Soren Kaplan
Soren Kaplan | |
---|---|
Born | November 27, 1968 |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles |
Website | https://upboard.io/ |
Soren Marcus Kaplan (born November 27, 1968) is an author, consultant, and speaker on the subject of innovation and innovation culture in organizations.[1] He is an Affiliate at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, founder of the consulting firm InnovationPoint, and is a columnist for the Innovate column of Inc. Magazine.[2][3][4]
Kaplan's first book, Leapfrogging, received Best Leadership Book by the Axiom Book Awards.[5] His second book, The Invisible Advantage, was awarded Best General Business Book by the International Book Awards.[6]
In 2013, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Kaplan had paid ResultSource a fee of $20–30,000 to promote his first book, Leapfrogging, and bought 2,500 copies himself at a cost of $55,000. The book entered the Journal's best-seller list for business books and then "the following week ...plunged 99% and it fell off the list".[7] Following this article, Kaplan became the first bestselling business author to publicly share details of how the book publishing industry has become increasingly reliant on pre-sales of books to influence the New York Times and Wall Street Journal's bestseller lists. Jeff Bercovici reported in Forbes that Kaplan shared his reservations about marketing his book using this strategy, quoting Kaplan as saying "It's no wonder few people in the industry want to talk about bestseller campaigns. Put bluntly, they allow people with enough money, contacts, and know-how to buy their way onto bestseller lists." [8] In addition to critiquing the publishing industry, Kaplan has since critiqued other industries’ business models including management consulting, media, and healthcare.[9][10][11]
Early life and career
Soren Kaplan was born on 27 November 1968. In 1996 he jointly wrote an article for the Journal of Creativity & Innovation Management under the title of "Harnessing the Power of Strategic Innovation".[12]
In 2001, Kaplan co-founded iCohere, Inc. with his father Pascal,[13] an online learning and collaboration platform.[14]
In 2017 the Thinkers50 named Kaplan one of the world's leading experts in business strategy and innovation [15]
Books
In 2012, Kaplan published Leapfrogging: Harness the Power of Surprise for Business Breakthroughs, outlining his observations on why the power of surprise is so important for innovation.[16] He has since published his second book on innovation titled The Invisible Advantage: How to Create a Culture of Innovation (2017).[1]
In a 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal titled "The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike How Are Some Authors Landing On Best-Seller Lists? They're Buying Their Way", Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg noted that Soren's first book, Leapfrogging entered the Journal's list of best-selling business books immediately and the next week "plunged 99% and it fell off the list". Kaplan told the Journal that he had retained ResultSource to promote the book and "purchased about 2,500 books through ResultSource, paying about $22 a book, including shipping, for a total of about $55,000. Mr. Kaplan says he also paid ResultSource a fee in the range of $20,000 to $30,000."[7] Kaplan's interview with Trachtenberg and subsequent articles on the topic have continued to be referenced by media outlets when describing the dynamics of bestseller book marketing.[17]
Kaplan's books have been recognized as the top business and leadership books of the years when published, and other innovation experts have since referred to Kaplan's "The Invisible Advantage" as a "classic" when it comes to outlining what businesses need to do to create a continuous culture of innovation.[18][19][20]
Other activities
Kaplan was ranked 24 out of 40 in the blog Innovation Excellence "Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2017."[21]
Kaplan's ideas are discussed in The International Handbook on Innovation by Larisa V. Shavinina.[22]
He has also appeared as a speaker at TEDx Bay Area.[23]
He is a columnist for the Innovate column of Inc. Magazine,[2] regularly contributes to Fast Company Magazine[24] and has written one short article for the Harvard Business Review website.[25]
Personal life
Kaplan has two daughters.[26]
References
- ^ a b "Sparks of Surprise - Interviews with Innovation Experts and Authors". ideaconnection.com. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ a b "Soren Kaplan's articles | Inc.com". inc.com. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ "0803 | How to Create a Culture of Innovation with Soren Kaplan - David Burkus". David Burkus - Author of The Myths of Creativity. 2017-01-19. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ "Leadership in Strategy Innovation & Strategic Business Growth". innovation-point.com. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ "2013 Axiom Book Award Winners". axiomawards.com/. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "2017 International Book Award Winners". internationalbookawards.com/. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ a b "The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike How Are Some Authors Landing On Best-Seller Lists? They're Buying Their Way", Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal, 22 February 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2018. Archived at archive.is.
- ^ "Here's How to Buy Your Way Onto the New York Times Bestsellers List". forbes.com. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
- ^ "The Business Consulting Industry Is Booming, and It's About to Be Disrupted". inc.com. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
- ^ "5 Ways to Drive Disruptive Innovation in Healthcare". inc.com. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
- ^ "MoviePass Is Still Refusing to Die". vice.com. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
- ^ Johnston, Robert E.; Kaplan, Soren (June 1996). "Harnessing the Power of Strategic Innovation". Creativity and Innovation Management. 5 (2): 117–121. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8691.1996.tb00130.x. ISSN 0963-1690.
- ^ "Unified Learning Systems, iCohere, Business Solutions Companies". ceocfointerviews.com. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ "Social Software and the Future of Conferences; Right Now". Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ "Soren Kaplan Thinkers50 Radar Biography". https://thinkers50.com/biographies/soren-kaplan/. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|website=
- ^ "Soren Kaplan: An interview by Bob Morris". Blogging on Business. 2012-09-19. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ "Debunking the Bestseller". leapfrogging.com. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
- ^ "7 Action Items Build A Sustainable Innovation Culture". AlleyWatch. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
- ^ "2013 Axiom Book Award Winners". axiomawards.com/. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "2017 International Book Award Winners". internationalbookawards.com/. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2017 – Innovation Excellence". innovationexcellence.com. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ Shavinina, Larisa V. (2003-10-16). The International Handbook on Innovation. Elsevier. ISBN 9780080524849.
- ^ TEDx Talks (2012-08-27), The Power of Surprise: Soren Kaplan at TEDxBayArea, retrieved 2018-09-10
- ^ "Soren Kaplan | Co.Design". Co.Design. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ "How One Insurance Firm Learned to Create an Innovation Culture". Harvard Business Review. 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ "Thinkers50 in 50 Seconds with Soren Kaplan - Thinkers 50". Thinkers 50. 2016-10-24. Retrieved 2018-09-01.