Famous Business Fusions : Ideas that Revolutionized Industries

Where do startup founders and product developers get radical, high-value ideas? This book presents innovation behind-the-scenes stories from companies such as Apple, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Google, P&G, Uber, and more. It reveals where the ideas came from and provides guidance on how you, too, can combine unlikely ideas to create new offerings and startup ventures by integrating industries, fields, technologies, and people.

Famous Business Fusions discusses how an idea from one place, transported somewhere new, can lead to radically creative innovation. The book is replete with stories of lateral thinking or "fusion" that inspire you to think bigger, discover deeper insights, sense real opportunities and craft high-value fusion.

This book is essential reading for those interested in new inventions, innovation and entrepreneurship; business leaders and consultants involved in innovation and new product or service development; and academics seeking material on business innovation and startups.

Dr. CJ Meadows is the Director of i2e, The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at SP Jain School of Global Management. She designed and launched new innovation programs (Design Thinking, Disruptive Innovation with Harvard Business Online, and startup360 with IBM Garage) and has certified hundreds of executives and MBA’s in IDEO’s design-thinking methodology. She initiated new consulting and education relationships with top-tier clients (e.g. World Bank, Cisco, MSD (Merck), Novartis, ADP, etc.), as well as collaborations with indubators, industry leaders, mentors, and more. Her research and coaching focus on Leadership & Creativity, and she runs an advanced-technologies Think Tank & Tinker Lab (2050ed.tech), envisioning the future of education and applying AI, biometrics, and other advanced technologies to human L&D.

She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, USA and was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Management Accountant (CMA).

Dr. Meadows has over 20 years’ experience in Asia, Europe, and North America providing strategy & business-development consulting to major corporations and new ventures alike, as well as executive education programmes individually and in conjunction with top business schools.

When businesses were just starting to go online, CJ co-founded an Innovation Lab in Singapore within a premier eBusiness consulting firm that built ground-breaking eBusiness for clients such as Chase, Morgan Stanley, AT&T, J&J, Boots, & Marubeni. Her lab collaborated with the firm's labs in San Francisco, New York, and London, as a place where clients could go to use a well-researched and well-honed innovation methodology to tackle key business issues. She led projects, worked with client executives to define their key business issues and envision the future, and fostered new client relationships with government and financial services organizations such as Standard Chartered Bank, DBS, Societe Generale, MetLife, Dun & Bradstreet, Dao Heng, GIC, Singapore Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore Tourism Board, Ministry of Manpower, Attorney General’s Chambers, and Singapore Law Academy.

Earlier, as a member of Accenture's Strategy Group (financial services) -- then the largest strategy consulting group in the world -- CJ structured & led projects, developed & managed client relationships, and served as an expert resource to envision industry futures and clients’ positioning; define core competence & competitive advantage; define value creation, business models, partnerships, & implementation approach; and more. She was a member years earlier of Accenture's Information Technology practice, building finance & accounting systems for the US Government.

As an entrepreneur, she co-founded a variety of corporations, partnerships, etc. in several industries on three continents. At her own consultancy, she brought new research to business problems, serving clients such as Singapore Technologies, Ernst & Young (EY), Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, and the United Nations (UNIDO). In the social enterprise space, she remains the Chairman & Co-Founder of The Tiger Center (TTC), a ground-breaking social enterprise in central India. TTC whitepapers on the use of natural assets for economic development have been discussed in the Parliament of India, and the firm has impacted public policy.

Dr. Meadows has taught at Harvard University, INSEAD, Asian Institute of Management, National University of Singapore, and for MNC’s both privately and in conjunction with Singapore Management University. Her latest research & new multimedia books focus on high-value lateral innovation, with a new model, process, and insights for innovation leaders and individuals, as well as implications for teams and organizations.

For more information, see drcjmeadows.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcjmeadows/.