Editorial Review:
Business leaders need bold strategies to stay relevant and win. In Big Think Strategy, Schmitt shows how to bring bold thinking into your business by sourcing big ideas and executing them creatively. With the tools in this book, any leader can overcome institutionalized small think the inertia, the narrow-mindedness, and the aversion to risk that block true innovation. Your reward? Big, bold, and decidedly doable strategies that excite your employees and leave your rivals scrambling.
Drawing on years of advising corporate leaders on creativity and strategy development, Schmitt explains how to infuse fresh thinking into the planning process. Through his commentary on the Trojan War, the film Fitzcarraldo, and the composer Gustav Mahler, Schmitt uncovers the essence of bold leadership and the levers of revolutionary change. Abundant examples from Apple, Whole Foods, MySpace, IBM, General Electric, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to name a few, show big think strategy in action.
Tested by daring executives in a diverse range of industries, the practical ideas and tools in this book will help you leverage bold ideas in your strategic planning and position your firm uniquely for lasting market relevance and success.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Breezy guide to developing revolutionary ideas  2008-05-22
This is a fun book. Bernd H. Schmitt clearly enjoys not just working with ideas, but playing with them. To explain his concept, he draws on sources from Greek mythology to cyberspace. His examples range from IBM to the opera, and he explores creative analogies ("A strategy is like a great steak!") that show his lively mind and openness to learning from all kinds of sources. This book is not just entertaining, it is also useful. Schmitt shares a host of tips for producing new ideas and provides a big jolt of energy to help you get started. Reading this might make you want to roll up your sleeves and change everything about your business. However, Schmitt is breezy about potential challenges - talking about revolutionizing your industry won't do much good if you can't pay your rent. Thoughts about innovation fall along a spectrum. On one end are people who believe that many small changes or experiments can add up to marked change and market superiority; on the other end are those who think you have to make radical innovation in a sudden leap. Schmitt is very much on that end of the innovation spectrum. getAbstract recommends this book to those looking to jump-start their creative engines, to eager innovators and, since Schmitt focuses mostly on conceptual thinking, to those who can supply their own details.
Big Think Strategy----Bernd Schmitt  2008-04-28
Bernd Schmitt does it again with his Big Think Strategy: How to Leverage Bold Ideas and Leave Small Thinking Behind book.
I read Schmitt's book on a plane ride from New York to Beijing and was captivated by it. Throughout the entire read, I was applying Schmitt's frameworks to my own industry and line of business and was frantically writing down all the ideas that emerged.
Big Think Strategy is also not written like a traditional textbook which is quite refreshing in that regard.
Overall, I see many types of professionals really getting alot out of Schmitt's new work (not just traditional executives). Schmitt's Big Think Strategy makes you think differently in whatever line of business you are in and I plan incorporating his frameworks within my unit and team immediately.
Schmitt does it again with his Big Think Strategy book. BRAVO SCHMITT!!! BRAVO!!!
Homage to 'Thinking Big' for business  2008-03-23
The author's ambitious goal is, as the title says, Big Think strategy is to leverage bold ideas and leave small thinking behind. There are some good insights in particular why large companies incentive systems are not set up for big and bold straegies. SWOT analysis vs. Big Think; there is more to strategy than just analysis and the difficulty developing Big Think strategies with generic strategy types (like Porter's cost leadership, differentiation & focus).
I strongly believe that the concept of thinking big cannot be stressed enough. Where the weakness of the book starts is in its titel and goal; big think is great, but why bold? Big thinking can or cannot be bold. Big thinking is a strategic tool. To me, boldness is as important as thinking big, but in acting, not thinking. And now the fine nuances show; boldness should never be the strategy behind all of our actions. It is a tactical instrument, used at the right moment.
All in all, a good 'refresher' on thinking big for business while far from a must read book.
A Must Read! 2008-02-29
A must have for any business manager! This book is a perfect read for anyone looking for simple and creative ways to bring innovative changes to their company. Schmitt has a great skill of combining business strategies with interesting anecdotes and humor, which makes the book an easy and fun read.
Excellent way to jump over your competition and the industry... 2008-02-03
While it's possible to run a successful business by incrementally improving your product and service, you'll forever be trying to defend your turf from others doing the same thing. The way to break free and win big is to "think big". Bernd H. Schmitt takes a look at that strategy in his book Big Think Strategy: How to Leverage Bold Ideas and Leave Small Thinking Behind. It's an unconventional style business book to create unconventional products and services.
Contents:
Big Think and the Trojan Horse
Sourcing Ideas - Steaks and Sacred Cows
Evaluating Ideas - How to Dig for the Gems
Turning Ideas into Strategy - What Would Mahler Do?
Executing Big Think - How to Pull the Ship over the Mountain
Leading Big Think - Guts, Passion - or Just a Robot?
Sustaining Big Think - From Sisyphus to Odysseus
Epilogue
Notes
Index
About Schmitt
The first thing you notice about this book is that it's not the typical scholarly look at some management theory that sounds good on paper but probably wouldn't translate to real life. Schmitt digs right in and relates his ideas and actions that have been developed from many years of working with companies. Many of the applications of these ideas weren't part of some strategy session or formal "brainstorming" gathering, but rather the result of conversations on the train or over steaks with the leaders of companies that were struggling with these very issues. As such, the whole presentation of the concepts has a "real" feel to them. I liked that...
The book centers around three leadership qualities and four strategy types you can use to move your company from small think to Big Think. The styles involve guts, passion, and perseverance. You have to stick with your ideas even though others might be against you. Your passion over the idea needs to translate into persuading others to buy into it. And most of all, you can't be the type to throw in the towel at the first sign of resistance. The strategy types are opposition, integration, essence, and transcendence. Opposition involves looking at the market and trying something that is in direct contrast to where others are blindly following. Integration is the art of bringing together ideas that on the surface may not seem to be complementary, but that once combined causes a whole new market paradigm. Essence means taking the core of an idea and taking it further than anyone else has. And finally, transcendence seeks to destroy the boundaries that current define the industry or market that you're in. But Schmitt doesn't just throw out ideas without examples. He brings together companies that embody these ideas. Look at companies and brands like Dove, Apple, Whole Foods, etc. It's really good stuff...
Most anyone in business can easily read and benefit from this book. You owe it to your business and yourself to really think about what you're doing and where you're going. It may be that by changing your mindset, you may well become the next company that defines your industry.
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