Yale professors Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres engage readers in an intriguing oxymoron. They believe invention can be automated. Why Not? outlines a populist high-octane approach to creative problem solving. "We aspire for this book to change the way people think about their own ability to change the world." The authors' ideas and examples--from adopting British water conserving toilets to having telemarketers pay you to listen--bristle with energy, conviction, and occasional loopiness. Their approach upends cliched problem solving models by asking, "What would Croseus (the ancient rich king) do?" They take Edward de Bono's lateral thinking out for a spin, suggesting pay for view television might include a fee for eliminating commercials.

Nalebuff and Ayres are at their best in exploring "Idea Arbitrage," a tool for applying one solution to a host of other problems and yielding day care at IKEA, corporate vanity stamps, and library coffee houses. Some promising concepts, such as the technique of leveraging mistakes to create new solutions, are not as clear as others. Overall, the authors make an entertaining case for the idea that innovators are made and not born. --Barbara Mackoff


From Publishers Weekly
The notion that innovation can be "routinized" is a perennial theme of business theorists. This engaging primer is more insightful than the usual free-associational, brainstorming protocols. Economist Nalebuff and law professor Ayres insist that "innovation is a skill that can be taught," and distill it into a few rules of thumb, like "where else would it work?" (putting airline data recorders into cars, for example) and "would flipping it work?", which involves gonzo conceptual inversions like students raising their hands to not be called on or "reverse 900 numbers" where telemarketers pay people to accept calls. Leavened with a little economics, game theory, psychology and contract law, the authors' framework furnishes useful heuristics to analyze a host of problems from auto theft to campaign finance reform. The result is an interesting compendium of market-oriented socioeconomic fixes, some intriguing (having HMOs sell their members life insurance as an incentive to keep them alive), and a few improbable (offering Palestinians stock in Israeli companies in exchange for a peace settlement). Their system does not, alas, always live up to its billing as an assembly line for business innovations. Many of the ideas they showcase are culled from other sources, and many, like having video renters rewind before-not after-they watch the tape, amount to trivial wrinkles on established practice. The dream of reducing creativity to a set of automatic procedures, shorn of expertise, trial-and-error, eureka moments and plain old hardthinking remains elusive, but the authors seem to know it when they see it. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The authors, professors at Yale University, have made careers out of creating solutions to everyday problems and bringing new ideas to market. One of their ideas, a naturally brewed, barely sweetened bottled tea called Honest Tea, fills the wide gap between bottled water and the many syrupy-sweet beverages on the market. Confirming the view among many inventors that the process of innovation can be automated, the authors outline four central idea-generating tools that are simple and fun to play around with. Much like solving a brainteaser where the answer should be obvious, these techniques force readers to challenge conventional wisdom. For instance, why not offer a mortgage that automatically refinances itself when rates go down? Why not reverse the 900 number concept and make telemarketers pay you to listen to their sales pitch? Why not make organ donation the default choice for everyone and let people sign only if they want to opt out? Some of their suggestions are a bit heavy-handed, but that's a quibble because here, it's the process that's important. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


New York Times, August 10, 2003
"Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres toss out so many ideas...that it makes you dizzy. And makes you think too."


Harvard Business Review, Ocotber 2003
"The authors...offer sensible advice for implementing ideas in a competitive marketplace."


CIO Insight, October 2003
"The words 'fun' and 'business book' rarely go together. But this book...is the exception."


The Boston Globe, October 19, 2003
"Authors Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres have produced an engaging - dare we say innovative? - guide to stoking creativity."


Kiplinger's Personal Finance, February 2004
"Golden book of bright ideas."


Book Description
Robert F. Kennedy challenged us to "dream of things that never were and say, Why not?" Why Not? is a primer for fresh business thinking, for problem solving with a purpose, for bringing the world a few steps closer to the way it should be. Idealistic? Yes. Unrealistic? No. Authors Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres have spent their careers asking questions, solving problems, and bringing fresh ideas to market-from insurance that protects against a decline in your home's value to Honest Tea, bottled iced tea that actually tastes like tea. Illustrated with examples from every aspect of life, this book offers simple techniques for generating ingenious solutions to existing problems, and for applying existing solutions to new problems. In the spirit of Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking, Why Not?will help you take the things we all see, every day, and think about them in a new way. Why not have telemarketers pay you for your time when they call? Why not sell a mortgage that automatically refinances when interest rates drop? Why not organize a "buycott" rather than a boycott? Why Not? will provoke you into finding new business opportunities using everyday ingenuity. Great ideas are waiting. Why not be the one to discover them?


Book Info
Text shows how to think in new ways about the things we see and do every day, outlining simple methods for generating ingenious solutions to existing problems. Written for the optimist in all of us. DLC: Problem solving.


About the Author
Barry Nalebuff is the Milton Steinbach Professor of Economics at Yale School of Management, and coauthor of Co-opetition and Thinking Strategically. Ian Ayres is the William K. Townsend Professor of Law at Yale Law School.

