Paul Hobcraft delivers a four box approach to frame rating and judgements of the innovation opportunity. Continue reading →
Innovation
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Most Topular Stories
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Framing 4 Critical Questions for Innovation
Innovation Excellence15 May 2012 | 7:00 am -
Innovators: stand on the shoulders of giants
Innovate on Purpose15 May 2012 | 3:03 amI had a nice meeting today in Johannesburg with an individual I met through Twitter. We talked about our shared interest in innovation. When I queried him about how he became interested in innovation, he told me that he started out in his company's process improvement team, and innovation just seemed like the next logical step. Innovation, in his eyes, built from incremental changes to ever increasing radical or disruptive ideas. This discussion led me to think about the advantages of starting innovation late.Innovation, like any other science or capability, is… -
Attacking Assumptions to Innovate
Innovation Excellence15 May 2012 | 10:00 amOpen thinking between the worlds of science and business has created the first car that folds in the middle to minimize the amount of space it takes up. The Hiriko (which means “city car” in Basque) was developed at MIT’s Media Lab as part of the Smart Cities Project and the two-seater car is finally a reality after four years of development. It is ready for a pilot launch in Balboa, Spain this year. Continue reading → -
Awards: IDEO’s Future of the Book Awarded a Webby
IDEO2 May 2012 | 4:39 pmIDEO’s Future of the Book concept wins a Webby in the Experimental & Weird Category. Webby Honorees include IDEO.org for Charitable Organizations/Non-Profits and GoGo Inflight Portal for Best Navigation/Structure. -
Swing For The Fences
DON! The Idea Guy1 May 2012 | 11:53 amRookie Mickey Mantle started the game against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park on May 1st, 1951, as the New York Yankees leadoff hitter and right fielder. Mantle realized this would be one of the most significant games of his career as soon as he hit his first homer. I’ll bet none of you has [...]
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Matthew E. May
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Law of Subtraction #1: What Isn’t There Can Trump What Is
14 May 2012 | 5:04 pmIntroducing The Laws of Subtraction, speaking at CA World following Tina Seelig and preceding Malcolm Gladwell. Picking up on reference to Jim Collins quote: “A great piece of art is composed of not just what is in the final piece, … Continue reading → -
Presenting With Credibility
9 May 2012 | 7:32 amAlong with being CEO of Clarion Enterprises, Bruna Martinuzzi is a popular author and blogger, so when she let me know that she had just published a new book, I was eager to read and review it. I was doubly … Continue reading → -
The Power of Reflection
7 May 2012 | 6:22 pmFive years ago today, at noon on May 7, 2007, I sat in the canteen at the Los Angeles Policy Academy in Elysian Park, just north of downtown Los Angeles, awaiting the arrival of Captain Robert S. Hauck, then-second in … Continue reading → -
How Gilt Got Built
4 May 2012 | 7:31 amFor anyone who has ever dreamed of starting and growing a business, By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop, by Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson is an absolute must-read. Their story, from how … Continue reading → -
My Take On Learning
3 May 2012 | 7:58 amChanging the formal ways in which we learn has become a central focus in our society. From the Khan Academy, to Quest to Learn, to The Blue School (founded by Matt Goldman and his Blue Man Group partners), we are … Continue reading →
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Innovation Excellence
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Four Ways to Think Like an Innovator
15 May 2012 | 4:00 pmFour Ways to Think Like an Innovator, a video from HBR Channel, featuring Scott Anthony, author and managing director of Innosight Asia-Pacific. Continue reading → -
Time to Re-Work Work
15 May 2012 | 1:00 pm“This insanity has to stop. Our bosses are deleting resources from the human capital pool without replenishing them.” Sara Robinson, Salon Continue reading → -
Attacking Assumptions to Innovate
15 May 2012 | 10:00 amOpen thinking between the worlds of science and business has created the first car that folds in the middle to minimize the amount of space it takes up. The Hiriko (which means “city car” in Basque) was developed at MIT’s Media Lab as part of the Smart Cities Project and the two-seater car is finally a reality after four years of development. It is ready for a pilot launch in Balboa, Spain this year. Continue reading → -
Framing 4 Critical Questions for Innovation
15 May 2012 | 7:00 amPaul Hobcraft delivers a four box approach to frame rating and judgements of the innovation opportunity. Continue reading → -
Why Innovation Teams Fail – or Succeed
15 May 2012 | 4:00 amWhen it comes to innovation, it may be fun to talk about whether someone is innovative or not, or look at what innovation face they wear, or even whether innovation might be in their DNA. But again the fact is that there are certain things that need to happen for innovation in an organization, or an innovation team, to succeed - including: Continue reading →
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IDEO
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Articles: The Future of Digital Behavior
11 May 2012 | 2:18 pmAt the 2012 Mashable Connect Conference, IDEO’s Duane Bray presented “6 Ways of Anticipating Future Digital Behavior” and points to current human behaviors that help us to see what the future might look like. Read more about the talk here. -
Work: Samsung Memory: Brand Awareness for Samsung
8 May 2012 | 11:04 pmSamsung Memory offers a range of products that enhance the performance of consumer electronic devices. The company partnered with IDEO to create a human-centered brand campaign that illustrates how Samsung Memory provides people with more efficiency, more time, and more enjoyable experiences. To help consumers understand the core benefits of Samsung Memory, the IDEO team created a series of short videos starring three fictional characters that conspire to annoy people by causing everyday inconveniences. These “conspirators”—named Battery Brutus, Loading Ball Larry, and Fiona… -
Awards: IDEO’s Future of the Book Awarded a Webby
2 May 2012 | 4:39 pmIDEO’s Future of the Book concept wins a Webby in the Experimental & Weird Category. Webby Honorees include IDEO.org for Charitable Organizations/Non-Profits and GoGo Inflight Portal for Best Navigation/Structure. -
Articles: From Blueprint to Genetic Code: The Merits of an Evolutionary Approach to Design
1 May 2012 | 12:36 pmIDEO CEO and president Tim Brown discusses how design is evolving away from a Newtonian model and toward a Darwinian model to meet the needs of an increasingly complex world. -
Articles: ShopWell Featured on the TODAY Show
30 Apr 2012 | 6:55 pmShopWell, a food information site and mobile app that got its start at IDEO, was featured on NBC’s TODAY show in a segment about online tools designed to help shoppers make healthier choice at the grocery store. Watch the segment here.
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Knowledge@Wharton
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Everyone's Problem: Looking Beyond the Wal-Mart Bribery Case
9 May 2012 | 4:05 pmIn a case that continues to reverberate across borders, Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, announced recently that it has started its own probe into allegations that executives at its Mexican operations made hundreds of illegal payments to help expedite the opening of new stores. According to legal and ethics experts at Wharton and elsewhere, the case raises broader questions about how multinational companies conduct business in foreign countries. -
State of the Unions: What It Means for Workers -- and Everyone Else
9 May 2012 | 4:05 pmLabor unions have long had a position of prominence in American business and political life. But their influence has been on the decline in recent decades as membership ranks have dwindled. The increasing irrelevance of unions will have far-reaching implications, Wharton experts and others say, including the loss of one of the few ways that working class Americans can engage in the political process and become educated about labor laws. Corporations will feel the effects as well -- and they won't necessarily be positive, experts add. -
Special Report: Europe Struggles to Hold Itself Together
9 May 2012 | 4:05 pmDramatic economic and financial developments in Europe never seem to quit. In the latest news, several eurozone countries have slipped back into recession, bringing a backlash against austerity policies into full swing. Now, the election of Socialist President Francois Hollande in France may offer a path to more growth-oriented policies, but big questions remain about which ones are economically -- and politically -- viable. To help clarify the implications for business and investors, Knowledge@Wharton has prepared a special report on the challenges facing Europe. -
Etsy Seeks Scale without Losing Its 'Street Fair' Aesthetic
9 May 2012 | 4:05 pmEtsy was launched as a ragtag website for artists and craftspeople to sell their wares. Today, it has become one of the Internet's most prominent tastemakers. As the company grows, experts caution that it must be careful not to alienate its faithful shop owners and customers by going too commercial and straying from its independent, artsy roots, or by becoming bogged down in privacy and seller credibility concerns. -
Investor Sentiment and Stock Prices: Explaining the Ups and Downs
9 May 2012 | 4:05 pmAcademics, traders and money managers are forever trying to figure out what makes stocks rise and fall. Some influences are clear, like the price gain after a company reports strong earnings. But other behaviors are mystifying. For example, why do shares of companies with fast asset growth sometimes do better than expected according to standard measures like earnings? And why do they sometimes do worse? New research by Wharton finance professor Robert F. Stambaugh and two colleagues shows that market-wide investor sentiment is a key influence in such stock return anomalies.
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Gregg Fraley » Blogg
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Alabama Innovation, Gonzeaux #7 — Birmingham’s Future
14 May 2012 | 1:02 pmPhoto by Bill Hudson Birmingham Alabama — Monday May 14th, 2012, Gonzeaux #7 It’s an image that was so arresting and shocking at the time that I’ve never forgotten it. It stained my memory like indigo on fine white linen, never to be washed out. I was nine years old. I’m talking about the sight, on national television, of black people being attacked by German Shepard’s in the Birmingham, Alabama race riots of 1963. The high-pressure water hoses were cruel, but the dogs, those vicious dogs, made my skin crawl, and it flipped a switch in my head. From that point… -
Tennessee Innovation, Gonzeaux #6 – Persistence Personifies Nashville
13 May 2012 | 10:41 amNashville, Tennessee — Saturday May 12, Gonzeaux #6 Nashville is throwing the recession out of town. The building boom cut short by the downturn seems to be back in full swing here. A huge new convention centre is going up, downtown residences, and an extension to the already way cool Country Music Hall of Fame is nearly done. Good stuff, but for me, beside the point — not Gonzeaux Innovation material. The innovation story here has more do do with persistence of effort and entrepreneur’s who simply don’t stop until they make something happen — persistence… -
Kentucky Innovation, Gonzeaux #5 — Marijuana & Other Secrets
11 May 2012 | 7:49 amElizabethtown, Kentucky — Friday May 11, 2012, Gonzeaux #5. I’m sworn to secrecy. As I sit here in Ruby Tuesday’s enjoying a petite sirloin and free wifi, I contemplate the secretive nature of innovation. Open innovation is all the rage isn’t it? You hear all the time how much it makes sense to have a generous attitude about ideas. The paradox is, some innovations need to be kept secret, or, the innovator loses advantage. Or worse, loses freedom. Do you think Pixar is sharing early rushes of their latest movies with just anybody? Or is Apple giving us any sense of… -
Breakthrough or Broken Head? — Gonzeaux #4
10 May 2012 | 8:54 amVisiting with Mike Bott, General Manager at The Brandery accelerator in downtown Cincinnati, you actually see what the “Front End of Innovation” looks like — two or three people, over-caffeinated and urgent, clustered around a couple of basic desks working out the details of a business plan, or creating a brand new product. Due to the training they’ve been given at the accelerator, they know a bit about innovation process, branding and fund raising — and the focus is still entirely on the doing. It’s small, it’s uncomplicated, it’s informal, and… -
Ohio Innovation, Gonzeaux #3 — Avoiding a Beating in Over-the-Rhine
9 May 2012 | 11:31 amCincinnati, Ohio — Wednesday May 9, Gonzeaux #3 After one of the prettiest drives you can imagine through southern Indiana east into Ohio, I find myself this morning in the very urban, once blighted, “Over-The-Rhine” neighbourhood of Cincinnati. This is clearly an Ohio innovation success story, in more ways than one. I would not have predicted it. I nearly lost my life here. Flashback 1974: I’m driving my beater 1960 Dodge Valiant through this neighbourhood with my dog Peaches sleeping in the back seat. It’s early evening and stopped at a red light, the Valiant…
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getFreshMinds.com | Ideas so fresh--they should be slapped!
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From the Horse's Mouth: Why new products fail.
14 May 2012 | 8:24 amWithout a doubt, San Francisco is one of the most innovative places on earth. But when I was there, I found myself irresistably drawn to a place that has actually shunned innovation for its premier product - and provided me with a fascinating lesson on how even the best innovation can fail. The Boudin Bakery, the bakery that makes the delicious sourdough on Fishermans' Wharf, has been using the same sourdough starter since it opened in 1849. In fact, keeping this original "mother dough" was so important that bakery owner Louise Boudin risked her life to save it during the Great San… -
What ideas do you automatically SQUASH?
6 Apr 2012 | 8:00 am"There are no bad ideas" is always the first thing everyone will tell you when you're learning how to be creative. No matter how outlandish, or dangerous, or downright impractical - every idea has value in an idea-generation session. That's because even a bad idea has something in it that made it pop up in your head. So, instead of dismissing a bad idea, you throw yourself at it like you want to know everything you possibly can about it. What prompted the idea? What's the benefit? Who does it benefit? What do you like about this idea? What would make this idea work for you? Once… -
Lateral Thinking leads to Underwater Hockey
1 Feb 2012 | 4:43 pmPhoto courtesy of the SF Sea Lions and the MN Loons. Taken by Adam Lau. This past weekend, I spent 3 days playing in an underwater hockey tournament as a member of one of the Minnesota Loons teams. “What in the world is underwater hockey???” you’re probably wondering. Right? I don’t blame you – it’s right up there with cheese rolling and ferret legging as one of the world’s weirdest sporting events! Underwater hockey is a game where two teams of six battle on the floor of a pool to knock a hockey puck into a goal. The hockey puck is weighted so it stays on the bottom –… -
Using Improv to Innovate (Review of a PDMA Event)
18 Jan 2012 | 5:37 pmI just got back from a really interesting PDMA event (Improv for Innovation) on how to use improvisational skills to enhance brainstorming sessions. Improvisation has a very strong connection to creative thinking because both require people to think in an open-minded "building" fashion. In Improv, actors depend on the phrase "yes, and" to keep the action going. "yes, and" means that they have to build off whatever the actor before them said or did - not matter what it was! So if the previous actor jumped off a cliff, or lost a leg, the next actor has to keep going in that direction - or… -
Win: The Innovator's DNA
24 Oct 2011 | 8:36 amToday, my interview of Clayton Christensen, one of the leading authors on innovation, goes live as the cover story of the November Personal Branding Magazine (click for sample). In the interview, I questioned Clayton about the qualities of an innovator, how people can learn to be more innovative, and how they can demonstrate their innovative skills to others. The Innovator's DNA is a really interesting book. The three authors - Clayton Christensen Jeffrey Dyer, and Hal Gregersen - studied innovative leaders and surveyed thousands of executives to identify what makes a person truly…
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Bulldog Drummond - Uncommon Sense
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What Customers Can’t Tell Us : An Article by Guest Blogger Andrea Kates
15 May 2012 | 11:00 amPrevNext PrevNext PrevNext PrevNext Three steps to discovering new ideas The secret to staying ahead of our customers is learning to discover what they want, even when they haven’t envisioned it yet. Like imagining an iPod in the days of the Sony Walkman. State Farm has recently designed a pilot experiment called “Next Door” that is designed to do exactly that: Next Door attempts to offer a new generation of customers an insurance brand they can relate to. Their approach demonstrates the three basic steps for discovering new ideas that will strengthen our brands and build customer… -
What If We Put A School Atop Every Building In Manhattan?
14 May 2012 | 11:03 amPrevNext PrevNext PrevNext PrevNext Changing the way we think about traditional educational buildings, a team of conceptual designers Ana Luisa Soares, Filipe Magalhães, and André Vergueiro created “Schools in the Sky” as as part of a competition to repurpose roofs. Their idea is to put a school on top of every applicable building in New York City and paint them bright, yellow, to communicate the value and importance of education. -
Malcolm Gladwell Explains Why Human Potential Is Being Squandered
10 May 2012 | 11:13 am -
Why Every Monday Matters
7 May 2012 | 11:32 amHow one man changed his life, and impacted thousands of others from being down on his knees. If I’ve learned anything over the past ten years, it’s been that the old saying of “It’s far more rewarding to give than it is to receive” is very powerful. I was recently invited to mentor a group of emerging social entrepreneurs, all whom are focused on business models geared towards improving the lives of others, at an intimate conference called Praxis. While I was going there to help and guide others, I left with the gift of being inspired, challenged and full of hope. -
A Public Toilet With A Shimmering Facade
4 May 2012 | 11:21 amPrevNext PrevNext PrevNext PrevNext PrevNext Revolutionizing the public restroom, architects Gramazio & Kohler, have created fascinating works of art throughout the city park in Uster Switzerland. These beautifully designed public restrooms are made from of 295 bright green, laser-cut, aluminum strips, folded and designed to create a shimmering facade that changes depending on sun angle and the observers’ perspective. These innovative lavs add an element of urban design to the common public restroom.
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Endless Innovation | Big Think
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The Cleanweb: Green Energy Meets Moore's Law
15 May 2012 | 3:43 pmBy embracing new Web and mobile technologies, green energy companies are creating a new Cleanweb movement in which formerly expensive alternative energy sources - such as solar power - are suddenly accessible to the masses at a significantly lower price point. Think of the Cleanweb as what ...Read More -
The Internet's Battle For Our Digital Souls
10 May 2012 | 9:05 pmHarvard neuroscience researchers have just confirmed what many of us have suspected all along: social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are “brain candy” for Internet users. Every status update, every tweet, every pin is a micro-jolt delivered squarely to the pleasure ...Read More -
Is That a Drone In Your Backyard?
4 May 2012 | 9:53 amWe are rapidly turning into a nation of drone enthusiasts. According to a recent Freedom of Information Act request from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), there are now 63 drone launch locations scattered around the United States. These range from those controlled by academic research labs ...Read More -
How to Build the 100-Year Company
2 May 2012 | 8:08 pmThe 100-year company is the rarest of all organizations in Corporate America – a company that has somehow managed to survive the ebbs and flows of multiple business cycles, the appearance of radically disruptive technologies and the changing tastes of entirely different generations. While very ...Read More -
The Robotic Future is Fast, Cheap and Out of Control
26 Apr 2012 | 10:09 pmThe robotic future is here, and it looks nothing like we thought it would. Instead of humanoid, highly-intelligent robots that do our bidding, the future is increasingly one of robotic swarms, robotic quadrotors, and tiny robots no larger than insects that perform surgery. The robotics ...Read More
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The Heart of Innovation
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You Tawkin' To Me?
15 May 2012 | 5:43 pmYou probably have read this blog more than once. But it's more than possible you've never heard me speak. I do. Speak that is. (According to my wife and kids, a bit too much). Here is 11 minutes worth. Speaking of speaking, here's what I've written about the topic and here's the simplest way to invite me into your organization. Hear my webinar, on May 17th, on culture of innovation. My book -
Selling Ideas
13 May 2012 | 7:11 amIn the advertisement to your left, it looks as if someone is selling an SUV or perhaps a brand of bicycle. But, actually, neither is the case. The SUV and the bikes are only a means to an end. Well then -- "What is that end?" Or, to put it another way -- most people don't like buying things. The decision to buy something, in fact, brings up a lot of obstacles and challenges to overcome, including coming up with the money. So, why DO people buy things? -
How Many Dancers Does It Take to Screw in a Lightbulb?
12 May 2012 | 5:48 pmHere is the answer to the question you probably never asked because the answer just seemed too difficult to figure out. The question? How many dancers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Our next webinar Idea Champions Innovation like dancing -
A Virtual High Five to You!
11 May 2012 | 5:47 pmI'd like to take this moment to thank you for logging on and reading Idea Champions' blog. We continue to appreciate the fact that you take time out of your very busy day to check in. Hey, if you're not reading, we're not writing. It takes two to tango and we're glad you're our virtual dance partner. Feel free to make requests. Sometimes, one of our readers has an interest that will resonate with us and we'll write something in response. NOTE: Please do not ask us to write about polyester, soy futures, or crop circles. We've said everything we could possibly say about these topics in earlier… -
The Power of Pause
9 May 2012 | 6:21 amWho can wait quietly while the mud settles? - Lao Tzu Illustration
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creativesage.com
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Rapid Iteration — Indulge Your Five Senses! Silicon Valley Innovation Institute Program for May 2, 2012
30 Apr 2012 | 10:56 pmAt Creative Sage™, we often use dynamic, interactive arts processes, along with other innovation methods, to engage our clients and members of their work teams in meeting their business goals by enhancing their creativity, communication, and collaboration skills. The arts can be very powerful in reaching people’s emotions in a positive way, and making the workplace a more vibrant, engaging environment. If you would like to find out more about why and how we use the arts — “analog” and digital — integrated with other processes in our innovation programs for a variety of… -
Silicon Valley Innovation Institute, April 4: Data Visualizations of the Mobile Innovation Ecosystem
2 Apr 2012 | 4:43 pmWhat are the transformational forces in the innovation ecosystems of the mobile computing industry? How have strategic value creation networks become vital to technology development and economic growth? Co-creation relies on the relationship infrastructure of people, organizations and policies. Though complex and intangible, these assets can be observed through network analysis of small, medium and large enterprises. Visual insights toward a shared vision can be created by mapping the relationships through which talent, information and financial resources flow. These relationship patterns… -
Silicon Valley Innovation Institute, March 7, 2012: Innovation in American Politics
5 Mar 2012 | 4:13 pmIs the internet destroying the current leadership models? How is innovation affecting politics? And what effect do politics have on innovation? Do anti-innovation bills like SOPA make your blood boil? The disconnect between the innovation community and policy makers is a serious issue. Most would agree that our livelihoods depend on a healthy, dynamic and innovative economy. What opportunities are there for the innovation community to inform the political process? Join host Seth Resler, Internet radio host and founder of The Polylogue, and a diverse panel of innovators and activists for an… -
A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowd Sourcing: Advice from Leading Experts (Kogan Page, 2011) Makes the Amazon UK Best Seller List!
1 Feb 2012 | 1:12 pmPart of our company’s 30th Anniversary Year Series. (You can start by reading Part 1 here.) In the video clip above, Paul Sloane, Editor of the recently published book, A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowd Sourcing: Advice from Leading Experts — with a foreword by Henry Chesbrough — describes the book in this video clip on YouTube, and tells you why you or your organization would find value in it. I’m honored to be a contributing author to this book, along with some of my innovation colleagues from #Innochat (a Twitter Innovation chat and web site). I co-wrote the chapter,… -
Silicon Valley Innovation Institute, 2/1/12 Event: High Tech Compost=Anaerobic Digestion + Biochar
30 Jan 2012 | 1:40 pmThe City of Palo Alto, California is currently considering options for how to manage its organic waste stream. An anaerobic digester is being proposed to replace the current incinerator. The methane producing bacteria living inside anaerobic digesters do break down a lot organic material, but not cellulose (the compound that makes up the cell walls of plants) Yet cellulose is the ideal feedstock for making biochar via pyrolysis. The integration of biochar production with AD facilities holds the promise of producing a rich, dark, carbon sequestering soil amendment, full of nutrients from the…
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Innovate on Purpose
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Innovators: stand on the shoulders of giants
15 May 2012 | 3:03 amI had a nice meeting today in Johannesburg with an individual I met through Twitter. We talked about our shared interest in innovation. When I queried him about how he became interested in innovation, he told me that he started out in his company's process improvement team, and innovation just seemed like the next logical step. Innovation, in his eyes, built from incremental changes to ever increasing radical or disruptive ideas. This discussion led me to think about the advantages of starting innovation late.Innovation, like any other science or capability, is… -
Five Factors that drive the need for more innovation
11 May 2012 | 5:56 amEvery agrees, on the whole, that we need more innovation. The real questions are "Why" and "How much" innovation we need. Like other patently good things - love, chocolate chip cookies and exercise - we could all stand a bit more innovation. It's just never clear how much we need or what the real benefits are, at least to many organizations.I'm going to focus today on five drivers that will require you to do more innovation. You can look at the list and decide how much each one of the drivers individually, or in combination, will affect your business. Then, based… -
"Never" restricts innovation
9 May 2012 | 10:10 amThere are a couple of really famous sayings that incorporate the word "never". For instance, Satchel Paige is supposed to have said "Never look back - something may be gaining on you". Or, "never judge someone until you've walked a mile in his shoes". Or, finally, Einstein: "I never think of the future - it comes soon enough". What risks we place on our thinking when we use a definitive word like "never" and how frequently we are wrong. Let's examine what's wrong when executives, managers or innovators start with "never".For instance, we worked with an insurance… -
Clarity accelerates and sustains innovation
8 May 2012 | 9:13 amUnfortunately, when many executives and politicians say "let me be clear" they mean to emphasize what they want to communicate. It's not necessarily clarity they seek, but emphasis of a certain point of view. Clarity in innovation, like sunshine in politics, is the best disinfectant. Why, given the amount of education, communication channels, and "intentional" discussion and dialog are we left with so little clarity about innovation? We are constantly told it is important. Survey after survey reinforces what CEOs think about the importance of innovation. … -
Innovators: Humble Servants and Bold Warriors
7 May 2012 | 6:35 amThanks to Jorge Barba I'm free of my writer's block that had stymied my writing about innovation. Jorge noted a post in the HBR blogs by Harry West of Continuum entitled Innovating in the Scary zone. Harry starts his post talking about the need for humble servants who can understand customer needs, and why the usual picture of innovators is one of hipsters who have excellent insights, cool attitudes and hip eyewear.I think Harry is on to something. We tend to immortalize people who create really interesting ideas, but in all truth many skills and attitudes are necessary for…
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Scott Berkun
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What makes a good commencement speech?
