In his prologue to Lessons in Radical Innovation: South Africans Leading the World, author Wolfgang Grulke boldly declares: "Innovation has become the economic religion of the 21st century, but on its own, innovation is no longer enough to differentiate you from ‘the bunch’. To thrive today, you need radical innovation."

Before taking this thought any further, or explaining what he means by radical innovation, Grulke warns that the book is "not a roadmap to the territory called innovation". In fact, he implies this is not a path for the faint-hearted and, unlike novels that keep the conclusion for last, he gives it right upfront, "just in case you’re in a hurry".

This is what he concludes: "There is no guaranteed blueprint that can turn your successful business into an innovative business. There’s no golden bullet for radical innovation." And if that’s still not enough to shake you out of your comfort zone, he suggests that failure is the best catalyst for innovation.

But then Grulke, chairman of the global business and technology think-tank FutureWorld and author of Ten Lessons from the Future, is not out to pamper egos. He sees himself more as a catalyst for out-of-the-box thinking.

If you get this far (page 2 of the prologue), and you haven’t been put off yet, you’re likely to be one of those willing to take the risks, to make that leap into the quicksand-under-your-feet world of radical innovation, where the stakes are high — and if you succeed, the returns are even higher.

This is the nub of the issue: if you continue to run your successful business as you always have, you will probably continue to be successful, and your business will grow in an "evolutionary" way. While this is not in itself a bad thing, it is also not the way "Top 100" companies got to be where they are.

But Grulke is not advocating a blind leap. In this savvy, highly practical book, he writes about the tools businesses can use to do things differently and the kind of leadership needed to make radical innovation work for you.

There are also simple graphics he calls the Creative Destruction matrix, which he and his team use to help businesses choose how to divide their resources — keeping some in the "evolutionary innovation" box and allocating a portion to "radical innovation".

If words like "creative destruction" make you nervous, Grulke reassures: "Only radical innovation builds future markets and ensures future relevance." And isn’t that what all businesses want?

To his credit, Grulke devotes the bulk of the book to examples of South African leaders and companies that have taken the leap — and succeeded. These include Mark Shuttleworth, Citadel and Deloitte & Touche.

These stories are a good counterbalance to his challenges. What they also say is that there are South Africans who are world leaders in this scary but highly fulfilling area of radical innovation. In fact some, like Johnnic, have completely reinvented themselves (transforming from a mining company into a media group).

Each of these chapters is followed by a neat summary of the lessons learnt by that company, and white space for you to record your own.

There’s also a section on how to apply what he calls "Strategic Thinking and Strategic Action" — how to learn from the future so that you can innovate radically.

The design of the book is unusual in the business genre — its typographic approach, using different font sizes in the text, can be a little disturbing, but nonetheless achieves its aim of emphasising certain points.

Above all, Lessons in Radical Innovation is an inspiring, energising book that challenges one’s notions of excellence and pushes the boundaries of growth into another dimension.