Logical Creative Thinking Methods

"Logical Creative Thinking Methods by Min Ding presents lucidly an innovative framework that will assist students and practitioners in better understanding how firms actually compete, as well as should compete, in creating and developing new products. The framework and the various real-world examples discussed in the text make the learning experience clear and enjoyable. Highly recommended textbook in courses addressing creativity, innovation, and new products development."

Jehoshua Eliashberg, Sebastian S. Kresge Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA

"This intriguing book is not only thoughtful and informative but also applicable. It tells a disruptive fact that each ordinary people can be an innovation explorer and make unbelievable creative achievements by using LCT methods."

Guoqun Fu, Professor of Marketing, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University; President of Chinese Marketing Association of Universities

"I have known Min for almost twenty years and he has a way of finding very creative solutions to important problems, this book is no exception. I highly recommend this book."

John R. Hauser, Kirin Professor of Marketing, Sloan School of Management, MIT, USA

"Logical Creative Thinking Methods proposes a novel approach to ideation that will have a major impact on how innovation will be practiced in the future…. I believe readers will find the book very valuable in enhancing product innovation, process innovation, and business model innovation. The book is suitable for both middle managers and senior executives of global as well as local corporations."

Dipak Chand Jain, European President and Professor of Marketing, Former Dean, INSEAD, France; Former Dean, Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, USA; China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), China

"Logical Creative Thinking Methods offers a fascinating set of creativity tools to empower innovation explorers in their search for breakthrough ideas. It is a must-read for those who want to leverage their creative talents and improve their innovation productivity."

Kamel Jedidi,John A. Howard Professor of Business, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, USA

"Developing innovations is the key to both business growth and solving societal problems. Min's book nicely combines interesting discussion of past innovators and what characterized their work with a set of structured procedures for actually generating innovations. The book is both highly interesting and extremely relevant. It is also well written. It falls in the category of "I wish I had written it" which few works do."

Donald R. Lehmann, George E. Warren Professor of Business, Past president of the Association for Consumer Research, Former executive director of the Marketing Science Institute, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, USA

"Ideas are the essential fuel of progress, but the best, by their very nature, are elusive and hard to bring to bear on important problems. Ding's vital contribution is offering a systemic framework for using logic to organize, test and refine ideas until they produce the revolutionary potential first glimpsed when they arrive fresh in our minds. If you want to better understand how to bring science and structure to your innovation efforts, this book is where you should start and finish."

John Liechty, Professor of Marketing and Statistics, Penn State University, USA

"Logical Creative Thinking Methods provides a truly innovative way to be innovative or creative. While it may appear that creativity is a form of magic, Min Ding, the author, argues that the seemingly magical act of creativity can be achieved by following a sequence of precise, logical scientific steps. This important book provides the material needed to allow that process to be taught and learned…. I highly recommend this book to those who teach innovation, creativity or new product development as well as to those practitioners in firms or in consultancies changed with coming up with innovative solutions to organizational problems."

Gary L. Lilien, Distinguished Research Professor of Management Science, Penn State, USA

"Innovation in business practice is always ahead of innovation in theory development, and the vast majority of theoretical innovations originate in practice, but few could directly guide practice in retrospect.

"Professor Min Ding always has a deep insight into reality and is always willing to unearth the inner reason and logic from it as a subject of study. As a result, his research innovations have always led to much inspiration to scholars, his peers and practitioners. He has never resigned to fix his mind on a particular subject, and his open-minded curiosity about many new issues, new phenomena, new knowledge, has kept him always so passionate in academic innovation to constantly expand his intellectual boundaries and create new altitude of horizon. This book is representative of that.

"The whimsy that comes with his divergent thinking is always supported by his rigorous research methods and logical reasoning, and is thus compelling and beneficial to both scholars and practitioners alike.

"His thinking, and the writing based on it, always offers a perfect blend of philosophy, strategy, and methodology. Therefore, I believe that anyone，either as a scholar or a practitioner, who reads this book will feel an enlightenment of wisdom and will be willing to have an urge to put it into practice, to expand and to try their own innovations."

