Inc. named 19 bloggers that you should read. We’ve aggregated them all in one place: Inc19.alltop.
Innovation
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Guy Kawasaki
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The 19 bloggers Inc. thinks you should read
6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm -
How to Get Found
4 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pmThe reality is that people and technology is getting better and better a blocking out unwanted interruptions—aka, “marketing.” Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, and he explains in my post on the American Express Open Forum “how to get found.” It’s all about creating great stuff and letting Google et al do what they do: find great stuff. -
How I tweet
2 Nov 2009 | 8:47 amBy popular demand (and some complaints), I’ve done a FAQ with myself about how I tweet. Hope this helps you use Twitter for your business too. I explain how I use ghostwriters and why I repeat my tweets among other “unusual” practices. -
Current Twitter Demo Script
28 Oct 2009 | 2:26 amThis is the set of links that I used to demo Twitter by going down through this list to show why Twitter is such a valuable marketing tool. Introduction Home page Profile page Monitor Search Guy Kawasaki or Alltop Starbucks VIA introduction Search for “Prius” or “Civic” Sell Dell Outlet Kogi BBQ Support Comcast Cares Engage JetBlue Virgin America Fandango Prospect Camaro Camaro near Palo Alto Advanced searches Surfing or skateboarding (shows how to eliminate extraneous results such as “surfing the web” How I Tweet - Find Alltop MyAlltop helped me find this. -
How to Avoid Twitter Cluelessness
26 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pmOver at the American Express Open Forum blog, I explain how to not look clueless on Twitter. The first five ways are: Don’t tell other people how to tweet. Don’t tell the world that you unfollowed someone. Don’t ask people why they unfollowed you. Don’t constantly tweet mundane updates and babble. Don’t use a small picture for an avatar. To read all ten and why they impugn your intelligence, click here.
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Principled Innovation
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Prepare your association for 2010!
1 Nov 2009 | 6:56 pmOn January 6, 2010, from 2 pm-3:30 pm EST, I am holding a Principled Innovation Briefing webinar on “Top 2010 Trends for Associations.” You will find the event detail from the registration site below. P.I. Blog readers are invited to register at a 10% discount (until December 1, 2009) by using the link above. This is going to be a great webinar, so I hope you’ll join me on January 6 and help prepare your association for 2010! EVENT DETAIL FOR JANUARY 6, 2010 P.I. BRIEFING WEBINAR 2009 has been a very tough year for associations and their leaders. 2010 can be better, but… -
P.I. Podcast: Interview with Tim Brown of IDEO
17 Oct 2009 | 6:31 pm“We need new choices.” I’m thinking this is the perfect mantra for association leaders as we approach 2010. Associations face complex challenges, and the current options for tackling them don’t really inspire too much confidence in our ultimate success. Not only do we need to think about our problems in new ways, but we literally need different strategies for solving them. In other words, we need new choices. Tim Brown’s excellent new book, Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, is all about how mindset and… -
What relevance isn’t
16 Oct 2009 | 4:26 amLast month, my friend and fellow blogger Jamie Notter wrote an excellent post on why relevance is not enough for associations. In his post, Jamie graciously mentions my continuing pushback against the relevance-oriented thinking (ROT) that is still framing the way most leaders in our community approach crucial decisions about the future of their organizations. We need to cultivate a fundamentally different leadership point of view, and this is what I think it should be: +Relevance isn’t a purpose–How will your association’s pursuit of relevance nurture an authentic… -
My Top Ten Favorite Things About #BIF5 Day One
7 Oct 2009 | 8:54 pmSitting in my hotel room in Providence, I’ve been thinking about the first day of the BIF-5 Summit. Wow, what a day! I missed BIF-4, and in my two-year absence, I think I forgot about the incredible richness of this experience. I’m inspired, and I’m thinking about even more new possibilities for my work. I’d like to share some of the experience, so here is my quick top ten list of favorite things from BIF-5 (#BIF5) Day One, with some help from my fellow Twitterers. (FYI, I’m @pinnovation) Thank you all for being so terrific. 10. We talked openly about… -
Live tweeting at #BIF5
7 Oct 2009 | 5:22 amI’ll be live tweeting for the next two days at BIF-5 in Providence. You can follow the hashtag on Twitter at #bif5…there will be many other people tweeting, blogging etc. so be prepared for lots of great stuff!
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In Pursuit of Elegance
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Elegance & The Site of Flight 93
27 Oct 2009 | 3:38 pmExperiencing elegance is nearly always profound. And every once in a while someone takes me up on my offer to share stories of elegant experiences. I just received this note from Andy H., and I liked it so much I asked him if I could reprint it. I haven't changed a word. Thanks Andy! Hi Matt, After reading In Pursuit of Elegance several months back, I wanted to share something with you that I experienced last month when I visited one of our sister companies near Somerset, PA. It is a quick story that made me think about subtraction and the elegance found in… -
How to Set a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal
17 Oct 2009 | 10:07 amOver at the American Express Open Forum Idea Hub, I've posted "How to Set a BHAG." A BHAG is a Big, Hairy Audacious Goal, and it's a term coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.I'm constantly asked about the challenge of complacency -- you know, things are going well, but there's a comfort setting in, and people are riding a different wave than when things were a struggle. The complaint goes something like this: "We’re stuck. Stuck in the old school, stuck in the status quo, stuck in stall mode. We want things done differently, but we can’t… -
Library of Design Thinking Posts on AMEX Open Forum Idea Hub
2 Oct 2009 | 2:59 pmFor the past two months I've been blogging twice a week on the AMEX Open Forum Idea Hub at the invitation of Guy Kawasaki, in his section called "The World." I've been writing under the general theme of Design Thinking, because my background and books are aligned to this thought process, and because I believe this management trend holds the promise of doing what other concepts have failed to do: get the working world thinking differently en masse. Why I think that is the subject of future articles.Anyway, here are the 16 articles to date. If you visit them, be sure to… -
BusinessWeek Interview: In Pursuit of Elegance
30 Sep 2009 | 9:45 amI spoke a few weeks ago with Helen Walters of BuisnessWeek magazine in New York. Here it is as the "Innovation of the Week"...enjoy! (Click on the logo) -
Why Alltop.com is Even More Elegant Now
21 Sep 2009 | 3:11 pmIf you've clued in to how best to use Twitter -- which IMHO is as a broadcast channel more than anything else -- you know that you have to troll the web for value-added "newscasts" for your growing audience. That takes time, or it did, anyway, until AllTop came along and uber-evangelist Guy Kawasaki put together a killer aggregator that is not only customizable, but utterly elegant. It's my go-to site for just about everything, news-wise. 95% of my online time is spent between AllTop and Twitter. So why is AllTop elegant? First, the design (or…
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technology innovation - Google News
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Media Advisory: Opportunities abound at IU Bloomington with Monday dedication ... - Indiana University
6 Nov 2009 | 11:22 amIndiana's NewsCenterMedia Advisory: Opportunities abound at IU Bloomington with Monday dedication Indiana University already houses the IU Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) and will soon provide offices for the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of $32.7 million IU Data Center to be unveiled; anchor for growing technology parkMedia Newswire (press release)Center to increase University researchIndiana Daily StudentNew IU Data Center dedicatedThe Herald-Times (subscription)Indiana University -Indiana Universityall 30 news articles » -
P&G Recognizes Top Connect + Develop(SM) External Partners and Enablers - CNNMoney.com (press release)
6 Nov 2009 | 11:06 amP&G Recognizes Top Connect + Develop(SM) External Partners and EnablersCNNMoney.com (press release)YourEncore's network of 5700+ retired experts with unique capabilities has enabled P&G to build efficiency and accelerate innovation projects. P&G honors UC, others, for shared innovationsCincinnati Business Courierall 9 news articles » -
Will medical innovation survive health care reform? - Detroit Free Press
6 Nov 2009 | 9:52 amInjuryBoard.com (blog)Will medical innovation survive health care reform?Detroit Free PressWe are a married couple, a surgeon and a technology leader respectively, sharing a concern that American innovation in Health Policy Research RoundupKaiser Health Newsall 301 news articles » -
What is a patent? Join the debate - EETimes.com
6 Nov 2009 | 8:05 amReutersWhat is a patent? Join the debateEETimes.com"For companies focused on medical technology innovation, the prospect of a revised patent eligibility standard that is less inclusive presents the grave Software companies eye key patent case in Supreme CourtAsbury Park PressDark Cloud For The Software IndustryForbesU.S. top court to hear business method patent caseReutersall 19 news articles » -
Mass Technology Leadership Council Announces 2009 Technology Leadership Award ... - TMCnet
6 Nov 2009 | 7:41 amMass High TechMass Technology Leadership Council Announces 2009 Technology Leadership Award TMCnetThe recipients represent the reasons why we are all working in technology and why we all thrive on innovation. More than 160 high-quality nominations were Phase Forward Named Private Sector Company of the Year by Mass Technology WELT ONLINEMass Technology Leadership Council Announces 2009 Technology Leadership Award Business Wire (press release)Past and present innovators take center stage at masstlc AwardsMass High Techall 26 news articles »
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Roger von Oech
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Carbon Credit Humor
15 Oct 2009 | 9:28 amThe Internet makes many new enterprises possible. For example, I recently ran across this example. Hooray for human ingenuity! The guy in the bed has used the Internet to combine his sloth (sleeping in) with environmental concern (people wishing to offset their carbon use) and clever marketing ("having an environmentally friendly day"). Made me laugh! -
Tomato and Asparagus Synergy
12 Sep 2009 | 12:30 pmHere's some amazing synergy!Gardeners know that when tomatoes and asparagus are planted together, they have a beneficial effect on one another.• Asparagus roots exude a chemical that kills many of the nematodes that either feed of tomato roots or carry diseases to the plant.• Tomatoes repel the asparagus beetle.Both plants do better when planted together!What other examples can you think of? -
Nice X-Ball Video
11 Aug 2009 | 2:57 pmFun video of the X-Ball from TD Monthly. One minute long. Watch TDmonthly Video -
Good Old Wittgenstein
11 Jul 2009 | 9:37 amMeeting a friend in the corridor, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) said: "Tell me, why do people always say that it was natural for men to assume that the sun went around the earth rather than the earth was rotating?"His friend said: "Well, obviously, because it just looks as if the sun is going around the earth."To which the philosopher replied: "Well, what would it look like if it had looked as if the earth were rotating?" -
Video of the Amazing X-Ball®
1 Jul 2009 | 5:48 pmHere's a fun 1-minute video of my newest product: the X-Ball, a set of 30 X-shaped magnetic design pieces (available from Creative Whack Company). The X-Ball is a companion product to the award-winning Ball of Whacks. The X-Ball gets your creative juices flowing!
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Innovation Weblog
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Understanding the value of a strategic innovation approach
For companies desiring organic growth and whose innovation efforts are not yielding the results demanded, using a Strategic Innovation approach using structured tools and methods will produce higher value products, services, systems, and environments that will resonate deeper with people to encourage them to become loyal customers. This approach delivers better solutions that are feasible to build, viable for profit, and desirable to the user. -
Ford Motor Company's impressive Skunk Works
Ford has revisited the classic skunk works model to a good end. -
Almost here: My new Creativity Hacks e-book
Next week, I plan to launch my new Creativity Hacks e-book, which will help readers to leverage the opportunities that the coming economic upturn will make possible. -
What are 'creativity hacks' and how can they help you be more profitable?
I just published the second preview video for my new Creativity Hacks e-book. -
The critical connection between trust, collaboration and innovation
Trust is fundamental to the highest levels of collaboration, but how do you know if that level of trust exists?
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Get Fresh Minds
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My solution for moving without a car!
4 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amRight now, I'm over in Europe in a somewhat unique situation where I'm moving apartments every couple weeks. Last week, I had to make my first move - all the way across the city of Biel with several suitcases and boxes.Friends helped with my kitchen stuff and my bed, but since I ended up moving my clothes the next day, I was on my own for the suitcases.So, here was my challenge:I had to get two big suitcases and a couple smaller boxes from one apartment to the other. I didn't have a car or a bus pass (and since my German is spotty, I don't even know how to find the right bus!) I could… -
When was the last time you failed?
2 Nov 2009 | 2:20 pmI just came across the above image online and it made me think: Why don't our failures define us? There's a tendency in our culture to only talk about our successes and the things we do right. So when we do something wrong, or something doesn't work the way we planned, it's a whole lot easier to just sweep it under the rug and never talk about it again. We all want to be winners--and that's why we try to forget our failures and say that they do not define us. But what if they do? What if our failures are one of the most important parts of who we are? The fact is, if you pride yourself only on… -
An update...
26 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pmHi getFreshMinds readers,I know I dropped off the radar quite a while this summer, and I had a very good reason for doing so. I had planned to jump back into blogging at the end of summer with a giant splash and a big announcement. I've even had the post composed since July.But, as I hope you know, July (and the rest of summer) has come and gone! Due to circumstances beyond my control... I can't talk about my exciting news yet. But, hopefully I'll be able to do that soon.Meanwhile, if you don't mind, I'm going to get back to blogging about fresh ideas again. I've got a bunch of post… -
Do you need to learn Problem Solving 101?
23 Jun 2009 | 11:59 amRecently, I was asked to review Problem Solving 101, a book by management consultant Ken Watabee that was written for children--but became the bestselling business book in Japan that year. The thing I really like about this book is how it urges readers to go beyond their first assumptions. A really good example in the book showed how a young soccer player realized that choosing to go to the 2nd best soccer school would actually benefit her much more than going to the best soccer school.This wasn't a conclusion that was obvious from the beginning--as the best soccer school was in a "better"… -
Jobs seekers... please restrain your creativity!
11 Jun 2009 | 10:28 pmIt's no secret that finding a job right now is tough. And when times get tough, the tough get creative! Right?Today I ran across the results of a survey from CareerBuilder that says 20% of hiring managers are seeing more people try to get their attention in unusual ways.Some of the things people are trying? Sending in a shoe with a resume to "get my foot in the door." Staging a sit-in in the lobby to get a meeting with a director. Washing cars in the parking lot. (No reason given for this.) Sending a resume wrapped as a present and a message that said his skills were a "gift to the…
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Project Rethink
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Hello, My Name is Shawn Welch
For the past few months I've been meaning to update the look-and-feel of projectrethink.org. As you can see, this new design is much cleaner than the old look-and-feel. The primary goal of this redesign was to put more emphasis on original content. Another big goal of the redesign was to bring ... -
Let Viral Be Viral
Imagine this scenario. You are a major record label and you find that someone just uploaded a video to Youtube featuring a hit song from one of your artists. The knee-jerk reaction from most record labels is to declare copyright violations and have the video removed. Fortunately for Chris Brown ... -
Surround Yourself With Good People
Groups have interesting dynamics. I don't claim to be an expert on the psyche of a group but I can tell you one thing; good people bring good results. Surround yourself with good people. It's humbling, but try to avoid situations where you feel that you're the smartest person in the ... -
Piece-of-Junk Innovation
The trick with innovation is coming up with something "new". We have a tendency to iterate what we know; iteration is not innovation. There are a few companies who do this very well; Apple and Google typically come to mind. But I think there is an overlooked simplicity to the success ... -
Sticky Song: Susan Boyle
If you haven't seen Susan Boyle on the British reality TV show, "Britain's Got Talent", then over the last week you've probably successfully avoided social media sites, the news, or the Internet in general. This single video has been on Youtube for less than a week, and has already surpassed 26 ...
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Endless Innovation
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Crowdfunding Artistic Projects Through Kickstarter
3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmBrooklyn-based Kickstarter enables people to "crowd-fund" new artistic projects (books, movies, films, etc.) and then follow along the progress of the project through regular updates. In my first-ever Kickstarter project, I helped to crowd-fund a new book from Robin Sloan (a former Current TV exec and aspiring novelist) after reading about it on CNET:"I'm writing a book: a detective story set halfway between San Francisco and the Internet. And the more people who reserve a copy, the better each one will be! The basic setup is: Imagine a Sherlock Holmes for the 21st… -
WIRED Magazine's Map of the Future
2 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pmWIRED Magazine recently commissioned Italian design firm Density Design to create a Map of the Future based on the scenarios developed by the Institute For The Future in Palo Alto, California. The results are stunning -- an eye-pleasing amalgamation of trends from 7000 of the world's top thinkers in areas including politics, infrastructure, the environment, economics, and society (i.e. each of the brown tabs at the top of the image). Behance Network has done a nice job of deconstructing the entire map into its respective pieces -- just in case you'd like to peer deeper into one of… -
Innovation, the Singularity and the Most Mind-Bending Magazine You'll Read in 2009
25 Oct 2009 | 9:52 amChances are, you're at least familiar with "the singularity" even if you've never picked up Ray Kurzweil's book or read anything at all about "transhumanism" or "augmented reality" or HET ("human enhancement technology"). Simply stated, the human race appears to be on the cusp of overcoming its current physical and mental limitations through a mix of biological and computational means. The magazine that has become the voice of the singularity is h+ magazine (the name is rather self-effacing, but it stands for "humanity plus") --… -
The Most Innovative Business Thinkers in the World
24 Oct 2009 | 4:06 pmIn its first-ever edition of The 27 Brave Thinkers Who are Shaping the Future, The Atlantic magazine takes a closer look at the creative -- and often courageous -- thinkers who are unafraid to take on the Establishment and challenge the conventional wisdom of how things should be done. In other words, think Profiles in Courage mixed with TIME Magazine's Person of the Year, and you'll have a good idea of the type of people that The Atlantic has in mind. There are some obvious picks (is there any feature these days that doesn't include Barack Obama?), as well as some choices that… -
Innovators Are the New Untouchables
22 Oct 2009 | 7:52 pmIn an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Thomas Friedman riffs on American economic competitiveness and the state of our nation's educational system. Friedman suggests that companies are once again placing a premium on innovators and out-of-the-box thinkers:"A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to them were the first to go because with the bursting of the credit bubble, that flow of work just isn’t there. But those who…
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Blogging Innovation
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What do you really mean?
7 Nov 2009 | 12:01 amby Mike Brown Many (okay, let's be real, nearly all) corporate visions, missions, values, BHAGs (you name it), sound alike. They either extol bland concepts (i.e., "our associates will be the best") or meaningless ideas (i.e., "our human intellectual capital will leverage world-class synergies").If you have boring or confusing strategic statements in your business, here's an approach to correct it: ask the questions below to help simplify and enrich the language in your strategic statements:How would customers describe what we're talking about in ways very meaningful to them?If we were… -
Join our Innovation Discussions on LinkedIn
6 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amI created the Continuous Innovation group on LinkedIn five months ago and it already has 1,280+ members getting together to share innovation articles, discussions, and job postings.Blogging Innovation's mission is to make innovation and marketing insights accessible for the greater good, and the LinkedIn group is another way for us to help facilitate conversation, collaboration, and education.LinkedIn groups don't require people to join yet another social network and build yet another profile (most people are already members of LinkedIn - or should be). LinkedIn is part of many people's… -
Which Countries Are Losing Their Innovation Capabilities?
