Surrounded by Geniuses: Unlocking the Brilliance in Yourself, Your Colleagues and Your Organization Book

Preface to the Paperback Edition vii

Preface to the First Edition x

Introduction xiii

Part I: The Context 1

Chapter One: White People Swimming Slowly .5
How the slowest swimmers in the world came to dominate the world of swimming, and why you don't have to be brilliant to do brilliant things.

Chapter Two: The Quest for Compelling Value .13
Why you have to reinvent the game if you want to win.

Chapter Three: Genius in Chains 31
Why traditional approaches to strategy, innovation, and marketing no longer make any sense and what to do about it.

Chapter Four: Curiosity as Competitive Advantage 37
Why our innate gift for curiosity is the only real weapon in the battle to remain relevant and how to rediscover it; and Why geography matters, and why a thirteenth-century traveler might be the most important business thinker of the twenty-first century.

Part II: Ten Journeys 49

Chapter Five: The Power of a Promise 55
What if we could make and deliver on a promise that really mattered?
A journey back in time to meet a man with bad feet, a reasonable idea, and a powerful promise...
(Leon Leonwood Bean)

Chapter Six: The Magic of a Conversation .71
What if we could create more meaningful conversations?
A journey through the neighborhood with a nine-year-old girl, a box of cookies, and the magic of a recurring conversation...
(The Girl Scouts)

Chapter Seven: The Wonder of a Performance .87
What if we could create a performance filled with wonder and possibilities?
A journey under a tent where the concept of a circus has been reinvented...
(Cirque du Soleil)

Chapter Eight: Your Wish Is My Command .99
What if we could solve practically any request no matter how difficult?
A journey into the lobby of one of the world's great hotels and a day in the life of a world-class concierge...
(The Ritz Carlton on Central Park)

Chapter Nine: When Every Second Counts 113
What if we could really deliver compelling value 24/7?
A journey into one of the world's finest shock trauma centers where life and death decisions are all part of a day's work...
(University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center)

Chapter Ten: Fastest 131
What if we could be the fastest at the times when it really mattered?
A journey across the harsh savanna of Africa where speed is everything when you're not the biggest or baddest cat around...(The World of Cheetahs)

Chapter Eleven: When Nothing Is Everything 143
What if the little things really mattered and we could do all of them right all the time?
A journey onto the set of one of the most successful TV shows in history where life's everyday problems are a cause for celebration...
(Seinfeld)

Chapter Twelve: It Is Rocket Science 157
What if we believed that failure was not an option?
A journey to the world of rocket scientists where their mission, like all of ours, demands perfection...
(Lockheed Martin and the Atlas 5 Rocket)

Chapter Thirteen: No Smile, No Gain 173
What if we could make customers healthier?
A journey to the front-lines of an unusual effort to make exer­cise fun and accessible for everyone and its implications for all of us...
(Friskis&Svettis)

Chapter Fourteen: Spider Sense 187
What if we could anticipate customers' needs?
A journey into the life of one of the world's most human super­heros to rediscover the amazing power that we all possess...
(Spider-Man)

Part III: Building a New Model of Success 199

Chapter Fifteen: Unlocking the Genius Within 203
How to find the brilliance in ourselves.

Chapter Sixteen: Bringing Genius to Scale 213
How to create an organization that nurtures the genius in all of its people.

Chapter Seventeen: The Essential Work of Leaders 229
How to become a compelling leader in the brave new world of customer and business success.

Concluding Note 235

Map of the Known World 239

Acknowledgments 241

Index 245

About the Author 249