14 May 2012 | 9:30 pmI’m being interviewed on Wed on NPR about commencement speeches. Commencement speeches are the ones given at graduations, usually in the summer and often outside, where the attention spans of young people are stretched to their limits. Most of my advice about commencement speeches is similar to advice I give about all speeches. But I wanted to ask all of you if you had particular thoughts on this. The two most famous commencement speeches i can think of are wear more sunscreen (which never actually was a speech), and Steve Jobs at Stanford. And most lists of the best are done… -
Speaking in Chicago: Monday May 21st 2pm, Creativity
14 May 2012 | 10:29 amI’ll be in Chicago next week to keynote the 2012 STC Summit. Thanks to Brian Fitzpatrick, I’ll also be speaking about Creativity at Google next Monday at 2pm. They’ve even opened the doors to the public – so you are invited. To attend, get your name on this eventbrite list (RSVP required to get in the door) and they’ll let you in: Title: Creative Thinking Hacks When: Monday May 21, 2-3pm Where: Google Chicago, 8th Floor, “High Fidelity”, 20 W. Kinzie, St Chicago Description: This head on, fluff free, no holds bared talk about how ideas work… -
Why common sense is not common practice
14 May 2012 | 9:43 amKnowing and doing are not the same thing. This is obvious, but the obviousness of this observation doesn’t guarantee we don’t fall victim to it daily. We think once we know something we will always remember or be able to apply that knowledge, but this is definitely not true. If you think about your bad habits and disappointments, from eating too much ice cream (despite a commitment to lose weight) to getting angry when your goofy dog chews on your laptop (it’s no surprise dogs chew on things), knowledge of these behaviors and a desire to eliminate them may… -
Quote of the week
9 May 2012 | 9:54 amMark Twain on where ideas come from, in a letter to Helen Keller after she was accused of plagiarism: Oh, dear me, how unspeakably funny and owlishly idiotic and grotesque was that “plagiarism” farce! As if there was much of anything in any human utterance, oral or written, except plagiarism! The kernel, the soul — let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances — is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the… -
Everything is a bubble
3 May 2012 | 2:10 pmWhen I hear debates about whether there is a tech-bubble, or a real-estate bubble, I think “everything is a bubble” in some way. I don’t mean this as an investment strategy. I’m expressing doubt about the utility of calling out the existence of bubbles. Markets and free-will ensure bubbles are common and unavoidable. Depending on what level you look at, you can find bubbles anywhere. Markets by definition have a multitude of bubbles in them. People place bets on the value of stocks going up. Others bet on the value going down. Stock prices are not a perfect indicator…
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BQF Innovation Blog
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Borrow with Pride – Innovate with someone else’s idea
16 May 2012 | 3:37 amOne of the best ways to innovate is by copying an idea that works somewhere else and applying it in your business. How do you get the ideas? You can go on a field trip or you can sit at your computer. There are a number of excellent sites for spotting new entrepreneurial ideas that you can use. I would recommend Springwise.com It uses an army of 15000 spotters in 150 countries who identify and report on interesting business innovations. You can search by keyword or by their own category listings. Try it for your business sector. Another site to try is Trendhunter. Good hunting! -
Transformers and other Brainstorm Methods
2 May 2012 | 4:32 amI have written up the brainstorm methods I use in a series of articles and tutorials. In particular I recommend SCAMPER for product or service innovations and Transformers for process innovations. For general brainstorming the Nominal Method and Reverse the Problem are easy to use and effective. Please let me know if you need advice or help with your brainstorm. Paul Sloane http://www.destination-innovation.com/articles/?p=671 -
Urban Innovation Recognition
20 Apr 2012 | 11:47 amDo you know anyone who has done something really innovative in a town? Please enter them for the FT City Ingenuity Awards The Financial Times has launched a quest to find people and organisations who have developed inspirational solutions to urban challenges in the fields of education, healthcare, energy and infrastructure. The FT and Citi want to recognise those original and practical solutions to urban problems that have a positive and fundamental impact on cities and their inhabitants. And they want to celebrate the leaders of those initiatives. The deadline is April 30 – so… -
Would you roll the dice?
13 Apr 2012 | 10:59 amLet’s play a game. It costs you $1 to play. We then roll a dice once. If it comes up 6, I pay you $10 otherwise you lose. Do you want to play? Most likely you will agree to play. You have a one in six chance of winning $10 for a $1 bet. Now let’s make it $1 million to play. Once again we roll the dice just once. If it comes up 6, I pay you $10 million. Do you want to play? The probabilities are exactly the same and so it should be an easy decision. But most people would decline. Would you risk your home and life savings for a one in six chance of winning $10 million? Now let’s imagine… -
Which are the most innovative companies in the world?
4 Apr 2012 | 2:28 amFast Company has published a list of the 50 most innovative companies 2012. The top 10 are: 1. Apple 2. Facebook 3. Google 4. Amazon 5. Square 6. Twitter 7. Occupy Movement 8. Tencent 9. Life Technologies 10. Solar City The list is a subjective choice by the magazine and is dominated by US companies and high-tech companies. But ther reasons for each choice are given and it makes compelling reading. It is interesting to compare this list with the one put out by Businessweek. They collaborated with Boston Consulting Group to publish their 2010 list of the 50 most…
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Business Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen Shapiro
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Expectation Creates Dissatisfaction (and what to do about it…)
15 May 2012 | 2:52 pmBusiness Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen ShapiroWhile on vacation recently, I thought to myself, “This is perfect.” The weather was nice. We had a great hotel room. The food was wonderful. Was it really perfect? Were there nicer rooms, better food, and warmer climates? Indeed. Comparatively speaking, it was not truly perfect. But perfection in such matters is a state of mind. A situation is perfect purely by declaring it so. There are no absolute measures of perfection for things like vacations. Unfortunately, instead of appreciating what is, many look for the flaws. -
Exception Handling Continued
4 May 2012 | 10:02 amBusiness Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen ShapiroIn my AMEX OPEN Forum article, “Design Your Business to Handle the Exception, Not for the Exception,” someone commented that simplification is a better strategy than segmentation. And I wholeheartedly agree. Car manufacturers do this when they use common parts and reduce the number of configurations to reduce costs and complexity. Having said that, if you want something special, you still have the option of getting aftermarket modifications. But sometimes eliminating options is not an option. A company’s strategy… -
7 Tips to Sell Your Ideas Like a Motivational Speaker
30 Apr 2012 | 4:49 pmBusiness Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen Shapiro“You don’t listen!” All of us have likely heard these words spat at us in frustration at some point in our lives. And guess what, it’s true! The fact is that no one listens. In a previous OPEN Forum article, I wrote on how to more effectively hear what others are really trying to say. By recognizing how you listen (or more accurately, don’t), you can then better understand the way others listen. This in turn arms you with the ability to speak in a way that will have you be heard. Effective innovators and business leaders… -
Innovating Water Treatment
25 Apr 2012 | 6:00 amBusiness Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen ShapiroIn my latest American Express OPEN Forum article, I talked about how designing to handle the exception, not for the exception can improve efficiency and reduce costs, while increase overall performance. [If you didn't read that article, please do so before proceeding] When I first wrote that article, I included a potential use of this concept as a way of solving our clean water challenge. But during editing it was cut, so I decided to include it here… Our aging water infrastructure provides potable water to a large percentage… -
Design to Handle the Exception, Not for the Exception
24 Apr 2012 | 8:03 amBusiness Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen ShapiroWhile going through security at the airport the other day, I was reminded of an important design and innovation concept. Things were going smoothly until a bag was flagged during the X-ray procedure. The luggage was held on the conveyor until an authority could conduct a manual inspection. At the same time, a similar problem arose on another line. Everything ground to a complete halt. Although it took only 5 minutes to get the lines moving again, during rush hour that was all it took for the queues to grow out of control. Many years…
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BusinessWeek.com -- Innovation
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The Chocolate Machine That Can Improve Your Willpower
11 May 2012 | 5:01 amEach chocolate you put back instead of eating is like a set of sit-ups for your self-control -
Mark Shuttleworth, Open-Source Software's Sugar Daddy
10 May 2012 | 7:25 pmHis company Canonical has extended its open-source push to smartphones and cars -
A Crackdown on Patently Absurd Lawsuits
10 May 2012 | 7:08 pmThe Supreme Court and White House rein in patent owners who file frivolous cases -
The Best Places for Various Lawsuits
10 May 2012 | 7:07 pmSuing around the globe -
On Diaspora's Social Network, You Own Your Data
10 May 2012 | 6:15 pmThe startup has overcome tragedy to create a different kind of social network—one where you continue to own whatever you post
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Working Knowledge ®
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Kaplan’s Business Model Innovation Factory
26 Apr 2012 | 9:02 amPoint: Experiment with new business models in a “connected adjacency” before committing to them. Story: Saul Kaplan, founder of the Business Innovation Factory (BIF), just wrote a new book, The Business Model Innovation Factory. Kaplan shares 15 business model innovation principles, weaving in his personal experience (from Eli Lilly to Accenture to BIF) as well as experiences from numerous presenters at BIF’s Collaborative Innovation Summits. My favorite chapter in the book was “R&D for New Business Models.” In the chapter, Kaplan describes how to deal the challenges of… -
Arduino: A Tale of Innovation through Open Source
31 Mar 2012 | 10:19 amPoint: A collectively-motivated group of peers can develop innovations in a distributed online environment. Story: When Hernando Barragán created a nontechie-friendly microcontroller board for artists, designers, and architects in 2004, his thesis adviser, Massimo Banzi, liked the idea. But Banzi wanted something simpler and cheaper for use in design class projects at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy. In particular, Banzi wanted a low cost, an integrated software environment, programmability via an everyday USB port, and a project supported by a community. So Massimo… -
Additive Manufacturing Multiplies Innovation Opportunities
4 Mar 2012 | 5:49 pmPoint: Additive manufacturing (also called 3D printing) technologies enable new design methods and local manufacturing by entrepreneurs. Story: When designing a new part to be manufactured, designers traditionally had to define the shape they wanted and then pick the material that could support that shape (based on strength, flexibility, etc.). That is, they designed the piece separate from picking the materials. For more complex products, designers had to decompose the product into semi-independent parts that were designed and manufactured separately and then assembled with screws,… -
Collaboration Curves Improve Innovation and Performance
6 Feb 2012 | 4:34 pmPoint: Unlike the diminishing returns of the Experience Curve, Collaboration Curves offer continuous, exponential improvement and innovation through knowledge sharing and interactions among a group of participants. Story: Most of us have heard about the Experience Curve, which traces how a company’s rising experience in making a product leads to declining cost of that making a product. On average, the cost declines 20-30 percent each time that a company’s experience in making that product doubles. The Experience Curve, which has been systematically studied since the 1960s, holds… -
Collaboration in Innovation Competitions
11 Jan 2012 | 7:29 pmPoint: Innovation tournaments can be run either competitively or collaboratively, with each approach yielding better results for different purposes. Story: In his second book, Best Practices are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition, (named the 2011 best book on innovation by CEORead) innovation speaker Stephen Shapiro offers 40 tips on how to innovate efficiently. His tip #11, for example, tackles the topic of innovation competitions and tournaments. The tip focuses on what role, if any, collaboration should play in these bounty-driven events. Innovation tournaments can be run…
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Creativity And Innovation Driving Business - Innovation Index
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How To Appeal To Investors: Top VCs Reveal The Anatomy Of A Successful Entrepreneur
15 May 2012 | 6:21 amhttp://techcrunch.com/2012/05/14/vcs-at-work-the-anatomy-of-a-killer-startup/A great post on what Top VCs behind the most successful startups look for... -
Facebook’s New Timeline Design and Small Business Social Media Marketing
13 May 2012 | 5:58 pmFacebook’s New Timeline Design and Small Business Social Media Marketing Facebook has emerged in recent years as the preferred site for social media marketing. Creating a Facebook Fan Page allows businesses to connect with their customers at minimal cost, helping boost sales as well as building customer loyalty. In addition, a Facebook page is also a great SEO strategy since it makes it more likely that your home page will rank highly on search engine results pages. Recently, Facebook announced that it was introducing a mandatory new Timeline design for its fan pages that reveals the entire… -
Marketing For Small Business
6 May 2012 | 1:04 amHarness the Power of Social Media for Marketing Your Small Business Small business marketing is the process of promoting your small business in various traditional and online venues. There are many ways on how you can market your small business. These include search engine marketing, article marketing, email marketing, sponsored newsletters, sponsored emails, sponsored websites, direct mail, local and yellow pages, radio and television ads, billboard ads, mobile ads, coupon books and magazine advertising. For this article however, we are going to focus on social media marketing. This… -
Steve Jobs is World's Favorite Innovator
3 May 2012 | 1:21 pmIn an open poll on this blog on Creativity And Innovation Driving Business, people all over the world voted on who is their favorite innovator.It is indeed amazing that Steve Jobs is voted the King of Innovation, the World's Favorite Innovator! (We miss you Steve!)The poll:Which of these ten best innovators have made a huge difference in your lives? Select your favorite innovator today!Innovators included (by alphabetical order): Mukesh Ambani, Reliance; Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com; Richard Branson, Virgin Group; Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway; Larry Ellison, Oracle; Bill Gates, Microsoft;… -
Hello Google Drive
25 Apr 2012 | 11:17 pmGoogle has a potential Dropbox killer for consumers and small business customers. The new Drive is bold and gives you instant access everywhere: from all your devices (iOS access is on the way). Access your documents wherever you are, at home, in your office, on the beach, while traveling... And Google has done something cooler! You can share your docs the way you want to share: read only, read and write, or just comments. And by the way, Google drive comes standard with Google Docs. So you can have all your docs in one place, ready to edit, ready to share, ready to redline, ready to comment…
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InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs
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Ballmer Tops Forbes' List Of 5 Worst CEOs
15 May 2012 | 3:47 pmAfter more than 12 years, it's clear that Steve Ballmer doesn't understand the organization or industry he's in. Can someone please tell me why this guy is still running Microsoft? -
InformationWeek's RSS Feed is brought to you by
15 May 2012 | 3:47 pm -
In Defense Of Steve Ballmer
15 May 2012 | 3:47 pmIs Steve Ballmer the "worst CEO" in America today, as a Forbes article claims? It's an utterly unfair analysis. -
Storage WANs Present Optimization Challenges
15 May 2012 | 2:10 pmWide area networks are increasingly used for cost-effective remote replication and backup, but typical branch office WAN configurations may bottleneck the storage WAN. -
ONC To Medical Practices: Get A Security Officer
15 May 2012 | 1:00 pmAn Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology guide calls for medical offices to select a privacy and security officer.
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ITIF Publication, Events and News Articles
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SRII Global Conference 2012
24 Jul 2012 | 11:00 pmRob Atkinson will speak at the annual SRII conference in San Jose, California. -
Time to Start Thinking: A Conversation with Ed Luce
6 Jun 2012 | 11:00 amEnable Registration: Enable Registration America is sleepwalking into economic and geopolitical decline. That’s the central thesis of veteran Financial Times correspondent Ed Luce’s book Time to Start Thinking, which supports this thesis with interviews conducted with Bill Gates, Admiral Mike Mullen and other key players in politics and business. Luce explores culprits in this decline such as the deep polarization of American politics, the failure of neoclassical economists to understand the need for a national competitiveness strategy, and a general lack of urgency… -
Leadership Under Threat: Assessing U.S. International Competitiveness in Biomedical Research
17 May 2012 | 9:00 amEnable Registration: Enable Registration Please join ITIF and United for Medical Research as we release a report benchmarking international competitiveness in biomedical research. The United States’ leadership position in biomedical research is no longer assured, especially as the governments of an increasing number of countries are investing more in life sciences research as a share of their GDP than the United States. This report documents the economic impact of public investment in life sciences R&D, quantifying its impact on innovation, employment, and export levels of the… -
My Kingdom for a Hertz: Can Washington Keep the Mobile Revolution Going?
15 May 2012 | 1:00 pmEnable Registration: Enable Registration Two years ago, the National Broadband Plan recommended that the government allocate 300 MHz of new spectrum to mobile broadband networks within five years and an additional 200 MHz for various uses within ten years. Since the Plan was published, 20 MHz has been reserved for a Public Safety Network, 40 MHz has been reserved to protect GPS receivers, the Defense Department has asked for 10 years and $12 billion to relocate military applications in the 1755 – 1850 MHz band, Congress has constrained the FCC’s repacking power, and demand for… -
DOE Budget Justification Gone Awry
13 May 2012 | 11:00 pmThe construction of the FY2013 DOE budget request poses major challenges.
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Technology Review RSS Feeds
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Virtual World Takes on Childhood Obesity
15 May 2012 | 11:00 pmA startup blends activity tracking with online incentives in hopes of getting kids into shape. Malica Astin, 11, never paid much attention to how much physical activity she got. But one day she played basketball while wearing a small activity tracker called a Zamzee on her waist. Later, she plugged it into a computer's USB port and uploaded the data captured by the device's accelerometers. Unlike a FitBit, a popular pedometer geared to adults, Malica's Zamzee didn't tell her how many steps she took or calories she burned. Instead, it gave her points for the movements she made. -
A Smartphone that Can Sniff out Sickness?
15 May 2012 | 10:21 pmWe’ve seen medical uses of the iPhone, and we’ve seen electronic noses (and tongues). Now, how about combining the two? -
iPhone 5 Rumor Roundup
15 May 2012 | 10:15 pmDigital scuttlebutt about the next iPhone. Like any good tech blog, Hello World likes to indulge itself in a bit of rumor mongering now and then. The past few weeks have led to a flurry of speculation about the next-gen iPhone, and who am I to ignore it? -
A123 Systems Reports More Bad News
15 May 2012 | 12:33 pmThe company is losing money fast. It hoped to raise money to stay afloat. Based on this morning's quarterly earnings call, the financial numbers are pointing in the wrong direction for lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems, a company founded 10 years ago based on technology developed at an MIT lab. A123 posted a net loss of $125 million, $40 million more than it lost in the previous quarter. It only brought in $11 million in revenue, down from $40 million in the previous quarter and $18 million a year ago. Meanwhile, its cash is dwindling, down from $187 million at the end of last year to… -
First Simulation Of Quantum Tunnelling On A Quantum Computer
15 May 2012 | 5:00 amQuantum tunnelling had always been thought too complex to simulate on today's simple quantum computers. Now a new approach to quantum computing has changed that and opens the door to more complex simulations The exploitation of quantum weirdness for computing is one of the great goals of modern physics. It's promise is dramatic for a wide range of number-crunching tasks.
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Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog
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Five Critical Questions About Organization Culture That People Avoid Asking
15 May 2012 | 7:57 pmThere is a piece on HBR Blog on the topic of organization culture “Culture Takes Over When the CEO Leaves the Room” by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss (both HBS professors). It is a good piece worth reading and here's an summary of their ideas: read more -
10 Major Trends In Corporate Social Media Management (2/2)
15 May 2012 | 7:53 pmThis is part 2 of a two-part piece dedicated to the major trends in coroporate social media management, which will serve as a basis for my presentation in Bucharest at the ronewmedia digital conference due to take place on May 16th, 2012. I will use my 5 years of practice in that field at Orange and dwell on some of the major trends impacting Social Media and its management in large corporations. My presentation will highlight these trends which will be illustrated with real life examples taken from the field. read more -
10 Major Trends In Corporate Social Media Management (1/2)
15 May 2012 | 7:51 pm8 years after its introduction – and a few name changes – Corporate Social Media can no longer be considered as an innovation. We have clearly hit the third wave of its implementation in Corporate environments, that is to say the structuring of collaborative web initiatives in order to scale in multi-billion dollar companies (and smaller companies. In this piece which will serve as a basis for my presentation in Bucharest at the ronewmedia digital conference due to take place on May 16th, 2012. I will use my 5 years of practice in that field at Orange and dwell on some of the major trends… -
VoC:What’s Wrong With VoC and How Do You Get It Right? (Part III)
15 May 2012 | 7:47 pmIn the first post I shared the first part of my discussion around VoC with Erich Dietz, VP of Business Solutions at Mindshare Technologies (specialists in customer surveys and enterprise feedback). The key point of that post was captured in Erich’s words: “No-one is really doing VoC surveys with the customer in mind!” read more -
WalmartLabs – Taking Big Data Into Retail
14 May 2012 | 9:55 amby: Jon Stokes, via the fresh networks blog Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, acquired social media firm Kosmix just over a year ago, creating @WalmartLabs, with the intention to use this specialist R&D unit to define the future of commerce by merging social, mobile and retail. So far WalmartLabs has released two interesting developments using social: read more
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Blue Ocean Strategy creation with Gabor George Burt
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Pinching pennies vs. winning hearts
14 May 2012 | 5:28 amAlthough the airline industry is brimming with opportunities to infatuate and enrich the lives of travelers, for the most part it has left this tantalizing opportunity unexplored. Let’s take a peek at recent happenings at American Airlines to see the fallacy of focusing solely on slashing costs instead. Via the Bloomberg BusinessWeek Management Blog: The idea that American is going to cut its way to profitability is ridiculous. A survey by the International Air Transport Assn. (the industry’s trade group) shows that people are trying to avoid flying because the experience is so poor and… -
Re-Imagining boundaries for the Greater Good
11 May 2012 | 4:07 amWhen the stakes are especially high—as in the case of worldwide sustainable economic growth and stability—then continuously re-imagining boundaries is a must. And that was the focus of the Global Impact Economic Forum in Washington DC on April 27-28. I had the opportunity to attend this first ever, invitation-only event which was hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and brought together global leaders in developmental capital, sustainability, social entrepreneurship and innovation. Trailblazers such as Sir Richard Branson, General Wesley Clark and Jigar Shah were… -
In company of visionary friends: Kris Carr
9 May 2012 | 12:00 amThis series brings to you the most thought-provoking excerpts from my chat sessions with visionary personalities, as recorded for the Slingshot Living radio show. The conversations reveal valuable wisdom, playful anecdotes and useful advice on how to continuously overstep perceived boundaries for success in your business and your personal life. This segment features an excerpt from my chat with with Kris Carr, New York Times best-selling author and wellness warrior. Gabor: A major theme of your inspirational journey is this idea of championing empowerment over illness. How can you transfer… -
We can’t get no satisfaction
8 May 2012 | 5:45 amDovetailing on my previous post, while there is no such thing as a perfectly and continuously satisfied consumer, there is such a thing as an infatuated consumer. As with personal relationships, infatuation occurs when consumers first come into contact with a product or a service that deeply resonates with them. Consequently, they become temporarily blinded by any shortcomings or possible defects and are in a trance of positive affiliation. Think of the first time you came into contact with a product or service that became one of your all-time favorite purchases. Remember how elated you felt… -
All together now: let’s get creative
1 May 2012 | 9:56 amThere is a growing recognition that creativity is a vital component for successfully handling unexpected, unprecedented and rapidly changing surroundings. As an example, the Bloomberg Businessweek article “What Chief Executives Really Want,” in May 2010, noted: “According to a new survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, CEOs identify ‘creativity’ as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future.” This very notion was reinforced recently by Mark Randall, chief strategist over at Adobe. Watch the…
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Creativity Central
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Six words. Six Minutes. Strategic Starters.
29 Apr 2012 | 6:19 pmPerhaps it’s a literary myth, but it’s a good one. Hemingway was once challenged to write a whole novel in just six words. His novel: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Larry Smith, founder of SMITH Magazine turned this idea in the “Six-Word” Memoir. Here are a few samples from his website: Age not a protection against heartbreak. Love at first sight; optical illusion. Hi: The start of all friendships. Stephen Colbert added his six-word memoir: “Well, I thought it was funny.” Bachelor party. YouTube Video. Wedding cancelled. Six… -
When did bad advertising begin? And what to do about it.
9 Apr 2012 | 7:30 pmExactly when did bad advertising begin? I think it began somewhere deep in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave. The client looked at the cave drawings and said, “I’m not digging the bison.” Human nature being what it is, these days there are a lot of clients not digging the bison. Sometimes the agency is serving up less than stellar ads. Sometimes the client company will take the safe, well-paved route to “me too” advertising. This is a conversation that has taken place in the halls of every agency long before Don Draper was conjured up. In 1985, John… -
Beyond Argyle: Tom Monahan on Creative Thinking
29 Mar 2012 | 1:00 pmIt’s entirely appropriate that Tom Monahan’s latest Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy workshop was held in an old dance studio in Providence courtesy of a great organization AS220. (See link below) Tom has always been a choreographer of ideas. He lights up when he hears a good idea. And he likes it even better when you top one of his. “If I had a business card, my title would be Creative Thinking Coach,” he told the group. Tom has other, more impressive sounding titles (like President of his own nationally known ad agency) but none that are more meaningful… -
Tom Wujec: Collaboration and the Marshmallow
13 Mar 2012 | 8:23 pmSometimes we simply want answers. Sometimes we crave experiences that lead to answers. A few years ago at a TED conference. Peter Skillman introduced a design challenge called the marshmallow challenge. The idea was simple: Teams of four have to build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string and a marshmallow. The marshmallow has to be on top. This is exactly the kind of exercise that drives some executives to question why management brought in the crazy facilitator. But the exercise reveals from surprising truths… -
The tyranny of IKB: A management insight.