6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amby Stefan LindegaardI recently discovered reasons to take my innovation perspective to a national rather than a corporate level. The questions that went through my mind were like this:What if the behaviours of the citizens in a country determine the corporate ability to innovate?What if such behaviours directly hurt the corporate ability to innovate?A capability that is so important for the future of companies as well as countries.Or what if the behaviours hinder the chances of taking innovation to the next level?The country I have in mind is my own, Denmark. I have long argued that Denmark… -
Innovating with Task Unification and Social Media
6 Nov 2009 | 12:30 amby Drew BoydEmbracing social media and the myriad of Web 2.0 tools is more challenging than just setting up a Facebook account or adding a "Follow Me on Twitter" link. Organizations struggle with how to take advantage of the power of Web 2.0. Where do you start? How do you tie these new tools in with your current website? How do you make sure your current constituents are happy while moving the organization to a more networked world? For this month's LAB, we will use the innovation template called Task Unification, one of five templates of the corporate innovation method called S.I.T.. To use… -
The Importance of Consistency and Consensus
6 Nov 2009 | 12:01 amInterview - Steve McKee of "When Growth Stalls"I had the opportunity to interview Steve McKee, the author of "When Growth Stalls" about the challenges companies face when they lose focus, lack consensus, or fail to maintain consistency with their innovation efforts. We also discuss a variety of other innovation topics including: barriers to innovation, education, and metrics.Steve McKee is president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland, a full service marketing communications firm, is a BusinessWeek.com columnist and has been published or quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, Advertising Age,…
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The Heart of Innovation
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SIX SIGMA UNRAVELLED: The Gotta Have a Process Blues
5 Nov 2009 | 7:10 pmOne of my favorite clients of all time was a key manager in a very prominent Fortune 500 company. She was smart. She was funny. She was creative. And she was kind. Then her company adopted Six Sigma. I couldn't help but notice that soon after this she started becoming uncharacteristically cranky, not unlike the way an artist gets upon filling out a tax form. When I asked her how the Six Sigma initiative was going, she rolled her eyes and mumbled something about "going through the motions." In a recent online Business Week posting, Brian Hindo lucidly deconstructs some of the flawed… -
14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas
3 Nov 2009 | 11:53 amHere are 14 ways to get breakthrough ideas, excerpted from my ChangeThis Manifesto, available here for downloading. 1. Follow your fascination 2. Immerse 3. Tolerate ambiguity 4. Make new connections 5. Fantasize 6. Define the right challenge 7. Listen to your subconscious 8. Take a break 9. Notice and challenge existing patterns and trends 10. Hang out with diverse groups of people 11. Brainstorm 12. Look for happy accidents 13. Use creative thinking techniques 14. Suspend logic Additional catalysts for generating breakthrough ideas can be found here. -
Twitter Gets It
27 Oct 2009 | 11:09 amStop beating your head against the wall trying to conjure up great, new products and services. Get your customers into the act! Take a tip from Twitter, who has found a number of ways to access -- and execute -- their users' cool ideas. Explains Twitter co-founder and CEO, Evan Williams, "Most companies or services on the Web start with wrong assumptions about what they are and what they're for. Twitter struck an interesting balance of flexibility and malleability that allowed users to invent uses for it that weren't anticipated." Complete NY Time article here. (Thanks to Tim Moore for the… -
The Commissioner
26 Oct 2009 | 6:02 pmMost artists hate marketing. This I understand. After all, painting is their passion, not business. That's why they accept commissions. Instead of painting on spec, there's a paying client in the wings. Historically, most commissions have been for portraits. Ho hum. Not very innovative. Today, I am happy to announce, my beautiful wife -- Evelyne Pouget -- is putting a spin on things and offering you and the rest of the known universe an opportunity to commission a nature scene or landscape. It's simple. You choose one of Evelyne's photos from the slide show below and she'll paint it for you. -
The Perfect Woodstock Getaway
25 Oct 2009 | 8:11 pmNeed a break? Looking for a relaxing weekend in a beautiful setting, with mountain views, just a 10 minute walk from the center of Woodstock? Come to the Blue Pearl, just two hours north of NYC. See the leaves fall. See your spirits rise. Have fun. Breathe deep! Renew! Includes free copies of Awake at the Wheel and Free the Genie.
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Grassroots Innovation
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Boom Goes The Dynamite
2 Nov 2009 | 9:50 amNow that's what I'm talking about....from today's WSJ.1. The U.S. factory sector saw its best month of expansion in October since April 2006.2. The Institute for Supply Management reported Monday that its index of manufacturing activity jumped to 55.7 last month, after standing at 52.6 in September and 52.9 in August.In aint a recovery until we start making stuff again. -
Emotions Matter
31 Oct 2009 | 3:20 pmEmotions matter.Politicians know this. The captains of the financial industry know this (I’m reading the book Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves. More on this later)Business folks in general don’t get this.Case in point, when I was laid off the guy that did the laying off asked if I wanted to know how he made his decision. At this point in time I was already out of a job so I figured what the heck, indulge me.“Well,” he says. “The first thing that I did was to take out all the emotion.”Great,… -
Wooden: A Game Plan For Life
28 Oct 2009 | 4:36 pmI can't remember where I read this, but the exercise is to recall the last five Superbowl winners. Now recall five of your teachers who made a positive impact on you. The point being that it's the people in your life that make the dramatic difference.That's the premise of the legendary John Wooden's latest book A Game Plan For Life. While the book will not win any Pulitzer prizes, it is a refreshingly honest book about the people who made and impression on John and, in turn, the people that he helped.For example, John writes of drawing strength from Mother Teresa's admission that she… -
Slowing Down Less Than Everyone Else
26 Oct 2009 | 9:05 amA lot of times I've been credited with being a fast finisher. But it's almost an optical illusion. I'm not gaining speed. I'm just slowing down less than everyone else. - Carl LewisBusiness is a marathon swim, not a sprint. Those who stay on task and don't slow down end up being the winner. (Assuming you are going the right way, but that's an argument for another time.) This is a different approach than going out and pushing yourself as fast as you can early on. A good illustration of this is Kevin Nuemann's mile split times from the Grand Rapids MarathonHe finished in 3h 47min for an 8:40… -
And There It Is
21 Oct 2009 | 4:48 pmAccording to Gary Hammel, super smart guy and Professor at the London Business School, writes:There’s probably no organizational attribute that’s more important today than adaptability. In our topsy turvy world, every organization is teetering on the brink of irrelevance, and unless it can change as fast as change itself, it will soon tumble off the ledge.1Yet at the same time mastery of any given topic requires tenacity, dedication, and devotion to the task at hand.How to tell when you should adapt and when you should harden up? That my friend, it a great questionNotes:1.
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Innovate on Purpose
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Your innovation needs a story
3 Nov 2009 | 7:14 amImagine if you will, somewhere in the distant recesses of our existence, a group of cavemen huddled around a fire. The wiseman of the group gathers the tribe around the fire and regales them with stories of their ancestors - how they fought the neighboring tribes, how they found the food necessary to survive. The shaman passes on the wisdom of the tribe, and teaches in the process. Stories are the best way to learn, and the best way to communicate. For some reason, we've lost the sense of story in business. Rather than use stories we opt for hard and fast "facts" that often miss the root… -
Innovation in a bottle
2 Nov 2009 | 5:05 amI guess I'll never fully understand the depth of concern that many management teams have around command and control, especially in an era of constant change. It seems that the more demands are placed on an organization to create new products and adapt to environmental change, the more resistance to that change is created and encouraged at mid and senior management levels. I understand that what's "known" is comfortable and what's unknown and new is uncomfortable, but at some point every firm has to create some new products or services or it will simply atrophy.Recently I've witnessed what… -
Innovation as a competitive advantage
28 Oct 2009 | 5:41 amOver the last six or seven years, definitely since about 2003 or 2004, there has been an increased focus on innovation in many businesses. I think much of this was driven by several factors, including an increased rate of change in competition, especially the growing capabilities of India and China. I also think that information costs have fallen as the web has become more fully adopted, and consumers are demanding more. Finally, I think the focus on cost-cutting and outsourcing is reaching it's logical conclusion. Most of the things that could be cut, trimmed or outsourced have been. Many… -
Reversing the Hippocratic Oath
26 Oct 2009 | 1:56 pmWhen I visit the doctor, I like to repeat to myself the Hippocratic Oath - "First, do no harm". I like to remind myself that no matter how much the doctor may poke and prod, he or she has committed themselves to not harm the patient, no matter how sick. This means that most doctors proceed to investigate any illness with an abundance of caution, and carefully understand the symptoms before prescribing treatment or medication.Sometimes I think that many managers feel the same way about their businesses. Their approach to every issue is first - do no harm. Don't do anything to damage the status… -
R&D for the rest of us
23 Oct 2009 | 7:37 amSomething happens when you put on a lab coat and safety glasses. You have the immediate ability to explore concepts and ideas that may, or may not, become new products. And your time horizon shifts dramatically. Many people in primary R&D are examining technologies or molecules that won't become products for many years.The question we as innovators should ask ourselves, and our companies, is: why is this kind of thinking and investment committed solely in technology R&D? Why, in a pharmaceutical company, is there a team that is actively investigating new compounds and molecules that may…
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Creative Generalist
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1 Million FPS
11 Oct 2009 | 7:20 pmSome remarkable slow-motion footage:(Thanks Ask) -
The Cove
6 Sep 2009 | 11:16 amThe Cove. It's a remarkably restrained film in that most of it describes the teamwork, planning, and logistics involved with covertly documenting one of the grisliest activities on earth: Japan's slaughter of dolphins. Not much of the brutal footage is actually shown, and it's obvious that the producers spared us the especially gory bits, but what is seen quite vividly shows the ugliest and cruelest of what humanity can unleash upon another sentient, self-aware mammal. The Cove centres on an Oceans 11 type team of photographers, ex-military, free divers, props designers, and others assembled… -
Work in the Conceptual Age
6 Sep 2009 | 10:33 amThe three paragraphs on this page at gigaom offer a variety of links leading to some great posts touching on various aspects of generalism and work. As the intro lines state: "'Big-picture thinking and inventiveness are going to be the key to professional success in a new “conceptual age.' In a series of posts over at WebWorkerDaily, Imran Ali has been musing on the type of work that we might be doing in the future, the skills that will be required, and the type of teams we might be working in." (Hat tip to augustdiva!)Separate but related - work in the conceptual age - is this TED Talk by… -
Netflix Culture Manifesto
5 Aug 2009 | 5:02 pmApparently NetFlix has a rather enlightened approach to HR and company culture. Exhibit A: this internal 128-slide presentation.CultureView more presentations from reed2001. -
No Respect for Marketing
27 Jul 2009 | 1:14 pmAn excellent Ad Age article by Al Reis on the often misunderstood key difference between marketing and advertising, and why GM doesn't get it. I think he's wrong. Advertising at GM is not broken. Marketing is.Marketing's job is to coordinate all the various disciplines inside a corporation in order to develop the right product, the right price, the right position, the right distribution strategy and the right brand name.Advertising's job is to position that brand name in the minds of consumers.Good marketing makes advertising relatively easy. Bad marketing makes advertising difficult, if not…
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Scott Berkun
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Confessions now shipping from Amazon.com
6 Nov 2009 | 11:13 pmIn a nice surprise, the book is in stock at amazon as of tonight – didn’t expect this for another few days. You can get the book right now! Yay! If you’ve already read the book on safari or preview, you can head over now and be the first to put in a review. -
First review of Confessions is in
6 Nov 2009 | 7:28 amMike Riley at Dobb’s Journal posted the first review I’ve seen of Confessions on a blog. Here’s an excerpt: Scott’s recollections and revelations are highly accurate and frequently entertaining. In summary, Confessions of a Public Speaker is a book for anyone faced with presenting an important message to an audience. This is a book that will be referenced frequently, often before giving a pubic speech or presenting at [an] important social function. Practicing the book’s tips will almost certainly improve the reader’s spoken delivery and oratory… -
Photos from last night’s talk
6 Nov 2009 | 5:47 amThings went well at Refresh Boston last night. Good sized crowd (I’m told it was their biggest ever), great questions and lots of interest in the book. Thanks to everyone who came, tweeted, blogged and flickrered – it all helps get the word out about Confessions of a Public Speaker. Here’s a photo from Sean of me mid-talk: And another from Patrick, with a “don’t do this” slide: And another good one from Oliphant: Next stop: Olin College.
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BQF Innovation
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Splitting Extroverts and Introverts in Brainstorms
3 Nov 2009 | 11:01 amI was asked at a recent workshop on creativity whether I had ever tried separating extroverts from introverts in a brainstorm. I had to admit that I had never done this and the idea at first seemed strange. After all, diversity is one of the key elements for success in brainstorming – so why split people into their personality type? The argument is that the extroverts, who like to speak first and think second, will drown out the introverts, who like to think carefully before contributing. Today I was running a creative thinking session for a major pharmaceutical company and I decided… -
Focus on What went Right
2 Nov 2009 | 2:19 amIn trying to improve quality and looking for improvements we tend to focus our attention on what went wrong. We try to fix problems. A typical management meeting consists of a group of people who are looking at what is not working and trying their hardest to come up with ways to put things right. But in the process they are often allocating blame, arguing, becoming negative and getting frustrated. Most managers ask these kinds of questions: o Why are sales down? o What is holding up production? o What can we do about customer complaints? o What can I do about difficult staff? o What is wrong… -
100 Ways to get Ideas
26 Oct 2009 | 1:13 amIdeas are the seedcorn of innovation. We need a large supply of them. Are you sometimes stuck for ideas? Here is an interesting blog by Steve Aitchison in which he gives 100 ways to generate ideas for articles for a blog. The principles work for almost any other requirement to generate ideas. So the next time you need to kick start innovation you now have 100 ways to get going! Paul Sloane -
Innovators trust their intuition
20 Oct 2009 | 6:04 amRichard DennisMBA students are taught to treat business in a rational, scientific way. They analyse situations, develop financial models, critically examine management decisions and logically examine different scenarios. When they emerge from the hallowed halls of academia they are often surprised to find that businesses run much less on logic and much more on emotion. It is not cold, intelligent analysis that drives most organisations forward. Emotional energy is often the real engine behind successful people and organisations. Sure it helps to be analytical, intelligent and rational but… -
Diehards die hard
8 Oct 2009 | 11:04 amSome people are so set in their ways that they resist innovative ideas even when their benefits are demonstrable. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City Dick Fosbury amazed the audience when he did something revolutionary - he went over backwards. The traditional way of jumping was to use the straddle. Fosbury won the gold medal but in the next few years most of the top athletes did not copy him. They had too much time, effort, practise and muscle memory invested in the technique that they had been using for years. Forsbury’s innovation was derided. The U.S. Olympic coach…
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Business Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen Shapiro
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Content is No Longer King…Long Live the King (Part 2)
21 Oct 2009 | 1:05 pmIn an earlier blog entry on content, readers provided a number of interesting comments. If you haven’t already read that article (and the comments), you may want to do so in order to understand this new article. Many did not agree with my point of view. And that is great. I only wanted [...] -
Win a Trip to our Gala Casino Book Launch Party
14 Oct 2009 | 8:23 amAs you know by now, I just signed a 2 book deal with Portfolio Penguin. The first book to be published is Personality Poker. When the book hits the stores in Fall 2010, we are going to party in style! Given the poker theme, we are holding the book launch party in either Las Vegas, Atlantic [...] -
Content is No Longer King….Long Live the King (Part 1)
4 Oct 2009 | 9:58 amWe often hear that content is king. But I wonder if this is still true. Let’s take some very simple examples. I am sure most of you know that the iPod was not a revolutionary invention. It was merely a new spin on the already existing MP3 player. The real innovation was the integration of the iPod [...] -
GCLS Quotes – Day 1
23 Sep 2009 | 4:24 pmI am in NYC participating as a delegate in the Global Creative Leadership Summit led by the Louis Blouin Foundation. Attending are 100 fascinating people ranging from Prime Ministers to business leaders. Over the course of 3 days there are a number of conversations on topics related to improving the world. Here are some of the [...] -
Two Book Deal with Penguin’s Portfolio Books
22 Sep 2009 | 3:20 pmToday I signed a two book deal with Penguin’s Portfolio imprint. They are the publishers of excellent books including all of Seth Godin’s books and “The Back of the Napkin.” The first book, “Personality Poker,” is scheduled to be in book stores September 2010. The book will be packaged with a deck of cards. The commercially [...]
