The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation

Companies, communities, and individuals fall for many reasons, but one of the most common—and easily avoidable—is the failure to reinvent. When people and organizations rest on prior successes rather than driving purposeful transformation, they discover too late that they have lost their market position altogether to competitors and external forces.

The most successful companies, brands, and individuals make reinvention a regular part of their business strategies. Transformation demands an ongoing process of discovery and imagination, and The Road to Reinvention lays out a systematic approach for continually challenging and reinventing yourself and your business. Venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur Josh Linkner identifies six elements in any business that are ripe for reinvention and shares examples, methods, and step-by-step techniques for creating deliberate, productive disruption.

Throughout The Road to Reinvention, Linkner also explores the history—the great rise, unprecedented fall, and now rebirth—of his beloved hometown, Detroit. First rising to greatness as the result of breathtaking innovation, Detroit had generations of booming growth before succumbing to apathy, atrophy, and finally bankruptcy. Now, the city is rising from the ashes and driving sustainable success through an intense focus on reinvention. Linkner brings an insider's view of this incredible story of grit, determination, and creativity, sharing his perspective on Detroit's successes and setbacks as a profound example of large-scale organizational and personal transformation.

Change is inevitable. You need to decide: Will you drive that change, or be driven away by it? Will you disrupt or be disrupted? By choosing to deliberately reimagine your own status quo, you can secure a strong future for both your company and your career.

About the Author

Josh Linkner is the New York Times bestselling author of Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity.

He is the CEO and managing partner of Detroit Venture Partners, playing a key role in the well-publicized turnaround of his hometown, Detroit, Michigan.

He is also the founder and former CEO of ePrize, the largest interactive promotion agency in the world, which provides digital marketing services for seventy-four of the top one hundred brands. Prior to ePrize, he was the founder and CEO of three other successful technology companies. He has been honored as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2003) and is a President Barack Obama Champion of Change award recipient (2011). Linkner is a regular columnist for Forbes, the Detroit Free Press, and Inc. Magazine. His work on innovation and urban revitalization has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, CNN, and the New York Times. He is also a Berklee-trained jazz guitarist and has performed in thousands of venues throughout the world.