7 Feb 2012 | 7:02 pmIn the early 1990s, Chic Thompson and Lael Lyons wrote a wonderful book called Yes, But…The Top 40 Killer Phrases and How You Can Fight Them While the book was playful and filled with cartoon illustrations, the idea was serious. It was about those killer phrases that fill corporate meeting rooms everyday: Yes, but… We’ve done that before. It's not in the budget. Great idea, but not for us. Get a committee to look into that. I'll get back to you. Don't rock the boat. Let me play devil's advocate. The last person who said that isn't here anymore. Recently, I’ve…
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DON! The Idea Guy
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Swing For The Fences
1 May 2012 | 11:53 amRookie Mickey Mantle started the game against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park on May 1st, 1951, as the New York Yankees leadoff hitter and right fielder. Mantle realized this would be one of the most significant games of his career as soon as he hit his first homer. I’ll bet none of you has [...] -
Are You Memorable or Mundane?
6 Apr 2012 | 11:39 amBusiness author Dan Pink has a weekly podcast wherein he interviews other influential writers and speakers, one of the latest being sales and networking guru Harvey Mackay (search his name on Amazon and buy and read ANY of his books.) You’d think Mackay was doing Pink a favor by being on the show (Harvey is [...] -
More, Better, Never
3 Apr 2012 | 4:55 pmWould you like to know the three best ways to build stronger customer rapport, increase your credibility as a professional, demonstrate trustworthiness and sincerity, and stand out among your competition? Ask More Questions Ask Better Questions Ask Questions your customer has NEVER been asked before I meet with clients a lot, and they always seem surprised by the fact [...] -
Ignoring People
13 Mar 2012 | 3:31 pmI decided to pay homage to one of my pushy friends this week (Scott “That Nametag Guy” Ginsberg) by literally taking a page from his book “Ideas Are Free, Execution Is Priceless” and executing one of the 366 daily insights as a personal challenge. The entry for March 13 really spoke to me this year. This [...] -
Get More Ideas
6 Mar 2012 | 1:29 amIf you’ve been following me on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest you may have noticed the roll out of a brand new visually-oriented project titled Get More Ideas. Get More Ideas is an original daily cartoon and quote written and drawn by yours truly. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for quite some time, [...]
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Idea Sandbox Brainstorming » SandBlog
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Get Quality Ideas From a Quantity Of Options
14 May 2012 | 7:23 amYou’re in your neighborhood bookstore looking for a title about “social media.” Do you immediately buy the first book you see, on the first shelf of the business section? Probably not. You visit a new restaurant for a tasty dinner, do you only read the top menu item and order it – ignoring the rest of the menu? I don’t believe you would. In both situations, before making a decision, you would first review all your options. You’d scan each of the books in the marketing section. You would read the entire menu. Then, from that full selection of offerings, make the best… -
Three Ps For Better Leading: Pace, Process, Pulse
8 May 2012 | 7:23 amOne of the characteristics of a great leader–no matter whether that leader is a person, a brand, or a company–is the ability to stay “tuned-in” to the needs of their audience. Is your audience still with you? Do they get where you’re going? Do they have confidence in the direction? Out of college, my first job was at Walt Disney World in Orlando. I was a tour guide at the “Listen To The Land” boat ride at Epcot’s Land Pavilion. I led Guests on a 20-minute journey through farming methods of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It was one of the easiest… -
Innovation Requires Both Ideas And Action
3 May 2012 | 7:23 amIdeas have been getting a bad rap lately. Some say the lack of innovation within organizations isn’t because of a lack of ideas, rather a lack of action. There are too many ideas and not enough implementors. But, ideas need champions to implement them. Just the same way seeds need farmers. A popular recommendation is: Stop generating ideas and start taking action. Stop the brainstorming and get to work. To return to my farm comparison, that would be like declaring: Since crop production (innovation) is down we need more farmers (execution) and fewer seeds (ideas). But that doesn’t… -
Hitting Your Innovation Target With A Diagram
30 Apr 2012 | 7:23 amCompromise gets a bad rap in the United States. Departing with anything less than the biggest, the best, and the most reflects weakness. Yet, since most of us work in an environment where different people come from different backgrounds with differing approaches on how to reach a similar goal – compromise is a reality. There are times when you don’t need to win, but you do need diplomacy. You need “best possible.” To strike a balance. A happy medium. This situation calls for a Target Diagram! This graph is great for plotting something that falls within a realistic range of choices… -
Compartmentalize: Brainstorm Like a School Lunch Tray
27 Apr 2012 | 7:23 amMost brainstorm sessions start with the meeting lead proclaiming, “Okay guys… think out of the box and remember, there are no bad ideas!” We say “there are no bad ideas” before we brainstorm the same way we say “bless you” after someone sneezes. No one is sure why anymore, but it is polite. For sneezing? We used to believe when someone sneezed good spirits left their body. Our quick prayer “God Bless You” put them back. For brainstorming? Saying “there are no bad ideas” is the reminder to not immediately judge and filter out what you may think is a bad idea. Our brains…
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InnoBlog
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The Secrets to Clay Christensen’s Success
15 May 2012 | 1:23 pmThis week marks the release of Clayton Christensen’s highly-anticipated book, How Will You Measure Your Life (with co-authors James Allworth and Karen Dillon). The book expands on Christensen’s McKinsey-award-winning HBR article, drawing life lessons from the models that form the basis of his business-oriented writing. I first heard the germs of those ideas in late 2000. At the time I was one of Christensen’s students at HBS. Like all professors, Christensen used his final class lecture to share broader observations and reflections. The speech resonated with me, so while… -
Are You Targeting a Phantom Market?
8 May 2012 | 12:43 pmHere’s a quick quiz for you. Is it easier to get A: 1% of a huge, established market? or B: 100% of a completely new one? If you work for Apple, you might have picked B. But too often when companies embark on innovation projects, they pick A: that is, they start by believing that nothing could be easier than to capture a small chunk of a very big, existing market. But to unleash the power of innovation to capture big markets, what matters is not how big any existing market is but how many people are wrestling with some problem that no current offering really solves, what we here at… -
In Praise of Irrational Innovators
7 May 2012 | 1:17 pmI love my three young children immensely. So it’s hard for me to be fully rational about them. Of course they are the smartest, the best looking, and the most athletic. I’m not alone — all parents are irrational. We lose sleep worrying about things we can’t control and take pride in ridiculously small achievements we had nothing to do with. A similar type of irrationality affects innovators. Talk to an entrepreneur or a scientist about the idea they are working on — it’s just like talking to a parent of young children. They feel unduly proud when their team does… -
Go Innovate on the Periphery
30 Apr 2012 | 9:09 amOne of the challenges facing market leaders is that transformational trends are only obvious when it’s too late. Typically, transformation starts in seemingly disconnected industries, or as innocent offerings targeting completely different customer segments. To spot these trends early, companies need to heed the advice of Wharton Professor George Day and long-time thought leader (and current Innosight Board member) Richard Foster by heading to the periphery. First, start with peripheral customers. MIT Professor Eric von Hippel has long advocated spending time with what he calls lead… -
The Four Worst Innovation Assassins
19 Apr 2012 | 3:22 pmIs there a corporate leader who doesn’t extol the virtues of innovation these days? Yet if innovation is so important, why do so many companies have so much trouble with it? The reflexive response is that it is a human capital problem — that is, that most people just don’t have what it takes to successfully innovate. I reject that view. Academic research in fact shows that almost anyone can become a competent innovator (with sufficient practice). I’ve seen countless examples of ordinary individuals displaying the creativity, ingenuity, and perseverance of the world’s…
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Big Think Expert Ideas
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Living PlanIT
15 May 2012 | 11:00 pmLiving PlanIT is a company that aims to build the new, sustainable cities of the future. They are teaming up with different partners to help them develop and implement new infrastructure ideas, including buildings that use 50% less energy and 80% less water. Their test city, PlanIT Valley in ...Read More -
A Great Leap for Capitalism: SpaceX Eyes Historic Launch, and Eventually Mars
15 May 2012 | 11:00 pmElon Musk is going to Mars. With or without NASA. Of course, the ambitious former PayPal entrepreneur who founded SpaceX in 2002 has to take one step at a time. A very important first step, indeed a milestone, will happen this Saturday, May 19 at 4:55 a.m, when the SpaceX Dragon is scheduled to ...Read More -
Humanizing Technology Prize: The Nominees (Safety and Security)
15 May 2012 | 11:00 pmThe goal of the Bing Humanizing Technology Expo – which will culminate in June, 2012 with a live event and prize ceremony in New York City – is to identify new technologies that integrate themselves seamlessly into our lives, capitalize on our unique strengths, and amplify the best of human nature. Nominees will fall into one of three categories – 1) Self Help: Self-reflection, personal advancement and confidence building. 2) Human Relationships: Family, Friendship, and Love. 3) Safety & Security: personal, financial, and national security. -
Common Sense Media
15 May 2012 | 11:00 pmCommon Sense Media is an advocacy group for proper media digestion for kids. The website offers reviews of video games, movies, websites, apps, and much more along with parenting tips and articles that are meant to increase a parent's knowledge of what they call "the other parent": the media ...Read More -
Medic Mobile
15 May 2012 | 11:00 pmMedic Mobile integrates technologies to connect and train health systems. The company uses technologies such as FrontlineSMS, OpenMRS, Ushahidi, Google Apps, and HealthMap to allow healthcare workers to communicate with each other using only $15 phones. Their SIM apps allow large groups of ...Read More
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Innovationedge
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Numbers offer more opportunities than realized
30 Apr 2012 | 1:56 pmI’ve talked before about the growing science of analytics, where companies are using data to make better decisions faster, throughout their organizations. Analytics is going beyond traditional sources into the realm of text. Analytics naturally came about as a result of today’s prolific generation of electronic data. The amount of numerical information created every day is staggering. I have seen statistics that claim all of us are generating more than 2 million emails per second, and a similar quantity of tweets on Twitter. Then there are the electronic documents that are created and… -
Want to quicken innovation? Rapid prototyping helps you see it and touch it!
20 Apr 2012 | 7:00 amInnovators, whether part of a large organization or simply an individual inventor, are struggling with two things right now as they travel on their innovation journey — time and money. As I recently said in my weekly newspaper column, many have created more than enough ideas to move forward, but have a hard time getting support and/or resources behind their ideas to actually advance them through to commercial successes. One way to help generate excitement for an idea is to make it a reality with a prototype. Often when we help inventors advance their ideas and get an invention ready for the… -
A little espresso in your dashboard!
19 Apr 2012 | 2:01 pmNo driver ever wants to nod off on those long drives, and now a French company has come up with a handy take-along device that allows you to whip up a shot of hot espresso as you travel. The company, French Handpresso, have invented and launched the Handpresso Auto E.S.E., an espresso machine built specifically for use in automobiles. It’s part of a growing trend in the Food and Beverage industry that is seeing new innovations designed to help consumers get their quick coffee fix wherever they happen to be. The Handpresso fits in a standard cup holder and runs electronically via any 12V… -
Stinky Sewer Solution: Old Coffee Grounds
5 Apr 2012 | 12:53 pmCoffee grounds have been proven useful for new innovations in robot hands, biofuel engines for cars, warm sports clothing, and as printer ink. And now the latest: a team from The City College of New York has come up with a way to make an effective carbon filter out of coffee grounds that will soak up noxious sewer gases. The grounds are an effective filter for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas, which smells like rotten eggs and can be dangerous. This is good news for those who work with sewage systems. Some workers have even died from overexposure to H2S as a result. Why do old coffee grounds work… -
Silk’s natural quality stands test of time
26 Mar 2012 | 7:18 amAs I reported in my weekly newspaper column, I recently went to China and got a first-hand look at a nation of innovation. Steeped in rich history, I learned many things about China’s softest commodity: silk! Silk is an innovation that has been around for thousands of years, but interestingly is pretty much in the same form that it was when it was first discovered. Today’s methods for harvesting of the threads would be quite familiar to anyone that was around when it was first discovered. On my recent visit to China I had the opportunity to visit a silk factory with my team and…
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innovation playground Idris Mootee
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Five Critical Questions About Organization Culture That People Avoid Asking.
13 May 2012 | 9:34 pmThere is a piece on HBR Blog on the topic of organization culture “Culture Takes Over When the CEO Leaves the Room” by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss (both HBS professors). It is a good piece worth reading and here's an summary of their ideas: Excellence = design x culture. Your job as a leader is to get both right.... -
The New Battlefield Between iPhone, BlackBerry and Android Smartphone: The Keypad.
2 May 2012 | 6:19 pmApple iPhone has officially become the “defender” instead of the “attacker”. The battlefront so far has been on the screen and apps and now the battlefield is switching back to the keyboard. There are two camps: physical keyboard and virtual keyboard. I definitely belong to the group that I needed a real keyboard and therefore I use Blackberry. And there... -
The Hardest Part Of Any Innovation Process Is Sensemaking. And Sensemaking Is Closely Linked To Insights.
22 Apr 2012 | 8:57 pmThe hardest part of any innovation process is where data and insights come together and trying to make sesen of them. Sensemaking is about using visual mappings and narrative techniques to mine the non-quantitative data. This except is taken from a piece in the current issue of M/I/S/C magazine on Insights and Sensemaking co-written by me and Richard Thomas. Customer... -
Strategic Innovation And The Quest To Reinvent Management.
25 Mar 2012 | 11:02 pmI spoke at a number of conferences the last few weeks on the same topic of Strategic Innovation in the Age of Reinvention. Reinvention is the word as every individual, practicing professional, multi-nationals, non-profits, education institution and government ought to be thinking about “reinvention”. We desperately need to “totally reinvent ourselves” in order to transform our economy, organizations, politics and... -
Design Thinking Is A Cognitive And Intellectual Process That Balances The Rational And Emotional. Not Included With Your MBA.
20 Feb 2012 | 10:31 amWhat is Design Thinking? Because of the word “design” and many automatically associate it with the craft of design or design as a profession. Actually it is less to do with “design” and more with “system”. There are many ways to define "design thinking" and this list is not exhaustive: A way to instill customer-centricity and empathy A framework for...
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Chas Martin, creative director, on creativity and innovation
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When good enough IS good enough
23 Apr 2012 | 10:33 amOne of my first mentors once told me, "Good enough is never good enough." Great advice. Perfection is not easily achieved. It takes commitment. It takes a level of persistence and stubbornness to reach the pinnacle of execution. But, perfection for the sake of perfection can be a false god. Obsession can blind you to the reason you seek it in the first place. I have spent years watching clients try to perfect efficiency, streamline processes, maximize capacity and increase profit. And still, that's not enough. In spite of their managerial success, the margins continue to shrink. There are… -
Creativity Beyond Google Goggles
10 Apr 2012 | 1:16 pmAndroid-based Google Glasses may soon hit the market. For a price tag between $250 and $600, Google can filter your world 24 hours a day at 3 or 4G. Before surrendering any more of my cognitive processes to technology, I'll share some insights from the opposite end of the spectrum. Several months ago, I reconnected with a former instructor from Pratt Institute. Emil Dispenza is a creative director who gave my career its first jolt. His influence stayed with my all my life. Reconnecting with him has been like sticking my finger in a 220 socket. His imagination cannot be defined or quanitifed. -
The Problem Solving Dilemma
7 Feb 2012 | 8:46 pmA dilemma suggests a choice between two or more equally undesirable alternatives. It’s a frequent managerial situation where a decision, and ultimately trade offs must be made to solve a problem. The real problem is not the lack of attractive alternatives, but a lack of understanding of the problem itself. -
Innovative business model based on the laws of physics
21 Oct 2010 | 12:44 pmBusiness models that capitalize on opportunities overlooked by conventional market structures can be very lucrative territory for an innovative entrepreneur. It is the essence of innovation to focus on what’s missing rather than what’s there. The solution is in the model. Strategically reorienting business elements creates a series of opportunities for products or services. It’s a foundation for serial entrepreneurship. Hayden Hamilton, is mining the market gaps left unattended by industry giants with a series startups. He is applying basic laws of physics to economics with… -
Measuring the wrong metrics. Where innovation often fails.
12 Oct 2010 | 12:08 pmA truncated quote is often attributed to Peter Drucker, “You can’t manage what you cannot measure.” The continuation of that thought continues, “You can’t measure everything that matters.” The first half has become embedded into our DNA. The second half is simply false. You can measure what matters, but not by the same metrics as everything else. Our culture has created problem solvers. Identify the problem and solve it quickly. The result may create more downstream problems. Solve them later. This is our business nature. But, it’s not our human…
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Creativity & Innovation
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Critical Review of Imagine by Jonah Lehrer
14 May 2012 | 6:04 pmJonah Lehrer’s best-selling book Imagine just received a fairly critical review in the New York Times.* This follows on a famously critical review by Steven Poole in The Guardian. When I first commented on Lehrer’s book in March 2012, I was generally positive, although my overall sense was that his book didn’t really have anything new that hadn’t already appeared in other good creativity books. Poole’s scathing review was perhaps easy to dismiss, because of its bitingly sarcastic tone and also because he didn’t sufficiently ground his critique with… -
Solitude or Collaboration? Listen to NPR…
4 May 2012 | 4:44 pmThe radio show Big Picture Science just produced an NPR special about creativity, solitude, and collaboration. In the solitude corner: Susan Cain, best-selling author of the new book Quiet, arguing that solitude enhances creativity. In the collaboration corner, Keith Sawyer (me), author of the 2007 book Group Genius, arguing that all creativity is deeply based in collaboration. Here’s the segment with my interview: http://bit.ly/K0Nqsk Here’s a link to the entire one-hour show: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Cosmos_It_s_Big_It_s_Weird -
Collaboration vs. Solitude on NPR
30 Apr 2012 | 12:39 pmA fascinating on-air story about my recent debate with Susan Cain about the merits of collaboration versus solitude: a one-hour episode of the radio show Big Picture Science, based on extended interviews with me, Susan Cain, and others. You can listen to it online here: http://radio.seti.org/ First broadcast April 30, 2012 -
New Creativity Seminar on May 1, 2012
18 Apr 2012 | 10:05 amI’ve developed a completely new one-day seminar on enhancing creativity. It will be offered for the first time in St. Louis on May 1, through Olin Business School’s Executive Education programs, at the Knight Center on the Washington University campus. I’m really excited about this seminar, because all of the advice is based in solid scientific research, and designed for practical application. You can learn more and register at this link. Here are some details: Seminar Details Innovation is the driver for thriving companies today. There is a strong correlation between… -
Sawyer Videos Now Available
16 Apr 2012 | 1:01 pmThe amazingly talented video producers at KANEKO have released the first footage of the performance and presentation on April 5, 2012: Improvised music performance with commentary by Keith Sawyer (3 minutes) Interview with Keith Sawyer about creativity and improvisation (8 minutes)
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Phil McKinney
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4 Steps To Grow Your Innovation Skills
14 May 2012 | 9:52 amWhen posed with a major (big) innovation effort, why do some people freeze? Is it the size that intimidates them? Yes in a way. But size is relative. If you have no perspective, then eveything can look big and daunting. To build your perspective so that big programs aren’t so scary, you need to grow your innovation skill and experience. So what are the steps? Incremental Innovation Incremental innovations have a bad reputation. Some in the innovation space look down on incremental innovations as the lazy way out. I don’t agree. They have a role when it comes to… -
If You’re A Social Entrepreneur Then Join Me At Sea
11 May 2012 | 4:57 pmYes — I’m going to sea in 2013. I’ve been asked to extend my mentorship of entrepreneurs beyond the Unreasonable Institute to the new effort - Unreasonable at Sea. So what is it all about? Click here to view the video on YouTube. Unreasonable at Sea is a mentor driven accelerator for tech entrepreneurs who desire to take their ventures into new international markets. We are searching for technology based companies who are working to solve the greatest social and environmental challenges of this century. Why Unreasonable? After seeing the success of the model of… -
New Translation of Beyond The Obvious
11 May 2012 | 9:16 amBefore the launch of the book, foreign language translations of Beyond The Obvious were negotiated with publishers in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil. Yesterday I was notified by my publisher (Hyperion) that a publishing house just purchased the rights for Korea. My only frustration is the length of time it takes to complete a translation from start to finish. The book took 17 months (from November 2010 to February 2012) to complete and get on the shelf. The actual writing was 8 months (November of 2010 to June 2011). Translations take about 18 months. The result is that the… -
Spark Your Innovation By Hiring People On The Autism Spectrum (Neural Diversity)
8 May 2012 | 2:19 pmLate last year,I was asked to give a speech in Atlanta to AIMD (American Institute for the Managing Diversity). Given the work with Hacking Autism, they also asked if my daughter could join. So for the first time, Tara and I made a joint appearance. The topic of the speech was on the need to expand the definition of diversity to include neural diversity. Most of us are what is called “neural typical”. The challenge we are facing is how to include individuals in the workforce that are not neural typical, especially those on the autism spectrum (autism, aspergers). Given… -
How To Test Your Idea
7 May 2012 | 9:44 amSo you have an idea. You thinks its a killer idea. How do you make sure its the next great thing before committing significant resources (e.g. money, time, etc)? Testing your ideas doesn’t have to be a big long dragged out process. By following a few quick steps, you can have the confidence that your idea will lead to the next game-changing innovation. Step 1: Does the problem exist? Rememebr that customers don’t but products or technologies, they buy solutions to their problems. To validate the problem, you need to: Frame the problem in a few sentances so that others…
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Outside Innovation
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Does Monster.com Help Job Seekers Manage Their Careers?