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BusinessWeek.com -- Innovation
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Innovation Lessons from the World Series
7 Nov 2009 | 1:23 amInnovators will strike out time and again. But baseball—and the World Series—remind us of the value of resilience -
Hot Video Games for the Holidays
7 Nov 2009 | 1:23 am -
Trustmark's Renaissance
4 Nov 2009 | 10:54 amSetting tradition aside, the 95-year-old insurance company looked to Apple and American Girl as a guide to its future -
Microsoft Gives MSN an Overdue Face-lift
3 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmHeartened by the reception for new search engine Bing, Microsoft has simplified MSN's home page to play up search with the detail of a local paper -
Local Motors: A New Kind of Car Company
3 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pmThrough the online crowdsourcing of design, Local Motors hopes to forge a new path for the auto industry
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Working Knowledge ®
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Lencioni: Arguing for Innovation
4 Nov 2009 | 6:01 amPoint: Teams that create the best innovations know how to disagree about ideas without interpreting the disagreement as a personal affront. Story: “I feel good when I see that engineering, advertising and manufacturing are really surfacing and talking about their differences,” said the VP of Technology at a successful $100 million firm. “It’s my job to keep the dialectic alive.” When we see companies moving swiftly, anticipating changes in the marketplace and developing new products or services to meet the change, we’re tempted to think of the company as… -
How Boston Scientific Accelerates Innovation
26 Oct 2009 | 6:25 amPoint: Capture, share and reuse knowledge to make R&D engineers more productive Story: At Power to Innovate 2009, Boston Scientific’s Randy Schiestl (VP of R&D) and Jude Currier (Cardiovascular Knowledge Management & Innovation Practices Lead) described how Boston Scientific is redesigning its innovation processes. The goal: to accelerate time to market, increase the productivity of innovators, and reduce costs and risks. Boston Scientific is an $8 billion company committed to delivering innovative medical technologies that improve the quality of patient care as well as… -
Bill Clinton & Bill George on Leadership (World Business Forum #wbf09)
13 Oct 2009 | 4:36 amPoint: Leaders must communicate and connect, which means providing vision and revealing vulnerability Story: At the World Business Forum last week, former President Bill Clinton was asked about his lessons on leadership. His answer was threefold: It begins with a vision of where you want to go: you have to articulate where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there A leader has to continually communicate and sell the vision Leaders need to understand people, not just policies That last point about leaders needing to understand people was the comment that was most retweeted during… -
Kraft: the “$40 Billion Start-Up” Spurs Innovation
7 Oct 2009 | 6:12 pmPoint: Open innovation can accelerate new product development Story: When Irene Rosenfeld took over as CEO of Kraft, she saw an anemic innovation pipeline. The company had 2000 corporate R&D staff — scientists, engineers and chemists — but new products weren’t flowing rapidly enough. Her solution to encourage innovation? To get everyone to “Think of Kraft as a $40 billion start-up,” she said at the World Business Forum on October 7, 2009. One way to emulate start-up thinking is to be open to new ideas from anywhere and quickly turn them into something… -
George Lucas Innovates Outside the Hollywood Box
6 Oct 2009 | 9:05 pmPoint: Consider the role and value of outsiders in innovation Story: George Lucas, legendary producer, director and screenwriter of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones blockbuster hits, shared these thoughts at the World Business Forum. Lucas described how he got his start making movies by going outside the insular Hollywood system. When he graduated from film school, Hollywood was not receptive to new ideas and Lucas didn’t want to go there. He and Francis Coppola moved to San Francisco to start American Zoetrope in 1969. Befitting their 1960’s cultural background, Lucas and…
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Creativity And Innovation Driving Business - Innovation Index
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Over 3,000 Professionals Joined India Business Network
5 Nov 2009 | 3:10 pmIndia Business Network is growing strong since the launch on June 15, 2009. Over three thousand business executives, entrepreneurs, managers, consultants, professionals and non-profits from over 100 countries in the world have joined India Business Network, and are interacting, collaborating, networking and doing business online."My mission is to grow India Business Network to over 1 million members strong worldwide in the next five years. The fact that over 3,000 members joined through word-of-mouth marketing underscores the need for a dedicated business network where professionals connect,… -
Learn How Apple Innovates - The #1 Innovative Company
31 Oct 2009 | 7:21 pmInnovation eBook used by 600+ innovative companies worldwide - eBook Best Seller (deployed at Nokia, EDS, Pepsi, HP, many more...)Innovation eBook and Definitive Guide is a 212-page collection of over 55 best practices, case studies, and insights on the current state of Innovation in Business at Top Innovators including Apple, Google, Netflix, 3M, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Toyota, GE, BMW, Deloitte, Frito Lay, IBM, Nike, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Dell, Tata, Intel and more. In particular, learn how Apple innovates, and what made Apple the #1 innovative company… -
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
26 Oct 2009 | 1:05 pmInnovation eBook used by 600+ innovative companies worldwide - eBook Best Seller (deployed at Nokia, EDS, Pepsi, HP, many more...)Innovation eBook and Definitive Guide is a 212-page collection of over 55 best practices, case studies, and insights on the current state of Innovation in Business at Top Innovators including Apple, Google, Netflix, 3M, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Toyota, GE, BMW, Deloitte, Frito Lay, IBM, Nike, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Dell, Tata, Intel and more. With pertinent articles from this award-winning Creativity And Innovation Driving… -
The Biggest Innovation of 2009 - Accepting Nominations for Best Innovations of 2009
21 Oct 2009 | 12:11 pmCreativity And Innovation Driving Business Blog is taking nominations for the Biggest Innovation of 2009 now!! We will be accepting all nominations until December 15, 2009.The Top Ten Innovations of 2009, including the Best Innovation of 2009, will be announced on January 15, 2010 in an Annual Report of the Best Innovations of 2009 at this Blog. Further, the Best Innovation of 2009 will get year-round exposure on this award-winning Blog on Creativity & Innovation in Business.We invite you to nominate your Top Innovation of 2009 by filling out the form below... You can nominate your own… -
Business Innovation Tool Kit - eBook, Insights, Annual Report
10 Oct 2009 | 7:20 pmBusiness Innovation Resource Kit used by 500+ innovative companies worldwide - Best Seller (deployed at Nokia, EDS, Pepsi, HP, 500 more...)Business Innovation Resource Kit includes eBook, Guide, Presentation, Annual Report and Insights on Creativity & Innovation in Business.Innovation eBook and Definitive Guide is a 212-page collection of over 55 best practices, case studies, and insights on the current state of Innovation in Business at Top Innovators including Apple, Google, Netflix, 3M, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Toyota, GE, BMW, Deloitte, Frito Lay, IBM, Nike, Starbucks,…
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INNOVATION NEWS - Google News
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McDonald's Speeds Orders by Seconds to Keep Customers - Bloomberg
6 Nov 2009 | 2:07 pmMcDonald's Speeds Orders by Seconds to Keep CustomersBloombergIt's among dozens of new products being tested at the Innovation Center to make sure service isn't disrupted. “We will probably not recommend they add this and more » -
Powertrain Innovation Of The Year Awarded To KERS - Wired News
6 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pmWired NewsPowertrain Innovation Of The Year Awarded To KERSWired NewsAnd now, KERS has received the Powertrain Innovation of the Year award at the 2009 Professional Motorsports World Expo and it has us cheering again. and more » -
Media Advisory: Opportunities abound at IU Bloomington with Monday dedication ... - Indiana University
6 Nov 2009 | 11:22 amIndiana's NewsCenterMedia Advisory: Opportunities abound at IU Bloomington with Monday dedication Indiana UniversityBLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's $10 million Innovation Center will be formally dedicated by IU President Michael McRobbie in a ceremony Monday $32.7 million IU Data Center to be unveiled; anchor for growing technology parkMedia Newswire (press release)Center to increase University researchIndiana Daily StudentNew home for Pervasive Tech Institute, business start-ups to be dedicated Nov. 9Indiana Universityall 30 news articles » -
P&G Recognizes Top Connect + Develop(SM) External Partners and Enablers - CNNMoney.com (press release)
6 Nov 2009 | 11:06 amP&G Recognizes Top Connect + Develop(SM) External Partners and EnablersCNNMoney.com (press release)YourEncore's network of 5700+ retired experts with unique capabilities has enabled P&G to build efficiency and accelerate innovation projects. P&G honors UC, others, for shared innovationsCincinnati Business Courierall 9 news articles » -
Will medical innovation survive health care reform? - Detroit Free Press
6 Nov 2009 | 9:52 amInjuryBoard.com (blog)Will medical innovation survive health care reform?Detroit Free PressWe are a married couple, a surgeon and a technology leader respectively, sharing a concern that American innovation in Walz: House health care plan will protect jobs, familiesPost-BulletinThe GOP Health Care Plan - At Least It Has Numbers!Blogcritics.org (blog)Health Care Reform Bill Detailed SummaryGather.comPost-Bulletinall 301 news articles »
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business innovation - Google News
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HP Wants to Fix IT Sprawl With New Converged Infrastructure Architecture - ITChannelPlanet
6 Nov 2009 | 7:13 pmHP Wants to Fix IT Sprawl With New Converged Infrastructure ArchitectureITChannelPlanet only one-third of technology budgets are allocated to business innovation, with the remainder directed at operating and maintaining the data center. and more » -
Infosys Collaborates with Oracle to Launch the Infosys Business Platform for HR - CNNMoney.com (press release)
6 Nov 2009 | 2:56 pmInfosys Collaborates with Oracle to Launch the Infosys Business Platform for HRCNNMoney.com (press release)The Infosys Business Platform for HR frees up significant capital expenditure locked into HR technology and process investments, allowing the HR function to and more » -
McDonald's Speeds Orders by Seconds to Keep Customers - Bloomberg
6 Nov 2009 | 2:07 pmMcDonald's Speeds Orders by Seconds to Keep CustomersBloombergIt's among dozens of new products being tested at the Innovation Center to make sure service isn't disrupted. “We will probably not recommend they add this and more » -
P&G Recognizes Top Connect + Develop(SM) External Partners and Enablers - CNNMoney.com (press release)
6 Nov 2009 | 11:06 amP&G Recognizes Top Connect + Develop(SM) External Partners and EnablersCNNMoney.com (press release) partnerships with P&G's Global Business Development Organization, a group responsible for P&G's Connect + Develop(SM) approach to open innovation. P&G honors UC, others, for shared innovationsCincinnati Business Courierall 9 news articles » -
U.S. top court to hear business method patent case - Reuters
6 Nov 2009 | 10:01 amReutersU.S. top court to hear business method patent caseReutersTeleflex, the court unanimously made it easier to show that an innovation was an obvious improvement on existing technology and, thus, should not have been Software companies eye key patent case in Supreme CourtAsbury Park PressDark Cloud For The Software IndustryForbesWhat is a patent? Join the debateEETimes.comPatently-Oall 19 news articles »
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ITIF
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The Changing Nature of Global Innovation and Competitiveness
6 Nov 2009 | 11:47 amIn this article for Future’s Magazine ITIF research analyst Scott Andes discusses the findings of the Atlantic Century and how globalization is redefining competition and the importance of innovation. Read the article -
Policies to Increase Broadband Adoption at Home
5 Nov 2009 | 5:39 amIf the United States is to achieve the promise of the broadband revolution it will need to ensure that a much larger share of Americans are subscribers. And while policies to spur the deployment of broadband networks are important in achieving that goal, policies to spur adoption are even more important. -
ITIF Event: Policies for Boosting Broadband Demand
5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amPlease join ITIF to discuss the findings of a new study “Demand-Side Programs to Stimulate Adoption of Broadband: What Works?” by Professors Janice Hauge and James E. Prieger. In addition, ITIF will be releasing a report “Policies to Increase Broadband Adoption at Home” that details a number of policy proposals that could significantly spur an increase in broadband adoption. -
ITIF Event: What Will the Internet of the Future Look Like?
2 Nov 2009 | 5:03 amInternet regulations pending in the United States can either facilitate or impede Internet evolution depending on detailed definitions of packet discrimination, traffic shaping, network management, and carrier business models. Join us for a discussion of the tension between regulation and innovation in the Internet context. -
Rob Atkinson Vblogs for Internet Evolution
28 Oct 2009 | 6:46 amITIF President Rob Atkinson will be video blogging once a week for Internet Evolution on hot topics in IT and internet policy.
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National Center for Technology Innovation
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NCTI Conference Twitter Feed — #NCTI2009
29 Oct 2009 | 5:33 amAdd to My Outlook Calendar Follow us at twitter.com/ncti2 2009 NCTI Technology Innovators Conference November 16-17, 2009 | Washington, DC | The Madison Hotel Get up-to-date information and hear what people are saying about the 2009 NCTI Conference. Join the conversation. h3, h4 {color:white;} #twtr-widget-1 {margin-bottom: 50px;} new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'search', search: '#NCTI2009', interval: 6000, title: '2009 NCTI Technology Innovators Conference', subject: 'Live Updates', width: 650, height: 350, theme: { [...] -
Freeing The Human Spirit Embraced By Technology
28 Oct 2009 | 8:19 amMary Furlong recounts how she went from Assistant Dean at Catholic University’s School of Education to champion of communication technologies with potential, as she says, to free the human spirit. Her inspirational story highlights how both vision and determination can contribute to entrepreneurial success. Watch the video to hear her full presentation at NCTI’s [...] -
Broadband Accessibility FCC Event
23 Oct 2009 | 10:21 amWhat does broadband access mean for the disability community? The FCC hosted an all-day workshop to find out. -
Innovation in Public Education: Problems and Opportunities
21 Oct 2009 | 10:19 amWhat does innovation in education look like? How do we initiate and sustain innovations? What are the barriers to doing so? This report from the New Venture School Fund with contributions from the Stupski Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York Foundation looks at these issues in a new report. Opener: “We find ourselves at a [...] -
National Educational Technology Plan
16 Oct 2009 | 10:57 amU.S. National Ed Tech Plan is underway. Register your comments and be heard as an advocate for students with disabilities and effective use of technology in instruction and learning.
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Technology Review RSS Feeds
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Blog - Spots 'n' pimples
6 Nov 2009 | 9:10 pmThe best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week -
Blog - Computer-Predicted Catalysis
6 Nov 2009 | 10:30 amTwo computer programs accurately predict how molecules interact with metals -
Blog - U.S. Congress Considers Geoengineering
6 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amPlans to purposefully re-engineer the world's climate got their first serious committee hearing yesterday. -
Blog - Absent-minded Robots Remember What Matters
6 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amRobots could mimic human forgetfulness to filter out less useful information. -
Blog - Waiter, Is There a Fungicide in My Soup?
6 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amScientists in Canada have developed dipstick that measures levels of pesticides in food and beverages.
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Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog
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How Teenagers – and Adults – Consume Media
5 Nov 2009 | 1:59 pmThis is the unabridged, non-edited version of an article published at bnet.co.uk The Morgan Stanley report entitled “media and the Internet, how teenagers consume media” is one of the most striking examples of instant information circulation on a global scale. Matthew Robinson — a 15 year-old trainee who was asked to put together a report on how his peers were using the media — no longer needs to work on his online reputation. In a flash, his report was on everyone’s lips (on everyone’s desktop rather) and widely used as a perfect representation of… -
Advertising in Violent Game Scenes
5 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pmHaving blasted my way through Carmageddon all the way to the streets of San Andreas and Pripyat, I'm no stranger to cartoony violence, but somehow slaughtering helpless civilian crowds wholesale just feels off. This leaked video is from the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 shooter that hits the stores on November 10th and has already broken Gamestop's pre-order records. -
Crowdfunding Artistic Projects Through Kickstarter
5 Nov 2009 | 12:38 pmBrooklyn-based Kickstarter enables people to "crowd-fund" new artistic projects (books, movies, films, etc.) and then follow along the progress of the project through regular updates. In my first-ever Kickstarter project, I helped to crowd-fund a new book from Robin Sloan (a former Current TV exec and aspiring novelist) after reading about it on CNET: -
The Basics of Social Media ROI
4 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmThe last post of our guide to Getting Started in Social Media looked at measurements and how brands should be ruthless about ROI. This presentation from Oliver Blanchard is a great introduction to social media ROI and how you should conceive of it and then measure it. It’s also quite amusing in parts and so is Required Reading this week at FreshNetworks -
When Wal-Mart Enters the Funeral Industry, the Business Is About to Change. Will Amazon.com Follow? What's the Latest Innovation in the Funeral Busines?
3 Nov 2009 | 1:58 pmSome survey stated that the average person's greatest fear is having to give a speech in public. That’s not for me but I am sure for many. I remember one guy told he when he was put on stage in front of 800 people, the dead silence was like death. Giving a speech in public ranked even higher than death which was third on the list. So, you're telling me that at a funeral, most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than have to stand up and give a eulogy.
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getFreshMinds.com | Ideas so fresh--they should be slapped!
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My solution for moving without a car!
4 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amRight now, I'm over in Europe in a somewhat unique situation where I'm moving apartments every couple weeks. Last week, I had to make my first move - all the way across the city of Biel with several suitcases and boxes.Friends helped with my kitchen stuff and my bed, but since I ended up moving my clothes the next day, I was on my own for the suitcases.So, here was my challenge:I had to get two big suitcases and a couple smaller boxes from one apartment to the other. I didn't have a car or a bus pass (and since my German is spotty, I don't even know how to find the right bus!) I could… -
When was the last time you failed?
2 Nov 2009 | 2:20 pmI just came across the above image online and it made me think: Why don't our failures define us? There's a tendency in our culture to only talk about our successes and the things we do right. So when we do something wrong, or something doesn't work the way we planned, it's a whole lot easier to just sweep it under the rug and never talk about it again. We all want to be winners--and that's why we try to forget our failures and say that they do not define us. But what if they do? What if our failures are one of the most important parts of who we are? The fact is, if you pride yourself only on… -
An update...
26 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pmHi getFreshMinds readers,I know I dropped off the radar quite a while this summer, and I had a very good reason for doing so. I had planned to jump back into blogging at the end of summer with a giant splash and a big announcement. I've even had the post composed since July.But, as I hope you know, July (and the rest of summer) has come and gone! Due to circumstances beyond my control... I can't talk about my exciting news yet. But, hopefully I'll be able to do that soon.Meanwhile, if you don't mind, I'm going to get back to blogging about fresh ideas again. I've got a bunch of post… -
Do you need to learn Problem Solving 101?
23 Jun 2009 | 11:59 amRecently, I was asked to review Problem Solving 101, a book by management consultant Ken Watabee that was written for children--but became the bestselling business book in Japan that year. The thing I really like about this book is how it urges readers to go beyond their first assumptions. A really good example in the book showed how a young soccer player realized that choosing to go to the 2nd best soccer school would actually benefit her much more than going to the best soccer school.This wasn't a conclusion that was obvious from the beginning--as the best soccer school was in a "better"… -
Jobs seekers... please restrain your creativity!
11 Jun 2009 | 10:28 pmIt's no secret that finding a job right now is tough. And when times get tough, the tough get creative! Right?Today I ran across the results of a survey from CareerBuilder that says 20% of hiring managers are seeing more people try to get their attention in unusual ways.Some of the things people are trying? Sending in a shoe with a resume to "get my foot in the door." Staging a sit-in in the lobby to get a meeting with a director. Washing cars in the parking lot. (No reason given for this.) Sending a resume wrapped as a present and a message that said his skills were a "gift to the…
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Applied Imagination
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Art and Its Cultural Contradictions
2 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pmThis essay raises questions about the role of the artist/creative engaging in neighborhoods, communities and cities. How do they participate and involve? How much time in the community "counts"? How can artists/creatives have the most meaningful impact? [Autumn/Winter 2009 - "Art and Its Cultural Contradictions" in Afterall] PREAMBLE: A FLOOD OF QUESTIONS: What is at stake when artists, architects, curators, organisers and other cultural producers facilitate bricks-and-mortar change, on the ground in cities, with citizens, communities and institutions? How do we test the interrelationships… -
Authentic education is always experimental
2 Nov 2009 | 5:34 amAn old blog post from "The Speed of Creativity" blog, but an important one worth revisiting. What examples of authentic education and learning are you leading? Participating in? Creating? [8 April 2006 - The Speed of Creativity] In the educational, classroom environment, authentic education is always experimental. This is because teaching is an art, not a science. Many, many people sadly mistake the purpose of the educational enterprise as mere content transmission. Much of the curriculum standards which dominate the educational landscape today [...] are based on this faulty assumption. Like… -
Is the U.S. Killing Its Innovation Machine?
29 Oct 2009 | 12:17 pmWhat does innovation require ... in your company? in your community? in your state? in your country? Are you seeing evidence of decisions and behaviors to support sustainable, ethical innovation? Is "innovation machine" the right metaphor, the right frame, for helping us innovate better? [November 2009 - Harvard Business Review - Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief] Can the U.S. continue to thrive as a center of innovation if it can’t manufacture the products it invents? In "Restoring American Competitiveness," a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Gary P. Pisano and Willy C. Shih,… -
Tai Chi exercise reduces knee osteoarthritis pain in the elderly, research shows
29 Oct 2009 | 7:17 am[29 October 2009 - EurekAlert!/Arthritis Care & Research] Regular sessions improve physical function, depression and overall health. ... Researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine have determined that patients over 65 years of age with knee osteoarthritis (OA) who engage in regular Tai Chi exercise improve physical function and experience less pain. Tai Chi (Chuan) is a traditional style of Chinese martial arts that features slow, rhythmic movements to induce mental relaxation and enhance balance, strength, flexibility, and self-efficacy. Full findings of the study are published… -
Creating Cognitive Dissonance in the Classroom
27 Oct 2009 | 4:25 pmIn Ben Johnson's blog at Edutopia, he writes (17 September 2009): "Cognitive dissonance is created by a dedicated teacher who challenges the students' beliefs about their own capacity to learn." In the Creative Community Building program at the University of Connecticut, we seek to create such experiences in the undergraduate classroom (face-to-face and online). Consider signing up for any of three Spring 2010 courses to be offered in Storrs and Hartford, Connecticut, as well as online: Creativity + Social Change - Tuesdays in Hartford, Connecticut Community Organizing and Social Movements -…
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Blue Ocean Strategy | Gabor George Burt on Creating Blue Ocean Strategy
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Is the fashion industry going out of style?
