dispatches from the new world of work

Cool Friends: Taylor and LaBarre

Bill Taylor and Polly LaBarre are our new Cool Friends. Both of them had long careers at Fast Company (Bill was co-founder), and both have lots of experience writing and speaking on strategies, innovation, and personal success. Together they've written Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win. Early readers, they tell us, called the book In Search of (a New Kind of) Excellence. I think this book is one you'll want to get for yourselves. There are more references to Tom in the interview—take a look to see what they are.

Here's the Cool Friends interview, and, of course, there's a website devoted to mavericks at work, and a blog. Taylor and LaBarre also have their Manifesto for Mavericks at ChangeThis.

Cathy Mosca posted this on 10/13/06.

Comments

This brief take on "Mavericks" from long time coordinator of Fast Company readers' network in Philadelphia may also be of interest http://conversationagent.typepad.com/conversation_agent/2006/10/maverick_tuesda.html

Posted by Valeria Maltoni at October 13, 2006 1:05 PM

Valeria, thank you for joining in and providing additional info.

Here's my contribution. I've been collecting quotes for our website, and these are the ones that grabbed me from Mavericks at Work:

"The logic of competition has evolved from the imitative world of products versus products to the revolutionary fervor of business models versus business models to, now, the promising realm of value systems versus value systems."

"Each of the maverick companies ... exudes an undeniable sense of purpose."

"Maverick leaders ... understand that the only sustainable form of market leadership is thought leadership."

The path from quote to quote is filled with stories of companies that see fulfilling their purpose as their primary goal. Like the bit Tom quotes about a sculptor who removes everything from a block of granite that is not his subject, these companies turn down all business that is not in line with their purpose. And that's just the first few chapters. The book moves on to describe companies that are innovation on how to innovate, and more. Again, I think you'll want this book.

Posted by cathy mosca at October 13, 2006 3:26 PM