Xiongwen Lu, Dean and Professor of Marketing, School of Management, Fudan University, China

"Innovation has been long recognized as critical for the growth of companies, organizations and entire economies. Yet how to actually go about innovating has remained largely elusive. In Logical Creative Thinking Methods, Min Ding provides a structured way to approach this important task. Ding provides innovators (who he considers "explorers") the tools and methods needed to harness their ingenuity in order to fundamentally innovate upon existing solutions. This is a highly valuable read for anyone who hopes to create successful new products and services."

Elie Ofek, T.J. Dermot Dunphy Professor of Business Administration, Co-Unit Head, Marketing, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, USA

"This book is that rare thing: a logical (and creative) approach to creativity. It opens up a whole world of creative options for people across sectors and job titles who are involved with ideation, creativity, research and innovation. The content is comprehensive and the style approachable. Min Ding not only expands what we know about creativity but also offers practical guidance on how we can be more innovative in our thought and action."

Jaideep Prabhu, Professor of Marketing, Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business & Enterprise, Director of the Centre for India & Global Business (CIGB), Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK

"Professor Ding accomplishes a monumental task of bringing an essential and novel structure to the complex and varied array of methods used to develop innovative ideas (e.g., products, business models etc.)…. essential reading for all practitioners and academics interested in developing innovative ideas with significant success."

Vithala R. Rao, Deane W. Malott Professor of Management, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, USA

"There is one and only one way for staying relevant in business: being innovative! Especially for incumbent companies the ‘sweet poison’ of past and current success leads to complacency and a lack of questioning the status quo. And yet, even if one is read to chart new ways, identifying novel and suitable paths can be daunting. With Logical Creative Thinking Methods, Min Ding develops a rigorous, comprehensive, and powerful tool chest that allows managers to better see through and understand the innovation options available to them. An urgently needed guide for forging a competitive innovation-based strategy."

Werner Reinartz, Professor of Marketing, Director of Center for Research in Retailing (IFH), Co-editor of the International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM), University of Cologne, Germany

"Marketing value can be written as an equation. It consists of expanding the consideration set of investment opportunities, being intelligent about choosing the best ones from that set, and maximizing the value of selected options. It has long been my belief that the first of these tasks receives way less attention than the leverage it can provide. One possible reason is that as marketers we know so little about it. Now we have a roadmap for returning creativity to marketing analysis in a systematic and imaginative way. I would encourage my academic and industry colleagues to use this book as a vehicle to broaden their horizons."

John Roberts, Scientia Professor of Marketing, University of New South Wales, Australia

"I am a big fan of Min's work in innovation, I am confident that readers will not be disappointed."

Stefan Stremersch, Desiderius Erasmus Distinguished Chair of Economics, Chair in Marketing, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Erasmus University, Netherlands

"Logical methods and creative thinking sound contradictory. However, Professor Min Ding creatively developed a set of powerful methods to guide practitioners to come up with creative ideas step by step.Our students love the LCT, because it simply works."

Gao Wang, Professor of Marketing; Baosteel Chair in Marketing; Associate Dean (Executive Education Programme); Programme Director of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Programme, Programme Co-Director of Global CEO Programme for China, Programme Co-Director of Smart Health Care Startup Programme, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), China

"For most people, logic and creativity don’t mix. Yet, why do some entrepreneurs or scientists routinely have higher batting averages for novel, creative ideas? In this inspiring book, Min Ding does the seemingly impossible by opens the black box of the logic of successful, creative folks with six simple "doctrines." Kudos. I found myself nodding at how often I have sub-consciously used several of these doctrines to increase my odds of generating novel ideas. If you care about creative ideas, read the book. If you can adopt a "doctrine" or two, you will be amply rewarded…"

K. Sudhir, James L. Frank ’32 Professor of Marketing, Private Enterprise and Management, Founder-Director of the Yale China India Insights Program, Editor-in-Chief of Marketing Science, Yale School of Management, Yale University, USA

"Min Ding is offering a practical guide to how to be creative in a systematic way. That may seem like a contradiction in terms, but this book shows how it can be done. Creativity can be analyzed and learned, and here is a way to do it. A much-needed engineer’s approach to creative thinking."

Klaus Wertenbroch, Novartis Chaired Professor of Management and the Environment and Professor of Marketing, INSEAD, France

"Knowing Min Ding for over 20 years, he's one of my best friends. Every time we meet, he has new ideas to share with me, which inspired me a lot. I do believe that his new book will enlighten you as well."

Ping Zhao, Director of China Business Research Center, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, China