5 Nov 2009 | 2:10 am“There’s no such thing as a permanently great company or a permanently great industry. All industries rise and fall as do companies. However, there are permanently smart strategic moves” — W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne, from Chief Executive magazine article “Flouting Conventional Wisdom” (May 2003). A key quality industries and companies should strive for is adaptability, always scanning and acting upon broad market opportunities. All industries and companies face difficult or life-threatening challenges at one point or another, and it is their adaptability and ability to… -
Red Ocean turbulence ahead
3 Nov 2009 | 11:34 pmDespite the potential upswing of the global economy – there is still great uncertainty and tension in the air. So to inject a much needed layer of levity, our “Global Recovery Comic Angle” series presents satirical articles of different industries during this period. Today we showcase ‘Awful Airlines,’ an editorial cartoon roundup by Daryl Cagle depicting the trials and tribulations of air travel.View the entire slideshow here.[Image via MSNBC.] -
The Four Steps of Visualizing Strategy: Step One — Visual Awakening
2 Nov 2009 | 5:26 amContinuing with weekly insights on Blue Ocean Strategy fundamentals, we advance to the Strategy Canvas. This visual process has four steps. Today we focus on the first step — Visual Awakening, which, along with each step to follow, will be made accessible through the Blue Ocean Strategy Basics archive. For the first step in visualizing strategy, we turn to pages 84 - 85 of the book Blue Ocean Strategy (co-authored by Professor W. Chan Kim and Professor Renée Mauborgne):A common mistake is to discuss changes in strategy before resolving differences of opinion about the current state… -
Let’s Get Academic – Part 2
29 Oct 2009 | 5:58 amIn the September issue of Fast Company, Editor Robert Safian posed challenging questions about the state of higher education, and the best model for the future. With the average annual cost of attending a private four-year college rising nearly 4% to US$ 32,307 this school year — the biggest increase since 2001 — academia is ripe for Blue Ocean Strategy-based thinking and solutions. Yesterday we promised our readers the eagerly-awaited solution proposed by Gabor to the challenge raised by Robert Safian in Fast Company’s “Letter from the Editor: Lessons of the Edupunks.” … -
Let’s Get Academic: Blue Ocean Strategy for higher education
28 Oct 2009 | 2:30 amIn the September issue of Fast Company, Editor Robert Safian posed challenging questions about the state of higher education, and the best model for the future. With the average annual cost of attending a private four-year college rising nearly 4% to US$ 32,307 this school year — the biggest increase since 2001 — academia could definitely benefit from Blue Ocean Strategy-based thinking and solutions. In “Letter from the Editor: Lessons of the Edupunks” Mr. Safian poses the following questions: If you were starting a system of higher education from scratch today, would you still…
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Creativity Central
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Creativity; Or, lessons from duck hunting and Mamet.
1 Nov 2009 | 8:23 amA few years ago I came across an essay by David Mamet called “The Audience: Or, lessons from duck hunting. (Bambi vs. Godzilla, 2007) It has resonated with me ever since. “A duck decoy doesn’t need to look like a duck. It needs to look like a duck to a duck. Wisdom, therefore, lies not in the phenomenological question ‘What does a duck look like?’ But, rather, in the practical ‘What is a duck looking for? “A wealthy hunter might bespeak a decoy realistic to the nth degree. This decoy might be realistic in every particular of size, form,… -
The Unusual Suspects 8: Innovation and Vulnerability
25 Oct 2009 | 11:06 amIt all began with a spontaneous comment by host Saul Kaplan on the second day of the BIF5 Collaborative Innovation Summit. After thanking two of the speakers, he made the observation that there is a strong connection between vulnerability and innovation. The bloggers and tweeters, all noted the remark. During the next break, I asked Saul what he meant. He told me he was reacting to each innovator’s openness to new and often contradictory ideas. Melissa Withers, Executive Director of the Business Innovation Factory, echoed the same idea a few days later in an interview with Ted… -
The Unusual Suspects 7: John Maeda and Bruce Nussbaum on design.
20 Oct 2009 | 6:44 pmSince the publication of The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda has become the patron saint of the art balancing simplicity and complexity. A former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Maeda taught media arts and sciences there for 12 years and served as Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Lab. Today, he is the president of the Rhode Island School of Design, a place world renown for nurturing artists and designers of all stripes. At BIF5, he was interviewed by co-host Bruce Nussbaum, Professor of Innovation and Design at the Parson’s School For… -
The Unusual Suspects 6: Alan Webber Playing Fast with the Rules
19 Oct 2009 | 2:42 pmIn the relatively tiny geography of business magazine world, it was the equivalent of a pre-1981 Beatles reunion. Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, co-founders of Fast Company magazine, took the stage together at BIF5 for the first time in many years. It was easy to see the synergy they brought to an enterprise that became the fastest growing, most successful business magazine in history. Webber talked about his 5-year experience as managing editor and editorial director of the Harvard Business Review. He lead the journal’s visual redesign and created the architecture for… -
The Unusual Suspects 5: Breaking the ice with Nestle and Helmut Traitler.
16 Oct 2009 | 11:49 amThis is less a story about teaching the elephant to dance than teaching the pachyderm how to collaborate. Helmut Traitler is the Vice President of Innovation Partnerships at Nestlé and he is doing what many have failed to do: re-orient a behemoth multi-national corporation around the proposition that “sharing-is-winning.” Traiter's resume is impressive. He has published more than 60 scientific papers and 25 International patents. He received an Honorary Professor for Chemistry from the University of York, UK (1999). He is gifted at applying science to innovation…
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MyBrainBlog
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The Strong Tail
5 Nov 2009 | 7:33 amYou've heard the theory of The Long Tail, here's my twist -- The STRONG Tail.The Long Tail explained, per Wikipedia: The Long Tail is a retailing concept describing the niche strategy of selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities -- usually in addition to selling fewer popular items in large quantities. The concept was popularised by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article, in which he mentioned Amazon.com and Netflix as examples of businesses applying this strategy. Anderson elaborated the Long Tail concept in his book The Long Tail: Why the Future… -
The Best Ideas Are Always A Little Scary
19 Oct 2009 | 10:42 pmIdeas that don't make the people sitting around the presentation table shift in their seats and give each other furtive sideways glances are a complete waste of time.The best ideas are a little frightening. The big ideas make people nervous.The nice, safe, user-friendly ideas have already been thought of and put into action by your competition. If it were easy, everyone else would already be doing it. The concepts that make you work a little harder, learn a little more, and force you outside your comfort zone are the ones that deliver the best results and reach new heights (and new customers)… -
THE Economy is Bad, But What About YOUR Economy?
13 Oct 2009 | 8:06 amAs always, wise words from Jeffrey Gitomer sharing a creative perspective on how you could be growing instead of woeing your business. I count at least a dozen ideas in the video below that could be put into action this afternoon. How many do you count? -
Push Any Key for Creativity
29 Sep 2009 | 5:34 amCreative commands for your mental keyboard, programmed to increase your effectiveness at innovation.1. HOMEDo not underestimate the importance of a home base from which to create ideas. A favorite space that fosters your creative spirit and surrounds you with resources to feed your innovative energy. Windows, posters, books on creativity, fun games and toys, etc. can all serve to spark your creativity and give you 'permission' to free your spirit of innovation.2. ESCThe Escape Key helps you think outside the box. Get out of your cube, office, or boardroom. Escape to a park or coffeeshop or… -
Why People Fear New Ideas
11 Sep 2009 | 6:43 amThough there are many reasons why people fear the adoption of new ideas, here are a few of the common ones I've run across...1. FailureWhat we're doing might not be perfect, but it's working. Why risk changing it for something better on the chance the idea fails?2. BlameIf this new idea doesn't perform as hoped, they'll hold me personally accountable.3. Status QuoWhoa, buddy... No rocking the boat!4. WorkPutting a new idea into effect sounds like it's going to require a lot of extra effort, and my to-do list is already full.5. JudgmentSome people might not like this idea, and perhaps they…
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Idea Sandbox » SandBlog
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Catch More Fish With The Right Lure, In The Right Waters
6 Nov 2009 | 6:05 amA couple of fishermen are hanging out in their local bait shop. One has a new product idea for out-of-town visitors. Sell a lake map and fishing lure combo. Take specific fishing lures and tape them to the different lakes on the map. This way the out-of-towner will know the proper bait to use at each particular lake, and will lead to a more successful fishing experience. If you’re at Watermans Reservoir and want to catch a Northern Pike, you need a spinner lure. At Worden’s Pond after Jackfish? Use a fish-imitation lure or cut bait.* Here comes the business segue… We… -
How To Peel A Tomato: Using The Right Tool
5 Nov 2009 | 3:59 amLast week I prepared a recipe for an Italian dish that calls for fresh-peeled tomatoes. I have a vegetable peeler… nice and sharp with a rubber grip. I’ve used it for carrots, potatoes, zucchini, squash… However, have you ever tried to peel a tomato? No matter how careful and patient you are, the peeler hacks up the tomato. Luckily I remembered my “how to peel tomatoes” lesson Chef Dad taught me: Blanching and Shocking. If you put whole fresh tomatoes in a pot of boiling water for 15 to 30 seconds (blanching) followed by a pot of iced cold water for 15 to 30… -
Solve Problems By Being A Copycat
3 Nov 2009 | 4:42 amWhen faced with a challenge, instead of trying to solve the problem from scratch – find an analog. That is, a comparison model you can copy. Ask yourself who (or what) may have solved a problem similar to yours. Dan and Chip Heath recently wrote an article for Fast Company magazine, A Problem-Solver’s Guide to Copycatting, where they detail examples. Don’t reinvent the wheel, somewhere out there is something round! Enjoy! -
50 Eye-Opening Lectures for the Marketing Mind: By Online Colleges
2 Nov 2009 | 7:33 amOnline Colleges, a site promoting web-based colleges, fished the interwebs and compiled a page of 50 Eye-Opening Lectures for the Marketing Mind – lectures and presentations for marketers with topics ranging from Economics, Business, Marketing, Advertising, Technology, and Psychology and Sociology. The 50 Lectures for Marketers is part of a series of compilations Online College has created. Other compilations include… 100 Inspiring, Educational Videos for Writers 100 Educational Twitter Feeds for Journalism Students 100 Inspirational Twitter Feeds for College Students 100 Awesome… -
Four Situations, Why You Would Need To Brainstorm
2 Nov 2009 | 4:21 amWhile there are innumerable reasons for hosting a brainstorming session, the purpose for meeting can be summarized with four situations. They are the need to meet to: (1) Fix Something Broken / Problem Solving, (2) Grow Something, (3) Get Ideas / Fill Idea Pipeline, and (4) Innovate / Make Something New (1) Fix Something Broken / Problem Solving Your franchise has reached a certain size and you want to grow bigger. Your new company has a steady flow of clients – now you want a “brand” – a logo, website, long-term goals, etc. You’ve got something already…
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Innoblog
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Charting a Course through the Tempestuous GPS Seas: Google’s Free Navigation Services
4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmGoogle made big news last week when it announced that it will offer free navigation service for mobile phones as part of its new software, Android 2.0. The service will initially only be available on Motorola’s new Droid phone (on sale beginning Nov. 6), but will eventually be expanded to more phones in the near future. Unsurprisingly, the day the announcement was made, shares plummeted for GPS giants Garmin and TomTom, with Garmin’s shares dropping by 16 percent and TomTom’s closing around 21 percent lower. This amounts to a combined loss of $1.7 billion for the companies,… -
Money Won't Help Jump-Start Clean-Tech - Systems Thinking Is Required
27 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pmOver on the Harvard Business Review Editors' Blog, Gardiner Morris takes a look at the money that President Obama and US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu have been promising to spend on energy research projects and innovations in the energy sector. Morris argues that while this money is necessary, it's not sufficient to get the clean-tech economy up and moving. He cites the recent HBR article by Innosight's Mark Johnson and Josh Suskewicz, "How to Jump-Start the Clean-Tech Economy" as he discusses the need for the systems that will make this sector take off -- the "infrastructure,… -
Constant Transformation Is the New Normal
26 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pmI picked up an interesting vibe at the Magazine Publishers Association Innovation Conference the other week. For the most part, the industry has had a tough year as it grapples with recession, changing consumer behavior, and a range of disruptive technologies. Yet signs of economic recovery and a sense that the magazine industry could learn from missteps from cousins in the music and newspaper business produced an unexpected sense of optimism. One point I made in my remarks is that the forces at work in the magazine business — increased competition, rapidly shifting technologies, and… -
Cheap Phones, Walmart, and the Disruptive Wish
25 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pmOn October 14, Walmart sent shivers down some spines and a bolt of excitement up others when it announced plans to offer nationwide cellphone and mobile data service. Developed in cooperation with TracFone Wireless, the service (called Straight Talk) will offer two wireless plans, one providing unlimited voice, data, and texts at $45/month and another allowing 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts, and 30MB of data at $30/month. Some quarters quickly labeled this development disruptive. But is it so? For an offering to be disruptive, it has to provide superior performance along new dimensions (and,… -
Nook: Too Soon To Call It a Kindle-Killer
20 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pmIf nothing else, developments in the e-reader market provide substantial fodder for online commentary. It seems that every week features a story in a mainstream publication about the latest "Kindle killer" followed by endless chatter and eager speculation in blogs and on Twitter. This week's discussion centered on Barnes & Noble's "Nook" device. It's not hard to see why this particular device sparked such discussion. The slick-looking device has unique features, such as the ability to "lend" books that friends can view on multiple platforms for 14 days, use…
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Innovating To Win
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A Nose For Innovation
5 Nov 2009 | 5:59 amBefore leaving on my current world-wide innovation tour, I packed Robbie, my two year old Bernese Mountain Dog, into my car and drove to Top O’ The Hill Farm in Ayer, Massachusetts, to participate in a two day tracking workshop.... -
Report From Power To Innovate 2009
25 Oct 2009 | 1:14 amWhat a week it was! Last Thursday and Friday Invention Machine held its annual Power To Innovate conference. The event was well attended and drew international representation of users of Invention Machine’s Goldfire innovation platform software. For me, this is... -
Government and Innovation Climate Poll Closing Soon
21 Sep 2009 | 12:31 pmOops! I forgot to close this most recent poll. So, our current informal innovation poll will close this Friday. This time, the question is: “As economic signs turn upwards, what will be the effect on the climate for innovation of... -
An Innovation Chat With Braden Kelley
18 Sep 2009 | 7:26 amBraden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter) is an official blogger for the Open Innovation Summit that will be held in Orlando on December 2-4, 2009. I will be speaking on the topic of “Hands-On Strategies For Overcoming the Key Challenges Of... -
Finding New Market Opportunities Through Systematic Innovation
15 Sep 2009 | 7:59 pmIt has been more than a year since the bottom fell out of the financial markets, and companies around the globe are still struggle to figure out which way is up. There are some early signs of hope, but the...
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Innovationedge
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Greenhouse gas goes underground
2 Nov 2009 | 1:38 pmToshiba, displaying the pilot site of a coal plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at the Mikawa power station. Here’s an interesting article sure to raise controversy in the scientific community: To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists at Toshiba Corp. in rural Japan are working on a way to send noxious pollutants deep into the ground. It is a technology called “carbon capture and storage” (CCS), and is being tested at the Mikawa power station, located near the coast of Japan’s southern coast. Five large-scale integrated CCS projects are now… -
Patents: Valuable Tools for Advancing the Public Good
29 Oct 2009 | 6:31 pmMany of our readers understand how a sound patent system can advance the public good. The US patent system, for example, is based on a social compact between inventors and the public in which inventors are asked to teach the world their secrets in exchange for a limited monopoly on the invention. For a few years, the inventors can control the rights to what they have invented, and then the patent expires, making it available to all. Meanwhile, by teaching how to practice the invention, knowledge is advanced and everyone’s boat is lifted. Take away the respect for intellectual property… -
The word is out about Conquering Innovation Fatigue
27 Oct 2009 | 10:44 amThe innovation process isn’t something that is widely understood outside of the corporate realm, which is why I have a passion for writing about it and inspiring others. It’s always exciting to me when the people in the media take notice and are truly enthusiastic about inventors. Check out this nice feature article published last week about our book, Conquering Innovation Fatigue, which I co-wrote with my colleague Jeff Lindsay and collaborator Mukund Karanjikar. I believe we are starting to see new doors open to fresh new ideas as more inventors and business start… -
Just in time for the holidays: iMac vs. Windows 7
23 Oct 2009 | 12:37 pmPC users are now able to switch to Windows 7. Microsoft officially released the upgrade system yesterday, and a few hours later Apple answered back with its own updated iMac–and a new “Get a Mac” series of commercials. You know the ones: “PC” and “Mac” are two characters who represent the competitive companies…but in the end the cooler of the two, Mac, wins out. Check out my favorite of the three ads, “Broken Promises,” where PC promises Mac that Windows 7 is not going to have any of the problems Vista had: Do you have a PC, and will you… -
Post-Crescent: Local leaders pen book to aid inventors
21 Oct 2009 | 9:49 amFeatured in the Post-Crescent on Sunday, October 18, 2009
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innovation playground Idris Mootee
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Random Thoughts On Industrial Design, Busness Model Design And Design For Change
4 Nov 2009 | 5:08 pmI was chatting with some members of our design research team just yesterday next to the cooler the other day, we were talking about how iPhone is such a bad phone and a great media player, and the Backberry is such a great email gadget but terrible browser. The conclusion was phones were not designed to handle the “social” functions and they are just add-ons. What does a true “social” gadget looks like? I will ask our design team to come up with some crazy ideas and sure clients love to see them As more and more people use Twiiter or Facebook as their core communications. What are the… -
When Wal-Mart Enters The Funeral Industry, The Business Is About To Change. Will Amazon.com Follow? What's The Latest Innovation In The Funeral Busines?
2 Nov 2009 | 5:04 pmSome survey stated that the average person's greatest fear is having to give a speech in public. That’s not for me but I am sure for many. I remember one guy told he when he was put on stage in front of 800 people, the dead silence was like death. Giving a speech in public ranked even higher than death which was third on the list. So, you're telling me that at a funeral, most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than have to stand up and give a eulogy. The first baby boomers are entering their mid-60s, and the death rate in the U.S. is expected to rise from 8.1 people per… -
Random Thoughts: From Aviva Community Fund To Positive Social Change To Women Empowerment.
30 Oct 2009 | 8:26 amI was so excited that our Aviva Community Program is getting such good response even before the official launch. It is a very important project for both our client and IC because it is something we truly believe in. It is about 1/ Empowering change in our communities while building brand 2/ Prove that social media is not a hype and if you use it right it is the most powerful communication medium 3/ Authenticity is the key ingredient of marketing, this program is about action and not just words. Check out the program here It is truly where "Marketing Innovation" meets "Social… -
The Sustainability Challenge Is Complex. Is Ecolabeling The Answer Or Just Another Greenwashing Tool?
