or wealthy. Several international studies define the wealth of a nation in stocks (like a balance sheet), which includes physical, natural, human and social capital. These measures in stocks are central to measuring sustainability (see OECD conceptual framework of well-being in Chapter 4). The chapter presents and discusses the conceptualizations proposed by the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report (2009), three World Bank publications on the wealth of nations (2006, 2011, 2018) and the Human Development Report 2010 on people as the real wealth of nations. This discussion prepares the ground for elaborating the substantive contents of natural, economic, human and social capital in the following chapter.

Convergent thinking is the third and final step of the DOC Process. The aim of the Converge step is to narrow the organized group of information down to a single choice, the “best” choice. In order to choose the “best” factor of the General Problem to address, or select the “best” solution to that problem, we need to first define “best.” That criteria must be clear, concious and public. We do not want to make intuitive, visceral decisions, but rather conscious, rational and reasonable ones. In order to accomplish that desired outcome, we need to choose a complete set of selection criteria.

Before applying the criteria, we need to create a level evaluation field for all concepts that will be judged by ensuring that all the organized concepts are described in enough detail, with respect to the criteria, to ensure they can compete equally against each other. This may mean returning to the Organize step once the convergent criteria are set. Generic criteria for Problem Identification and Solution Formulation are offered in this chapter. Selection tools ranging from t-charts to paired comparative analysis are also described.

This chapter is about changes in work practices amongst the ‘peasantry’ still working upon the land in twenty-first-century India. This population may sound very far from the conventional understandings of shifts in technology that regularly affect how work is done in the ‘West’ but the rise of ICT technologies, especially the smart phone, have at least the potential to shift practices upon the land that have remained unchanged for centuries. Before the twenty-first century, large infrastructural requirements saw the triumph of copper so that in some senses a whole material civilisation developed around the electrical and conductive properties of this metal. However, this centralised mode of organising based upon copper has become threatened by a Digital Revolution. New forms of working are allowed by the post-copper technologies and materials of the twenty-first century but this chapter asks how widespread and how deep does this ‘rematerialising of organisation’ actually go?

The second step in the DOC Process is Organize. The Organize step is the transition step between the divergent and convergent thinking steps. The Organize step has characteristics of both the divergent and convergent steps, but is much more than solely a transition step. This is the step where the information generated in the Diverge step is synthesized. This step requires holistic and integrative thinking. It is a crucial step in either refining a problem or a solution. This step is also key to creating personas from the abundance of needs, wants and desires that are uncovered during open-ended interviews.

The Organize step has three components–categorize, connect and cause. Information generated via the divergent-thinking activities are first categorized. In the connect phase, idea-fragments that were previously categorized together are combined. Connections between categories or natural sequences are also identified. The connect phase is a critical component in persona development. The final phase of the Organize step is cause. In this phase, causal relationship between the data categories are uncovered.

The aim of the planning level of The Innovation Pyramid is to develop a creation and delivery plan for the designed innovation. Delivery is critical, for without adoption of the designed innovation there will be no impact. There are four components to the plan. That plan may vary in detail, depending on the complexity of the innovation, but it must always contain those four components. The Operations component of the plan can range from a simple scope document to a detailed Gantt chart. The Delivery portion can range from a description of the innovation's pathway to the adopter to a full-blown marketing plan. The Resources section can be a commitment list of key required resources to a complete project financial analysis. Finally, the Risk portion can range from the identification of key project risks to strategies for their mitigation. Regardless of the complexity of the innovation project, if a precise plan cannot be crafted or the necessary resources cannot be committed to the project, then the design must be altered. This chapter also covers various means to pitch the plan, necessary to gain project support, from the elevator pitch to the full-blown project pitch.

This chapter presents how a phenomenological approach can help developing a more integral and relational understanding of embodied and resonant practices of new work in organisations. Building on seeing work as situationally and temporally placed, the concept of ‘inter-practice’ will be discussed. In such relational practices material, economic and socio-cultural, political dimensions come together. Based on a Merleau-Pontyian inspired phenomenology of embodied practicing, the processual concept of “inter-practice” is presented. Afterword the relational mode of ‘resonance’ as developed by Rosa will be presented and critically discussed and by concluding some implications and perspectives offered.

The two design stages of The Innovation Pyramid work together to ensure that a complete and detailed design is crafted before any implementation is attempted. The second design stage focuses on Solution Formulation. Before any solution is crafted, the general group directly suffering from the root problem is segmented and a target adopter segment identified. The target adopter segment is described psychographically--based on common unmet or under-met needs, wants and/or desires – versus demographically. Personification of this group segment allows the innovation designer to fully appreciated how the adopter will interact with their innovation. Just as the root problem was gradually honed in on, so too is its solution. A general approach to resolving the target adopter's issue that the designing organization is willing and able to pursue is first identified. A detailed solution is then crafted which has attributes or features that align with the adopter's specific needs, wants and/or desires. This alignment of solution features with adopter needs is at the heart of the innovation's value proposition. The entire pathway through this second stage of design, Solution Formulation, requires multiple, iterative, non-linear steps.

This chapter lays the foundation for the book; defining innovation (impactful problem-solving leveraging something new) and comparing and contrasting it with creativity, entrepreneurship, discovery and invention. The need for innovators is far-reaching: business, government, education and in our personal lives.

Innovating requires three elements: people, environment, and methodology. While the people and environmental aspects of innovating are definitely challenging, it is often the lack of a methodology that makes or breaks our ability to repeatedly create and deliver new impactful solutions. The lack of a method will lead to inconsistent results; similar to the lack of correlation, that global consulting firm PwC found, between a company's research and development spending and their ability to create compelling new products and/or services. First and foremost, this book is focused on a methodology for innovating. A method that separates design from execution, problem identification from solution formulation and planning from implementing. A method that takes into account multiple points-of-view and perspectives while integrating assessment throughout. A user-centric, design-thinking method that utilizes creativity-based processes.