3 May 2012 | 10:00 amMonster.com was originally designed as a Help Wanted/Need a Job matching site. It’s one of the many such sites that have dramatically impacted the employment services industry. Monster was one of the first job-hunting sites and one of the most successful in both fulfilling its mission and in remaining at the top of the heap. One of the things that distinguished Monster.com from the outset was its unremitting focus on the end-customer—the person seeking a job. The original founder, Jeff Taylor, knew that if Monster didn’t cater to job-seekers, they wouldn’t have any qualified… -
It’s a Bizarre World
2 May 2012 | 2:36 pmBy Peter Horne, Member of Patty’s Pioneers Two weeks ago, I read on Facebook that a friend of mine had separated from her husband. There were to date 27 comments on this event which added more color and removed the ambiguity as to whether the separate was temporary or a permanent split. How bizarre to read about a separation on Facebook! But I am not sure what is more bizarre. Is it the fact that I get to see the life of a friend that I have not seen for over 20 years, and at this rate will never see in the next 20 years? Or is it the fact that I am friends with the now separated husband of… -
Impediments to “Selling” Customer Co-Design
23 Apr 2012 | 11:30 amWe’re both staunch advocates and practitioners of customer co-design. We don’t limit our customer co-design practice to new product development. We’ve learned over the years that there are many different ways you can take advantage of co-designing with customers: from the ways you engage with customers on your Customer Advisory Boards, to involving them as stakeholders when you’re redesigning your firm’s internal processes. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to convince others in your organization to embrace customer co-design. Most executives think it’s a good idea in… -
How to Host a Customer Co-Design Event
20 Apr 2012 | 10:15 amWhen you invite customers to spend time with you to help co-design your next-gen products, services, or customer experience, you want them to be comfortable and at ease. Any event planner knows that creating an enjoyable meeting or memorable event requires a lot of attention to detail. What we’ve learned, in over 25 years of running these sessions, is that even GREAT event planners don’t know all the details you’ll need to be on top of to ensure a high-quality, smooth-running brainstorming session. What Are the Subtle Differences that Make a Difference in a Well-Planned Customer… -
Protecting Your Privacy: Mobile Phone Basics
19 Apr 2012 | 10:00 amTwo months ago, my Blackberry fell out of my car when I stopped at a rest stop on the turnpike. I was lucky. The young man who found it lying in the parking lot, decided to try to locate the owner. He called up last number I had called, talked to a friend I had just spoken to, who gave him my husband’s cellphone number, so we were able to connect and arrange the best way to reunite me with my Blackberry. I was very grateful to this young man, but I realized that I was amazingly lucky. At the time I lost my phone, I hadn’t secured it with a password. I hadn’t set the screen-saver to…
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Innovation in Practice
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The Curse of Innovation
14 May 2012 | 2:00 amThe Financial Times featured an article last week calling the patent system the curse of innovation. Patents have become weapons of mass destruction in certain industries, most recently in the smartphone category. "Escalating courtroom battles over intellectual property – whether evidence of an efficient market in ideas or a sign of a broken patent system – are placing a mounting burden on the (technology) sector…In smartphones alone, an estimated $15 to $20 billion has been spent buying patents for both defensive and offensive strategies. Legal bills are conservatively estimated at… -
Marketing Innovation: The Extreme Consequence Tool
7 May 2012 | 2:00 amCommercials that show the benefits of using the product are likely to be ignored because consumers expect it. The message becomes cliche. If the advertiser shows how the consumer is transformed by using the product, consumers become skeptical. Telling viewers they will become young and adventurous by drinking a soft drink lacks credibility. It is wishful thinking, but unrealistic. The ad is tossed aside. But show these same product benefits in an extreme, unrealistic way and the advertisement is likely to be more memorable. The message sinks in. That is the goal of the Extreme… -
The LAB: Innovating a Membership Club with S.I.T. (April 2012)
30 Apr 2012 | 2:00 amHow do you attract new customers while retaining current ones? For many categories, you attract new customers by showing high satisfaction with current customers. Put the current customer first and you will increase your appeal to new customers. The challenge is when you have to change your product to meet the different demands of new customers at the risk of alienating existing customers. For example, imagine you owned a prestigious, members-only dinner club with a strong following of older, traditional patrons. They are fiercely loyal and attached to the various details such as the… -
Making it Sustainable: Innovation Suite No. 9
23 Apr 2012 | 1:23 amMaking innovation sustainable means: 1. learning how to innovate, 2. getting results from innovation workshops, and 3. building the internal support systems to keep it going. Join Idit Biton and Yoni Stern from SIT in New York City, June 18-20, 2012 for Innovation Suite No. 9, an intensive learning experience with a focus on making innovation sustainable in your ogranization. Listen to Gilles Bertherin from Shell explain his takeaway from attending Innovation Suite: The three day event teaches new-comers how to use the method, while the more experienced SIT users and innovation managers… -
Innovation Sighting: Yahoo's e-Book Advertising
16 Apr 2012 | 2:00 amYahoo's recent patent filings suggest it is entering the e-Book market, a move that will pit it against Amazon, Apple, and other content providers. But given the nature of the patent filings, Yahoo seeks to leap over the competition with a potentially more innovative approach. Yahoo's concepts conform to the Attribute Dependency technique, one of five in the SIT Method. Research shows that new products that conform to one of the five SIT techniques tend to be more successful in the marketplace.* The first concept calls for a variable pricing approach. The price paid for an e-book varies…
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INDIA INVENTS
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The Tech Awards Names N.R. Narayana Murthy Recipient of The James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award
12 May 2012 | 4:40 pmIndian philanthropist N.R. Narayana Murthy, who founded tech services giant Infosys along with six colleagues and went on to become one of India's most influential advocates for health care and rural development, has been named the ninth recipient of The James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award, "This award honors leaders whose vision, passion and dedication are helping to change the world," said Mike Splinter, Chairman and CEO of Applied Materials, Inc. "Narayana Murthy embodies the spirit of the Global Humanitarian Award. Through his leadership in business and philanthropy, he has… -
Diploma in Basic Rural Technology” (Batch 2012-13)
12 May 2012 | 4:36 pmVigyan ashram announced opening of admission for “Diploma in Basic Rural Technology” (Batch 2012-13). This course is recognized by National Institute of Open Schooling and useful for students interested to learn by hands. This is a multi-skill program in which training is given in the area of: Engineering- (Fabrication & construction& Basic Carpentry, Engineering Drawing & Costing ), Energy & Environment - (Electrical, Motor rewinding, survey techniques, solar / biogas etc.), Home and Health (Sewing, food processing and rural… -
Protect your Ideas- book available on Flipkart
10 May 2012 | 11:57 amThe easy to read book on Patents, `Protect your Ideas' authored by Rajeev Surana is available at Flipkart. Price is Rs 295. Rajeev Surana relates patents, designs to innovations with several illustrations. Innovators, entrepreneurs would be able to connect with the content effortlessly. -
Green Dragon: 20 signs that 2012 is the year of China
10 May 2012 | 11:52 amBiofuels Digest published this article, which I want to share with readers of my blog. The reasons cited for this assertion are: Incubating next generation technologies in China, investment in integrated biorefineries, funding research on Aviation biofuels, African supply chain etc. -
Grand Challenge in Global Health- 9th round closes by 15th May
10 May 2012 | 11:43 amTopics for Grand Challenges Explorations Round 9 are: New Approaches for the Interrogation of Anti-malarial Compounds - new! Aid is Working. Tell the World - new! Explore New Solutions for Global Health Priority Areas Design New Approaches to Optimize Immunization Systems Protect Crop Plants from Biotic Stresses From Field to Market
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Come to Know
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Crowdsource Your Strategy
15 May 2012 | 3:38 amThe Mckinsey Quarterly have just published a very interesting article on crowdsourcing strategy. They write: Crowdsourcing your strategy may sound crazy. But a few pioneering companies are starting to do just that, boosting organizational alignment in the process. Should you join them? The problem Strategy setting sometimes suffers from insufficient diversity and expertise, with leaders far removed from the implications of their decisions and hampered by experience-based biases. Why it matters Strategies developed by leaders in isolation can be flawed and sometimes aren’t embraced by the… -
You get what You ask for
11 Apr 2012 | 8:52 amThat’s especially true when asking people for ideas. The better you explain what you are looking for, the better armed people will be to describe their ideas. Clients always ask us how they should describe their topics. It’s pretty basic but nonetheless a very valuable thing to get right. We usually ask clients the questions below. Here’s an examples from our client Visma: What’s the challenge? Why are good ideas for this challenge needed? How would you like an idea to be described? Which criteria should a good idea fulfil? What will happen to the best ideas? “The… -
Our Thoughts When We Designed a New Idea Management Tool
1 Mar 2012 | 3:34 amWe have just released Nosco App, our brand-new idea management software. These are the ideas, thoughts and considerations we struggled with when designing Nosco App. Our vision Our vision was to make the best idea management software in the world. But what is that? We knew that we could not make something to everyone’s taste. If you try, you end up tasteless and not attractive to anyone. So we started with defining the boundaries of the space Nosco App should work within. We want to be world class in a narrow field rather than average in a large one. That’s why Nosco App is a… -
An “idea database”… sounds boring?
17 Feb 2012 | 7:38 amFrom a creative and innovative point of view – yes, it sounds pretty boring ;-) But, most would agree that a bit of structure and system could benefit you when seeking new ideas – and keeping track of them! In our new idea management system, Nosco App, we have pulled in experiences from working with numerous customers the past couple of years and, admittedly, we didn’t get these great customers by proposing an idea database to them. All of them were focusing on the power of being able to collect ideas amongst their employees, customers, partners, etc. and being able to quickly… -
Nosco at NPD World Tour
9 Feb 2012 | 9:33 amThe last couple of weeks have been quite busy in Nosco. We have launched Nosco App, redesigned our website, and participated in the New Product Development World Tour Scandinavia conference. This blog-post will give a short recap of the conference. We had a key role on the second day of the conference where Jesper Müller-Krogstrup, partner in Nosco, were in charge of a masterclass about idea management. It was a 45 minutes session where Jesper talked about how to achieve success with idea management. The class was rich on examples and case stories about how our clients succeed from a…
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Lateral Action
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Seven Powerful Ways to Gain More Confidence in Your Creative Work
8 May 2012 | 8:00 amOne of the biggest problems creative people face isn’t a lack of time or money. It’s a lack of confidence. If you love writing, drawing, composing, designing, or any other creative activity, you might have started out doing it simply for the pleasure of creating. Once you start looking beyond that – to building an audience, and even making money from your art – a lack of confidence can be crippling. Low confidence might be pretty obvious, when you keep thinking “I’m not good enough” or “No-one will want to read/view/listen to this”. But it… -
How to Get Your Life Back from Your Smartphone
26 Apr 2012 | 7:53 amMany of us have love/hate relationships with our smartphones. On the one hand, it’s amazing to have so much media and so many gadgets and connections at our fingertips – news, sports, weather, blog feeds, photos, videos, music, calculators, voice recognition, encyclopedias, dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn… and of course, email. On the other hand, these things are fiendishly addictive, so it can be a bit wearing to have so much media and so many gadgets and connections at our fingertips. Especially email. Photo by inottawa If… -
Is Your Business Drowning Your Creativity?
16 Apr 2012 | 11:01 amImage by Radhika Bhagwat Are you spending the majority of your time keeping up with business-related tasks rather than creating? Are you lacking the passion you once felt for your business? Is your creative time continually being pushed to the back burner? If you answered ‘yes’ to the above questions, I’m guessing you’re feeling a bit stretched with all the things you need to be doing. Growing a business is tough. For most of us, left-brained business growth activities begin to take over and right-brained creative activities begin to feel hurried and expected rather… -
How To Tackle The Goal Setting Problem Nobody Talks About
28 Feb 2012 | 2:05 pm“I discovered at an early age that all I’ve ever wanted to do is design” Jonathan Ive in his New Year Honours press release (Image by David Blackwell) It makes me want to puke. On reading this you will have had one of two reactions – you’ll either have nodded along because you, too, have always known what you wanted to do and discovered it early. Or it edged you closer to despair because finding your passion is like playing hunt-the-thimble in a game rigged by a particularly perverse game master. Guess what? Yet another post from a celebrity who effortlessly… -
How to Suffer for Your Art (without Being a Jerk)
6 Feb 2012 | 8:14 amDrawing by Hugh MacLeod The tortured artist is one of the great cliches of creativity. And like all cliches, it contains a grain of truth. Look at the work of any truly great artist, and you will find suffering is one of the big themes – whether it’s the everyday misery of poverty (Dickens), the pain of unrequited love (Petrarch), the atrocity of war (Picasso), the inhumanity of bureaucracy (Kafka), the pathos of passing time (Hardy), despair in the face of death (Tolstoy), or sheer existential anguish (Plath, Munch). Even apparently trivial forms of popular entertainment, like…
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neuronspark
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AppUp Show for Developers 23
15 May 2012 | 4:56 amBob and Rhonda’s big adventure at SXSW Interactive Screenburn 2012. -
Hilary Mason Loves Data
14 May 2012 | 1:31 pmHilary Mason talked about the rise of the Data Scientist at the NextWeb conference in Amsterdam -
Galaxy S III Launch in London
11 May 2012 | 10:51 amI was there in London when Samsung announced the GALAXY S III. Designed for humans and inspired by nature, the GALAXY S III is a smartphone that recognizes your voice, understands your intention, and lets you share a moment instantly and easily. The Galaxy S III is best phone yet, feels great in your hand and makes the iPhone look outdated! -
Gamification
9 May 2012 | 5:14 pmGabe Zichermann likes to talk about Gamification, this time at the NextWeb, Amsterdam -
Moby Now
2 May 2012 | 8:40 amMathys van Abbe of Mobypicture talks about the new Moby Now platform from their boat office on the Amstel river in Amsterdam
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WordPress.com News
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Stay In The Conversation
15 May 2012 | 6:01 pmIt’s now much easier for you and your commenters to keep track of the conversations you’re involved in across WordPress.com. Some recent tests have shown that by subscribing commenters to new comments by default, they are more likely to stay engaged and come back and comment more on your blog. With that knowledge, we’ve changed the default comment following behavior to help you get more conversations going on your blog. We made the initial changes last week and after great feedback from you we just launched an update. Here’s how it works: By default, posting a comment… -
Look at These Gorgeous Blogs
15 May 2012 | 1:05 pmWe’ve added a user showcase where you can view stunning customizations made by people just like you. From complete redesigns with CSS to adding pizzazz with Custom Fonts to clever use of options like background and header, this showcase will spark your imagination and inspire creativity. Discover details about what each showcase blog is doing with WordPress.com themes and customizations by clicking a thumbnail to see a colophon-style list of credits on the left. We’ve also updated footer links so blog owners can show off the types of customizations they’ve made and visitors can… -
Photo Blogging 101, Part 1
14 May 2012 | 10:00 amSpring is in the air. With the weather warming up, now is a great time to get started on a photo blog. Creating a photo blog is a wonderful introduction to blogging on WordPress.com or an opportunity to refresh your current site. Ready to get started? You can sign up for a new blog right over here. Getting started Photo blogs, sometimes called phlogs, use pictures instead of words. While many photo bloggers choose a type of photo that they want to focus on, such as portraits, others use their photo blog to document their life’s events. Photo blogs come in a variety of styles, including… -
New Themes: Just Desserts and Oxygen
10 May 2012 | 8:11 amHappy Thursday! We’ve added some exciting new themes to our ever-growing collection, and we’re happy to tell you all about them. First out of the oven is…Just Desserts. Yep, that’s a theme! Designed by Andy Rutledge, Just Desserts is a deliciously stylish premium theme that’s perfect for blogs centered on food. With its responsive, single-column layout and unique presentation of images and posts on the front page, Just Desserts gives you a delectable canvas on which your mouthwatering photos and text can really shine — even when viewed on smaller mobile devices… -
Find Friends Who Use WordPress
1 May 2012 | 2:32 pmAre you curious to see how your friends are using WordPress? Give the new and improved Friend Finder a try to connect with your Twitter, Facebook, and Google contacts who have WordPress sites! After authorizing WordPress.com to use your Twitter, Facebook, or Google account to find your friends (don’t worry — none of this account information is saved!) you’ll see a list of people you know who have WordPress sites. Click Follow and each time your friend publishes a new post it will show up in your Reader under Blogs I Follow. If you have multiple blogs, make sure to set the…
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The Future is Bright
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TALWST – Peace Tonight (Official Video)
28 Apr 2012 | 3:43 pmThe artist TALWST formerly known as Curtis Santiago has a message in the madness. Inspired by John Lennon. Produced by ILLANGELO. -
Kris Kasanova – Sleep When I’m Dead (Official Video)
28 Apr 2012 | 10:30 amMy favorite song off of #WarPaint -
Speaking of Harlem
22 Mar 2012 | 11:00 amNardwuar vs A$AP Rocky If you are not familiar with the Always Strive And Prosper mob, here is footage from a Spotify event I attended that was held during SXSW Music 2012 -
You should be attending TEDxHarlem
22 Mar 2012 | 10:15 amWhat: A day-long conference that seeks to understand, celebrate and empower the informal methods of social innovation that grow organically in Harlem and throughout communities around the world. For more. When: Tuesday March 27, 2012 – 8a-5p Where: Riverside Church Cost: $20 and $100 Speakers: Click Here Hosts: Click Here Webcast: Live on March 27th www.livestream.com/tedxharlem I’m going to be attending the event and may even get a ticket for my dad who grew up in Harlem in the 50/60s and now lives in Jersey. If I were you I would ask your company to expense this day of… -
Home and Away
19 Mar 2012 | 5:39 amHome and Away, originally uploaded by KenjiSummers. I write this before dawn inside of the Marcy Playground in Marcy Projects in my neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn. I decided to ride by multi gear road bike here to think. Not to think about how I got no sleep but about home and away. Home and away is what I struggle with today. How do I dare inspire young people, especially Americans to get passports and leave home when Projects such as Marcy, once home to Shawn Carter you know him as Jay-Z, still exist? With all the KONY talk I find myself at a perilous path where I must find a…
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InnExperience - Innovation goes bananas!!
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“Your call is important to us …”
7 May 2012 | 7:56 amCall me old fashioned. I hate answering machines. I miss the busy tone I used to hear that told me two things; that you were there at the other end AND you were busy speaking to somebody. Auto ‘Redial’ came in as a great feature because my phone could keep checking with your phone and would call us both right back when they became free. I could do something else meantime, instead of sitting by the phone fidgeting impatiently. But I won’t say that the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) feature was a logical step in the right direction. Firstly the ‘voice’ became… -
TEN in 12 – The Ideafarms eGreeting
2 Jan 2012 | 3:04 amThere are so many to thank for walking with us on this amazing journey. Many who made it possible. Many who made it memorable. Many who came aboard alighted along the way to further their own dreams. They are now our most loved ambassadors. Some stayed on to keep building a powerhouse of design and innovation. In some ways 2002 seems very very far behind. In most ways it feels like yesterday. Feel the inTENsity of our gratitude in 2012 We love y’all – Happy NEW Year!!! Filed under: heart capital, Innovation Tagged: Gratitude, Happy New year 2012, HNY -
Innovation, Now!
22 Nov 2011 | 6:37 amThe continuing financial Tsunami has ceased to make waves. We ought to have seen it coming but were too scared to open our eyes. Like we’ve done in the past – all we’ve ever learnt to do is to solve problems based on ‘fitting historical patterns’ – we believe that we’re at the bottom of the economic downturn and things will look up from here on. Anybody noticed that the slide has been going on since September 11, 2001? And we’re satisfied waiting. The time for innovation is here and is urging us to do something – differently. Talk to technology and business people and they… -
Mentoring 101: A microcompilation
21 Nov 2011 | 4:10 amSee this presentation on slideshare and download for personal use. Mentoring 101: A microcompilation. I put it together in 2004 for an internal Global HR initiative of Continental AG. Comments welcome. Filed under: Business, Leadership, Mentoring Tagged: Fun, Guide, Guru, Mentee, Mentor -
Innovation 101 – Cost vs. Quality. Deuce.
2 Nov 2011 | 5:26 amTo me it doesn’t matter whether India will be able to maintain its cost advantage. What does is sustainable and long-term value as a combination of cost and quality. In my view we are seeing the end of the traditional benefits of outsourcing. In whichever way customers were disguising their need to leverage lower costs, the only reason for outsourcing was cost arbitrage. We have seen that gap closing especially in the case of Indian talent. Squeezing benefit from outsourcing purely on a cost basis is clearly the last remnants of Industrial age thinking, which besides all other…
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Fast Company
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Patent Watch: Google Personalizing Search Like Facebook Personalizes News?
15 May 2012 | 4:51 pmA fresh clutch of patent applications from Google hints at the mysterious search algorithm. Plus, ideas for product placement on YouTube and more on Google's Project Glass.Personalizing Google SearchGoogle's algorithm doesn't just decide what pops up on the first page of search results. It's the stuff of complex third-party angst, law-making, lawsuits, and even the idea that the algorithm, based ultimately on decisions by human programmers, is protected under U.S. free speech laws. Google's hyper-sensitive to it too, which makes brand-new U.S. patent number 8180776 all the more interesting. -
GM Pulls Its Facebook Ads Three Days Before IPO
15 May 2012 | 4:01 pmNews updates all day from your Fast Company editors.Via WSJ: General Motors’ marketing executives have decided to pull the company’s $10 million in paid Facebook after deeming the efforts had “little impact” in reaching consumers. The announcement comes three days before Facebook’s initial public offering. The company will continue to use the Facebook platform to promote its brands, operating on a $30 million budget that covers content creation and management. GM, the third largest advertiser in the U.S. behind Procter & Gamble and AT&T, spent $1.83 billion on U.S. -
Hippie Capitalism: How An Impoverished U.S. City Is Building An Economy On Co-ops
15 May 2012 | 2:33 pmWith sky-high unemployment, Richmond, California, is not a place where traditional business models alone can dent poverty. The city has turned to co-ops in hopes that people who might be unemployable in the traditional economy gain access to both jobs and control over their own labor. UNITED STATES OF INNOVATION New Ideas, New Markets, New Insights All around the country, Americans are dreaming big. Their boldest ideas are changing their communities--and having a ripple effect throughout the world. CLICK HERE to read about pockets of innovation in other U.S. cities. At the height of the… -
Innovation Agents: Fab's Bradford Shellhammer Embraces Risk, Defines Design
15 May 2012 | 1:39 pmWatch the cofounder of the e-commerce design site explain how he figured out a way to share his obsession--a breakthrough (and risky) moment that established him as the curator of a wildly successful business. "People who embrace design, it infiltrates their entire life," says Fab.com cofounder (and Most Creative Person 2012) Bradford Shellhammer. "Once you go there, it's hard to go back." About This Series Fast Company profiles the personalities behind the ideas that shake up business as usual. Discover more about these pioneers here. It's particularly true for his company, which started as… -
Hipmunk Took The Agony Out Of Flying Then Pivoted To Hotel Booking
15 May 2012 | 12:54 pmA pivot doesn't have to be a change in business model. That's the case with Hipmunk, a flight search aggregator that turned to hotel listings when the airlines began cutting commissions. About This Series The speed of today's well-funded startups is brutal. But it does allow for change in direction. This series explores those destiny-altering decisions made by companies that have gone on to great success. Read more about their course corrections--and alternate endings--here. To take the "suckage" out of planning trips Adam Goldstein and Reddit cofounder Steve Huffman created Hipmunk, a…
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Schumpeter's Century
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Against Incumbancy
5 May 2012 | 9:50 pmOver at HBR, Philip Auerswald has a good guest post on innovation and the role of entrepreneurs as change agents. He writes (HBR):As the editor of the journal Innovations, I'm asked with some regularity, "So, what is innovation anyhow? How would you..."? (eyebrows usually furrow here) "... define it?" Since I don't particularly enjoy debating definitions, I usually respond by saying: "That's a difficult question. But one thing is for sure: If you're not pissing someone off, it's probably not innovation."I like this response because, if it doesn't end the conversation, it usually shifts it… -
An Economics and Evolutionary Biology Reading List
5 Apr 2012 | 10:04 amYou'll find it here, via MR. I find it to be a fine yet incomplete list. A few additions. In terms of popular books, one commenter added Eric Beinhocker's Origins of Wealth. In my mind this would be the place to start. It's great and I recommend it strongly. It seems to me that evolutionary economics offers a less complete vision than complexity theory, and you get a lot of that in Beinhocker as well. Melanie Mitchell's book, Complexity: A Guided Tour, is a good companion to Beinhocker, though off our current topic.If you want something on the academic side, works by Stan Metcalfe (1, 2)… -
From Reset to Prosperity
2 Apr 2012 | 10:23 amThe recent financial crisis and subsequent recession have left many of us reflecting on our prospects for the future and even revived earlier debates about whether we should have come down from the trees in the first place. In “Reading About the Financial Crisis” (JEL, gated |ungated |NPR story), financial economist Andrew Lo attempts to make sense of the first wave of scholarship on the crisis. Unfortunately, according to Lo, academic economists, policymakers, and journalists have been unable to even reach agreement on the basic facts of what went wrong.While the financial crisis… -
The Coming Prosperity - the Movie (or at least a Presentation)
30 Mar 2012 | 3:30 pmThose of you who have spent any time with Phil, either in class or in person, know how high-energy he can be and will enjoy seeing him stand steadfastly behind a podium for almost 30 seconds. After that he makes the camera person work for it. That's not the interesting part of course, so check out the talk to learn more about "the single most promising moment in human history." -
Kauffman Foundation Interview with Philip Auerswald
30 Mar 2012 | 3:09 pm
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Wright Creativity
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3 words that will absolutely change your day:
15 May 2012 | 11:26 amYou may return to your regularly scheduled work…just keep those three words in mind. Original image via reid on flickrRelated posts:What makes words so important?Words to avoid on twitter unless you like spamHow do you choose the words you use? -
What is social media ROI? The definitive answer.
11 May 2012 | 11:02 amI was recently asked why I don’t have many posts talking about the ROI in social. And initially, I was slightly stumped for an answer. But, after giving it some thought, I realized I know exactly why I haven’t written many: because I feel that the ROI of social is absolutely obvious. It’s a necessary piece of strategy for a brand, and the why doesn’t need continual explanation.But, I know that not everyone feels the way that I do, and defining ROI for social is extremely important in many cases. So, I have combined the best explanations from brilliant minds across the… -
SWFSW: the blogging acronym you need to know.
10 May 2012 | 11:08 amStop thinking so much. I know this seems counter-intuitive to everything you read about blogging (or social media, or work, or anything) but sometimes, the best thing you can do to get yourself writing is to stop thinking about it. Just write about whatever you want for awhile. Maybe it’s random gibberish, but at least it’s writing. Over time, your brain will focus and turn your gibberish into better content.Write first, edit later. I am guilty of edit-while-writing syndrome, but it is an awful habit. Every time you pause your train of thought to go back and correct grammar,… -
5 steps to get more out of LinkedIn
8 May 2012 | 11:05 amLinkedIn is a phenomenal social media platform for both B2C and B2B brands. But the problem with LinkedIn is that while the tools are all there for you to get the most from it, knowing how to use them is not as easy. The good news is, you can get more out of your LinkedIn account by utilizing these 5 steps:A fully updated profile: More often than not, profiles are missing at least one of the 5 key elements:An avatar that actually shows your face, and personality. Smile, people!Links to your websites and other social profiles. Make it easy for people to connect further!A well written and… -
Skill vs Passion: the blogging battle
3 May 2012 | 10:49 amIn many situations, passion is an added bonus, and all you really need is the ability to do something well to succeed. But when something requires a long term commitment, like blogging does, passion is what makes the difference between incredible bloggers and just another writer. Therefore, blogging takes more passion than skill. No matter how passionate you are about something, passion doesn’t mean you’re able to do it well. Blogging requires the ability to create incredible content, structure it well and engage an audience through your writing. Therefore, blogging takes…
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New Medici - Media + Lifestyle
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Produced By Conference 2012 Program
29 Apr 2012 | 1:13 pmNew Medici is proud to be the program director of this year’s PGA Produced By Conference 2012. From today’s Los Angeles Times “Summer Sneaks” issue: Summer Sweeps -
Innovator IQ: New Medici Innovator Series (Open Q&A)
5 Dec 2011 | 1:40 pmYear’s end, and we’re moving forward on our manuscript for forward thinkers in media and lifestyle innovation. Not limited to media, digital or social – we’re capturing those thinkers who [...] -
Social Mission Control
17 Nov 2011 | 2:25 pmThe real deal in big brands associating with social systems: PepsiCo’s global head of digital Bonin Bough on “how leadership in social is the new ownership,” as ownership goes away [...] -
New Medici Innovator Series: Brian Reich
26 Oct 2011 | 6:32 pmI initially met Brian Reich when he featured my alma mater, Participant Media, in his book Media Rules! On a consulting basis, Brian worked with a number of the non-profits that [...] -
Hack the… [Insert Industry Here]
11 Oct 2011 | 6:42 pmWhat’s hackable these days? Answer: Everything. Every traditional vertical, agency and business line is on the “hacking block” with innovative entrepreneurs and executives trying to reinvent business by disrupting it. [...]
