Unlock Your Potential with Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power to Transform Your Future

Esther: Beth Comstock told the story of her GE-life and explains convincingly how change and innovation work even in super-larger corporates. The five sections are about self-permission, discovery, agitated inquiries, storycraft and creating a new operating system. Every of the five sections closes with a “Challenges” and shares some work instructions in between.

“Change is a messy, collaborative, inspiring, difficult, and ongoing process – like everything meaningful that leads to human progress.” p.xxiv

Beth was a change maker all her GE career and told much of her development and different stations within the GE environment, what has worked and what has not, where she succeeded and where she failed. What I liked most were the passages of her lessons learned and generated experience in bringing innovation into the corporate outside in and from the edge. Some stories about when she brought in sparks from outside like Aaron Dignan or Eric Ries, or when they collaborated with startups like Quirky before GE started building their lean start up with “Fast Works”. I liked much what I ready about emergent leadership, the risk of premature scaling the power of the...

Germany on Jan 27, 2022

Amazon Customer: This is one of the best business, strategy, leadership books I have read. Full of insights and stories. Thank you Beth Comstock for sharing your knowledge, wisdom and experience with humility and grace.

United Kingdom on Jul 02, 2019

Kym HamerKym Hamer: What a great read.

I saw Beth Comstock speak in London last year - I'd never heard of her but she impressed me with her conviction and her pragmatism about the power of "imagining it forward" to create our future. Finally I got around to the book and I was not disappointed. I have tabbed so many pages for later reference. Some of them are food for thought while other are great tools and techniques that I can apply to power both my own and my clients' businesses forward. An absolute keeper - one for returning to time and time again. 5-stars.

United Kingdom on Jun 30, 2019

George: Working and volunteering in organisations with such fixed and rigid structures this book gave me a wonderful case study for another way. Easy to read and enjoyable due to story telling I recommend this book if you wish to learn a path forward for change.

Australia on May 14, 2019

KUNAL GUPTA: Beth's comstock's story is mine in making. Albiet the impact may be a fraction of what she's accomplished in those 26yrs at GE.

She's brought out well the GE's magnificent and larger than life culture .

It's amazing on how Beth recounts people, experiences, interactions with them and her inner emotions so profoundly. It's difficult to imagine someone being able to do that for a 26 long years! (I don't even remember my last quarter!).

She's given summaries and mantra's after each story. That makes the self-help even better. It would have been even better if there was a way to recall the story behind those mantra's/learnings quickly . so one could share them as anecdotes when sharing with others.

But doesn't looks like Beth Comstock era is over. It feels she will come back with more power bringing more change.

Honest, vulnerable, hungry for change defines Beth to me.

Recommended this book to everyone who wants motivation to their change making missions.

India on Jan 08, 2019

Linda: This reads like a whole new genre.

Candid, personal, and bombast-free, “Imagine it Forward” is a change-agent’s true story from the inner sanctums of a few of the world’s biggest pre-digital companies. And whether or not they admit it, all companies “of a certain age” are writhing as they sort out how to compete in this transformational era.

For a decade, Reality TV and social media have been dissolving the polished exteriors that hid the truths inside so many of our institutions, including our families. In “Imagine it Forward,” Beth (and you’ll want to call her Beth too) brings that new, sometimes uncomfortable, transparency to the inner workings of the Fortune 100 C-Suite.

The truth needed to be personal, because what is change in a 100-year-old company but individual intra-preneurs battling legions of executives in cultures built for yesterday? And these days, it’s a battle to the death. (See rest of business books) The bureaucrats have the incumbent’s advantages— wallet, Street, inertia, but all the entrepreneurs have is each other and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. And sometimes the CEO’s support. (The value of which is...

United States on Dec 17, 2018

D.A. Lux: I will say that I received a galley copy, so there may be things that were changed with the publication of the book in mass production.

I really enjoyed Beth's journey through corporate America--what she was thinking as she fought for change in a large machine-like company, knowing when to stand down, and looking back on her mistakes with clarity and compassion. I think that the writing could have had a stronger point of view--in my copy, it wasn't clear if this was an advice book or memoir, or who the target audience was. Sometimes she had some reflections that felt unfinished, but the story getting there was good.

I did not like the excerpts of the book that was advice column, it felt like it should have been a companion booklet or in the back of the book that one would review when reflecting on their own journey and planning forward. I ended up just skipping those sections because they would take up 2/3 of a page and cut off the narrative if I would stop to read them.

The beginning of the book was strong, but dragged on quite a bit at the end. I think the last two chapters could have been tightened and combined. All in all, I like the bulk of the book, and...

United States on Nov 01, 2018

Whitney Johnson: Beth Comstock proves to be the perfect guide through the daunting labyrinth of change-making and innovation, where discovery lies around each turn, everything is feedback, uncertainty is the norm and ‘No’ doesn’t mean no; it means ‘Not yet.’ An exceptionally well-paced book that integrates its own advice about telling a great story, Imagine it Forward demonstrates and distills the lessons of a truly storied career. It’s all here, from Comstock’s earliest days in a variety of increasingly responsible and innovative media PR roles, to GE’s harrowing days walking a tightrope of insolvency during the late, unlamented financial crisis, to her influential work as the principle architect of GE’s digital strategy. She explores the initiatives that have made it possible for a legacy industrial firm to navigate the alien landscape of 21st century technology, terrain which will not be the same tomorrow as it is today. The accomplishments are audacious and on a grand scale; Comstock pinpoints how the large themes translate into actionable tactics that anyone can implement to become a change-maker in their own sphere. Because at the end of the day, disruption and innovation...

United States on Oct 11, 2018

Sunny B: Comstock's clear headed , colloquial style make it easy to access her treasure trove of information .
Part how to succeed in business,
Part memoir,
Part practical guide for navigating the contemporary fast paced world of global business.
She does a great job of tying disparate ideas and concepts together. She also demystifies different sectors, including government, corporate , fast paced early stage technology fueled companies.
Her generous spirit and human qualities come through her personal stories and experiences .
The sections : Self Permission, Discovery , Agitated Inquiry, Story Craft, and Creating a New OS take you on clear and full journey .Honesty ,fear, courage ,leadership, and risk are among the topics areas we need to understand to artfully navigate our own path . There is enough practical advice and templates to do the work yourself like writing and rewriting your own story , and also how to fess up to mistakes and having the courage to move beyond ideas of perfectionism that hold so many of us back.
I recommend this book highly

United States on Sep 19, 2018