28 Oct 2009 | 9:01 pmNo one will disagree that today’s customer is empowered like never before. With social media and other connectivity, they care able to acquire more detailed information about brands, products and services in order to make smarter decisions; everything is a just a few clicks away. Any green-washing or eco-washing can last only for a few clicks. Customer can access new knowledge about the behavior of companies and can more readily question and challenge this behavior. Many CSR initiatives are of limited success. It is pretty simple, for a retailer to have some green products available as a… -
China Needs A National Design Policy. But More So, Need Entrepreneurs That Think Big And Long-Term.
25 Oct 2009 | 9:21 pmChina's design industry experts are calling for greater government support in order to help the their manufacturers raise the competitiveness with design innovation. Zhu Tao, president of China Industrial Design Association, said the Chinese economy suffered heavily from the global economic crisis, with factory closures and layoffs. "Without our own design, we won't have our own brands. Without our own brands, we won't be independent in the world. Being an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) is no way out," he said. China does have a design policy. Not even the US has…
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InnovationCreation
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Are there any innovation groups to keep an eye on?
12 Oct 2009 | 6:09 pmNo reason not to get involved! From Gerald "Solutionman" Haman via LinkedIn:More than 1100,000 people are members of the Top 20 (LinkedIn) Innovation Groups1,000 people per week are joining the Top 20 Innovation GroupsThe Marketing/PR/Sales Innovators Group is the 11th largest LinkedIn Group with over 65,000 memberThe Twitter Innovators Group is the largest Twitter-focused on LinkedIn with more than 11,600 members who tweetOver 9,700 people belong to the fast-growing Green & Sustainability Innovators GroupMore than 8,500 people belong to the helpful InnovationPeople GroupMarketing, PR,… -
Problem Solving 101: Eveyone needs some inspriation!
29 Jun 2009 | 7:16 amProblem-solving... This is something we all do every day. Some problems are not earth shattering ("when will I buy groceries?") and others have impacts that can change the way you live ("I lost my job and need to find a new one"). But the act of problem-solving itself is not (usually) something we learn directly as a skill. Yes, we do learn to solve problems, but most of us tend to "discover" problem-solving in the course of solving real problems. This means much of problem-solving learning is ad hoc and we miss out on the discovery of tools that can help us through the problem-solving… -
Design patterns
25 May 2009 | 8:40 amChristopher Alexander has a set of books, all of which have super info for innovation, especially about learning design patterns and how to bring design elements together.These three are a set that were written together: The timeless way of building, easy to get through; The Oregon experiment, also easier to get through; A pattern language: towns, buildings, construction... Thick thick book with the really good stuff. Fortunately all the books are written, on purpose, to be read where you want; Christopher suggests reading the header titles/section tiles straight through then go back to where… -
SIGGRAPH Exhibit at IUPUI, April 2009
19 Apr 2009 | 8:14 pmI had a chat with several students about their creative and innovative designs in 2D and 3D graphics. IUPUI's ACM SIGGRAPH Student Chapter put on the exhibition to show case student work and to bring the public, employers, and other IUPUI students together to see and chat about the works.Below are several interviews plus pics from the event.Get the SIGGRAPH Exhibition IUPUI April 2009 widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox!RSS feed of this audio is http://feeds2.feedburner.com/SIGGRAPHIUPUI Flickr pics from this event may also be found at… -
Invention is the mother of necessity...
3 Feb 2009 | 8:38 amWhat is this? Is is a tennis ball at the end of a wooden broom handle that is used to quickly buff out scuffs on the floor of the Indianapolis, Indiana airport. The lady working the floors says this things works very well to remove floor scuffs and that all the cleaning staff have one of these. This is truly the implementation of "necessity is the mother of invention".This week in the Financial Times there was an interview with Sir. James Black on "An acute talent for innovation". Sir. Black made an interesting statement with respect to pharmaceutical companies; “It’s a kind of obscenity.
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Creativity & Innovation
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Finland’s Innovation Economy
6 Nov 2009 | 3:38 amThis is my first posting from Europe, during my two-month stay as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge. I have about twelve guest lectures scheduled and I’ll be posting about my travels. This week I’ve been in Finland, giving a series of four invited lectures at four different universities.* If you have ever looked at those national rankings that come out every year, comparing how students in different countries score on math and science and other subjects, you may remember that Finland is usually number one. What are they doing that makes them so successful? Finland… -
Regional Clusters: More Complex Than You Think
27 Oct 2009 | 9:48 amEconomists have noted for over a century that similar firms tend to “cluster” near each other. In the last few decades, research on clusters has picked up dramatically, in part because they are associated with more rapid innovation. One of the best-known examples of a contemporary regional cluster is Silicon Valley and its cluster of electronics and software firms. Clusters are often assumed to work due to openness, collaboration, loose organizational boundaries, and information sharing. A new research paper* by Simon Bell, Paul Tracey, and Jan Hiede argues that it’s often… -
The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest
23 Oct 2009 | 2:50 pmSince it was founded in the 1920s, the New Yorker magazine has been famous for its one-frame black and white cartoons, each with a single one-line caption published underneath. For the last few years, the magazine has gotten readers involved in the art of cartoon humor: it publishes a one-frame cartoon, without a caption, and invites readers to come up with funny captions and submit them. The funniest caption is selected by a panel of judges and published two weeks later. Here’s a short article I wrote after interviewing a few recent winners of the contest, after being introduced to… -
Superstar Extinction
16 Oct 2009 | 11:36 amHow important is collaboration in scientific laboratories? A new paper by Pierre Azoulay, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Jialan Wang* studied what happens to research productivity when an academic “superstar” dies while they’re still actively engaged in scientific research. A superstar is a brilliant scientist who teams up with others to collaboratively conduct research and who co-authors with other scientists. The researchers analyzed the coauthors of 137 eminent life scientists. On average, each superstar had 73 coauthors. (That number alone is astonishing, and shows how… -
Design Thinking
10 Oct 2009 | 11:09 amClick here to order Change by Design, the long-awaited book by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, has just been published. And it’s getting a lot of press: it was excerpted in Business Week’s October 5, 2009 issue, and was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal on October 9, 2009 (“The shape of things to come”). The book’s genesis dates back to a legendary article in the Harvard Business Review titled “Design Thinking.” It’s IDEO’s approach to innovation–to focus on “new ways of communicating and collaborating.” Designers have always…
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Killer Innovations
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Podcast: Interview with Chuck House
29 Oct 2009 | 9:53 pmIn this episode of the Killer Innovations podcast I interview Chuck House. Chuck is one of those individuals whose impact we’ve all felt but didn’t immediately realize. With the recent anniversary of Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon, Chuck turned out to be timely in this interview. Why? He’s the inventor of the early display technology that resulted in Chuck ultimately creating the moon monitor. It was the moon monitor that allowed NASA and the rest of the world see Neil Armstrong step on the moon. Now the interview lasted more than two hours … so this is just a few of the… -
New blog and podcast site about ready for launch …
13 Sep 2009 | 1:37 pmWe are in the process of doing a much needed clean-up and re-design of the blog (www.philmckinney.com) and podcast (www.killerinnovations.com) website. The new site should be up and live in about two weeks. We have completed the design work and now in the process of moving all of the content and cleaning up the tags, categories, etc. We are also moving from MT to WordPress and moving servers to Media Temple. Lots of change and being the paranoid guy I am, I’m being extra careful to ensure its as smooth as possible. So – why am I doing this after all of these… -
Podcast: Interview with Geoffrey Moore – Part 2 of 2
26 Aug 2009 | 11:28 pmAs part of the continuing set of interviews with innovation thought leaders, this weeks podcast is part 2 of a 2 part interview with Geoffrey Moore. As with any interview, I came in with a set of planned topics that I thought were interesting. Within the first 5 minutes, they were thrown out the window and we went “off script”. Geoffrey’s thinking and writing have shaped the thinking of entrepreneurs around the world and every time I get together with him, I learn something. Hopefully, you enjoy this interview as much fun as I did recording it … The full show notes… -
Podcast: Interview with Geoffrey Moore – Part 1 of 2
17 Aug 2009 | 10:29 pmAs part of the continuing set of interviews with innovation thought leaders, this weeks podcast is part 1 of a 2 part interview with Geoffrey Moore. Geoffrey is the author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game and most recently Dealing With Darwin, each of which deals with the challenges of leadership and innovation. He is a co-founder and managing director at TCG Advisors and founder of The Chasm Group Geoffrey is also a venture partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, providing strategy advice and consulting services across MDV's entire portfolio of early-stage… -
Video Podcast: Enabling Innovation
10 Aug 2009 | 1:54 pmA video of the presenting at the 2009 Forrester IT Forum on the topic of: "Enabling Innovation - A Strength In Any Economy" The content addressed the challenges of innovation during especially tough economic times. The material has been tailored to the audience of CIO's and other senior IT executives of leading corporations. The content is universal to any individual or organization looking to support and enable innovation. Download of video
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Outside Innovation
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Google Android vs. Apple iPhone: Whose App Ecosystem Will Win?
30 Oct 2009 | 11:00 amThe recent buzz about the Verizon/Motorola/Google (An)Droid vs. Apple/AT&T/et al iPhone has revolved around two customer-critical issues and one supplier-critical one (can you guess which is which?):• Which device+network combo meets customers' usability requirements?• Which brand evokes the most loyalty?• Which ecosystem will attract the most apps?As pundits review and early adopters swarm, I've been noticing a few patterns in the dialog. It's not about the device. Sure, everyone comments about display resolution, keyboard quality (or lack thereof), industrial… -
Local Motors: Reinventing the Car Industry from the Outside In
23 Oct 2009 | 11:00 amOne of the most inspiring "stories" at the Business Innovation Factory's fifth annual summit, BIF-5, in Providence, Rhode Island was told by Jay Rogers, the founder of an innovative new American car company, Local Motors (www.local-motors.com). Jay is an ex-marine whose grandfather instilled in him a passion for cars. His grandfather owned, among other companies, Indian Motorcycles. Jay grew up in a car-mad family. His experience fighting in Iraq convinced him that the U.S. needed to shed its dependence on foreign oil. So he has invented a new kind of car company. The cars are… -
The Anatomy of Innovation
20 Oct 2009 | 6:33 pmI really enjoyed writing this second installment to my case study about Nature Education's groundbreaking Scitable platform for science education. Many people are happy to showcase their innovative projects. But few people are as forthcoming as Vikram Savkar in taking me behind the scenes. I gained a good understanding of the steps required to innovate within a large organization: Hire an outside renegade. Have him build and sell his vision. Let him create his own team. Locate the team off-site. Take a blank slate approach. Create a blueprint with an integrated cross-functional team. -
How to Revolutionize Your Industry
2 Oct 2009 | 8:00 amIf your business model is under siege, what should you do? That’s the question that Vikram Savkar asked himself a couple of years ago. At the time, he worked for a publisher of high-priced textbooks. He decided that among the reasons the textbook publishing market is broken are: Customers don’t choose what to buy -- the students who buy the books don’t get to choose which books to buy (their professors assign them). There’s no feedback mechanism for students to react to the material in the textbooks, nor to interact with the people who write them. There are no real alternatives to… -
Disruptive Innovation: Nature’s Scitable Replaces Life Sciences Textbooks
26 Sep 2009 | 5:09 pmJust over a year ago, Nature Publishing Group's new Education Division quietly launched the Beta of a revolutionary idea: Replace expensive textbooks with a free collaborative learning space for science. Scitable.com went live in January, 2009 and has quickly become a magnet for serious students of genetics (the first field that Nature is addressing). Now, a year after its beta, Scitable.com is alive and well. Students and faculty from all over the world are actively using Scitable's resources to teach and learn about genetics. What can you do on Scitable? Explore a topic room in…
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Think Differently!!
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Think Quick
29 Oct 2009 | 8:21 amMany people in the organisational development community in Melbourne, Australia will know Frank Connolly from his excellent work as coordinator for the Victorian Public Sector Continuous Improvement Network (VPS CIN) over the last several years.Frank has started a new initiative, and central to these efforts is his new Think Quick blog.Good luck Frank with your new initiative and helping people 'Think Quick'! -
Rethinking Economics
23 Oct 2009 | 6:56 pmAs someone who received his Ph.D from an Economics Department (but who in no way considers himself an economist!), I continue to watch with interest how the recent Global Financial Crisis is continuing to cause a rethink of the economics profession. A major focus of current interest was one of the subjects of my thesis: economists' excessive reliance on mathematics, regardless of the validity of the assumptions used by the mathematical models. Economists' assumptions for their mathematical modelling are typically things like "assume that people have infinite knowledge of the past, present,… -
Organisational Fairy Tales
13 Oct 2009 | 10:39 pmI was recently given a review copy of Andrew Rixon's new book, Opening Up: Creative Storytelling at Work. Andrew is an expert in applying complexity theory and storytelling within organisations to facilitate consensus and change.One of the intriguing contributions of this book is Andrew's idea of organisational fairy tales. By constructing a fairy tale around the issue or problem we wish to describe or address, we can liberate ourselves to talk about the issue in a different and more mythic way. The twist, however, comes when the facilitator asks the audience hearing a fairy tale constructed… -
Snorklers and Divers
13 Oct 2009 | 3:35 pmI was speaking with Experiential Marketing expert and consultant Justine Haddrick recently regarding the idea of scanners vs. deep divers. Justine mentioned that in their work responding to requests for information from clients, Justine and her team had developed a convention of asking whether someone requesting work was a snorkler - someone looking for an overview of options floating over them at a relatively high level - or a diver- someone wanting depth of insight and expertise regarding their very specific problem in the response. It's important to tailor our responses to the needs of the… -
Sean Richardson on the 10% Rule
8 Oct 2009 | 2:33 amI was speaking with sports psychologist and high performance coach Sean Richardson today about the 10% rule. Sean is an expert in sustaining physical and mental well being while performing at peak levels.Sean mentioned the additional dimension that there is a phenomenon in sports psychology called periodisation - athletes can sustain peak workloads for 3 to 3 1/2 weeks. After this time they need a week of reduced volume and intensity of work and and an increase in activities that promote recovery. This period of recovery is required for athletes to recover physically and emotionally, and is…
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Think For A Change
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Book Review: Innovation Passport...
6 Nov 2009 | 10:23 amI was recently given a copy of "Innovation Passport - The IBM First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) Journey from Research to Reality" by Mary Jo Frederich and Peter Andrews, and I realized the depth of my innovation "geekness" when I flew through it in one sitting! Let's be honest here, this is a book written by innovation practitioners for innovation practitioners. Normal buyers of fluff management books will not get past page 20 of this book. This is serious "nuts and bolts" innovation management, product management and portfolio management all wrapped up into one book. And that's… -
Tools for Solving Problems...
3 Nov 2009 | 1:27 pm"If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail" - Abraham MaslowWhen I work with clients, I tend to use a lot of tools. I have tools to assess innovation maturity. I have tools to lead a root cause analysis. I have tools to do customer interviews. I have tools to facilitate an idea generation session. You get it...I have a lot of tools. And that is to specifically avoid the situation that Mr. Maslow describes above. Many times...my counterparts on the Lean/SixSig side rely far too heavily on their specific tools. They… -
Just Give Me The Key Points...
2 Nov 2009 | 8:11 pm"Success is neither mysterious or magical. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals." - Jim RohnI am constantly asked the same question..."What do I need to make innovation happen in my organization?"And that's usually followed by..."And I really just want to know the basics...the key points."If you know me...you'll know that I cringe at this question. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of unique combinations of skill sets, processes, tools, techniques and leadership styles that take a little luck and some money and other resources to… -
Welcome to the 33rd Annual PDMA International Conference...
31 Oct 2009 | 6:42 amThis week I am in Anaheim, California…Disneyland to be more exact. I am attending the 33rd Annual International Conference of the Product Development & Management Association. As an official Media Partner for the conference, one of my responsibilities is to report and share with you the latest from the world of innovation, design, product development and product management. Let’s be clear…there are some heavy hitters here this week. People like Guy Kawasaki and Professor Jean-Phillipe Deschamps and Ken James of GlaxoSmithKline and Steve Rendle of North… -
Dream Big Today...