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Sharp Innovation
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The Innovation Renaissance in China
30 Apr 2012 | 6:01 amI've been away from this blog for quite a few months as I've begun an exciting journey of innovation and IP strategy in China. Since 2011 I've been living in Shanghai, where I'm now Head of Intellectual Property for one of the world's largest and most rapidly growing forest products companies, Asia Pulp and Paper. Innovation and IP protection are becoming bywords of industry in China, even as the West continues to ignore China as a source of innovation. But the culture is shifting as the economy develops and as China's IP system matures, and the result is that copying is no longer going to… -
Northeast Wisconsin Innovation Event: NEW END
5 May 2011 | 10:45 amHundreds of Wisconsin entrepreneurs will attend NEW END:One day event for start-up businesses to focus on creativity and networkingOn Wednesday, June 22, 2011, hundreds of entrepreneurs will join together in a one day event to celebrate innovation and job creation in the "New North" of Wisconsin. Northeast Wisconsin Entrepreneur Networking Day—or NEW END—takes place at Fox Valley Technical College, Appleton, WI. The event is dedicated to the specific needs of entrepreneurs and small business owners by packing networking, education, and collaboration into one day.This is the seventh year… -
More Dangers of the Patent Reform Bill Identified
22 Apr 2011 | 5:18 pmSometimes doing nothing isn't such a bad thing. Our patent system could use a few fixes, but not the kind Congress is now pursuing. Folks, if Congress or the Administration really wanted to fix the patent system to BENEFIT innovators and advance the cause of the useful arts, they would NOT imposes a $100 million tax on patent seekers by diverting the money they pay in fees to the USPTO to feed their big spending habits in unrelated sectors. That's right: the inefficiencies and costly delays in our patent system are due, at least in part, to Congress taking away the money that the USPTO… -
Intellectual Assey Strategy That Leads Innovation
15 Apr 2011 | 11:11 amThe primary problem with most IP management efforts is that they are reactive only. These systems typically focus on incoming invention disclosures and existing patent applications, leading to recommendations on which disclosures to file, which countries to file in, and which existing applications to abandon for cost control. These are vital components for intellectual asset (IA) management, but they fall short in providing strategy that can inform prospective inventors about what kind of inventions are needed. Effective IA management begins not with the processing of existing documents, but… -
Conducting Innovation Sessions to Generate IP: Preparation is the Key
11 Apr 2011 | 2:17 pmAt Innovationedge, one of my favorite activities is working with a team in what we call an "Edge Session" to create new intellectual assets. It's not not brain storming, where a flood of bad ideas are welcome, but an iterative process in which the goal is enabled, good concepts that are fleshed out enough to support drafting of a meaningful invention disclosures. A key part of the Edge Session is refining problem statements, moving from broad, vague questions to more specific problem statements that guide inventors on what is needed. We introduce stimulus elements that are coupled with the…
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Indexed
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Something seems a bit off.
15 May 2012 | 2:39 pmShare and Enjoy: -
Shanks so much.
14 May 2012 | 10:34 amShare and Enjoy: -
Speak up or miss out.
11 May 2012 | 10:47 amShare and Enjoy: -
What would you grab if the house was on fire?
10 May 2012 | 10:47 amShare and Enjoy: -
Two annoying problems.
9 May 2012 | 11:21 amShare and Enjoy:
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Adaptive Path
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MX: Managing Experience 2012 Videos Ready for Your Viewing Pleasure
14 May 2012 | 12:30 pmEvery March for the past six years, our MX: Managing Experience conference has brought together a growing community of managers, directors, and VPs of experience design teams (and their bosses) to discuss the unique challenges they face. This year's sold out conference featured speakers from GE, eBay, Intel, Flickr, Salesforce.com, Sony, and Forrester Research, representing an excellent mix of examples of the role experience design is playing in the world's largest companies. This year's talks explored a range of topics from the journey to becoming a UX leader,… -
Signposts for the Week Ending May 11
11 May 2012 | 1:24 pmThe UK has come up with design principles for their government services. Progress is afoot. DIY kits to build web-connected things. Neato: responsive wireframes. A tool to pump out models digitally. Information is food. Welcome to the era of design. Fun cross-platform interaction, the concept. And the real deal. Can continuous improvement be hazardous to your organization's health? Cue sad trombone. A sad lesson in collaborative innovation. User experience is strategy, not design, says Peterme. What do you… -
UX Intensive Amsterdam 2012: Service Design Day Snapshot
3 May 2012 | 1:34 pmLast Thursday, April 5th, we capped off our four day UX Intensive training with the Service Design day. Jamin Hegemen lead the activity-packed day, introducing principles and methods designed to help organizations orchestrate cohesive cross-channel experiences for products and services. Just a couple of the highlights included developing service blueprints and mapping customer journeys. Much fun was had in the service prototyping portion, as participants used acting as a means of prototyping service experiences. Jamin lead the group through a full day that included introducing Service… -
UX Intensive Amsterdam 2012: Interaction Design Day Snapshot
26 Apr 2012 | 4:52 pmAfter two days of fast-paced learning and making at our UX Intensive in Amsterdam, our attendees jumped into the deep end of Interaction Design. Chris Risdon used every minute of the day to pack in valuable concepts and useful tools that we use at Adaptive Path to quickly identify a large number of ideas and then turn the best ones into successful products and services. Here's a few highlights from the day: Chris takes a question from an attendee. Attendees learned how to quickly generate design concepts and how to communicate them effectively. Some tools of the trade. -
UX Intensive Amsterdam 2012: Research Day Snapshot
25 Apr 2012 | 4:06 pmContinuing our coverage of UX Intensive Amsterdam, day two featured Design Research (see Day 1: Design Strategy here) taught by Paula Wellings. Paula led the group from start to finish on defining research goals and objectives, methods to collect and analyze data, and how to effectively communicate findings to clients and stakeholders in order to move research toward design. Exercises included field research using methods learned throughout the day. A wall full of stickies shows the findings. The importance of organizing data into useful clusters. Making…
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The Phoenix Principle
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OOPS! 5 CEOs that Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft)
12 May 2012 | 12:39 pmThis has been quite the week for CEO mistakes. First was all the hubbub about Scott Thompson, CEO of Yahoo, inflating his resume to include a computer science degree he did not actually receive. According to Mr. Thompson someone at a recruiting firm added that degree claim in 2005, he didn't know it and he's never read his bio since. A simple oversight, if you can believe he hasn't once read his bio in 7 years, and he didn't think it was ever important to correct someone who introduced him or mentioned it. OOPS - the easy answer for someone making several million dollars per year, and… -
Sell Google - Lot of Heat, Not Much Light
3 May 2012 | 7:17 pmWith revenues up 39% last quarter, it's far too soon to declare the death of Google. Even in techville, where things happen quickly, the multi-year string of double-digit higher revenues insures survival - at least for a while. However, there are a lot of problems at Google which indicate it is not a good long-term hold for investors. For traders there is probably money to be made, as this long-term chart indicates: Source: Yahoo Finance May 3, 2012 While there has been enormous volatility, Google has yet to return to its 2007 highs and struggles to climb out of the low $600/share price… -
CIO's - will you be relevant in 2017?
2 May 2012 | 4:38 pmMy latest bi-monthly column for CIO magazine came out in print this week. In it I challenge CIOs to think hard about what made the role successful in the 1970s - then in the 1990s - and how it is transitioning today. Far too many CIOs are locked in on old notions about what made them successful - usually controlling both hardware and software and forcing managers to behave in ways acceptable to IT. But today cloud computing, mobile devices and apps make it possible for many "users" to obviate the IT department entirely - skip the enterprise applications - and find an easy route for… -
WalMart's the Titanic, and Mexican Bribery is its Iceberg - JUMP SHIP
26 Apr 2012 | 8:45 pmWalMart's been accused of bribing officials in Mexico to grow its business. But by and large, few in America seem to care. The stock fell only modestly from its highs of last week, and today the stock recovered from the drop off to the lows of February. But WalMart is going to fail. WalMart is trying to defend and extend a horribly outdated industrial strategy. Sam Walton opened his original five and dime stores in the rural countryside, and competed just like small retailers had done for decades. But quickly he recognized that industrialization offered the opportunity to shift the… -
Sayonara Sony - How Industrial, MBA Management Killed a Great Company
20 Apr 2012 | 3:46 pmWho can forget what a great company Sony was, and the enormous impact it had on our lives? With its heritage, it is hard to believe that Sony hasn't made a profit in 4 consecutive years, just recently announced it will double its expected loss for this year to $6.4 billion, has only 15% of its capital left as equity (debt/equity ration of 5.67x) and is only worth 1/4 of its value 10 years ago! After World War II Sony was the company that took the transistor technology invented by Texas Instruments (TI) and made the popular, soon to become ubiquitous, transistor radio. Under co-founder…
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FOLDEN eMedia Blog
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The 16th Webby Awards
7 May 2012 | 4:56 pm(With this post a holiday break occurs until end of May.) Each year the Webby Awards elect the best and most exiting, the most innovative and promising services on the internet and meanwhile as well the best services on the mobile internet. The winners are already announce, the ceremony will take place on the 21th [...] -
Twitter News in Context to Websites
7 May 2012 | 2:03 pmTwitter often provides the fastest news and a broader view of occurences worldwide is an enrichment as well and at all. To get this experience on websites mon.ki has realized a great tool to associate Twitter news aka status updates and profiles to the context of website. This works by a browser addon, which is [...] -
Universal Address Books and Organizers
26 Apr 2012 | 6:06 pmCloud services and api interfaces are making it possible, the aggregation of various data at one place and accessible by any devices. This has started with social media aggregators delivering information about social networking activities to one single interface. What has started with the aggregation of social media activities now becomes available to address books [...] -
Google launches Google Drive
24 Apr 2012 | 4:33 pmGoogle has launched an already rumoured cloud storage service to host files and access them from anywhere. Being just launched the services already is equipped with a lot of features. By integrating Google Docs exemplarily the service enables to collaborate on documents and furthermore typical sharing functionality is integrated. Further features are expected to be [...] -
Sony has a Smartwatch
12 Apr 2012 | 3:08 pmA couple of smartwatches already exist on the market and now one of the largest manufacturers of home entertainment devices has launched one. It is Sony with the SmartWatch. What it is able to do is already viewable on its screen. The watch has social networking facilities, email and text messaging features as well as [...]
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ZenStorming
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Censoring the Censor – The Key to Increasing Creativity
12 May 2012 | 1:01 amPaying attention to what's being censored is key to increasing creativity. -
Is There a Will For The “Why?” – Uncovering Innovative Product Opportunities
4 May 2012 | 10:45 amOne simple question can uncover amazing product opportunities! Do you have the fortitude to see it through? -
What Makes Successful Products, Services and Brands?
27 Apr 2012 | 10:30 amInsights into designing innovation from Sartre and cake -
How Not to Brainstorm – Lessons from Suburgatory
20 Apr 2012 | 11:00 amBrainstorming is about more than just getting your friends together in a bathroom... -
Want to Uncover New Product Opportunities? Try Archaeology
14 Apr 2012 | 11:00 amInstead of looking to consumers for insights into new products, try the archaeological approach and focus on the product.
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Holiday Matinee - Love Your Work. Work Your Love.
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A tree that wants to smell like a car
15 May 2012 | 1:55 pmThere is plenty more where this clever illustration came from. Thank you, Jaco Haasbroek, for making my day! -
People really knew how to shake it in the 60s
15 May 2012 | 11:05 amWatch this music video from Denver’s We Like Monsters and tell me if it makes you as happy as it made me (and by that I mean multiple plays are necessary). It’s a catchy tune set to a Indian horror film in the 60s called Gumnaam. Everyone’s shakin’ it like there is no tomorrow and I like that attitude. If you dig the track, it’s called Le Tigre and available for free here. Click here to view the embedded video. -
I want every book on this online bookshelf
9 May 2012 | 2:45 pmI’ve been reading Brain Pickings regularly for only about two weeks and I’m already a huge fan. When I discovered that the blog curator’s recommended books are displayed on a neat online bookshelf, I got very excited and slightly frustrated because there are just too many books I want to read. If you’re a creative bibliophile like me and you’re looking for some good reading, I highly recommend that you browse these book pickings and purchase some for me. -
The T-Rex just can’t do a lot of things right
7 May 2012 | 2:21 pmHugh Murphy demonstrates that it’s not easy to be a T-Rex! His drawings show the dinosaur attempting to do the things that we take for granted every day. What other activities can you think of that a T-Rex can’t do? -
How To Be Creative # 10: Recognize You Are A Creative
2 May 2012 | 12:10 pmCreative people are wired differently. They’re often described as quirky or weird, and while that does seem to hold true, it’s not completely universal. There are a lot of creative people out there that aren’t comfortable labeling themselves that, but it’s pretty easy to tell by reactions to idle time. Does the slightest twinge of boredom send you fleeing to your smartphone in search of entertainment and instant gratification? Or does it spark your imagination? If letting your imagination reign free is something you enjoy, but you’re not doing it as often as…
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Inventor Spot - Inventions, Innovations, and Interesting Ideas for the Inventor in All of Us
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Chinese RoboCop Keeps An Electric Eye On Crime
15 May 2012 | 11:00 pmA robot policeman equipped with a CCTV cyclops eye and a navel-mounted panic button is the new face of crimefighting in China. Though fixed to the pavement and unable to chase feeling suspects, the ersatz RoboCop nonetheless has brought peace to the mean streets of Kunming. -
Apple To Replace Google Maps With C3 Tech In iOS 6
14 May 2012 | 5:00 amThough the default Google Maps software that comes loaded on Apple's iDevices is enough for most people, the company is still looking to replace it with advanced, 3D-accelerated goodness from C3 Technologies. -
Japan's First Police Cat Rats Out Criminals
13 May 2012 | 3:00 pmBeware the long paw of the law! Potential lawbreakers in Kyoto, Japan had better think twice before engaging in criminal acts because Iemon, Japan's first police cat, is on patrol... when he's not curled up asleep at the station, that is. -
iPhone 'Mug Case' Helps You Get A Grip On Your Calls
12 May 2012 | 10:34 amTired of being put on hold? Get a handle on your mobile conversations and hold ALL your calls, all the time, with the self-standing silicone Mug Case for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. -
To Hood Or Not To Hood, That's The $100 Billion Dollar Question?
12 May 2012 | 7:58 amWith Facebook heading into it's historic IPO this week, and valuations some have estimated as high as $100 billion, one's hard pressed to figure out how fashion (or lack thereof) figures into the equation. Even the NY Times' editorial gave ink to the question, "Who could have thought a hoodie could mean so much?" Of course, we're talking about the "Zuck" and his signature apparel.
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The Work In Colour Blog
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Share Some Absurdity
15 May 2012 | 2:58 amI came across this TED talk by a guy called Charlie Todd, who does improvisation experiences (think flash mob meets candid camera). He calls it 'The shared experience of absurdity', which is a wonderful name in itself. The talk is great, too...with some very funny footage of his improv experiences on New York subways, in shops and more. -
The Three Walt Disneys
9 May 2012 | 3:43 pmWalt Disney was undeniably a creative pioneer and equally importantly, he managed to turn his ideas into commercial as well as artistic successes. But did you know that there were actually three Walt Disneys, not just one? -
Big Is Not Always Better
2 May 2012 | 12:02 amGrand gestures are rather fun, adding drama and a sense of excitement to our lives. All or nothing, no guts no glory, putting your money where your mouth is...all these clichés speak to a way of doing things that has great appeal to many people.(I like them a lot, actually...) But in business or in our workplaces, it is often useful to do things somewhat differently. -
What's Your Inner Animal?
26 Apr 2012 | 4:54 pmThis will sound strange, but this week I have had several conversations about people's inner animals. (I told you it would sound strange..). It reminded me that many years ago, I did an experiment with a Rotary group, having them do a meditation to find their inner animal. Basically, I took them up a forest path and into a glade, and had them imagine an animal coming into the glade...what could it be? -
Baby Steps
17 Apr 2012 | 7:36 pmI've been working with a couple of clients lately on their unquestionable, but vastly over-used, talent for procrastination (one of these clients being, tragically, me...). It seems that for most of us it's a combination of giving too much power to the inner critic, a deep fear of failure or rejection or looking stupid or [insert your fave here] - and of course the overwhelm produced by the fact that we take on far more than any human being could achieve. Some of the stuff on my wishlist would take at least three lifetimes plus some serious superpowers. So, what to do?
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Creativity_Unbound
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Don Draper exhibits a creative director’s worst qualities
15 May 2012 | 3:31 pmDon leaves his copywriter's boards in the back of the cab and presents his own idea instead Anyone who’s been watching MadMen Season 5 can’t help but notice the deterioration of Don Draper’s creative skills. He hasn’t had a good idea in a year. The brilliance once demonstrated in the Kodak Carousel pitch have blurred into distant memory. And as he sits in his office noting that the agency’s latest reprints (remember reprints, with varnished borders?) all prominently feature the name of the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce’s newest star, writer Michael Ginsberg, not even a… -
My chapter in Advertisers at Work
7 May 2012 | 8:05 pmProfessor Tracy Tuten's new book, "Advertisers at Work" Any day now, Professor Tracy Tuten’s new book, Advertisers at Work should be released. Tracy conducted interviews with a host of professionals in the business, among them Mike Hughes, president of the Martin Agency; Luke Sullivan, chair of the advertising department at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD); Susan Credle, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett; and, surprise, me. Thought I would post some of my long interview (in which I shared way too much, fortunately none of it damning) here. To Tracy’s… -
The digital havoc continues; next target the CMO
4 May 2012 | 2:02 pmAirbnb leverages Craiglist customers to acquire more of its own using marketing techniques that no traditional CMO would ever imagine We all know that the road from the world of print and broadcast to a new place where digital, social and mobile reign, is littered with once prominent agencies and individuals who got left behind. Those of us who are still around have managed, in one way or another, to transform ourselves. We’ve learned new skills. Hired different kinds of talent. Changed how we work. Re-structured our work spaces. And learned to live in beta, knowing that whatever we… -
Why ad agencies should embrace A/B testing, too
26 Apr 2012 | 3:16 pmWith Otimizely, I could even A/B test this blog post. A few years ago, when Facebook engagement ads were just taking off, Kevin Colleran, at the time still working for the social media behemoth (he was employee number 10 and its first sales executive; now a venture capitalist, what else?) told me that the way to make your Facebook ads really effective was to give the network three or four versions and let Facebook test them in a real environment. That way Facebook could virtually guarantee the efficacy of your brand message. He mentioned that you’d be surprised what performed best. For… -
Women I admire, presented in a Springpad notebook
17 Apr 2012 | 6:22 pmA Springpad Notebook that includes images, links, books, video, playlists As part of its upcoming Women’s Leadership Forum, the Ad Club of Boston asked a group of us to write blog posts about women we admire. I could have written a traditional blog post about the many women who have in one way or another left lasting impressions on me. But since I’ve been working with my friends at Springpad, I thought it might be more fun to create my blog post in the form of a notebook. Take a look. Even in a single spring I can include video and links to playlists Typically I don’t use…
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SERVICE INNOVATION
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Feedback is important, but …..
10 May 2012 | 3:48 amIn our education system we are taught to focus on the weaknesses and the defects. That is the way we are being rated. The focus is on what is wrong, not on what is right. For example, you have 3 faults out of 10. We don’t say you have 7 good out of 10.The same negative focus is part of the performance review process. In one of my first formal reviews, my manager talked for 50 minutes about things, which could be improved. So, I thought that I would receive an insufficient rating and I did become scared. However, to my big surprise I did receive a ‘Usually Exceeds Requirements’ rating! I… -
Service for elderly people
24 Apr 2012 | 4:02 amLast week I didhelp my mother to buy a new car. In a few months she will become 80 years old, so the roles are reversing. I.e. I am helping my mother as she did help me when I was a young boy.She really needs that car as she is still doing quite a lot of volunteering work.She did go by herself to the dealer of her current car (Toyota). Apparently the salesperson had one car, which he wanted to sell to her, and immediately gave her a quote. He totally didn’t ask her what she wanted and –more important- why she wants a new car. So, she came to me with the quote. And I asked her the… -
Multidisciplinary collaboration is crucial
17 Apr 2012 | 2:52 amYesterday I did watch a documentary about urbanization. Besides the fact that by 2050 more than 50% of the world's population will live in cities, the most interesting part was that urbanization was considered from different perspectives. Technology (Siemens) provided a very interesting view on the infrastructure and control systems, parts of which are currently piloted in Masdar City. Ikea is also very innovative in the sense that they are building houses in Sweden and are setting up complete blocks of houses in London (LandProp). The mosts interesting perspective was form a physician… -
Research is an integral part of innovation
10 Apr 2012 | 2:50 amAlthough we mostly focus on generating ideas and executing the best ideas, we tend to forget research. We forget it because we are too busy, have no time and/or resources or are too focused on internal processes. We are already pretty satisfied if we manage to have discussions with (potential) customers.However, there is huge benefit in exploring available data on the internet for your specific area of innovation. It is quite simple to find relevant research from universities, writers, NGO's, Think-Tanks and other institutions. Just use Google search and also use the search function of social… -
Positive feedback increases innovation
3 Apr 2012 | 4:32 amThe culture of an organization is maybe the most important factor for the level of innovation. A traditional, hierarchical culture clearly doesn't stimulate grassroots ideas and the focus is on maintaing the status quo. More open and team based cultures are much more aligned with disruption via new ideas.It is crucial to continuously stimulate the employees (and customers) to come up with new ideas and suggestions. However, negative feedback will immediately results in less ideas which are being submitted. As a manager (and leader) you have to know the implications of the Losada Line.Based on…
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The Brainzooming Group | Strategy Consulting and Strategic Planning
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Creativity and the Arts are Frivolous? Don’t Say that to Trilby Jeeves
15 May 2012 | 4:50 amI’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember the specific of the first time I tweeted with Trilby Jeeves, but it was quite some time ago. I’m sure though, my first encounter with Trilby Jeeves on Twitter had to involve creativity, acting, and her workshops to help people better understand and use their creativity. Somewhere along the line, probably in a later night conversation, I asked her to do a guest blog post. Trilby claims it was 3 years ago! I’m not sure it was that long ago, but suffice it to say I was excited recently when we got the first Trilby Jeeves guest… -
Creating Cool Product Names for a New Product Idea – 8 Creative Thinking Questions
14 May 2012 | 4:50 amResponsible for creating cool product names for a new product idea? A Brainzooming blog email subscriber asked me last week if The Brainzooming Group had a ready-made creative thinking exercise on the blog for creating cool product names for a new product idea. I shared with her some variations on eight creative thinking questions in a previous post about developing creative job titles. If one reader has a question about a particular creative thinking exercise, it is probably a good sign other readers could use help on a similar question. Faux Product Names The creative thinking questions you… -
Capturing Big Ideas and Strategic Connections: Big Ideas in Higher Education Conference
11 May 2012 | 4:50 amI love Big Ideas. That’s why I’m so excited about attending and speaking next week at The Big Ideas in Higher Education Conference at Rutgers University. And in a clear departure from other higher education conference programs, even though The Big Ideas in Higher Education Conference (#BigIdeas12) is for educators, the TED-oriented and Inside the Actor’s Studio-style sessions will largely be delivered by non-educators. And having gone through the speaker bios in-depth to prepare my own session, there’s an incredible group of amazingly talented and accomplished people presenting at the… -
An Innovative Business Conference Audience Experience – 7 Vital Elements
10 May 2012 | 4:50 amI was talking with a long-time friend and Brainzooming blog reader last week about a business conference she had participated in recently. In the pre-event materials, the event was portrayed as an innovative business conference featuring TED-like talks. She was helping one of her company’s senior leaders develop his presentation based on these materials. To get ready, she had reached out to me, and we talked through what aspects should go into the talk’s design and structure to reflect TED sensibilities. After all the preparation to create a worthy TED-like talk, she was dumbfounded when… -
11 Strategic Questions for Disruptive Innovation in Markets
9 May 2012 | 4:50 amSome business conferences you attend are beneficial because of specific content presented. Other business conferences are beneficial because of all the creative ideas they trigger, irrespective of whether the ideas were actually discussed by presenters. The Innovation Summit presented by Kansas City Kansas Community College last week soundly delivered on triggering ideas for strategic questions for disruptive innovation in markets. In fact, the free, half-day Kansas City Kansas Community College Innovation Summit was a veritable bonanza since I walked away with a variety of ideas triggered by…
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Christa in New York
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Leap: Taking in the Sights of New Delhi
16 May 2012 | 2:00 amhttp://pinterest.com/juicyjubilee/ Bright and early, we’ll be out and about taking in all that New Delhi has to offer. New Delhi, has a circular Parliament House and an imposing Central Secretariat in two blocks, which stand at the approaches to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the residence of the President of India. Delhi is today the political, economic and cultural capital of the world’s largest democracy and has also become one of the greatest tourist centers of the world. (from Wikipedia) New Delhi i/ˈnjuː dɛli/ is the capital city of India. As the national capital, New Delhi is the… -
Leap: We Are Making Our Way to Delhi
15 May 2012 | 2:00 amMosque in Old Delhi http://blog.travellerspoint.com/242/ After breakfast on board the houseboat, we disembark at Alleppey to transfer to Cochin Airport to board our flight to Delhi. Once there, we will be meeting with my dear friend, Abhilekh, who will be taking us out and about. Delhi, the capital of India has a fascinating history and a stimulating present. Delhi has been the seat of a power of a number of dynasties – the Rajputs, the Muslims invaders from the North, the Afghan dynasties followed by Tughlaqs, Sayyads, the Ladies and the Mughals, who continued the Imperial line, until… -
Leap: All Aboard! Our Houseboat Departs from Alleppey, “Venice of the East”
14 May 2012 | 2:00 amhttp://tourplaceofindia.blogspot.com/2011/02/alleppey-kerala.html After breakfast in Munnar, we will depart to Alleppey and board our Backwater Houseboat. After lunch on board, we’ll be cruising through Vembanad Lake enroute to visit churches, temple, paddy fields, jungle waterways, narrow lanes, etc. We’ll be having dinner on the boat and overnighting on board. Alappuzha or Alleppey is famous for its boat races, houseboats, coir products, fish and lakes. Alappuzha remains prominent on the tourist trial of Kerela as one of the major centers for backwater boat trips. Alleppey… -
Leap: Traveling to Munnar
13 May 2012 | 2:00 amhttp://pinterest.com/pauleneh/ After spending the morning visiting a Jewish Synagogue in Cochin, we will drive to Munnar. Known as Kashmir of South India, is snuggled into the lap of such an alluring terrain, Munnar is one of the most beautiful hill stations in Kerala. Munnar – an idyllic destination is located at an altitude of 6000 feet above sea level. Munnar derives its name from the Tamil word ‘munnu’ meaning “three” and ‘aar’ means “River”- spelled as Munnar on combining. The town by itself has little other than the tea plantations and a colonial era CSI Christ… -
Leap: India, I’m So Happy to Meet You!
