This book is packed with witty observations that make serious points.

I read this book on the long flight from Paris to Tokyo. It only took the first hour to read ... the next nine I was grumpy wishing I had written it. It now sits officially on the top of the 'books I will steal from shamelessly' pile.

Ah, the sweet smell of nails being hit squarely on the head. Our book of the month choice this month won't carry too many surprises since not only is author Costas Papaikonomou a friend of the SI family and one of the people we like working with more than anyone, but he's really pulled the rabbit out of the hat with his first book. Followers of his grumpyinnovator Twitter feed will know exactly what's in store - a torrent of pithy, to the point, barbs aimed at the bloated army of innovation killers found in most large organizations. The 140 character limit imposed by Twitter makes for a great discipline when it comes to encapsulating big thoughts into the most efficient and effective aphorisms, and Costas is a rare master of the art. Only now, with 132 pages to play with, there's also an opportunity to fit each aphorism into a coherent bigger picture. And so we get four big themes topped and tailed by what will hopefully be something serious for the aforementioned innovation killers to take home and think about. The four main themes take eloquent swipes at creativity facilitators ('the art of beanbags and funny hats'), incremental thinking ('the evil twin of operational excellence'), Marketers ('market research and modeling madness'), and, perhaps best of all, people that don't understand the dynamics of SCurves. Favourite tweets from this section: "There's no stopping an idea whose time has gone." "Somewhere out there, someone is making a living out of doing the exact opposite of what you are doing." I've got a friend who is probably the worst cook in the world. She kind of gets it, but sometimes needs a gentle reminder that general inedibility is one thing, but food poisoning is something else entirely. The time after we had such a near miss, I turned up at the sacrificial dinner table wearing a homemade bandolier filled with rolls of Bisodol tablets. I mention the scene because, in my mind, what Costas has achieved here is an equivalent message to the mass of poisoning Marketing managers out there in FMCG-land. At the very least, you need to get yourself signed up for the individual tablets dispensed daily at grumpyinnovator.

Flippantly Flipping Fabulous. An antidote of sunshine for true innovators and intrapreneurs struggling in the web of corporate ambiguity!