30 Oct 2009 | 7:15 amWe used to have big dreams. I mean REALLY big dreams. For example, back in the 50’s, they used to dream BIG about the future. There were dreams of cities under the ocean and in space. Dreams of rocket travel being routine and fully automated kitchens run by our robot servants. There were World’s Fairs that showcased the best of bold, innovative thinking. There were utopian dreams like the building of Disneyland. What the hell happened? Where is the bold, innovative thinking now? Sure, we are building on the old and making what is…
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Securing Innovation
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China Intellectual Property Business
5 Nov 2009 | 10:48 amAs always, I'm looking forward to my next trip to Asia, where this time I'll be getting together with other speakers at the first IP transaction focused conference in China. Marshall Phelps, Corporate VP for IP Policy and Strategy at Microsoft, Joff Wild, Editor of IAM Magazine, and Duncan Bucknell, CEO, IP Strategist, Lawyer & Patent Attorney, coincidentally our featured guest blogger here on IP.com's corporate blog, Securing Innovation, are among the global IP leaders speaking at this conference. China Intellectual Property Business 2009 ("CIPB 2009") is organized by… -
Tweet of the Week @Pogue
31 Oct 2009 | 1:42 amThanks to David Pogue, New York Times technology columnist and CNBC tech dude, for tweeting this week about German innovation in automobile manufacturing. And linking from his Twitter stream @Pogue to this very interesting YouTube video giving us a good look inside Volkswagen's "transparent factory" in Dresden, Germany. -
Happy 40th Birthday, Internet
28 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pmInternet pioneer and UCLA computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock discusses the process of connecting the first host computer to the fledgling Internet, then known as the ARPANET, in September 1969, and sending the first host-to-host message a month later on October 29, 1969. UCLA became the first node of the ARPANET on Sept. 2, 1969, when 35-year-old Leonard Kleinrock led a group of computer scientists in establishing the first network connection between two machines on campus. Two months later, on Oct. 29, Kleinrock and his team, working out of a small space in the engineering school's… -
Driving Innovation at Cisco
28 Oct 2009 | 10:11 am"Innovation, really, is the magic that makes imagination become reality," says Padmasree Warrior, Chief Technology Officer at Cisco Systems, speaking at Google. As CTO, Padmasree Warrior helps define Ciscos technological strategy and helps drive innovation across the company, working closely with the senior executive team and board of directors. As an evangelist for what's possible, she pushes the organization to stretch beyond its current capabilities not just in technology, but also in its strategic partnerships and new business models. She says, "The debate is not… -
We Live In Exponential Times
26 Oct 2009 | 11:04 pmDid you know? We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet. So what does it all mean? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Ratemyideas | Saving the world through design / Popular Ideas
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Storage Coffee Tables
5 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pmStyles from contemporary to modern of Storage Coffee Tables. Browse our huge selection now.1 Vote(s) -
Kitchen Wall Art
5 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pmQuality Posters and Art Prints Framing Available.Large Selection of Art Prints that are Great for Any Stlye Kitchen.1 Vote(s) -
Stainless Steel Wall Art
5 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pmBeautify Any Room With Decorative Wall Art Huge Selection Low Prices.1 Vote(s) -
Cherry Writing Desk
5 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pmFind a quality of Cherry Writing Desk.Many stlye and low price.1 Vote(s) -
Fleece Bed Sheets
5 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pmLuxury bedding for any size bed High thread count cotton quality1 Vote(s)
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Stefan Lindegaard: Leadership+Innovation
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The Fun Factor & Innovation
5 Nov 2009 | 6:45 amWhat impact does the fun factor have on the innovations we bring to market? Honestly, I had not given this much thought until Braden Kelley made me aware of the Thefuntheory.com. This site 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. What if we started to apply a fun factor to our daily innovation work? Could this bring out better results? Could it become more than just a… -
Business-to-business cases on open innovation
2 Nov 2009 | 4:34 amThere are plenty of business-to-consumer cases on open innovation including a long range of idea generating campaigns aimed at getting customers and end-users involved in innovation. There are fewer cases on how companies work with open innovation in a business-to-business (b-t-b) setting. I recently asked my Leadership+Innovation community at LinkedIn. Roland Harwood, who is the director of open innovation at Nesta mentioned two projects that they have been involved in over the last few years. OSCR. An open innovation competition in which Orange is looking to share risk and reward with… -
More Innovation Lessons From P&G
28 Oct 2009 | 1:43 pmWe recently had a great event in my Danish network for innovation leaders. Joachim von Heimburg, who is one of the most experienced innovation practitioners in the European industry, came by for a two-hour session based on his 30 years of experience from P&G. We touched on many issues and I have inserted a few snippets below. • On intermediaries: Of the 10 companies present at the session, only two companies had experiences with intermediaries such as InnoCentive and they were only very brief. I was surprised by this low level of interaction. We discussed that employees often get into… -
Why Denmark – And Other Countries – Will Lose Their Innovation Capabilities
28 Oct 2009 | 2:37 amI recently got reasons to take my innovation perspective to a national rather than a corporate level. The questions that went through my mind were like this. What if the behaviours of the citizens in a country determine the corporate ability to innovate? What if such behaviours directly hurt the corporate ability to innovate? A capability that is so important for the future of companies as well as countries. Or what if the behaviours hinder the chances of taking innovation to the next level? The country I have in mind is my own, Denmark. I have long argued that Denmark does very well on… -
The People Of China: Building An Innovation Engine
27 Oct 2009 | 12:53 amI recently made another trip to China. My purpose was to meet with innovation leaders in order to build further on my understanding of the Chinese innovation community and thus on my global perspectives on innovation. I had a couple of meetings and I did an improvised session at a company. Having met about 15 people and having spent 5 days in Beijing, I have to say that my expectations of what will happen in China grew even higher. The reason for this is the innovation people of China. They are hungry, bright and very eager to learn. Yes, they still have a lot to learn. And many of them do…
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Innovation in Practice
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The LAB: Innovating Social Media with Task Unification (October 2009)
31 Oct 2009 | 5:30 pmEmbracing social media and the myriad of Web 2.0 tools is more challenging than just setting up a Facebook account or adding a “Follow Me on Twitter” link. Organizations struggle with how to take advantage of the power of Web 2.0. Where do you start? How do you tie these new tools in with your current website? How do you make sure your current constituents are happy while moving the organization to a more networked world? For this month’s LAB, we will use the innovation template called Task Unification, one of five templates of the corporate innovation method called S.I.T.. To… -
The Power to Innovate: Conference Report
24 Oct 2009 | 11:06 amCongratulations to the team at Invention Machine for hosting this week’s conference, Power to Innovate, at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. The theme of the conference centered around the Innovation Intelligence EcosystemTM and how companies can boost performance by coordinating information, communities, and innovation activities. Invention Machine’s premier product, Goldfire, is at the center of this ecosystem."Goldfire is a unique innovation software platform that transforms ideas into commercial products—generating and validating concepts and making innovation a sustainable… -
Reinventing the Newspaper
20 Oct 2009 | 9:54 amNewspapers are dying. Their business model is burning to the ground. They cannot fend off the Internet and other threats despite their virtual monopoly and economies of scale in printing and distribution. Advertisers are moving on. Yet while traditional newsrooms are shrinking, journalism is thriving and the consumption of news is skyrocketing. Why are newspapers shutting down? As Clay Shirky describes it: "If you want to know why newspapers are in such trouble, the most salient fact is this: Printing presses are terrifically expensive to set up and to run. This bit of economics,… -
Academic Focus: Harvard Business School
12 Oct 2009 | 6:29 amA colleague asked me, "Who is that innovation guru at the Harvard Business School?" That's easy: Dr. Teresa Amabile. Dr. Amabile heads the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and is the only tenured professor at a top school to devote her entire research program to the study of creativity. She is one of the world's leading voices in business innovation. From Wikipedia: "Originally educated and employed as a chemist, Dr. Amabile received her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1977. Originally focusing on individual creativity, Dr. Amabile's… -
Innovation Sighting: The Division Template in Elevators
4 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pmWhat is the first thing you do when you step into an elevator? For most people: push the button of the floor you are going to. Not so with a new breed of elevators manufactured by Schindler North America. These elevators have the buttons on the outside, not inside. The buttons for selecting your floor are on each floor. Instead of just pushing a single up or down button to hail an elevator, you push the button for the floor you want as though you were inside.The Division Template is the culprit here. In this innovation sighting, the elevator floor button panel was divided out and…
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INDIA INVENTS
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TiE Shree Shakti awards
6 Nov 2009 | 10:36 pmThe TiE Stree Shakti (TSS) Workshop and Awards is a forum for women entrepreneurs to create trust-based partnerships through active networking. The objective of TSS is to create a platform of belonging for women entrepreneurs. The TiE Stree Shakti Workshops and Awards are scheduled on 12Dec 2009,Mumbai. For more details: www.TiESTreeShakti.org -
Winners of GE Edison Challenge.
6 Nov 2009 | 10:18 pmThe winners announced on 6th are:`Graminavitas' from IIT Chennai. Team members Kaushik Anand, Midhun Salim, Srinath Ramakrusshnan, Aswin Ramesh and Aditya Harit. Integrated Project involves Dehusking , gassification of husk, micro-grid and sanitaion. Ruuners up are team Energy Boosters, Venkatewara College of Engineering,Chennai, team members Netrah, Neha and Rahul Jain. Project is on Algae (Spirogyra) production using toxic waste from textile industry.Employees choice was team Tojoe from PSG College. Team Adithiya, Aravind, Ram Prasadh, Somasundaram and Vishwanath. Ptoejct- Solar pond. -
Idea Bounty
2 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIdea Bounty is a social think tank that provides a secure channel for the world wide creative community to offer solutions to creative briefs. A reward or 'Bounty' is offered for the Idea that best answers the brief and the contributor of the Winning Idea gets the cash. -
Insights from GE research
2 Nov 2009 | 4:27 amGopichand Katragadda, in his book `SMASH' talks of hand to mind barrier. Many analysts referred to our aversion to dirty hands leaving us a nation of million spectators always struggling to find 11 to soil in the field. Bright engineers for decades shunned shop floor jobs and reserachers lived in ivory tower unconnected to market. Gopichand also ( probably for the first time from any MNC) shares his insights on what makes GE and MNC R&D units such a productive places. The activities highlighted:1. GECR-B Signature Programs: The idea is to have a branding and instill pride in the programs… -
Luna Ergonomics-clever texting
1 Nov 2009 | 10:06 pmCan U send SMS by pressing only a single key?Luna Ergonomics Pvt Ltd is based out of JSS Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park at Noida. The startup is founded by Major Abhijit Bhattacharjee, an electronics engineer and a keen technologist, a former Signaller from the Indian Army. They have developed the Panini Keypad which supports composition and sending of SMS in 11 major languages of India. And offers SMS compression for the first time in the world increasing the payload of a SMS in an Indian language by over 300 percent. Luna Ergonomics also developed the first dictionary less…
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Come to Know
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Cometoknow.com nominated for “Top 100 Blogs” Award
27 Oct 2009 | 12:20 pmThe Daily Reviewer has nominated www.cometoknow.com as one of the “Top 100 Blogs” covering innovation Come to Know Top innovation blogs -
Newsga.me breaks free
26 Oct 2009 | 7:12 amNewsga.me breaks free from Nosco The last couple of years we have worked hard to develop an ass kicking news game. Today we have reached our goal. We are very proud to present: Newsga.me Newsga.me is an online game that integrates news and users in a new and engaging way. On Newsga.me tomorrows news are shares that you can buy and sell. Everybody can create a free account filled with virtual money. Players make “money” by buying shares in real life news. The ones who are best at predicting tomorrow’s news win prizes and the respect of the other players. Check out some of the… -
Nosco – A Hot Company
25 Sep 2009 | 6:12 amNosco has been recognized as one of the hottest companies for this year’s SIME awards. After scanning through hundreds of young, promising companies in the Nordics, the SIME jury has been presented around 160 companies in its first tough screening round. The first 12 companies has been selected for the next round. The jury will still nominate 24 rising stars for the second round of the awards during the next couple of weeks. About SIME SIME is Northern Europe’s largest event about the Internet and Digital opportunities. The SIME Awards were created in 1996 to honor excellence in… -
Buy Shares in the Rich and Famous on Flashbørsen
17 Sep 2009 | 11:52 pmYes, we’ve been on it again. Another Danish top news media has launched their own News Exchange. Ekstra Bladet recently launched Flashbørsen. On Flashbørsen you buy shares in the lives of the rich and famous. If you’re good at predicting what will happen, you earn virtual money and win prizes. www.ekstrabladet.dk is one of Denmark’s biggest news sites. Ekstra Bladet describe the themselves as: … the newspaper with the surprising news. Naughty, disrespectful, tabo-breaking and credible. The newspaper you love to hate. It’s the second News Exchange branded as… -
Berlingske Nyhedsbørs
17 Sep 2009 | 1:09 amCheck out Berlingske’s new cool news game Berlingske’s Nyhedboøs. It’s of course running on our News Exchange. It’s all about buying shares in tomorrows news. Sign up for free and win a gift certificate of 10.000 DKK. if your good.
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Lateral Action
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T.S. Eliot’s Unique Selling Proposition
5 Nov 2009 | 1:50 amImage by Muffet If you think the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is something only marketers need to worry about, have a look at this snippet from a letter to T.S. Eliot, by his boss. Geoffrey Faber is explaining why Eliot was the ideal candidate to take charge of poetry publishing at Faber and Gwyer, the firm that eventually became famous under the name Faber and Faber. In you we have found a man who combines literary gifts with business instincts, who has a wide circle of literary friends, and who is quite as much at home on the lower levels as on the lonely peaks. (Geoffrey Faber, from a… -
Lose Touch with Your Inner Whining Artist
2 Nov 2009 | 2:28 amImage by Hugh MacLeod Of all the painfully funny cartoons on Hugh MacLeod’s Gapingvoid blog, for me this is the funniest and most painful. It’s painful because I know exactly how Eric feels. A few years ago, I was in his shoes. And I feel for him – because I know if he doesn’t change, his story is going to have a messy ending. The humour, of course, turns on the idea of what is ‘asking for too much’. In Eric’s universe, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect a minimum level of comfort and freedom to pursue his own interests. In the world’s… -
Why Spontaneity Comes from Following the Rules
26 Oct 2009 | 3:52 amThis video of a conversation between Brian Eno and SimCity game designer Will Wright (via Fresh Creation) reveals a surprising truth about creativity. The most beautiful, complex and apparently spontaneous creations are often produced by following a few very simple, very rigid rules. In their talk, Eno and Wright show some computer animations in which each coloured cell on the screen is programmed to analyse the behaviour of the cells next to it, and alter its own behaviour in response. For example: “If three of your neighbours are alive, you’ll survive into the next generation. -
An Interview with Dan Pink
21 Oct 2009 | 5:37 amDan Pink has been one of the presiding spirits of Lateral Action from day one. Specifically, his book A Whole New Mind provided inspiration for the very first article we published – Innovate or Die: Why Creativity Is Economic Priority Number One – and more recently I wrote about his TED Talk, in Why Rewards Don’t Work. But more generally, Dan’s writings have been a big influence on our thinking as we’ve developed the site. He is one of the most articulate advocates of the new ways of thinking, communicating, working and doing business that are essential for… -
Miffy – the Making of a Children’s Classic
19 Oct 2009 | 1:49 amMiffy has always been there. If you met her as a child, you won’t have forgotten her. Each time you see her iconic face – two simple dots and a cross for her mouth – in books, on posters, in the toy shop, it’s like running into an old friend. You can almost see her wave. So it was a bit of a shock – and a delight – to come across this interview with author and illustrator Dick Bruna (via Fresh Creation), and to register that Miffy had a creator. I almost didn’t want to watch it, for fear of spoiling the magic. But Bruna is just as charming as his…
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neuronspark
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Yield Software
6 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pmAt AdTech in NYC Matt Malden demos his Yield Marketing Suite -
Jim Taylor of The Harrison Group
4 Nov 2009 | 6:42 amIs the Internet Dead? Or is it just your website that died? The Harrison Group has research that shows how internet usage has dramatically changed. The past as you know it is gone. It is time to take control of the digital future: devices, descriptions and decisions that will make your company a success or failure. -
SQL Server Exception Handling
2 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmJacob Sebastian came to NJ SQL to talk about best practices for exception handling and defensive programming in SQL Server -
Sql Server Internals
2 Nov 2009 | 10:51 amAt NJ SQL Robert Pearl gave us a journey through the depths of the sql server internals world, putting us on the trail of who did what and when to your database. -
Spatial Data in SQL Server 2008
26 Oct 2009 | 5:31 amAt NJ SQL Michael Coles talked about how to store, manipulate, and perform calculations with geospatial data in SQL Server 2008 to enrich live applications.
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The Kick Board (Kevin Dostalek's Blog)
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CKS:EBE Customization Screencast
12 Oct 2009 | 6:17 amI recently did a presentation at the Indianapolis SharePoint Developers group, nSpin (a SIG of the IndyNDA) on how to use the Community Kit for SharePoint Extended Blog Edition (CKS:EBE) to customize your blog running on top of SharePoint. Due to other environmental factors outside of our control, we ended up having to compress the 85 minute presentation into 30 minutes. There were also quite a few people that couldn't make it and were asking me for slides. Well, I'm not really a slide kind of guy-- this particular presentation was about 33% Animated MindMap and 66% demos. So anyway,… -
JS Injection for SharePoint List Forms
24 Sep 2009 | 5:15 amI’ve seen a few questions out on Twitter in the past few weeks on how to change SharePoint page behavior based on querystrings passed in an URL. While the context for this question leads to many possible alternatives (filter web parts, custom web part, xslt, js, etc…) I found that the advice I was giving in most cases was “if you just need something quick (and dirty), then just inject some javascript. It seems though that arn’t many easily findable tutorials around for how to do this, so I decided to write this article. Please note that this is NOT the best way to accomplish… -
Benefits of Micro-Blogging in the Enterprise
18 Sep 2009 | 3:45 pmIt’s been about a year since I first wrote about micro-blogging within the context of Web 2.0 technologies that could provide value on the corporate intranet portal. Since that time, the explosion platforms such as Twitter have highlighted the value of this type of communication in an open public context. Other major platforms such as Facebook have revamped their primary information aggregation user interfaces (the “wall”) to be decidedly more micro-blogging-like, proving that this type of rich “status update” stream can be valuable within smaller communities as well. Niche… -
DevLink 2009 Thanks!
19 Aug 2009 | 6:10 amWell I attended DevLink down in Nashville, TN last week. It was my first time, but certainly won't be my last. John Kellar and all the volunteers did a great job pulling off a super conference that felt more like a huge extended community code camp than what I traditional think of as an "industry conference" (e.g. TechEd, SxSW, PDC, etc...). Don't read that as a negative in any way- it was a great experience, and by far one of the best values all year (it was $100). The sessions were great and they had even added a SharePoint track this year, so there was no shortage of… -
SharePoint Search Crawler Content Access Issues
18 Aug 2009 | 8:28 amI just recently had a bout with my MOSS search service. After a couple faithful years of service our SSP got a tick and so we decided the best thing to do was rebuild it (pretty easy really, only a few BDC apps to port, etc...) Unfortunately once everything was done we could not get the search service to crawl the "All Local Sites" content source. Here were the symptoms: Crawler Log indicated "Access Denied" when it tried to crawl the root of our intranet or mysites. Crawling of the sps:// people content source was fine. Content Access account had the proper policy…
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The Future is Bright
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What’s G? Glorious G train Series
6 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pmWhat’s G? Glorious G train Series, originally uploaded by KenjiSummers. Gloriousgtrainseries.blogspot.com Spotted at the Bedford-Nostrand G train station. (Brooklyn, NY) The creativity in NYC motivates me to get on the train each morning. This time I was treated to a sticker advertising a web series about the train I take to get to work every morning, the glorious ‘G’ train. I –unlike most NYC MTA commuters– love the G train. I have been taking the train since I was an infant. True story. Anyway, visit the site and feast your eyes on stories about the G train… -
Georgia O’Keefe - Abstraction at the Whitney
4 Nov 2009 | 4:09 pmGeorgia O’Keefe - Abstraction at the Whitney, originally uploaded by KenjiSummers. The Whitney Museum of American Art is located on Madison Ave at 75th st in NYC. Georgia’s exhibit has been called bold and sensuous by the New York Times. Worth a visit. Sent via my mobile office by AT&T Visit www.kenjisummers.com -
Axe pays Luke Ryan to display a promo sign and sing a song in the subway
3 Nov 2009 | 12:04 pm“You know, when I’m playing in the middle of the subway, I’m noticing how there’s so much commercial branding all over the subway now, the stairs have products on it, logos, every single space in the subway is kind of a big commercial now,” Mr. Ryan said. Good observation Luke. New York subways have indeed become oversaturated with ads from everything the mind can imagine. Things are so cluttered that outside of a subway takeover, most messages get lost. The subway takeover that stands out to me is located in the Broadway Lafayette station in Soho (Manhattan, NY). Belvedere Vodka… -
Milk crate turned basketball hoop
1 Nov 2009 | 8:32 amMilk crate turned basketball hoop, originally uploaded by KenjiSummers. Spotted on 146th street between Broadway and Amsterdam in Harlem. This brings back memories of playing basketball when a proper hoop was not available. The ability of inner city communities to ‘recycle’ (products) is something that inspires me. Brands should keep this in mind when it comes to their own products. Not only is it innovative, but it is also green. Sometimes your new breakthrough product is not really new at all. Sent via my mobile office by AT&T Visit www.kenjisummers.com -
#Bakedin on Justin.tv
29 Oct 2009 | 8:24 amThe guys that wrote Baked In took some time on Oct 13, 2009 to chat LIVE with readers and followers. They answered some questions and spoke about some ‘baked in’ companies that did not make the book. Continue the conversation at #bakedin. I’ll be watching, er, reading! Watch live video from Baked In on Justin.tv Check @bogusky + @jtwinsor for more.
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InnExperience
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BlogQuotes: Spirituality #1
6 Nov 2009 | 2:38 am1. God gives and forgives. Man gets and forgets. 2. The ‘I’ causes the effect. 3. Mantra=Om, Womantra=More. ©Sunil Malhotra. 2009. Posted in BlogQuotes, Quotes, Spirituality Tagged: God, I, Quotes, Spirituality, Sunil Malhotra -
BlogQuotes: Entrepreneurship #1
4 Nov 2009 | 4:49 amStarting today ‘BlogQuotes’: 1. The only difference between ‘Leadership’ and ‘Management’ is that one creates a spark, and the other fights the fire. 2. The only mantra to learn – “Get out of your way”. 3. Be slow and steady in life yet hasten to fail. © Sunil Malhotra 2009. Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Everything 2.0, Innovation, Innovation 101, Leadership, Leadership Innovation, Management, Quotes, Thought leadership Tagged: Entrpreneurship, Leadership, Management, Mantra, Quotes, Sunil Malhotra -
Let’s cut our noses. Yes Prime Minister!