12 May 2012 | 2:00 amhttp://shruti914.wordpress.com/category/kathakali/ Today I’m arriving in Cochin (sometimes referred to as Kochi.) Originally built by the Portuguese, it has a natural harbour with lagoons and canals and fishing hamlets. One of the three biggest ports on the West Coast, it is also an industrially developed area. The coir industry is of special importance. An excursion by boat through the backwaters is enchanting and we’ll be taking that up in just a few days. Cochin sightseeing include visit Jew Town, Chinese Fishing nets, St.Francis Church, Fort Kochi, The Dutch cemetery,…
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Game Changer
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What’s the best way to manage creative personalities at work?
14 May 2012 | 7:09 amFight with them. Not against them. That’s how. These days, we are in serious need of creative firepower. And for all the startup incubators that are popping up everywhere, there still seems like creativity is a scarce resource. For me, creative personalities are passionate people who are not happy with the way things are and that not afraid to stir the pot. And, if your culture’s values are based on combining imagination with execution excellence, you can’t expect creatives to change their ways. But what do you do if you have a creative friendly culture with immense creative… -
Innovation must reads of the week: Collaboration and innovation go hand-in-hand
13 May 2012 | 8:25 amFour Strategies for Staying Relevant by Follow @davidaaker Why We Can’t See What’s Right in Front of Us by Follow @harvardbiz The Creative Benefits Of Exploring The Uncomfortable by Follow @fastcocreate Want to innovate? Develop top leaders – CBS News Five Factors that drive the need for more innovation by Follow @ovoinnovation If you like these links, check out all the earlier “Innovation Must Reads of the Week“. And don’t forget to Follow @jorgebarba Related posts: Innovation must reads of the week: Do companies require radical innovations to woo… -
8 Lessons from Startup Weekend Tijuana
10 May 2012 | 2:41 pmStartup Weekend Tijuana is in the books. This past weekend was fast paced and intense. Exciting. Almost 50 participants, 25 ideas, 8 projects and 3 winners. Two of them left the event with seed capital. Here are the projects: WachaBache. A mobile application to crowdsource the reporting of streets that have holes and make driving a miserable experience. Indueducation. A web service that offers leading indicators to help the government with academic decision making. Eventum. A community for public social events. Cruzas. A mobile application that shows indicators of when it is a good time to… -
Innovation must reads of the week: Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate
6 May 2012 | 7:38 am3 Lenses For Innovation by @wimrampen How Enemies Power Innovation – Fast Company Why Innovation Dies by @sgblank Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate – HBR Uncommon Sense: How to Turn Distinctive Beliefs Into Action – MIT Sloan Management Review Related posts: Innovation posts of the week: Fire all the managers Innovation must reads of the week: Achieving Successful Strategic Transformation Innovation posts of the week: The Age of the Consumer-Innovator -
What if you looked for “what not to do” ideas?
3 May 2012 | 6:59 amWe LOVE to follow in the footsteps of other people who have been there and done that. It’s easier. It’s practical. We get this type of information from books and/or biographers. But what book authors and biographers rarely mention, is all the mistakes that lead that specific person or company to all their successes. Nobody likes to make mistakes, and nobody likes to talk about them. Yet, that is where all the “lessons of success” are. Of course, looking at the bright spots is a good idea. I’m not arguing that. But how about also looking at the reversal. More than…
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Creativity at Work Blog
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The Global Creativity Gap
23 Apr 2012 | 5:27 pmThe Global Creativity Gap Universal Concern that Creativity is Suffering at Work and School Adobe has just published a global study on creativity. The research shows 8 in 10 people feel that... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Sanjay Gupta taps into both sides of his brain
18 Apr 2012 | 2:27 pmSanjay Gupta taps into both sides of his brain Sarah Hamsen has written an inspiring interview with Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and a medical reporter for CNN, about his life and work. He writes a... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
How do you sell creativity at work and get people on board?
12 Apr 2012 | 6:34 pmHow do you sell creativity at work and get people on board? Creativity at Work Newsletter April 2012 In this issue: How do you sell creativity at work? Upcoming workshops Terra Parzival A critique of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Is the New Science of Creativity Really Science?
12 Apr 2012 | 5:15 pmIs the New Science of Creativity Really Science? Imagine: How Creativity Works Jonah Lehrer has a gift for transforming the complexities of science into compelling stories. His latest book explores... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Iain McGilchrist on the Divided Brain
9 Apr 2012 | 5:30 pmIain McGilchrist on the Divided Brain In this mile-a-minute RSA animation, Iain McGilchrist describes the real differences between the left and right hemispheres of the human brain. It’s not... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Steve Hill's Gritty Soul Blog
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4 Tips That Have Elevated My Fitness
24 Apr 2012 | 8:52 pmOnce upon a time… Physical activity has always been a part of my life. Like most kids, I played plenty of sports growing up and my parents encouraged me to be active on a regular basis. However, it wasn’t until [...] -
Skateboarding Across Indiana
18 Apr 2012 | 7:43 pmRegrettably, I haven’t done a whole lot of blogging recently. Of course there are a million and one excuses under the sun as to why that might be, but excuses don’t really hold a whole lot of water with most [...] -
“Spring” into Adventure
7 Mar 2012 | 9:16 pmIt seems like it was yesterday when I was talking about the end of daylight savings time for the year and getting ready for the winter ahead. Yet, I find myself just a few months later with the start of [...] -
LED Snowboarding
21 Feb 2012 | 9:07 pmSometimes you’ll see a video that is just too amazing not to share. I’m certainly guilty of passing along my fair share of interesting clips through this site. Since I’ve been on a bit of a video sharing kick recently, [...] -
The Most Ridiculous Rope Swing, Ever
19 Feb 2012 | 4:53 pmIn the world of adventure sports, there are basically two people: those that like adventure sports and those that love them. The people who like them still live relatively quiet lives and take in an occasional ski trip or backpacking [...]
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The Fertile Unknown
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Creativity in Work Program for Work That Rocks
25 Apr 2012 | 12:25 pmTime for my annual Creativity in Work Program. If you are in the DC area and this resonates, join us! :-) Creativity in Work Professional and Personal Development ProgramMay - June 2012 Use the Creative Resources within you to inform new Work Directions, Strategies, Innovations, Projects, Products or Services * Discover, design, and develop what's next in your work * Cultivate your creativity and self-awareness * Focus your creative intelligence for practical results * Learn to use uncertainty as a productive business resource * Develop a solid,… -
Cultivating Your Creatively Unique Calling - An Intentional Practice
7 Feb 2012 | 7:16 amOnce you connect with your calling, the question isn't IF it can be done - it's an ongoing, "What's mine to do (no more, no less) to serve it?" Asking if it can be done takes you out of the present and into a place of guessing, hoping and trying to 'figure it out.' It is binary. It takes you out of direct experience.Listen into what is yours to doInstead, asking what's yours to do is an intentional practice that keeps you in the present, moment by moment, where you can unfold and cultivate it as it emerges. No more = not taking on more than is… -
CCN 2/8: Turn Boring Meetings into Fun Discovery Sessions
6 Feb 2012 | 2:22 pmAfter taking a haitus for the Creativity in Business conference last year, the Capitol Creativity Network is back in action with regular monthly meetings in 2012! If you are, or will be, in the DC metro area this coming Wednesday night, feel free to join us from from 7:00-9:30pm at the Ceveland Park Club House. I'll be facilating a whole-brain session on turning mind-numbing meetings into mind-expanding creative discovery sessions. Hope to see you there! :-) Here's the write up: People can say, "I had better things to do. Same old, same old. I couldn't wait to get out of… -
Creativity Rocks Opposites
18 Jan 2012 | 6:42 amCreativity comes to life at intersections. It thrives on opposites. It engages paradox until something new emerges. This transfers to the design of projects, processes, workshops, teams, organizations, etc. If we design for space to accommodate opposites (just like nature does) we have a more creative system. This is part of a presentation I'm giving on the yin/yang of creative process: There's no end to what could be added. -
Diffusion of Adoption: Using the Creative Differences
12 Jan 2012 | 8:21 amBy now, most people have heard of the "Diffusion of Innovation" bell curve, first introduced by Everett Rogers in the 60s. I remember learning about in college, and it seems to still be a relevant model today. According to wikipedia: "Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of rural sociology, popularized the theory in his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations. He said diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels…
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Career Management and Workplace Culture Blog | TalentCulture.com
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#TChat Preview: Engage The Humans for Social HR Leadership
15 May 2012 | 12:13 pmThere’s a fun event tomorrow, Wed May 16th – A Live Social HR Camp being hosted from Vancouver, BC Canada and six other locales spread across four countries. It’s the first-ever SocialHRCamp, an un-conference aimed at helping HR professionals collaborate to determine what it takes to leverage and integrate social media within the workplace. Pretty cool stuff. Also, check out Hashcaster for the live tweets and of course your favorite Twitter client. I’m also excited to play hostess, speaker for our Boston, MA event that will take place the first week of December here at Google… -
Top Three Trends in the World of Work This Week
11 May 2012 | 11:51 amI’m a dot connector. It’s not much different than what I did with a pencil, in a pre-school activity. Instead of looking at tiny black circles, I look at information, and in place of lines, I draw conclusions. The end is still the bigger picture, and an “aha” moment. This week’s “Top Trends in the World of Work” are about recognizing the value of dots. Without them, we’d be booking roundtrip tickets to the drawing board. And travel these days can be very costly. … 1. Dotted Line We’re always referencing the “fine line” between things. It’s never really fine, is… -
#TChat Recap: The Quick and the Slow of the Multifaceted Brand
10 May 2012 | 9:45 amAttract quickly, hire slowly. That sentiment comes from Dave McClure, venture capitalist and founding partner at 500 Startups, an Internet start-up seed fund and incubator program in Mountain View, Calif. He was part of a panel discussion on recruiting at the War for Talent event this week, in San Francisco. For me, that phrase epitomizes how company brands are built and maintained, and how reciprocal the ebb and flow of concept to founding team to scaling a company truly are. What’s interesting is that most new jobs are created by start-ups, but most of the employed work for larger… -
#TChat Preview: Employers and Employees, Unite Your Brands!
9 May 2012 | 8:32 amEmployers are using social media to put a shine on brands. That’s no surprise, but what may be is the degree to which they’re letting employees’ voices be heard as part of that brand message — pretty exciting times for brands. Not all leader’s feel comfortable with the approach, however; we have witnessed many a branded message gone haywire and plenty of companies that wished they could have retracted tweets. It’s a strategy not without risk: Some individuals have strong personal brands, which may dilute the employer’s brand. Yet, since most employees have ready… -
Top Trends in the World of Work This Week
4 May 2012 | 10:48 amWhat if work could feel more like play? It’s what we endeavor to do each week at #TChat. It’s what I fundamentally subscribe to: “Play for Performance,” where having fun means you’re doing it right and well. What if work could feel more like play? It can, it should, and “play” time starts right now with this week’s Top Trends in the World of Work! 1. POWER PLAY In late February this year, Inc posted an article on qualities that make an employee remarkable. To date, it’s been shared 17k times on LinkedIn and generated 16k likes on Facebook. Pretty impressive right? I thought…
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New and Improved Innovation Blog Site
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How much structure is enough?
10 May 2012 | 2:00 pmSome structure is useful, too much structure can be debilitating. -
Did NASA spur Innovation?
3 May 2012 | 11:56 amDid the space race spur innovation? What do you think? We would love to hear your thoughts. -
Life and Creativity
24 Apr 2012 | 10:45 amYour brain is a pattern recognition and construction machine. One thing your brain still does better than anything else, including its nemesis, the computer, is recognize visual patterns. Your brain can connect objects and concepts that are unrelated. It will create a connection, and if that connection is useful it will add to it and build on it. How about these two FISH and SKYSCRAPER. Can you connect them? Of course you can, I bet you just did. If you drive a car, your brain has created a number of connections, like how you ease off the clutch and on... -
Raise your IQ with Praise First
1 Apr 2012 | 11:44 amSarah Thurber on the power of praise -
With chocolate to Harvard – creativity takes courage
28 Mar 2012 | 10:58 amIn our trainings we talk about the values of innovative thinkers. Meet Josef Zotter the founder of Zotter Schokoladen Manufaktur the maker of chocolate with a little bit different philosophy on how to manufacture and market his product.
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The Creators Project
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Build Your Own Waterproof, Solar-Powered Boombox [Instructables How-To]
15 May 2012 | 4:02 pmNeither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will stop the music. Cloudy skies, maybe. -
Picture This—Reinventing The Camera As A Social And Anti-Technological Object
15 May 2012 | 2:52 pmIf the future of any object is to be made social, then photography may not only be one of the early adopters to this space, but one that has endless potential. -
Generative Art Illuminates Jakarta On The Longest Media Facade In The World
15 May 2012 | 1:19 pmArtist Marius Watz designs the visuals for media facade agency Standard Vision. -
Sao Paulo Artist Weaves Digital Lace
15 May 2012 | 1:17 pmCristina Suzuki applies a software method to the tradition of chintz cloths. -
Sufi Plugins Infuse Ableton Live With The Sounds Of North Africa
15 May 2012 | 12:51 pmDJ /rupture unveils his line of Berber-inspired virtual instruments.
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The Rohan Aurora
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50+ New Open Classes for Summer & Fall 2012 [Free Full Courses]
19 Apr 2012 | 6:31 pmIts great to see Coursera in partnership with top universities – Princeton, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania for some phenomenal online courses. To see the new courses and sign up for free, please go to http://coursera.org/. A broad range of topics like Computer Science, Medicine, Biology, the Humanities, Social Sciences, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Finance, and many others are about to launch! So, which courses are you planning to sign-up? List of all courses offered in Summer & Spring 2012 You may also love to have a look at Udacity… -
Top 5 Awesome Things About Nike Training Club & USC Fuel Duel
18 Apr 2012 | 11:27 pmJust came from an amazing workout session, probably the one of the best DJ exercise session I’ve ever had. Firstly, kudos to Nike Training Club USC, Well-U Week and USC Recreational Sports for sharing this awesome event. Being one of the first few excited fitness sprees, I was on time at 5.30, when the Nike Training club booth was set up at the entrance of the USC Lyon Center Main Gym. Here we go… #5 USC Fuel Duel Green Screen Photo Booth I know, photo booths are common. But, I believe this was the cool too. We were also given an instant photo print as well as… -
Why 2% of the Gmail Users Faced Temporary Error (500) on 4/17?
17 Apr 2012 | 12:55 pmOkay, I woke up at 9.00 am PDT. Gmail was working fine. At exactly 9.21 am PDT, after seeing the temporary error (500) message, I got furious and tweeted. And, realized that I am not the only one through http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/. By the way, this rant went somewhat viral with 1000+ clicks. After tweeting to Sarah Price, Community Manager for Gmail. She shared this updated link of Google’s App Status Dashboard. Very rarely, you see Gmail down? But, it just happened today. Next time, the easiest way to tell that a site is down only for you or the rest of internet users. Visit… -
How to Perform Transcranial DC Stimulation (tDCS) at Home?
16 Apr 2012 | 5:58 pmTranscranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neurostimulation technique which uses constant, low current (less than 2 mA) delivered directly to the brain via electrodes. Currently, tDCS is used as therapy for certain psychological disorders, these days it is one of the hot topic among the bioethicists debating on using it to enhance learning in children. Technology Review article shared an interesting post to test tDCS at home. The idea is pretty simple, shoving 20-minute application of electrical current to your brain. The long-term effects of tDCS seems to be unknown, and if you… -
New Brain Implant Software Accuately Detects Epilepsy Seizures
6 Apr 2012 | 3:52 pmThere is always a concern about the false alarms and unneeded electrical jolts in the imminent epileptic seizures. Seizures cannot be treated with medication in about a ~17 million epilepsy patients worldwide. Usually a short pulse of electricity is sent to the brain to stamp out a seizure just as it begins to erupt, the drawback is that brain implants trigger too many false alarms. A new software by Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Sridevi V. Sarma and her group passed the test on real-time brain activity recordings collected from four patients with drug-resistant epilepsy who…
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PBJ Breaktime!
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Introducing Metal Sniffer for Android
2 May 2012 | 6:05 pmSo I made my first Android app, an full-fledged magnetic field sensor aka metal detector. It’s nothing too spectacular, but I thought you guys might find it useful. This app detects nearby electromagnetic fields using the phone’s built-in magnetometer/compass. Depending on your phone, you can use it to detect metals up to 15cm away, and magnets from far, far away! Note that household equipment like TVs, and computers or even your phone case can affect readings. How to use this app? Very simple, just move the app around and read the measurements, if the magnetic field readings go… -
Set the resolution of a VNC sessions in Linux
26 Apr 2012 | 8:18 pmTime for another Linux related guide, this trick is probably useful to those running “headless” linux boxes, or without a screen, so the only way to access them is using remote control tools like ssh or vnc. One problem that I have encountered while setting up one of these computers to use as a server is that the VNC sessions were forced into the mere resolution of 1024×768, with no way to change it. I tried a few tricks on the Internet, but none of them seemed to do anything. At last I figured that I have to manually edit the xorg.conf file in order to force the system into… -
Pros and Cons of Using WordPress Multisite
10 Mar 2012 | 3:37 pmWordPress Multisite is an option that allows blog owners and site administrators to run multiple sites without having to upload a new WordPress configuration for each site. This option was formerly made available through WordPress Multi-User. Now developers can configure the WordPress 3.0 installation to allow for multi-site use. There are many benefits and disadvantages to doing so, based on your experience and needs. Here’s a breakdown of some of the pros and cons of WordPress Multisite: Pros Easy one-stop management. Once you configure the multi-site installation, you can manage all… -
How to Create a Storage Warehouse
26 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmCreating a storage warehouse may seem easy on the surface but there is a great deal to consider. Safety aspects, cost and efficiency all need to be considered so that you can make your warehouse work to its full potential for you. This article will discuss some of the key elements that you will need to consider when setting up a warehouse. Firstly, you will need to decide what form of storage you wish to utilise. There are numerous different methods and each of them has both benefits and disadvantages. Block Stacking is the cheapest and most easily established method of storing blocks. The… -
One API to Rule Them All
25 Feb 2012 | 4:46 pmWhile HTML5 is not a single API or even a single standard, but rather a grouping and umbrella for several different standards to co-exist under, the developers are looking toward these open web standards as the future. Developers have moved off of the desktop bandwagon to where the action is, on the web and mobile platforms. With the hope and promise of a better experience via apps stores, the developer community is starting to look at the desktop again, but do not want to go back to old coding standards. Writing a web app and then trying to take that to the various desktops with each having…
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tomorrowstrends
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Duis elementum urna vitae mauris ultricies non
28 Apr 2012 | 1:37 pmTraesent vitae neque dolor. Donec tempor rhoncus dignissim. Fusce pharetra nulla at lectus suscipit ullamcorper. Suspendisse et eros quis arcu ornare scelerisque. Suspendisse placerat mauris a sapien tristique vestibulum. Nunc aliquet nisi sed mi accumsan auctor. Aliquam gravida tellus eget tellus luctus commodo. Etiam augue metus, convallis vulputate varius nec, dapibus et ligula. Morbi varius, sem in adipiscing dapibus, lorem magna fringilla lorem, sit amet ultricies elit nisi id urna. Pellentesque in cursus leo. Cras nec ultricies sem. Suspendisse tincidunt hendrerit auctor. Integer porta… -
Aenean non orci at turpis mattis varius in nec odio
28 Apr 2012 | 1:36 pmTraesent vitae neque dolor. Donec tempor rhoncus dignissim. Fusce pharetra nulla at lectus suscipit ullamcorper. Suspendisse et eros quis arcu ornare scelerisque. Suspendisse placerat mauris a sapien tristique vestibulum. Nunc aliquet nisi sed mi accumsan auctor. Aliquam gravida tellus eget tellus luctus commodo. Etiam augue metus, convallis vulputate varius nec, dapibus et ligula. Morbi varius, sem in adipiscing dapibus, lorem magna fringilla lorem, sit amet ultricies elit nisi id urna. Pellentesque in cursus leo. Cras nec ultricies sem. Suspendisse tincidunt hendrerit auctor. Integer porta… -
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
28 Apr 2012 | 1:33 pmTraesent vitae neque dolor. Donec tempor rhoncus dignissim. Fusce pharetra nulla at lectus suscipit ullamcorper. Suspendisse et eros quis arcu ornare scelerisque. Suspendisse placerat mauris a sapien tristique vestibulum. Nunc aliquet nisi sed mi accumsan auctor. Aliquam gravida tellus eget tellus luctus commodo. Etiam augue metus, convallis vulputate varius nec, dapibus et ligula. Morbi varius, sem in adipiscing dapibus, lorem magna fringilla lorem, sit amet ultricies elit nisi id urna. Pellentesque in cursus leo. Cras nec ultricies sem. Suspendisse tincidunt hendrerit auctor. Integer porta… -
In pharetra purus sed augue aliquet
28 Apr 2012 | 1:31 pmTraesent vitae neque dolor. Donec tempor rhoncus dignissim. Fusce pharetra nulla at lectus suscipit ullamcorper. Suspendisse et eros quis arcu ornare scelerisque. Suspendisse placerat mauris a sapien tristique vestibulum. Nunc aliquet nisi sed mi accumsan auctor. Aliquam gravida tellus eget tellus luctus commodo. Etiam augue metus, convallis vulputate varius nec, dapibus et ligula. Morbi varius, sem in adipiscing dapibus, lorem magna fringilla lorem, sit amet ultricies elit nisi id urna. Pellentesque in cursus leo. Cras nec ultricies sem. Suspendisse tincidunt hendrerit auctor. Integer porta… -
Aliquam gravida tellus eget tellus
28 Apr 2012 | 1:28 pmraesent vitae neque dolor. Donec tempor rhoncus dignissim. Fusce pharetra nulla at lectus suscipit ullamcorper. Suspendisse et eros quis arcu ornare scelerisque. Suspendisse placerat mauris a sapien tristique vestibulum. Nunc aliquet nisi sed mi accumsan auctor. Aliquam gravida tellus eget tellus luctus commodo. Etiam augue metus, convallis vulputate varius nec, dapibus et ligula. Morbi varius, sem in adipiscing dapibus, lorem magna fringilla lorem, sit amet ultricies elit nisi id urna. Aenean at nisl dui, vel faucibus eros. Pellentesque pellentesque ipsum eu nulla feugiat rutrum. Sed sit…
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spruancegroup.com
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Is your innovation culture "all hat, no cattle?"