ANNOTATION

Staff Favorite of 2003

Why not require telemarketers to pay for your time? Why not sell pay-per-mile auto insurance? Why not offer season tickets to local movie theaters? And, most important, why even bother trying to resist the charming brilliance of this delightful guide to innovative thinking? With its enthusiasm, panache, and creative energy, Why Not? is the closest thing we have to a user's guide for the human brain.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Robert F. Kennedy challenged us to "dream of things that never were and say, Why not?"

Why Not? is a primer for fresh business thinking, for problem solving with a purpose, for bringing the world a few steps closer to the way it should be. Idealistic? Yes. Unrealistic? No.

Authors Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres have spent their careers asking questions, solving problems, and bringing fresh ideas to market-from insurance that protects against a decline in your home's value to Honest Tea, bottled iced tea that actually tastes like tea. Illustrated with examples from every aspect of life, this book offers simple techniques for generating ingenious solutions to existing problems, and for applying existing solutions to new problems.

In the spirit of Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking, Why Not?will help you take the things we all see, every day, and think about them in a new way. Why not have telemarketers pay you for your time when they call? Why not sell a mortgage that automatically refinances when interest rates drop? Why not organize a "buycott" rather than a boycott? Why Not? will provoke you into finding new business opportunities using everyday ingenuity. Great ideas are waiting. Why not be the one to discover them?

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times - August 10, 2003

Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres toss out so many ideas...that it makes you dizzy. And makes you think too.

Harvard Business Review - October 2003

[T]he authors...offer sensible advice for implementing ideas in a competitive marketplace.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance

Golden book of bright ideas!

The Boston Globe - October 19, 2003

"Authors Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres have produced an engaging - dare we say innovative? - guide to stoking creativity."

CIO Insight - October 2003

The words 'fun' and 'business book' rarely go together. But this book...is the exception.Read all 6 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Roger Brown

Why Not? is full of intelligent optimism and surprising new ideas for making the world better- everything from how to reduce job discrimination to improved plumbing and phones to creating new beverages. I've been using its wisdom to reframe the problems and frustrations of life in the twenty-first century as opportunities for great new ideas. I guarantee that you will be a better problem solver after reading this spectacular book. — Executive Chairman and Cofounder, Bright Horizons, and Ernst & Young/USA Today "Entrepreneur of the Year"

Herb Cohen

This is an extraordinary, thought-provoking, and enlightening book-it is must-reading for any entrepreneur or business person. In the turbulent and unforgiving economic climate we're living in, Why Not? is one of the few books that I'd buy in hardback and pay retail. — author of Negotiate This!

Peter Bell

Why Not? could have been entitled 'The Joy of Innovating.' Nalebuff and Ayres help us to see problems and solutions in new ways. Their enthusiasm is infectious; their guidance, empowering. — President, CARE

Warren J. Spector

Why Not? takes RFK's challenge to dream of things that never were and applies it to the world of business. Nalebuff and Ayres propose a handful of new and intriguing financial products, including a reinvention of the home mortgage. Financial markets are so competitive that constant innovation is required to stay on top. If their creativity tools can make it here, they can make it anywhere. Why not, indeed. — President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, Bear Stearns

Joseph Stiglitz

This inspiring book is an essential read for anyone who wants to reinvent business or government. — Nobel laureate (economics) and author of Globalization and Its Discontents

Arianna Huffington

Orange juice is not just for breakfast, and ingenuity is not just for entrepreneurs and business innovators. This book explains how the same techniques and principles used to keep American companies in the vanguard of change and innovation can be used to make our gridlocked government more efficient -- and more responsive to the needs of the people it is meant to serve. Ayers and Nalebuff, two of our brightest legal and economic minds, inventively demonstrate how to retool our ailing democracy. — author of Pigs At the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America

Reed Hundt

Why Not? is a terrific read. It is a chockablock not with mere heuristics, but authentically interesting innovations. Many are wise; all are worth thinking about. And their ideas grow out of a disciplined effort to force creative thinking. — former chairman, Federal Communications Commission

Bill George

In a time when innovation and creativity are in high demand and short supply, Why Not? provides a unique and refreshing approach to stimulating our creative juices through its ingenious ways of looking at everyday problems and devising original solutions. It is a 'must read' for anyone who would like to create a business-or just make things work better. — former Chairman and CEO, Medtronic, Inc.

Gary Hirshberg

In twenty years and countless adventures in growing our business, our only progress and for that matter our only interesting breakthroughs have resulted from someone asking why not? Nalebuff and Ayres have crafted an inspiring, imaginative, informative, and best of all, fun treatise that will arouse the entrepreneur in all of us. You will fly through this book, and you will never look at a problem the same way again — president and CEO, Stonyfield Farm Yogurt, Inc.

Hal Varian

Why Not? is full of clever, stimulating ideas. Even better, it provides principles to help you generate your own brainstorms. Read it yourself, and buy it for your employees — University of California at Berkeley, and coauthor, Information Rules

ACCREDITATION