31 Oct 2009 | 5:28 amTwo of my favourite subjects here – the fascinating global warming debate and India’s bollywood style negotiation script. Hopenhagen is around the corner and will make Kyoto passe. We love being underdogs because like our movies, the hero comes from behind in a good-over-evil victory lap while the crowd applauds his heroic antics. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and I fully intend the pun. US spews Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere when India sleeps. [Pat on back .. I'm getting good at puns]Now India wants America to pay for their long and sinful polluting… -
Designers w/o Borders
30 Sep 2009 | 7:17 amWorld Trade Centre, Rotterdam, 25th September 2009. Indo-Dutch collaboration summit focused on Industrial Design. Hmmm … (Design Crossover). Why they invited me to speak is still somewhat of a mystery considering I dropped off the Industrial Design radar towards the end of the last millennium. I guess it could’ve been because my company, Ideafarms, has been able to maintain a growing relationship between India and Europe over the last 8 years through projects and partnerships with Dutch and German corporations. I’ve never been a champion of networking – I’ve… -
Business Incubation 101 (India)
18 Aug 2009 | 4:38 amThis post is India centric. Thinking lag is a serious condition. I remember how the older folks used to tell us ‘in our times things were so much cheaper’. Look at how the Government patronises unsuspecting academia and students by announcing Goals 2020 and supports it with Funding 1920. It’s not even smart political thinking. Call it Politicalaggard thinking. Mayawati will spend Rs. 2000 crores (USD 400 million) dotting the UP countryside with ego-stroking statues of herelf and her mock leather handbags while the Government announces 1 crore for business incubation.
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Fast Company
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BlueBeat’s Hank Risan: That’s Not the Beatles, It’s a ‘Virtual Cover Band’
6 Nov 2009 | 9:30 pmIf you thought that was AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles you streamed for free or downloaded this week for $.25 from BlueBeat.com, it’s an understandable error. The site’s owner Hank Risan tells FastCompany his catalog of music doesn’t include tracks by the original artists, who, of course, own the publishing rights to their music (many have long resisted posting their music for sale online). His tunes aren’t technically Beatles tracks at all but, rather, "psycho-acoustic simulations" of Beatles songs performed and broadcast on BlueBeat and made available for download. -
Mon Dieu! Apple Store Coming the Louvre
6 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pmThere's a price for everything, even in the Louvre: Tomorrow, Apple will be opening up their very first Parisian Apple Store, and it'll sit in the concourse right below I.M. Pei's glass pyramid. According to Bloomberg, this'll be Apple's 277th store, worldwide. It's set to be slightly smaller than the one on Oxford Circus in London. But it's not tiny: The bilevel store will employ 150 people. You can expect the place to be mobbed. The Louvre concourse is one of the most heavily trafficked places in Paris. It links all of the wings of the Louvre, and visitors to the museum have to pass by… -
Winners Announced in the 2009 World Architecture Festival
6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm -
Streaming Video? Forget Myka or Roku and Get Windows 7
6 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pmWe already know Netflix users are begging for easier ways to get streaming video to their TVs--Xbox, PS3, Roku, and Blu-ray players apparently aren't simple enough solutions. Instead, more and more people watch TV and film on their computers while fuming because they can't easily get all that content--Hulu, Netflix, Amazon--in one place. The Myka ION aims to bridge that gap as the first gizmo to stream both Hulu and Boxee to big screens (in addition to running full-fledged PC apps, which let you add other streaming services). But it's not cheap. At $379 (more if you add on a wireless card and… -
Lamp Powered by Phone Lines Is a Sneaky Way to Get Around Energy Costs
6 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pmIs hooking up electronics to a phone jack unethical? Maybe, but the RJ11 lamp can at least save some cash. The lamp, which features 8 LED bulbs, gets power from your phone socket instead of the grid or a USB port. It's a sneaky way to skirt around power meters, but it does siphon cash from the local telco. Still, the RJ11 does bring a new use to increasingly-abandoned landline jacks. And while the lamp may be incredibly ugly, the $4.69 product is a worthwhile science experiment at the very least. Before trying to hook up all your electronics to the phone line, think twice: the voltage that…
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Schumpeter's Century
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Tools not Stuff
4 Nov 2009 | 8:15 amPopTech 2009 Social Innovation Fellows from PopTech on Vimeo. -
Reimagining the Smithsonian
31 Oct 2009 | 8:30 amA call to action: given new ways of learning, how can the Smithsonian Institution be more relevant in a digital age?Much more on their wiki. -
The Pay Pal Wars
29 Oct 2009 | 8:01 amI read The Pay Pal Wars upon Tim Kane's recommendation. Radley Balko at Reason wrote a favorable review as well. Do check it out. It's a wonderful look at entrepreneurial individuals and their experiences as they went from startup to IPO. Fascinating reading.Perhaps I should mention, in order to comply with the FCC and all, that I either purchase books myself or get them from the library, but do not receive free copies or have other incentives to recommend any readings. -
Startup Nation
29 Oct 2009 | 7:45 amAt a recent event Robert Litan of Brookings and the Kauffman Foundation strongly recommended Dan Senor and Saul Singer's Startup Nation. I haven't read it, but it seems promising. If you have an interest though, Dan Senor is speaking next week as part of Politics and Prose speaker series at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC. Note that there is a fee associated with the event ($6). Some details about the book from P&P:Senor, a business analyst, wanted to know how it is that Israel—a country of just over 7 million, only 60 years old, with no natural… -
Impatient Optimists
28 Oct 2009 | 8:19 pmBill Easterly is skeptical.
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wrightcreativity.com
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Creativity through the years – 1989
6 Nov 2009 | 11:32 amOver the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world. I often get the comment that I don’t act my age – that I carry myself with many more years – and most people are surprised when I tell them how old I am. I have been like this pretty much since the day I was born, but was never more apparent than in May of 1989. When I finished private kindergarten with the aforementioned Mrs. Gitlin, my parents thought I was… -
Creativity through the years – 1988
5 Nov 2009 | 10:52 amOver the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world. Some of us need positive reinforcement, others only understand punishment. I only understand positive reinforcement. Luckily I learned this when I was just 3 ½. I started kindergarten in the middle of 1988. From the very beginning, I was a handful. I liked to talk, and had a very active imagination. The rest of the story from today is as told to me by my father since it is one… -
Creativity through the years – 1987
4 Nov 2009 | 2:35 pmOver the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world. In 1987, I decided it was my time to start getting noticed and shocking everyone who met me. I hadn’t quite learned how to read on my own, but I certainly was able to convince people who visited our home. How did I do it? At bed time, my dad would read to me. It was always the same books, either Why The Bear Has A Short Tail or The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse . Since he read… -
Mashable’s Open Web Awards
3 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pmI would love your help! I have been nominated as a top blogger to follow in Mashable’s Open Web Award and would love your vote! Just click on the button below to vote for me! Related posts:I’ve just been spotted! Do I have your vote?The Honest Scrap AwardHow to be a better social media-er -
Creativity through the years – 1986 (Two-word tuesday #21)
3 Nov 2009 | 9:54 amOver the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world. My two-words: preciously precocious Media two-words: created Related posts:Creativity through the years – 1984Creativity through the years – 1985Creativity through the years – 1987
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Foresight 20/20
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The purpose of process
3 Nov 2009 | 7:30 amWe've talked about the difference between the innovation process and the development process in terms of the results they are expected to achieve; the innovation process being used to identify market relevant opportunities for innovation, and the development process being used to efficiently and reliably get offerings into the market. We've also talked about how different people, and different thought processes lend themselves to achieving these goals. What we haven't talked about is how the different processes should enable people to best do their work. This is… -
Abductive and Adductive Reasoning
26 Oct 2009 | 10:07 amA few posts ago, I talked about how an organization's development and innovation processes should be different, as they have different goals. I then talked about how differences in perceptual skills are better determinants of successfull innovators than the organizational discipline in which they reside. At this point it may be useful to step back and look at the fundamental differences in the thought processes that enable people to be successful in the development and innovation processes. As the development process requires a high degree of reliability and… -
People first, Process second
20 Oct 2009 | 3:51 pmI've been reading several articles lately that discuss different processes for innovation. They typically center around a few main themes; ethnography, rapid prototyping, open innovation, and other ways to connect market insight with opportunities for new offerings. And yet when I talk with clients who have tried similar processes, I get mixed responses regarding the results. Most can point to isolated events that would not have occurred without the new process, but none can say that these processes have increased their ability to consistently connect opportunities… -
Don't mess with development
13 Oct 2009 | 6:37 amMost organizations have mastered the ability to deliver their products and services reliably and efficiently. Remember the 99% lists? As consumers we've come to expect excellence, and companies that don't deliver above and beyond this excellence won't last very long. Organizations themselves also take these skills for granted. I'm often reminded of this when I'm working with clients to develop innovation processes. Many of the people within companies become frustrated that the organization's capacity for change is so low. At this point,… -
New name, new look
5 Oct 2009 | 7:44 amWe've changed the name and look of the blog to better integrate with my consulting practice. The new name for the practice is Synaptics Group, Inc., and the blog will now be called the Synaptics Blog. These changes should better reflect the focus of the work, which is on Market Relevant Innovation. What's Market Relevant Innovation? Think of it this way. Apple didn't invent the MP3 player, nor did they invent e-commerce. But they did develop the most market relevant way to access media, through the development of the iPod, iTunes, and the…
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Tin Whiskers
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What’s so great about Innovation Scouting?
6 Nov 2009 | 7:38 amInnovation Scouting seems to be a hot topic these days but I’m not sure why. Last week Nerac hosted a roundtable event on Innovation Scouting at the Executive Conference Center at Babson College. The idea was to invite Nerac clients to come to an open forum to learn about current practices in innovation scouting and discuss how companies are dealing with their challenges. We were thrilled when we had more registrants than we had chairs to hold them (only to be deflated by nasty New England weather that kept some folks home), but I’m still not sure what motivated these clients to attend. -
Book Review: The Rudolph Factor
28 Oct 2009 | 9:00 amAfter reading The Rudolph Factor I was struck by the essential importance of people based methods. Every aspect of business can be boiled down to three elements; Process, Product and People. And the third element can be leveraged to generate significant innovation. The authors identify a myriad of processes that generate excellent efficiency at the expense of the innovative (Rudolph) employees. These practices drive those employees to silence and they become disconnected. And the ultimate target is not achieved: your employees becoming emotionally committed to your company’s success. If… -
Adjacency Guides – what you should know
21 Oct 2009 | 9:17 amIn a previous Tin Whiskers post, I briefly introduced the concept of an adjacency guide. This post is an expansion of that concept. In previous professional life, I sold software to many different industries. I recall attending two executive offsite events that, on the surface, seemed similar. But, in reality, were quite different. The first was an executive retreat for the food and beverage industry held annually at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. Attending were top executives of packaged goods companies such as Hershey, Kraft, and Coke. I recall driving by… -
Innovation Scouting through Adjacencies
9 Oct 2009 | 9:19 amWhen companies look to accelerate growth beyond that which seems achievable in their core markets, they often look to approach adjacencies. So, naturally, companies scouting for new technologies tend to look in adjacent areas as well. But they often get frustrated with the lack of substantive results. But other companies seem to do really well at adjacency exploration and the difference in their results is apparent if you understand the difference in approach. First, a clear understanding of adjacencies will help. There are two fundamental types of adjacencies. First, an adjacent market. That… -
Forbes: The Myth of Crowdsourcing
30 Sep 2009 | 7:37 amIn this online Forbes Article, The Myth of Crowdsourcing, contributor Dan Woods laments industry’s dominant understanding of the term “crowdsourcing.” His main point is that crowds rarely innovate; virtually all examples (Wikipedia, Linux, etc) are dominated by major inventors/contributors. Usually these people benefit financially from their contributions, further dispelling the myth that innovation will gravitate towards some altruistic “freeware” contributions of do-good-ers. Crowds of readers may incrementally improve on the invention but, still, the…
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New Medici
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The Ten Spot: Nov 5, 2009
5 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pmChart: U.S. Virtual Goods Revenue Ready To Explode | SAI The virtual goods market in the U.S. is ready to take off. Right now, the U.S. only has 28% of the total market. By 2013, the U.S. will make up 41% of the market with $2.5 billion in sales, according to research from Piper Jaffray. The Decade [...] Related posts:The Ten Spot: Oct 30, 2009 via HuffPost Game Changers: Who Is The Ultimate Game...The Ten Spot: Oct 27, 2009 It's Diller-Day in terms of a quarterly IAC earnings. His...The Ten Spot: Nov 4, 2009 via Is Hollywood always in panic mode? Ari Emanuel's... Related posts brought… -
The Ten Spot: Nov 4, 2009
4 Nov 2009 | 10:28 amvia Is Hollywood always in panic mode? Ari Emanuel’s history lesson | The Big Picture | Los Angeles Times [Ari Emanuel slipped this 1970 Life magazine to his agents recently. Per Patrick Goldstein:] Don’t overreact to the current studio cost-cutting frenzy. As this story makes all too clear, the more things change, the more things stay [...] Related posts:The Ten Spot: Nov 5, 2009 Chart: U.S. Virtual Goods Revenue Ready To Explode | SAI...The Ten Spot: Oct 27, 2009 It's Diller-Day in terms of a quarterly IAC earnings. His...New Medici: Media “Ten Spot”… -
The Ten Spot: Oct 30, 2009
30 Oct 2009 | 10:31 amvia HuffPost Game Changers: Who Is The Ultimate Game Changer In Philanthropy: The Extraordinaries Making it effortless to add brief volunteer activities to your busy day. The Extraordinaries delivers information via mobile phone about micro-volunteer opportunities that can be done on-demand and on-the-spot. Standing in line at the DMV? Sure you can listen to music on [...] Related posts:The Ten Spot: Nov 5, 2009 Chart: U.S. Virtual Goods Revenue Ready To Explode | SAI...The Ten Spot: Oct 29, 2009 via 'Paranormal' Now the Most Profitable Film Ever | The...New Medici: Media “Ten… -
The Ten Spot: Oct 29, 2009
29 Oct 2009 | 1:18 amvia ‘Paranormal’ Now the Most Profitable Film Ever | The Wrap “Blair Witch’s” $248.6 million worldwide haul a decade ago – juxtaposed against its $60,000 production costs – represented an almost unthinkable 414,233 percent return on investment. Doing the same basic ROI math on “Paranormal” (65.1 million minus 15,000 divided by 15,000 times 100) yields an [...] Related posts:The Ten Spot: Nov 5, 2009 Chart: U.S. Virtual Goods Revenue Ready To Explode | SAI...New Medici: Media “Ten Spot” Deadline / #1 'Paranormal Activity' Scares Away Weekend Rivals… -
The Ten Spot: Oct 27, 2009
27 Oct 2009 | 5:23 pmIt’s Diller-Day in terms of a quarterly IAC earnings. His creative collective with Ben Silverman (formerly of NBC and Reveille is “Electus” - cool ‘Digitas’ type newco name), updates from Dreamworks Animation, Hulu, Circle of 8 on Myspace, 3D TV penetration, TV Everywhere … and the trailer premiere of “The Green Zone” (Matt Damon’s more [...] Related posts:The Ten Spot: Nov 5, 2009 Chart: U.S. Virtual Goods Revenue Ready To Explode | SAI...The Ten Spot: Nov 4, 2009 via Is Hollywood always in panic mode? Ari Emanuel's...New Medici: Media…
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Sharp Innovation
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For Sharper Innovation, Focus Not on Ideas But on Unmet Needs
5 Nov 2009 | 6:29 amIn response to a recent BusinessWeek article on generating creative ideas ("How to Produce Big Ideas on Demand"), one commenter, Larry McDonald, made a valuable albeit overstated observation about the problem with idea generation per se:Ideas are the kiss of death, sadly. The fastest way to fail is to have ideas, instead of looking for unmet needs. If you must have ideas, the most critical issue is what you choose to have ideas about. Picking the right subject to innovate around should be half the task. Once you know the target of opportunity, only then think of solutions. Ideas on their own… -
The Dangers of Listening to Outsiders: The $1.26 Billion Dollar Judgment Against Pepsico
29 Oct 2009 | 8:39 amThe press is focusing on the mistake of a busy secretary that led Pepsico to miss a court hearing, resulting in a $1.26 billion judgment against the company. Two men from my state of Wisconsin filed a suit claiming that Pepsico stole their trade secret idea for bottled water, obtained from them in a 1981 meeting, and then used that secret information to launch the profitable Aquafina bottled water business (over a decade later). The legal notice to Pepsico was accidentally ignored by a busy secretary rushing to prepare for a board meeting. With Pepsico a no-show in court, the judge gave a… -
The Future of Business Method and Software Patents? Keep Your Eyes on the Bilski Case
6 Oct 2009 | 7:50 amThe pending Supreme Court case of Bilski v. Kappos may do much to clarify the role of "business method" and software patents in the U.S. The In re Bilski case added some new hurdles (offering the machine or transformation test as the test for patentability, not the less demanding test from State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group), and that decision is now being appealed before the Supreme Court. PatentlyO summarizes the briefs being filed in support of the US Government's position. In discussing the Government's brief, PatentlyO also observes that the Government is taking an… -
BusinessWeek Names 23 Masters of Innovation (Surprising Default from Two Companies)
26 Sep 2009 | 6:50 pmBusinessWeek went to the twenty-five companies that topped its list of the most innovative (generally large) companies in the world, and asked them to nominate a leading innovator to be part of BusinessWeek's top 25 masters of innovation. None of these candidates carry the title of Chief Innovation Office. John Donovan of AT&T, for example, is the Chief Technology Officer, and a variety of other titles are represented. What I found especially interesting was the lack of a nominee from Wal-Mart and Reliance Industries of India. In both cases, I can imagine that there were so many high-level… -
Are You Neglecting the Power of Defensive Publications?
30 Aug 2009 | 3:51 amOne of the most important lessons I learned about intellectual asset strategy during my time as Corporate Patent Strategist at Kimberly-Clark Corporation was the value of aggressive defensive publications. IBM, one of the world's leaders in extracting value from its patent estate, publishes about half of all its invention disclosures. One of my favorite IA strategists, John Cronin of ipCapital Group, taught us some of the reasons for IBM's aggressive publishing and some of the unexpected benefits of publishing. He was one of the drivers of IBM's early and successful efforts to generate…
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Innovation CHEF
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InnovationChef Labs
6 Nov 2009 | 7:15 pmThere has been a lot of work behind the scenes with a crack group of co-conspirators with the aim of bringing a lot of new ideas and features your way. -
Learning event Generator
6 Nov 2009 | 3:07 pmThis is fun. Use it as an Icebreaker or as an excursion in an Innovation session. My favourite random combination has been this one: Have Fun! -
Made the top 50 in something
5 Nov 2009 | 10:08 amEvery so often you get a surprise. Innovation Chef is ranked as 41st Top Innovation Blog by the number of pages per visit.Made me smile a little.See here. -
Dilbert is dead – Long live Creativity
3 Nov 2009 | 8:04 amInteresting essay from Michael Lund over on the Salon blog that is very relevant for anyone in the “knowledge economy”. Is Ireland ready for the next wave of employment and innovation?Dilbert, the popular comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams, is a satirical take on life in a modern office environment. Dilbert the main [...] -
Make your own igoogle gadget with RSS
3 Nov 2009 | 4:01 amI am a very happy user of the igoogle page and have loads of alerts and gadgets so I made a very simple InnovationChef gadget.