11 May 2012 | 5:15 amI’m always a bit suspect when I hear managers gush too much about their “innovation culture.” It’s not that I don’t believe that a strong emphasis on innovation is correct; it’s just that too much talk generally means not enough action. Or to put in in Texas lingo…”all hat, no cattle.” And by this, I mean that the communication is generally one-way. And senior executives are the worst offenders. They love to preach about innovation, but in many cases, don’t spend the time listening and responding to the many roadblocks that can get… -
The $454.63 cookbook reigns supreme
2 May 2012 | 5:15 amInteresting article by Katy McLaughlin in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal about the surprising sales success of what appears to be the most expensive cookbook on the market. The 2,400 page, 47-pound cookbook titled, Modern Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking was co-written by Nathan Myhrvoid, who before he became a foodie, was actually the first chief technology officer at Microsoft. The book’s list price is actually a whopping $625 but it can be “had” at Amazon for a cool $454.63. The book comes in five volumes. When the book was first released, critics panned its… -
Pizza price wars - round II
26 Apr 2012 | 5:30 am2 Bros Pizza: $6.00 per pie Bombay Fast Food/6 Ave. Pizza: $5.99 A few weeks ago, we highlighted a pizza price war (Pizza price war hits Manhattan) that was in full swing here in Manhattan. The battle was first highlighted in a New York Times article written by N.L. Kleinfield where various 'pizza-by-the-slice' purveyors located on Sixth Avenue between 37th and 39th Streets were engaged in a downward spiral when it came to pricing pizza by the slice. Here’s what the author had to say then: On Thursday evening a week ago… -
The New Lanchester Strategy revisited
18 Apr 2012 | 5:30 amCan a military strategy that traces it roots to the mathematical analysis of early air battles in World War I be applied to today’s fast and furious start-up world? The answer is “yes”. Even more surprising is that many of today’s top entrepreneurs actively embrace this strategy—the New Lanchester Strategy—in their battles to gain market share against some of the industry’s leading giants. The New Lanchester Strategy was developed by English-born Frederick W. Lanchester, an entrepreneur credited with building England’s first gasoline-powered… -
Pizza price war hits Manhattan
11 Apr 2012 | 5:30 amThere's a great article by N.L. Kleinfield that appeared in last week's New York Times highlighting a local price war right here in midtown Manhattan that has broken out among the various 'pizza-by-the-slice' purveyors located on Sixth Avenue between 37th and 39th Streets. Over the past few years, pizza has been sold by most establishments in that neighborhood for roughly $1.50 a slice. The food is certainly not gourmet, but pizza is pizza and when it’s sold by the slice, it’s easy to compare – like comparing “apples to apples” as the saying goes. All that…
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Thinking Tech | SmartPlanet
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How Amazon is expanding its infrastructure empire and why it matters
15 May 2012 | 7:12 pmThere's a reason 1% of all Internet traffic goes through Amazon servers, and this week the company has expanded its web services even further. -
City of Darkness: The most densely populated place on Earth
15 May 2012 | 6:08 amStunning photos reveal what life was like in Kowloon Walled City, an urban society without law, order or even infrastructure. -
Why IP video could signal the end of free broadcast TV
11 May 2012 | 9:30 amFree broadcast TV networks make a lot of their money from licensing fees, but does the model translate online? And, in the Internet age, are we willing to support free TV anymore? -
Volkswagen car goes 1,626 miles on a tank of gas
11 May 2012 | 7:00 amA couple uses hypermiling techniques to travel halfway across the country without having to refuel. -
Make your own reality with Metaio's augmented reality software
10 May 2012 | 5:00 amHow would you augment your reality? Metaio aims to find out with new AR software designed for the masses.
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Front End of Innovation Blog
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Live from Front End of Innovation 2012: Scott Mathews on Creating Valuable Innovation Portfolios
15 May 2012 | 6:05 pmHow is it possible to quantify concept value? One of the difficulties to consider in the financial evaluation of projects is to determine the financial feasibility and profitability of potential innovations. Mathews suggests that companies start moving from tactics to broader strategy. One way to start is by taking on a strategic innovation framework: 1) Strategic intent (What do you want to do? Grow the strategy throughout the innovation process, and then execute it) 2) Idea generation 3) Innovation portfolio 4) Project portfolio -- starts with a demonstrated technology and… -
Live from Front End of Innovation 2012: A.K. Pradeep on Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious
15 May 2012 | 4:58 pm"Consumers may not be able to tell you what they like, but they know it when they see it." -- A.K. Pradeep This was a fascinating talk about the possibilities of applying neuroscience to sales, product lifestyle, and innovation in the future. He proposes that neuroscience will be able to "innovate innovation," and leaves us with the hope that the field will catch up to, and exceed, his vision. At the root of neural measurement, neuroscientists are assessing three things second by second: -Attention[*4] -Emotion[*5] -Memory Retention[*6] For innovation to be effective, it must command… -
Live from Front End of Innovation 2012: Shauna Brummet on Innovation Across Business, Academia, and Community
15 May 2012 | 3:05 pmOne of the major challenges facing innovation today is the integration of stakeholders across business, academia, and the general population. Yet, there are a few strategies that can help link people from such disparate areas. Critically, it is necessary to understand and articulate what is needed, what is possible, and the path to market. It is a process that starts with idea generation and proceeds to rapid evaluation and prototype development that is specifically aimed at commercialization. There are four key aspects to the process: Identify market needs Develop… -
Live from Front End of Innovation 2012: Alfred Malouf and Diane Powell on Innovations for a Sustainable Future
15 May 2012 | 2:37 pm"If you look in the obvious place, you are not going to find an innovative solution." -- Alfred Malouf "Innovators: People with disruptive world-class ideas, technologies, or programs that show great promise in making tangible and impactful progress for society in...key...areas." -- Diane Powell, NASA The power of Grand Challenges, is that they involve outreach to both the technical community (e.g., research centers, suppliers) and the general public (e.g., government, NGOs) so as to create synergy between their diverse perspectives. These are the elements of a successful Grand Challenge:… -
Live from Front End of Innovation 2012: Colin Nelson on Optimizing the Creation of Breakthrough Innovation
15 May 2012 | 1:49 pm"There is no innovation without execution." Open Innovation (OI) helps harness the collective expertise of diverse employees, customer, and supplier groups, and then manages the insights, ideas, concepts and projects to deliver business value. The guidelines of OI can help solve the common innovation problems that we hear about on a daily basis: We need to look in new places We need more diversity, and to include non-experts (and this makes some people nervous) Information can come from anywhere, so we need to go beyond the team, beyond the department, and even beyond the enterprise.
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Innovation Leadership Network
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Culturematic by Grant McCracken Makes a Great Case for Experimenting
14 May 2012 | 6:35 amTweet Experiments are a critical innovation skill, and it’s one that you can use to build your Innovation Competence. A culture of experimentation is one of the elements that distinguishes highly innovative firms from those that arene’t quite as good at it. The best thing that I’ve run across recently on the importance of experimentation is Grant McCracken’s new book Culturematic: How Reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab, Julia Child, Fantasy Football . . . Will Help You Create and Execute Breakthrough Ideas. Here is how he defines a Culturematic: Eventually, I found an… -
Why You Should Care About Network Structure
13 May 2012 | 3:53 amTweet When carbon atoms connect, they most commonly form molecules built on rings of six atoms. The things that are built out of these six atom rings of carbon are amazingly diverse. Here are the structures of two of these things: graphite (A) and diamond (B): You can see the rings in both. Same material, same basic building block, very different materials. Why? Because of their structure. I ran across this example in Howard Rheingold’s new book Net Smart: How to Thrive Online.The book is great, and I’ll talk more about it soon. In the chapter on building network skills, Rheingold… -
Are You Solving a Puzzle or a Mystery?
10 May 2012 | 6:57 amTweet Innovation is all about coming up with new solutions to solve problems. But here’s an interesting question: is the problem that you’re trying to solve a puzzle or a mystery? The distinction was made by Gregory Treverton and highlighted by Malcolm Gladwell in a piece he wrote on Enron a few years ago. According to Treverton, a puzzle is a problem that can be solved if you have more information (or the right information). On the other hand, more information doesn’t help with a mystery, which is characterised by high levels of uncertainty, and the need for judgement. -
How to Improve Your Innovation Competence – Experiment!
9 May 2012 | 3:27 amTweet Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. I presented The Innovation Matrix at a conference last week. After the other three speakers in my session had given their talks (all excellent!), the first question we got threw me for a bit of a loop. The point that was raised was that the guy thought that everything that we had presented was very linear, and not very systems-oriented. This made me realise that I didn’t make one of the key points that… -
Nearly Great Innovators – The Innovation Matrix
5 May 2012 | 4:30 pmTweet Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. Potential Stars Some firms have a high level of Innovation Commitment, and they also have a reasonably high level of Innovation Competence. They have all of the processes and structures in place that need to be outstanding innovators, but they aren’t quite great. I call them Potential Stars. Characteristics These firms have everything in place that they need for innovation success – their Innovation…
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Creative Mind Institute Blog
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You may be hearing something called API. There is a fair chance...
7 May 2012 | 6:20 pmYou may be hearing something called API. There is a fair chance you will be hearing more and more about this open system for applications to connect and morph together. What is the big deal with API? Imagine every application on earth dropping it’s protective walls and commingling with any other application in the world. What might that create? here’s a great(simple) explanation of API -
New York Times Innovation Whiteboard
30 Apr 2012 | 4:56 pmNew York Times Innovation Whiteboard -
Manage your energy, not your time
1 Apr 2012 | 7:57 pmManage your energy, not your time: Great article from the harvard business review -
The Global Innovation 1000: How the Top Innovators Keep Winning
1 Apr 2012 | 7:48 pmBooz & Company’s annual study of the world’s biggest R&D spenders shows why highly innovative companies are able to consistently outperform. Their secret? They’re good at the right things, not at everything. -
One of the most beautiful videos I’ve seen in a while...
29 Mar 2012 | 1:30 pmOne of the most beautiful videos I’ve seen in a while shared from my friend Rick berg
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The Jazz of Innovation
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...so what about Change?
7 May 2012 | 7:23 amBy Ian Smith There are as many definitions of innovation as there are books, blogs & experts! The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines innovation as ‘bringing in novelties, making changes in…’ while Webster’s Dictionary defines it as ‘making changes by bringing in something new’. The definition that I like the most, at least for the corporate world, happens to be the simplest… ’Innovation is profiting from change’. Whatever definition you prefer there is no doubt that change is THE driver of innovation… so what about change? -
Now is the time for all Innovators to come to the aid of their company!
23 Apr 2012 | 8:54 amBy Ron Shulkin I might subtitle this: Doing something about Innovation is in the news. If you’ll pardon the co-opting of the title to suit my purposes, let me just simply say there has been a flurry of surveys and thinkers getting on board a message I’ve been pushing for quite a while. It has three parts: Companies must embrace Innovation. Organizations need to pay it more than just lip service, they have to take action. There are two parts to the action: Provide a framework for collaboration and encourage everyone to use it. OK, point One: Of course, easier said than… -
Everyone is trying to solve the innovation puzzle!
13 Mar 2012 | 4:03 amBy Ron Shulkin There is a hunger for breaking the innovation code Recently our partner Cloverleaf, a group of talented innovation consultants, and my company, CogniStreamer, put on a webinar. We all learned many things. Perhaps the most striking thing anyone attending learned was seeing just how many people registered and attended. The numbers were higher than any on line event I’ve been part of. Over 130 people registered and 59 people attended (and of those 59, 55 stayed until the end with the other four dropping during the Q&A session at the end). We held a similar event (with… -
Innovation - Nature or Nurture?
1 Mar 2012 | 5:01 amBy Ian Smith ‘Yes’, there’s broad consensus that a holistic approach (incorporating Direction/Intent, Execution/Delivery, Collaboration/KM & People/Organization) is the best way to innovate, and ‘No’, there’s broad agreement that there is no one way to drive innovation (bottom up, top down, a mixture etc – it all depends on the company) but one interesting question remains….can every company innovate successfully? Is Innovation based on ‘Nature’ or ‘Nurture’? Essentially, is an enterprises ability to innovate based… -
When your company embraces innovation it will become more profitable!
28 Feb 2012 | 10:25 amBy Ron Shulkin When your company embraces innovation it will also cut costs, your quality will improve, and it will be a safer work environment. One Keystone Decision (like embracing innovation as a corporate mandate) can effect every other part of your organization. A commitment to Innovation can turn into all sorts of successes everywhere. That Keystone for Innovation is held up by all your other efforts, while providing stability for the corporate structure at the same time. There’s a Yiddish proverb that says, "With money in your pocket, you are wise and you are handsome and you…
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15inno
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@Lindegaard Offers 50% Off on Talks, Sessions and Consulting Work
15 May 2012 | 5:18 amI am about to put the finishing touches on my next book, Social Media for Corporate Innovators and Entrepreneurs: Add Power to Your Innovation Efforts, which is due this fall. This gives me more time to talks, sessions and consulting work, but since the lead-time for summer engagements is short, I want to give you an incentive if you want to engage me as an external source of inspiration for your innovation efforts. You get half price on my engagements in June and July! So let me know if you need an inspirational talk or a workshop in your company or if you need an assesment of the strenghts,… -
Why Do Companies Embrace Open Innovation?
13 May 2012 | 3:38 pmA few months ago, I met with the Sr. Director, Open Innovation at Lego. I asked him the above question. His response came fast and clear. “We have no choice”, he said and continued: “Our customers simply demand to be part of the development of our products and service and our employees tell us they can do more if we open up our innovation efforts. So in our view, we have no choice but to open up.” Let’s take a look at another compay, Psion. A few years ago, they were in deep trouble and the new CEO John Conoley quickly concluded that they needed to change their innovation methods in… -
The Future Winners of Innovation Get Social Media
11 May 2012 | 9:00 amAs I having an increasingly number of interactions with companies interested in learning more about how they can use social media for their innovation efforts, I am realizing that a specific discussion based on a few questions in particular get people thinking: Here is the first question I ask: How many important innovation partners do you have within your corporate umbrella (across your business units)? This typically ranges from 10 – 300 with the latter being huge international companies. Then I ask a few other questions: What would happen if these partners were able to interact with each… -
Why Networking is Important for Innovation
11 May 2012 | 6:40 amThis is an excerpt from my latest book, Making Open Innovation Work. CLICK THIS LINK FOR A FREE DOWNLOAD! The reason for creating a networking culture is obvious once you look at the current and future direction of innovation. Let’s start by disposing of the myth of the lone genius – the Thomas Edisons and the Alexander Graham Bells of yesteryear – arriving at a breakthrough innovation on his/her own. This model wasn’t true then, and even if it were, it simply does not hold true in today’s complex business organizations. Technology and the challenges that must be solved have… -
When Good Laughs Inspire Innovation
8 May 2012 | 3:58 amHave you ever thought that bringing people together on innovation is like hearding cats? Cheryl Perkins, founder of InnovationEdge made me laugh when she included this video in a presentation she gave a few years ago. Click here to view the embedded video. How do we change people’s behaviour? Thefuntheory.com is a site that is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.
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I Geek for Creativity
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How to Dress Your Baby Like a Geek
29 Apr 2012 | 5:29 pmvia mashable.com Enough said. @TweetRightBrain Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Creative Ad: TNT in Belgium (on YouTube)
12 Apr 2012 | 2:48 pmvia youtube.com Creativity is the new virus. It seems that every brand, product or business is watching YouTube to stimulate innovative thinking. "If they can do it, then why can't I." Advertising is too expensive to take major risks with innovative ideas/strategies. Thus, run it up the social media flagpole and see who salutes. @TweetRightBrain Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Sir Ken Robinson - Defining Creativity - YouTube
10 Apr 2012 | 7:38 pmvia youtube.com Imagine yourself creative. Then do it. @TweetRightBrain Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Creativity Quote: Wisdom of Woodrow Wilson
7 Apr 2012 | 11:49 pmPermalink | Leave a comment » -
The Impact of Kickstarter, Creative Commons & Creators Project | Off Book | PBS - YouTube
7 Apr 2012 | 12:00 amvia youtube.com The internet provides any artist the opportunity to share their creativity with the world wide web. Whether you think your creative output is good or not so good, you should use the internet (blogs and other social media) to get it out there, receive feedback, and hopefully find an audience. @TweetRightBrain Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Technovation Entrepreneur Journal
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1,000 mph Car to Run On Scottish Wheels
26 Apr 2012 | 6:41 am(Glasgow, Scotland) Today, at Holyrood, BLOODHOUND SSC’s driver Andy Green and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers announced that Glasgow firm Castle Precision Engineering Ltd is to produce the wheels for the 1,000 mph world Land Speed Record car. The 90kg, 900mm diameter solid aluminium wheels will spin up to 177 times per second at top speed, withstanding a load of 50,000 radial G at the rim as the 7.5 tonne jet and rocket powered car blasts across its South African desert racetrack in 2013 and 2014. The fastest wheels in the history of the wheel, they are the product of a three year… -
MCNC to host Twitter Town Hall event on April 27
26 Apr 2012 | 6:37 am(Research Triangle Park, N.C.) The first phase of the $144 million Golden LEAF Rural Broadband Initiative (GLRBI) is complete. To celebrate this achievement, MCNC announced today that it will host its first online Twitter Town Hall on Friday, April 27, from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. EDT, and will answer questions about this historic project and the expansion of broadband connectivity in North Carolina. The live event will be available at www.mcnc.org/btop/townhall. You can participate in the conversation in three ways: Watch the event live at www.mcnc.org/btop/townhall, follow live Tweets from… -
CommScope’s Wessels Receives Distinguished Career Award from WCMA
26 Apr 2012 | 6:35 am(Hickory, N.C.) Rob Wessels, vice president, Cable Research and Development, CommScope, Inc., was one of eight recipients of the Wire and Cable Manufacturers’ Alliance’s (WCMA) 2012 Distinguished Career Award. The award was presented to Wessels during the 28th Annual Awards Dinner and Investiture Ceremony on Saturday, April 21, 2012 in Hartford, Conn., at the Connecticut Convention Center. The WCMA’s board of directors selects the new yearly recipients from those of strong character and creditability who have made significant commercial or technical contributions over a minimum 25-year… -
Compugen Announces Initial Validation Results for Two Novel Immunomodulatory Proteins
24 Apr 2012 | 6:22 am(Tel Aviv, Israel) Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) reported the initial validation of two additional therapeutic product candidates, CGEN-15031 and CGEN-15051, in animal models of autoimmune diseases. These two novel molecules are soluble proteins based on two B7/CD28-like proteins discovered by Compugen, with each fusion protein combining the extracellular domain of one of the membrane proteins and an Fc antibody fragment. The results being announced today relate to the recently completed evaluation of the potential therapeutic activity of CGEN-15031 in an animal disease model of multiple… -
FDA Defends Post-Approval Monitoring of Drugs
24 Apr 2012 | 6:20 am(Washington, D.C.) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Saturday it now spends as much effort and resources on surveilling a drug after it is approved as it does in the pre-approval process. The FDA was responding to critics who say the agency is toothless when it comes to tracking the safety of drugs already on the market, when industry funds that supported pre-approval reviews tend to dry up. “We think we’ve really balanced this,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told reporters attending the Association of…
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Paul4innovating's Blog
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Interpreting the Strategic Discussion for Innovation
7 May 2012 | 6:26 amThe struggle for innovation alignment is one of those real challenging issues that are seemingly very hard to resolve, or so it seems. I’m not setting out a comprehensive solution here, well not in this blog, of the suggested ways to address this strategic/innovation alignment issue, as that is far more complex. All I will offer at this point of time is this alignment concern is becoming increasingly top of my mind. Constructing an innovation conversation framework What I am offering here is an innovation conversation framework, on how we can approach different strategic value propositions,… -
The essential innovation vision
2 May 2012 | 4:47 amIn a recent leadership study on innovation by Capgemini Consulting, one of the studies top line concerns was the lack of a well-articulated innovation strategy, and then beyond this, a lack of organizational understanding of the linkages required. It is amazing how many organizations lack a clear innovation vision and an explicit set of statements from the Chief Executive or their designated C-Level Officer on innovation. One great visual paints a thousand words This visual I came across some years back, and for me, it is outstanding in providing the feedback loops that go into developing the… -
The four framing technique for critical innovation questions
30 Apr 2012 | 11:09 amOften we do get a little muddled on our framing assessments for any innovation activity we are considering, and we then often don’t ask the appropriate questions at the right time. I think there is a neat four box approach to this which hopefully you might see has value to your rating and judgements of the innovation opportunity. The four framing criteria Formulation Principles Formulation Risks Execution Principles Execution Risks So the need is to ask critical questions in given boxes of enquiry. The four frame methodology for asking the right questions for new innovation activity… -
Putting the “R” into Innovation
27 Apr 2012 | 4:52 amShellfish poisoning, have you ever suffered from it? There is rule that when there is not a “R” in the month you should be more careful on eating clams, oysters, mussels or scallops. Today with more commercial harvesting that risk or rule has been greatly reduced. I gather in the months of May, June, July and August- the northern hemospheres (usually) warmer months- there is higher potential where algal blooms and also in European climate, some shellfish are less palatable as oysters, for example, are spawning at this time. This raises the risk that can spread toxins and lead to a… -
Linking innovation context to the process
23 Apr 2012 | 6:23 amTime passes extremely quickly, particularly when you enjoy yourself, or so it seems for me. I was surprised, going through some of my past blogs, the time between related entries on the need for having in place a sustaining competitive advantage framework on innovation, has been longer than they it should have been. This blog is the third entry on this subject. Always, always and always do I see organizations struggle to align themselves for their innovation activity, why is this? Either alignment of innovation into the strategy they are (assumedly) following or shaping innovation into the…
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affinnova.com
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Establishing Innovation Pipeline Management in a Global System
15 May 2012 | 2:33 pmJohn Hodgson, direct of Innovation Pipeline Management at The Coca-Cola Company, shared his views on balancing multiple innovation needs at the Portfolio Optimization Summit at the Front End of Innovation today in Orlando. “You’re listening to someone who has works for a company that has made the same product for 120 years, and you’re turning to me for portfolio optimization advice?” he joked. While best known for its iconic product, John pointed out that the company has: 15 “billion dollar” brands 500 brands worldwide 3,500 products in 206 countries… -
When Worlds Collide - Innovation Lessons
14 May 2012 | 7:00 amFrom the over 8,000 unique links shared on the Twitter #innovation community in the past few weeks, here are some happy collisions with innovation. TEDMED: Shaping Healthcare in the World, One Innovation at a Time – “If the future of health and medicine is important to you, and if shaping that future is something you want to do, then you belong at TEDMED.” An interview with Jay Walker, curator of TEDMED and acclaimed entrepreneur, sheds light on his dedication and involvement to the synthesizing of technology, entertainment, design and medicine, otherwise known as TEDMED. -
My Favourite 4.8 Million Whiskies
17 Apr 2012 | 5:00 amI have 3 confessions to make. The first is my weakness for whisky. Single Malt Scotch preferably. I have tried more malts than I could name, and though I have my favourite brands, I do like trying new variants, or expressions as we aficionados like to say, from my preferred distilleries. But what if I could create a new whisky? What would I call it? What type of casks would I use for maturation? And for how long? How would I describe the nose, taste, and finish to my fellow connoisseurs? Having a large number of dimensions to think about is nothing new to people working in innovations. And so… -
Innovation, Easy as 1, 2, 3…
16 Apr 2012 | 5:00 amFrom the over 8,000 unique links shared on the Twitter #innovation community in the past three weeks, it appears that the “How-To”s of innovation can be as easy as following these tips and tricks. Three Rules for Innovation Teams – Harry West, CEO of Continuum, has some rules that will dramatically increase your team’s ability to innovate. Rule 1: Manage Creative Friction Creative friction, unlike normal uncomfortable friction, creates results. To ensure this type of friction occurs: Include the entire team and the client throughout the ideation process so that the… -
Mind Games for Innovators
2 Apr 2012 | 5:00 amHere are four of the most popular stories from the Twitter #innovation community in the past few weeks. How To Be Creative - Too often, people find creativity a challenge to be beat, a contest to win or a code to crack, because the expanse that the term creativity covers is so vast. But when people are not fighting against it, a moment of insight can occur. Author Jonah Lehrer reminds readers that creativity is not as intangible as it often seems to be, with these 10 Creativity Hacks: Surround yourself with the color blue- “it leads to more relaxed and associative thinking”. Get…
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The 90% Rule Network
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Most trusted brands start here.
