Models of Opportunity

Gerry George is Professor and Deputy Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Imperial College London, where he also serves as Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre facilitating its strategic commitments in India for joint research, technology commercialisation and educational programmes. He is Professorial Fellow of the UK's Economic and Social Research Council and Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Journal. He serves on the boards of high technology companies and is actively engaged in guiding start-ups and large companies on technology venturing and entrepreneurship. Adam J. Bock is Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh Business School. He is also an experienced entrepreneur and venture financier. He co-founded three medical device companies and managed three angel investor networks in the United States, facilitating more than $10 million of investment into start-up companies. His research focuses on how innovative entrepreneurs create extraordinary companies. He is the co-author of 'Entrepreneurship in the Research Context' (2009), a web-based e-learning course for nascent scientist entrepreneurs.

• List of figures; List of tables; List of boxes; Six insights to achieve the unexpected; 1. Rethink organisation design; 2. Appreciate imperfect opportunities; 3. Remodel for coherence; 4. Build bridges; 5. Inspire the narrative; 6. Embrace the unexpected opportunity; 7. Hindsight; Index.

'Some of the best works on business models are conceptual and case-based books that have been written by experienced entrepreneurs … The contribution of Models of Opportunity to this literature is the importance of narratives. George and Bock's emphasis on the importance of communication and the management of narrative is likely to resonate well with those immersed in practice and matches my own experiences from working with numerous start-ups.' Administrative Science Quarterly