9 May 2012 | 6:00 amBranding Insights One of a series by John Paulo Cardoso, Spyder Works Chief Creative Officer & Founder One of the guilty pleasures of being a branding professional is reading the annual parade of polls that list the world’s ‘most trusted brands’. If you’re a small or medium sized company, the chances are, you’re not on those lists. That’s why I tend to look at them for entertainment purposes only. But even though few companies will ever grow to the stature of Coca-Cola, Apple, Google or Mercedes Benz, there is a key lesson to be learned from ‘most trusted’ polling. And to… -
Innovations Aren’t Us
7 May 2012 | 8:46 amInnovation Insights One of a series by Ken Tencer, Spyder Works CEO The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “retail” as, “to sell in small quantities directly to the ultimate consumer.” The dictionary doesn’t stipulate the size of the store, or even that you need a physical store at all. And this something that many “big box” retailers missed. They were operating on the “If you build it they will come” mentality, which worked for a while – but now it’s not. Last year, sales and profits declined at Toys R Us; Best Buy is closing 50 stores following a fourth-quarter loss of… -
Where loyalty becomes a part of corporate DNA
2 May 2012 | 6:00 amBranding Insights One of a series by John Paulo Cardoso, Spyder Works Chief Creative Officer & Founder Are points and travel miles cards the best way to spur customer loyalty? Or is there a better way by embedding a loyalty program in operations? Shoppers Drug Mart is about to find out. It has launched a new Shoppers Drug Mart Everyday App to build a stickier user community from its customer base. The app invites shoppers to gain real value by displaying online coupons at checkout, refilling prescriptions anytime, and creating a shopping list that customers can carry with them on their… -
You Wouldn’t Change the Oil in Your Car Just Once a Year
30 Apr 2012 | 6:00 amInnovation Insights One of a series by Ken Tencer, Spyder Works CEO Innovation is about bringing ideas to market rather than letting them languish on a half-forgotten scratchpad. And innovation doesn’t necessarily mean invention. More often, it’s about acting on an opportunity you have already recognized, or adapting existing solutions for other markets or industries. How simple can innovation be? Consider these examples: Seeing the same thing in a different way Think of the publicity coup for Post’s Shreddies – and its 18-point gain in market share – when it reintroduced the… -
Complicating Simple
25 Apr 2012 | 6:00 amBranding Insights One of a series by John Paulo Cardoso, Spyder Works Chief Creative Officer & Founder Today, JCP’s biggest challenge is to differentiate their brand from Walmart and Target who offer a unique, well defined value proposition. For JCP, providing simple shopping solutions to the daily schedules and financial pressures of family life, strikes me as both a strong and relevant brand platform to build on. JC Penney CEO, Ron Johnson, has done this before — making retail success look simple during his time at Target and leading the wildly successful Apple store launch.
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Game Changer
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What’s the best way to manage creative personalities at work?
14 May 2012 | 7:09 amFight with them. Not against them. That’s how. These days, we are in serious need of creative firepower. And for all the startup incubators that are popping up everywhere, there still seems like creativity is a scarce resource. For me, creative personalities are passionate people who are not happy with the way things are and that not afraid to stir the pot. And, if your culture’s values are based on combining imagination with execution excellence, you can’t expect creatives to change their ways. But what do you do if you have a creative friendly culture with immense creative… -
Innovation must reads of the week: Collaboration and innovation go hand-in-hand
13 May 2012 | 8:25 amFour Strategies for Staying Relevant by Follow @davidaaker Why We Can’t See What’s Right in Front of Us by Follow @harvardbiz The Creative Benefits Of Exploring The Uncomfortable by Follow @fastcocreate Want to innovate? Develop top leaders – CBS News Five Factors that drive the need for more innovation by Follow @ovoinnovation If you like these links, check out all the earlier “Innovation Must Reads of the Week“. And don’t forget to Follow @jorgebarba Related posts: Innovation must reads of the week: Do companies require radical innovations to woo… -
8 Lessons from Startup Weekend Tijuana
10 May 2012 | 2:41 pmStartup Weekend Tijuana is in the books. This past weekend was fast paced and intense. Exciting. Almost 50 participants, 25 ideas, 8 projects and 3 winners. Two of them left the event with seed capital. Here are the projects: WachaBache. A mobile application to crowdsource the reporting of streets that have holes and make driving a miserable experience. Indueducation. A web service that offers leading indicators to help the government with academic decision making. Eventum. A community for public social events. Cruzas. A mobile application that shows indicators of when it is a good time to… -
Innovation must reads of the week: Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate
6 May 2012 | 7:38 am3 Lenses For Innovation by @wimrampen How Enemies Power Innovation – Fast Company Why Innovation Dies by @sgblank Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate – HBR Uncommon Sense: How to Turn Distinctive Beliefs Into Action – MIT Sloan Management Review Related posts: Innovation posts of the week: Fire all the managers Innovation must reads of the week: Achieving Successful Strategic Transformation Innovation posts of the week: The Age of the Consumer-Innovator -
What if you looked for “what not to do” ideas?
3 May 2012 | 6:59 amWe LOVE to follow in the footsteps of other people who have been there and done that. It’s easier. It’s practical. We get this type of information from books and/or biographers. But what book authors and biographers rarely mention, is all the mistakes that lead that specific person or company to all their successes. Nobody likes to make mistakes, and nobody likes to talk about them. Yet, that is where all the “lessons of success” are. Of course, looking at the bright spots is a good idea. I’m not arguing that. But how about also looking at the reversal. More than…
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Innovation Leadership Network
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Culturematic by Grant McCracken Makes a Great Case for Experimenting
14 May 2012 | 6:35 amTweet Experiments are a critical innovation skill, and it’s one that you can use to build your Innovation Competence. A culture of experimentation is one of the elements that distinguishes highly innovative firms from those that arene’t quite as good at it. The best thing that I’ve run across recently on the importance of experimentation is Grant McCracken’s new book Culturematic: How Reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab, Julia Child, Fantasy Football . . . Will Help You Create and Execute Breakthrough Ideas. Here is how he defines a Culturematic: Eventually, I found an… -
Why You Should Care About Network Structure
13 May 2012 | 3:53 amTweet When carbon atoms connect, they most commonly form molecules built on rings of six atoms. The things that are built out of these six atom rings of carbon are amazingly diverse. Here are the structures of two of these things: graphite (A) and diamond (B): You can see the rings in both. Same material, same basic building block, very different materials. Why? Because of their structure. I ran across this example in Howard Rheingold’s new book Net Smart: How to Thrive Online.The book is great, and I’ll talk more about it soon. In the chapter on building network skills, Rheingold… -
Are You Solving a Puzzle or a Mystery?
10 May 2012 | 6:57 amTweet Innovation is all about coming up with new solutions to solve problems. But here’s an interesting question: is the problem that you’re trying to solve a puzzle or a mystery? The distinction was made by Gregory Treverton and highlighted by Malcolm Gladwell in a piece he wrote on Enron a few years ago. According to Treverton, a puzzle is a problem that can be solved if you have more information (or the right information). On the other hand, more information doesn’t help with a mystery, which is characterised by high levels of uncertainty, and the need for judgement. -
How to Improve Your Innovation Competence – Experiment!
9 May 2012 | 3:27 amTweet Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. I presented The Innovation Matrix at a conference last week. After the other three speakers in my session had given their talks (all excellent!), the first question we got threw me for a bit of a loop. The point that was raised was that the guy thought that everything that we had presented was very linear, and not very systems-oriented. This made me realise that I didn’t make one of the key points that… -
Nearly Great Innovators – The Innovation Matrix
5 May 2012 | 4:30 pmTweet Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. Potential Stars Some firms have a high level of Innovation Commitment, and they also have a reasonably high level of Innovation Competence. They have all of the processes and structures in place that need to be outstanding innovators, but they aren’t quite great. I call them Potential Stars. Characteristics These firms have everything in place that they need for innovation success – their Innovation…
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URENIO Watch
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N.Y.C. has Fastest-Growing Tech Industry in U.S
13 May 2012 | 6:08 pmRiding a wave of start-ups, New York has emerged a national leader in fields that leverage the Internet and mobile technologies—a development that has provided a key economic boost and left the city well positioned for future tech growth. The study, “New Tech City,” conducted by the Center for an... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit URENIO website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
A European Architecture Model for Smart Grids
13 May 2012 | 5:07 pmWith the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM), Siemens Infrastructure & Cities has developed a method whereby power supply companies and industry can display aspects of smart grid systems. The model can be used for the visualization, validation, and configuration of smart grid projects, and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit URENIO website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Smart City Market Growing Fast
13 May 2012 | 4:21 pmAccording to a new market research report, the Smart City market is growing at an amazing pace, at 14.2% annual growth rate, and it is expected to reach more than 1$ trillion in a few years. The smart cities market value for the last year, 2011, is $526.3 billion, and it’s exact projected... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit URENIO website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Vienna: A City on the Cutting Edge of the “Smart City” Movement?
11 May 2012 | 4:16 am“Smart cities” is the urban buzz phrase of the last few years, and fans often turn to European cities for inspiration. From Amsterdam’s bike lanes to Copenhagen’s wind power, from Barcelona’s 22@ innovation district to Berlin’s dramatic redevelopment, European examples abound. But during a recent... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit URENIO website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Smarter Cities Center Opens in Russia
7 May 2012 | 7:20 amThe multinational giant IBM, one of the leading companies in the field of smart cities, along with the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (BMSTU) have announced the opening of a Smarter Cities Development and Education Center in Moscow, the first of its kind in Russia. The center is located... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit URENIO website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Innovation Management » Doug Collins
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Finding the Social in Social Business
15 May 2012 | 3:26 amPeople speak of creating the social business. What does that phrase mean? Do we sip lattes and play foosball in the break room? How does this magical entity differ from its anti-social brethren? In this article innovation architect Doug Collins explores the intent and possibilities that define the social business. -
Reimagining Media & Entertainment through Collaborative Innovation
1 May 2012 | 3:34 amEstablished firms in the media & entertainment space struggle to prosper in the Digital Age. New business models, enlivened by technology, erode traditional sources of profit. What possibilities for reimagining the business exist? In this article, innovation architect Doug Collins suggests one avenue to pursue: consider the benefits that come from learning how to convene a community on the critical question by embracing the practice of collaborative innovation. Apply the practice to help people work to their potential. -
A Blueprint for Effective Collaborative Innovation
17 Apr 2012 | 3:31 amBlueprints help people envision the future in a clear, practical way. What will the finished work look like? How will we create it? What possibilities does the new creation hold? In this article innovation architect Doug Collins introduces a blueprint for the practice of collaborative innovation. The blueprint helps people envision their organization as they transform it through the practice. -
Observation Grounds Collaborative Innovation
3 Apr 2012 | 3:04 amThe practice of collaborative innovation starts with observation: the discipline to see and grasp the nature of the work, the end user’s environment, or the world at large. In this article innovation architect Doug Collins explores how people who lead their organization’s collaborative innovation practice can reinforce community members’ observational skills. -
Opening the Practice of Collaborative Innovation to the End User
13 Mar 2012 | 7:44 amEngaging end users in co-creation deepens the bonds between the organization and them. The activity can deliver economic value to all parties involved. In this article innovation architect Doug Collins highlights the critical questions that campaign teams will want to address when they pursue externally focused collaboration.
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Linda Bernardi - DISRUPT | INNOVATE | LEAD
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Intimidation: The Tactics of the Weak!
14 May 2012 | 3:48 pmFriends, Without a doubt people that are secure in their lives and positions, don’t need to intimidate, right? In working with great teams across the world, I run into this topic a lot. Power being obtained and maintained by intimidation. That is wrong and unnecessary. The strongest and most influential individuals don’t intimidate. Intimidation is [...] -
Provocateur/Disruptor…Right On!
11 Apr 2012 | 10:00 amI don’t think I have ever enjoyed any of my job titles as much as I have when I was referred to as a change agent, provocateur and disruptor. More than anything it meant that there was room for change and disruption. It also allows us to have the right dialog, not about how things [...] -
Tech Conferences Should Not Be Just for Vendors… Let’s Change the Game!
10 Apr 2012 | 10:00 amEach year I go to a bunch of tech conferences around the world. The pattern is evolving and I wanted to brainstorm with you. It used to be that tech conferences were where customers went to hear about what is new, learn about innovation and network with new ideas, new people, new possibilities. Today, the [...] -
Loyalty Can Blind Leaders, Why?!
9 Apr 2012 | 12:06 pmHello folks, I would love to hear your thoughts regarding the following: We all know there are times that our loyalty to our staff and those we have worked with for a long time can blind our judgment. At the extreme, this can have a devastating impact on our leadership capacity and how we run [...] -
Evolving from Delivery to Growth. Ideation, Innovation, Marketable Innovation
1 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amOne of the areas where I spend a lot of time on with my clients (and I am very passionate about) is how do we enable innovation in a large company? Large enterprises have massive pools of technical talent, have clients, and a global market reach. So why are we not seeing more innovation from [...]
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EYES IN
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Electrolux Hosts Festival de Cannes Gala Dinner
16 May 2012 | 12:11 amThe gala dinner experience at Film Festival de Cannes demands chefs that can achieve the highest possible standards -
From Book to Film: Half of a Yellow Sun
16 May 2012 | 12:10 amHALF OF A YELLOW SUN is an epic love story -
Boeing 787 Dreamliner Wins Innovation Prize
16 May 2012 | 12:09 amMade from composite materials, the Dreamliner is the first mid-size airplane capable of flying long-range routes -
Community Investing and Economic Growth
16 May 2012 | 12:08 amClients can allocate their investment to a desired geographic location -
SF Fine Art Fair Runs May 17-20
16 May 2012 | 12:07 amThis is the 3rd year for the event and is one of the highlights in the Bay Area for art
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Daily Disruption
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Opower Launches 15 New Utility Partners and Six Expansions so Far in 2012
15 May 2012 | 5:20 pmBy Bill Klump | @TheKlumper Opower, the global leader in energy information software for the utility industry, and previous “Disruptor of the Day” recipient has been on a roll since... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Cardinal Health Agrees to Settlement with DEA
15 May 2012 | 4:34 pmDaily Disruption News Desk | @dailydisrupt Cardinal Health today said it had agreed to a settlement with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that allows the company to bring resolution to... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Study Indicates Acupuncture May Help Ease Symptoms of COPD
15 May 2012 | 3:44 pmBy Lori Morgan | @dailydisrupt According to a small clinical trial reported by investigators from Japan, acupuncture appears to be associated with improvement of dyspnea (labored... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Eric and Adam Heneghan’s Search Start-Up elicit Raises $1.5M
15 May 2012 | 1:53 pmBy Duane Barnhart | @dailydisrupt elicit (http://www.elicitsearch.com), a software as a service (SaaS) company that has designed technology to help marketers easily improve the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Doctors Restore Some Hand Function to Patient With Spinal Cord Injury
15 May 2012 | 1:19 pmReturning the use of the hand: The patient can now pinch his fingers and feed himself – (See video below) Daily Disruption News Desk | @dailydisrupt Surgeons at Washington... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Innovator Inside
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Antibodies, Attack Dogs, and Success Cats: 3 New Product Lessons
3 May 2012 | 5:08 amWe’ve launched ICON. It has almost 200 companies signed up in less than 2 days. We’re feeling hopeful we have something people will really value. If you’ve already had a go of the tool, thank you. If not, signup is free, so please do try it. Today, I wanted to talk about the process of getting a brand new product from idea to production. It was a cycle that’s had all the standard behaviours any company goes through when it attempt to do something new. Are you surprised a company that does innovation for a living is really no different internally to any other company when it comes to… -
[Your Company] Says…
1 May 2012 | 10:01 amIdea management has gotten quite boring lately. Everyone, it seems has a tool. And they all do the same old thing. Put your idea in. Vote a few times.. Be irritated when no one cares. Repeat until you shut down idea management in disgust. I’ve been dark for the last month or so on this blog, because I’ve been involved in imagining and building a fresh look at the problem. Our realization was social interactions online are all very good, but they’re only useful for individual communications and one to many broadcasts. If you’re trying to find the golden nugget, that gem of an idea that… -
Why Your Brilliant Idea Just Got Watered Down to Nothing
6 Mar 2012 | 9:25 amWhat’s the reason so many great ideas turn out to be terrible ones once they’re out the door? Over time and many years, I’ve learned there are only a few reasons: “I did that” You know these people: they’re great at self promotion and talking loudly, but very poor at doing much else. They take meetings and create relationships, but you can’t pin them down to much actual achievement. They never get fired though, and here is the reason: they’re very good at introducing small, often insignificant, changes; changes which let them claim they’ve had a material impact on whatever… -
Starting Up: London Vs. The Valley
16 Feb 2012 | 9:05 amThese days, my job at Spigit has me spending 50% of my time in London, and the rest in California at our head offices in the East Bay area. This is very interesting, because it really illuminates the difference between startup world in both places. Firstly, the obvious: London may be a hot place to start something in Europe, but it lacks the scale of the community in the Valley. But the real differences are all about attitudes to the way things are done. The UK is a much, much less business friendly environment than the US. The amount of red tape involved in doing anything is absurd, and you… -
Protecting Customers not Corporates
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amOn Twitter, Paul Vincent (@cybersecurer), one of the very few IT Security people I know who can claim their title isn’t Business Prevention Officer, asks this: @bankervision If information scarcity is no longer competitive advantage, do the infosec requirements change? I think so #sidestepandtwist Paul is referring, I think, to something I said in the book, namely: It is not too difficult to imagine the equilibrium price of information is tending towards zero, if it is not there already. If one has an expectation that the price of an information resource will be nothing, competitive…
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InventHelp Invention Girl Blog
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Microsoft Kinect Without a Camera?
9 May 2012 | 9:30 amA Minority Report like user interface is already available with the help of Microsoft Kinect, which senses your gestures via camera. However, you still need to buy the entire Kinect setup for $150 if you want motion sensing capabilities. But is there any way to get a Kinect-like experience without the price? Microsoft’s research team [...] -
World’s First Pedestrian Airbag…
1 May 2012 | 9:51 amAccording to Volvo, 12% of all car accidents deaths in the United States are pedestrian related. In the last decade, 47,700 pedestrians have been killed and 688,000 have been injured. And the car maker, which already has a reputation for safety inside its vehicles, will now have a reputation for safety outside its cars. Volvo [...] -
Apple Patents Reveal Possible Technology
23 Apr 2012 | 11:03 amJust because Apple patents something, does not mean that it is going to pursue the technology. Regardless, here are two technologies which Apple has recently patented and which may come to fruition… Motion Tracking User Interface These days, all computers (iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, iTouches, iPods, Macs) have a camera attached to them. So why not [...] -
Indoor GPS-Like Navigation Coming Soon…
17 Apr 2012 | 11:13 amHave you ever been lost in a shopping mall or hospital? Although you use GPS on your smartphone to navigate the great outdoors, you spend about 80% of your time indoors, with no app to help you navigate large indoor areas such as shopping malls, arenas, hospitals, or airports. Of course, we’ve been using traditional [...] -
Seismic Wallpaper Can Save Lives
11 Apr 2012 | 1:10 pmImagine an earthquake occurring while you’re inside a brick building. The safest place to be is outside, in an open area. However, circumstances may force you to spend significant time in a building while it is being rocked. Masonry buildings (structures made out of individual units bound by mortar) are particularly vulnerable because they are [...]
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Braden Kelley
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Innovation Quotes of the Day – May 16, 2012
16 May 2012 | 2:00 am“Succeeding through creation often requires innovation – figuring out how to put together and add value to things that just weren’t there before.” - Joel Podolny “The ultimate goal of a ‘learning fast’ approach to innovation is to embed in … Continue reading → -
Why Innovation Teams Fail – or Succeed
15 May 2012 | 8:30 amWhen it comes to succeeding in business, ideas are great but you still have to get stuff done. When it comes to innovation, it may be fun to talk about whether someone is innovative or not, or look at what … Continue reading → -
Innovation Quotes of the Day – May 15, 2012
15 May 2012 | 2:00 am“There isn’t anyone that doesn’t need to be a creative problem solver.” - Brad Anderson, Former CEO of Best Buy “What do we hope to learn from this effort? When you start from this question, every project becomes a series … Continue reading → -
Innovation through the Eyes of a Child
14 May 2012 | 3:30 amI’m currently reading Creating Innovators and so I thought I would share the classic post from 2009 below. In the first video, Gever Tulley describes our child safety-obsessed culture and the impact this has on the young minds of our … Continue reading → -
Innovation Quotes of the Day – May 14, 2012
14 May 2012 | 2:00 am“Look at the product pipeline, look at the fantastic financial results we’ve had for the last five years. You only get that kind of performance on the innovation side, on the financial side, if you’re really listening and reacting to … Continue reading →
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Ideatrotter
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Resisting Knowledge Centralization The internet has made things...
15 May 2012 | 1:56 amResisting Knowledge Centralization The internet has made things easier, faster, and within reach. The world has become flat and barriers to entry have reduced significantly. We are instantly sharing our likes, tastes, moods and interests. The process of discovery has become social and can be curated. Now, we have to overcome centralization. Centralization can lead to price controls, censorship without due process, lack of reader privacy, and resistance to innovators.The podcast attached provides a concise yet crisp look into why we need to destroy oligopolies and how can we ensure universal… -
For a Future-Friendly Web | Mobilism 2012
15 May 2012 | 1:44 amThe web isn’t what it was 10 years ago, and it wont be the same in the next 5 years. It is... -
Six Degrees of Student Debt
15 May 2012 | 1:29 amSix Degrees of Student Debt: A generation crippled by payback terms; where education is secondary... -
Could these cloud based applications help your business...
14 May 2012 | 9:16 amCould these cloud based applications help your business grow? For small and medium-sized businesses, one of the main challenges is keeping operational costs down while ensuring efficiency and meeting best practice. Thankfully, the tools offered by developments in the field of cloud computing have given businesses of all sizes the ability to remain at the top of their game by allowing them to carry out tasks cheaply and easily on the move. The provided infographic highlights some of the best free and paid-for cloud-based applications available today. -
Leveraging Relationships Between Bulge Bracket Banks &...
14 May 2012 | 9:10 amLeveraging Relationships Between Bulge Bracket Banks & Startups The Wharton Entrepreneurs Workshop, developed jointly by Wharton | San Francisco and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, features Gary Johnson, Vice President at Credit Suisse, discussing the current and projected state of the U.S. public equity markets, the financial and business attributes of a startup that are essential for a successful IPO or acquisition, and investment areas that are attracting the most attention in the technology sector. Johnson also outlines what startups can expect to gain by establishing early…
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ideafaktory
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America’s Last Stimulus: 5 Ways to Use Europe’s Crisis to Create US Jobs
8 May 2012 | 1:31 amThis is an abridged version of the original article I wrote for Business Insider. In a forgotten corner of the White House sits a huge, Parthenon-shaped cake. Nearby, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner are dancing like Zorba and dripping with hummus. Why all the glee? It’s because Europe just gave the U.S. an amazing gift – the gift of greater incompetence. I call this glitch in time ‘America’s Last Stimulus’. It may be our last chance to stimulate growth, kick-start our export engine, and make sure every European gets a big, wet kiss at the airport. The Challenge As… -
Oh Digital Content Curator, How I Yearn for Thee
1 Apr 2012 | 9:15 pmIt wasn’t very often that my parents took me to the museum. Let’s face it, we were poor immigrants and Brooklyn already had 15 Pakistanis for culture. Plus, I’m pretty sure that my parents were faking their interest in art for my benefit. No one would mistake our one bedroom apartment for the Louvre. A loo, maybe. I could tell they were faking it when my engineer dad tried to fix one of the crooked installations at the Guggenheim. OK, I’m not sure that actually happened, but I remember him scowling at how no one there would ever pass a first round interview at… -
Ideafaktory Podcast – Episode 2: Brawling over The Great App Shakeout
16 Mar 2012 | 5:38 amThis week’s episode of Ideafaktory Radio is the first of a three part series with Forbes contributor and Social Enterprise guru Mark Fidelman. This wasn’t even meant to be recorded! Mark deviously taped our private conversation on his iPhone and captured the two of us brawling over the future of apps, among other issues that keep geeks up at night. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why you don’t need to motivate people who work at MTV Why only rich, hot people should go into journalism How successful apps get pimped Why Twitter and Facebook might be #JumpingTheShark… -
Social Networking Soup, an ideafaktory Venn
6 Mar 2012 | 6:51 amA little something I just whipped up. So do you agree? You might also enjoy my recent related posts: The 15 Faces of Facebook & What to Sell Them and Facebook IPO & the Dark, Dirty Secrets of Facebook vs. Google Data.… CONTINUE READING ---> This is only a summary! Read the rest of this post at ideafaktory.com or click the "read more" link below. -
Why Walmart and Other Retailers Are Muscling in on Mobile
5 Mar 2012 | 5:23 amHaving led innovation at Amex, MasterCard and Citi, I know where the bodies are buried. I also know that payment wars aren’t just about fees anymore. That’s so 1990′s. Years ago, when Walmart threatened to enter payments and banking, incumbents nearly soiled their Hanes. After a little sword-fighting, providers slashed their margins so thin, big merchants had no incentive to do their own thing. This time it’s different. Payments companies are not the real threat. Today’s war is about data and its power to shift loyalties. In the arms race to probe…