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The EstiMate Software Blog
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RateMate Hourly Rate Calculator Coming Soon for the iPhone
29 Oct 2009 | 10:37 amLately I’ve been working on a new project, an hourly rate calculator for the iPhone. RateMate is a port of our ProfitWatch software to the iPhone. I think calculating the proper hourly rate is so important to small business that I hope this app will bring the concept to a wider audience. iPhone development has turned out to be a real blast — very solid tools with Xcode and Interface Builder, coupled with a solid iPhone emulator, made the only challenge the learning of the Cocoa environment. <Nerd Moment> Cocoa is a development environment wrapped around Objective-C,… -
Flatbed Digital Print Pricing Plugin Now Available!
5 Oct 2009 | 6:00 amThe new Flatbed Digital Printing plugin for EstiMate represents a great leap forward in pricing technology, not just for flatbed printing, but for EstiMate overall. We’ve really put our all into this one and if you have a flatbed printer, and are using EstiMate, it’s an absolute no brainer to get this plugin. If you’re not using EstiMate, this just may be the reason you should grab a trial and get started. This plugin has many powerful pricing features, as you can see in the following screenshots. Complicated Flatbed Print Pricing Made Simple This plugin, though similar… -
Sandblasted Signs Pricing Plugin Now Available!
5 Oct 2009 | 5:30 amThe new Sandblasted Signs Pricing Plugin is one that I’m really excited to release, from my old-school perspective. This has been long asked for and many people will find it to be the perfect complement to the Vinyl and Painted signs plugin as far as pricing dimensional blasted signs. Quick and Easy Pricing Of Sandblasted Signs You’ll find this plugin to be extremely easy to use even though it has a lot of behind-the-scenes pricing math going on. First, you do the usual, selecting your blasting substrate (cedar, redwood, SignFoam)… and enter quantity, # of sides, width and… -
EstiMate User Manual Now Available Online
29 Sep 2009 | 1:11 pmGreat news! The EstiMate user manual can now be downloaded in PDF format. It can be downloaded from our support page or by clicking this link: Download the EstiMate User Manual PDF Enjoy! -
SignBuilder Illustrated Hingst’s Sign Post, Sept. 09 – Great Reading!
24 Sep 2009 | 9:56 amI recently read Jim Hingst’s “No Time To Hunker Down, Part Two” in his column Hingst’s Sign Post in SignBuilder Illustrated. He presents several powerful strategies for drumming up business in a tough economy, including: Following up on old leads Sending mailers to your customers Networking Upselling Becoming a consultant Constantly closing sales Flexibility and leadership Great reading, everybody. His points are extremely well made and I would have only one to add: Use good pricing software so when you do close a sale, you’re making sure you don’t…
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Information Design Watch
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Making Your Data Intuitive
6 Nov 2009 | 1:04 pmHow can we make data intuitive–that is, so it “hits home”? We’ve posted previously on the technique of making large numbers meaningful by using a clever or shocking image. But this method has its limitations. A big number explained with a visual analogy may get people to say “Hey, you’re right, that IS a big number.” But in order to get the audience to act (rather than just react), it takes extra effort to translate that statistic into something they can relate to on a personal level. Consider the funding coming through the U.S. -
Cellphone as Paintbrush
6 Nov 2009 | 11:54 amCell Tango is an evolving digital installation that dynamically organizes images transmitted by cellphone based on cellphones’ area codes, carriers, time and date of transmission, and participants’ contributed categories and descriptive tags. Created by artists George Legrady and Angus Forbes, the exhibit is not so much an artist’s vision as it is an audience vision–one that suggests that everyday images taken with your cellphone camera could, in fact, mean something more. Legrady suggests: Will cellphone technology transform how we create/use images produced “on… -
The Virtue of Forgetting
6 Nov 2009 | 8:58 amViktor Mayer-Schönberger, author of the newly published Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, points out that for humans, forgetting is an important way of organizing and prioritizing information. Digital storage, however, has made forgetting almost impossible — yet what is stored is is devoid of context and may not apply to the individual of the present. In an interview with Nora Young on the CBC radio show Spark 90, Mayer-Schönberger elaborates on the cognitive issues of memory and what this means for Google, social netowrking web sites, and other digital spaces: Now… -
The Final Frontier
6 Nov 2009 | 7:35 amSean McNaughton of National Geographic and Samuel Velasco of 5W Infographics have produced a majestic map of the nearly 200 lunar, solar, and interplanetary space missions over the past 50 years. At the National Geographic, the map is presented in a “Zoomify” Flash object. Better is the full size image placed by Adam Crowe on Flickr. What I really need is a wall-sized print. -
Follow the Necktie
5 Nov 2009 | 9:25 amIt is always interesting to me to see how designers using different methods tackle some of the same visualization challenges that we do. How do you represent an abstract idea like “mobility” or “business”? Here is Virtualization in Plain English, a marketing video for Intel made by Common Craft. Keep track of that necktie.
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Indexed
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Piranhas, chainsaws, wolves, knives, whatnot.
6 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am -
Ordinary is abundant.
5 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am -
The Queen declares, “No chips for you!”
4 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am -
A helping hand or the finger.
3 Nov 2009 | 8:16 am -
Too bad.
2 Nov 2009 | 7:41 am
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VizThink Blog
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Bigger Picture’s 7 Steps to Drawing Almost Anything
6 Nov 2009 | 8:29 amOle Qvist-Sørensen, an amazing graphic facilitator (he’s facilitated at all three of our vizThink conferences) and owner of Danish visual thinking company ‘Bigger Picture‘, recently put up an excellent post on his company’s blog outlining their tips for drawing just about anything. Their context is graphical facilitation but these techniques will work for any context and should help you find that inner visual thinker. These videos are well worth the less than 30 minutes it’ll take to go through them. Introduction Ole breaks their process down into seven basic… -
The Value of Visual Thinking
26 Oct 2009 | 6:34 amDavid Armano of the Dachis Group, just posted his slide deck from a talk he gave last week at Blogworld 2009 titled “The Value of Visual Thinking in Social Business”. His presentation contains some really great insights into how visuals are useful and how to get yourself thinking visually. His breakdowns (the 4 M’s and 6 steps of getting visuals) are a great summary of the process of creating effective visuals, and he concludes the presentation with a couple of his own examples of process based on some visuals he’s created. I’ve embedded it below an all in all… -
Finding Your Visual Voice in 100 cards: A VizThink Assignment
23 Oct 2009 | 7:40 amThe other day VizThink founding member and one of our community’s biggest supporters, Dave Gray, put out a “VizThink assignment” on twitter. I personally love the idea and thought it was an idea worth spreading to those in our community who might have missed it, or aren’t on twitter. The premise is simple, but I think it could be really eye opening: Take 100 index cards and sketch the same object 100 times in one sitting. Then, the next day, step back and look at the cards to see what has emerged. It’s not a short exercise, you’ll likely need an hour or two… -
[Reminder] VizThinkU: Show, Don’t Tell: Drawing and Design w/Karl Gude – Next Week!
22 Oct 2009 | 10:31 amJust a quick reminder, Karl Gude’s one-hour, online VizThinkU webinar is next Tuesday, October 27th @ 11am EST. Karl spent 25 years visualizing information for various large news organizations including The Associated Press and Newsweek magazine. As a visual journalist, information designer and artist, Gude’s mission was to simplify, or “laymanize”, complex topics so that the average reader could understand them. A Director of Information Graphics at Newsweek for nearly a decade, Karl moved to academia three years ago. He now teaches information graphics and visual communication… -
[Community] VizThink Philadelphia Takes Visual Thinking to the Streets
14 Oct 2009 | 1:32 pmLast month VizThink Philly took to the streets of Philadelphia as part of PARK(ing) Day, a global event where organizations take over parking spaces for a day and create temporary ‘parks’ – the story below is cross-posted form the VizThink Philly blog. - Ryan (Bianca Cevoli looks on as people pour their thoughts onto paper at the SketchPark) On September 18, 2009 VizThink Philadelphia created a mini-park on a busy street where pedestrians could stop and draw. They called it the SketchPark. The SketchPark was one of hundreds of temporary parks around the world created as part…
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Adaptive Path
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Signposts for the Week Ending November 6, 2009
6 Nov 2009 | 8:46 pmPresident Obama’s new Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, gave a talk on technology and innovation. The first thing he said that needs to be considered? Customer experience design. Listen to his address here (it’s good!) The Litl is a sexy little webbook. Read what Pentagram said about its design. (And also read Pentagram’s involvement in the NY Riverways project.) Social Software: The Other ‘Design for Social Impact.’ The Information Architecture of Behavior Change Websites. Our friends at Flickr have released an App Garden. This one has made the rounds:… -
I Want It That Way
1 Nov 2009 | 11:58 pmSometimes, we put down our whiteboard markers and engage with our true passion – boy bands. Below is a little thing we made in response to another video on YouTube. It was planned in about 5 minutes and we really didn’t know the lyrics. But, it was a lot of fun. Check it out and let us know if we’ve missed our calling. -
Open your mind for Design with Temple Grandin
30 Oct 2009 | 10:34 amCan you imagine an alternate reality? We talk about alternate reality games, but what if an alternate reality exists for others on a day to day basis. Take a second and imagine what it would be like if you couldn’t’ think in the abstract, but instead had a brain that thought by referencing tons of concrete images. Like if we said “think of a church steeple”, and you thought of lots of examples from around the world of church steeples — instead of just a general church steeple. At UX Week this year, Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Sciences at Colorado State… -
Smart.fm: Developing a Great Experience
29 Oct 2009 | 1:57 pmPart of the Smart.fm iPhone App Story Update: The app was just released. Download it from iTunes now. When last we posted about the Smart.fm iPhone app the team had moved from design into development. In the few months since we have been hard at work bringing our ideas to life. The combined team, working across many time zones and many miles of ocean collaborated almost daily. We tackled issues on the server side. We tackled issues on the device. We tested scenarios and we tweaked the design when implementation revealed new ways to solve problems. During app development I’ve taken note… -
Desire lines – the metaphor that keeps on giving
27 Oct 2009 | 8:46 amFive years ago I wrote about the burgeoning phenomenon of “tagging” content, and in it, I used the metaphor of the desire line — trails worn into a landscape that demonstrate the paths people want to take, not those that were laid down by the designer. Last week I attended an industry smarty party in the form of Giga Om’s “What Comes Next For The Web” bunker session, where a bunch of leading thinkers and makers talk about where the Web is heading. The discussion lead by Adaptive Path founder and Typekit CEO Jeffrey Veen dealt with (surprise!) user…
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The Phoenix Principle
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Value creating CEO - Steve Jobs, Innovation and Apple
5 Nov 2009 | 3:03 pm$150billion. That's a lot of money. And that's how much shareholder value has increased at Apple since Steve Jobs returned as CEO. Can you think of any other CEO that has aided shareholder wealth so much? Do any of the cost cutting CEOs in manufacturing companies, financial services firms, or media companies see their share prices rising like Apple's? Fortune has declared this "The Decade of Steve" in its latest publication at Money.CNN.com. Such over-the-top statements are by nature intended to sell magazines (or draw page hits). But the writer makes the valid point that very… -
Disruptions vs. Disturbances - Walgreens
4 Nov 2009 | 3:53 pmWalgreens is apparently going through a dramatic change in leadership. Drug Store News reported that the top 2 folks, including the top merchandiser, have left Walgreens in "What it Means and Why It's Important: Wlagreens confirms departure of Van Howe." The article discusses the "old guard" departure and arrival of younger, new leaders. The magazine clearly paints this as a Disruption. But I have my doubts. There's no discussion of future scenarios in which Walgreens is going to be a different company - not even a different retailer. There's no discussion about competitors, and… -
What are you supposed to do about shifting markets - Tribune and P&G
3 Nov 2009 | 3:40 pm"TribCo Papers Will Try Ditching AP to Cut Costs" is the Crain's Chicago Business headline. Tribune is in bankruptcy because it is losing so much money trying to sell newspaper ads. Subscribers are disappearing as more people get more news from the internet, so advertisers are following them. So what should Tribune Corporation do? You might think the company would focus on other businesses in order to go where customers are headed. But instead Tribune has decided to stop buying AP content for it's newspapers in a one week test. Not sure what they are testing, as one week rarely… -
Innovation killers - Collins in the lead
1 Nov 2009 | 7:51 pmJim Collins has decided to start telling people how to manage innovation. In "How Might We Emphasize Cost Effective Evaluation Tools" at the Good.is Blog Collins lays out his prescription for managing innovation. And it's pure Collins, because he's a lot more interested in focus than results. In fact, he is more concerned that before attempting innovation companies put in place a review process to rapidly cut off funds for innovations that go awry than figuring out how to behave differently.Jim Collins has decided to tell people how to innovate. Only his first recommendations don't… -
Skating to where the puck will be - Apple and advertising
29 Oct 2009 | 7:58 amI was intrigued to read about Apple proposing to rebuild a mass transit stop in Chicago in exchange for naming rights to the stop, as well as permission to advertise in the stop (Crain's Chicago Business - "Doors will open on the right at Apple stop.") Most people would ask "why?" And it's because Apple is moving toward a very different advertising future.Most people think of advertising as the ads in newspapers and magazines, as well as on the radio, or television, or possibly billboards. Only we know that newspapers and magazines are failing because fewer people read them every…
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FOLDEN.INFO eMedia News
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Social Search Engine with Realtime Results
6 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pmThe search engine LeapFish is positioning itself as a state of the art internet service. LeapFisch is a social search engine with meta functions to search within the big search engines. Lately a realtime search function has been added. Beside the web one may search blogs, images, videos, news and for shopping purposes. These results may [...] -
Twitter Radio - Tweets as Audio Messages
5 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pmtweetrad.io is a great Twitter app, which may be described by both funny and useful. The application is a combination of a Twitter search engine and an audio application reading the Twitter Tweets. It seems that even the creators are not sure about the usefulness of the application as they have choosen the design of [...] -
The Twitter List Feature
5 Nov 2009 | 12:01 pmThe microblogging service Twitter has made available a new function lately, “Lists”. This list feature is available to all users and may be used for various purposes. Twitter Lists enable to assort information aka followings by topics or any other contexts. By this the information now is searchable in a more consistent way. On the side [...] -
A Literary Community and Social Network
4 Nov 2009 | 8:08 amFictionaut is a literary community and a social networking to discover new work. Too, authors may introduce their work and connect with readers and vice versa. There is restriction regarding the content and one may find fiction as well as poetry and others. The service is designed with comfortable social networking tools and enables to easily [...] -
Twitter is available in Spanish now
4 Nov 2009 | 7:56 amBy a friendly Que estas haciendo the official Twitter Blog announced the public availability of a spanish language version. By this spanish is the first of the announced further language versions. Directory Sources: Microblogging
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Smart People RSS | SmartPlanet
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Soil science produces better tasting wine
6 Nov 2009 | 8:14 amWhat could make a more flavorful wine? The answer might be in composting food waste. Bob Shaffer is an agronomist who consults for Napa and Sonoma... -
The future of the remote control
6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amIn this special BNET report Sumi Das visits with Jim Spare the CEO of Sunnyvale firm Canesta. Canesta is working on system that allows devices to... -
Film festival challenges definition of 'environment'
5 Nov 2009 | 2:50 pmIf you think saving the planet just means separating paper and plastic, think again. An environmental film festival curator expands our definition... -
Power to the people, new mobile app for good Samaritans
5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amCity Sourced makes available an Iphone application that allows citizens to identify graffiti, potholes and other examples of urban blight and then... -
Your sixth sense coming soon
4 Nov 2009 | 7:37 amTwo brilliant innovators from MIT demonstrate a future where the power of the web and data can play a role in our daily, real world interactions....
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ZenStorming
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How ‘i’nnovations Can Prevent ‘I’nnovation
6 Nov 2009 | 10:21 amApartment complexes offer creative solutions to crime. But, do these help the neighborhood in the long run? -
What Will the Future Hold?
3 Nov 2009 | 8:47 pmA look at the Behance Network's graphical depiction of the future. -
A View of Design Synthesis
2 Nov 2009 | 4:43 pmA proposed model of design synthesis as incorporated into the design process. -
The Necessity of Reclaiming Drawing and Art as Tools for Communication
30 Oct 2009 | 12:33 pmWe used to draw more as children but as we got older we stopped using this skill as extensively. We need to reclaim the use of drawing in business and life. -
Lessons in Design Process from the Egyptian Pyramids
26 Oct 2009 | 12:12 amInsights into user centered design and the design process from the Egyptian Pyramids.
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xBlog: The visual thinking weblog
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New project: The Carbon Economy
5 Nov 2009 | 7:16 amFor the second time in recent months XPLANE has partnered with The Economist to create a compelling video on a topic of global importance. After working together on “Did You Know? 4.0”, The Economist enlisted XPLANE’s visual communication expertise to develop “The Carbon Economy” about the growing importance of climate change and green technologies and solutions. “The Carbon Economy” will be shown at The Economist’s upcoming Carbon Economy Summit on November 17 and 18, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The video is three minutes in length and includes simple visuals and a moving… -
David Allen releases The Ultimate GTD Workflow Map, designed by XPLANE
8 Oct 2009 | 7:55 amThe David Allen Company: “If you ever feel like you need to get more in control or regain your focus, here is the ultimate guide for getting and staying on your game. The set of productivity best practices which David Allen has researched and synthesized over the last three decades are brought all together into one stunning visual display — the GTD Workflow Map. It’s a rich compilation of the key steps for gathering, clarifying, organizing, and reviewing everything you need to track and manage, as well as an explanation of all of the factors that you must take into account… -
14 Best Online Typography Tools for Web Designers
28 Sep 2009 | 7:12 amStyle, convert units, search, identify, preview, etc. Lots of resources for working with type on the web: Since typography is one of the most challenging and important aspects of web design, it’s important to have useful tools that can make things easier. Here’s a list of tools that will be a big help in making your typography beautiful, and you won’t even have to leave your browser. -
Vintage Infographics From the 1930s
21 Sep 2009 | 10:53 amDesigners everywhere are suddenly drooling over this 70-year-old book. Including me. Someone needs to get me a paper copy of Willard Cope Brinton’s Graphic Presentation (1939), because it is awesome. Brinton discusses various forms of graphic presentation in the 524-page book and what works and what doesn’t. There’s also some good stuff in there about how to make your graphs, charts, maps, etc (by hand). The most interesting part is that many of the graphics — despite having no computers in 1939 — look a lot like what we have today. Albeit, they’re a little… -
Did You Know 4.0
15 Sep 2009 | 9:41 amXPLANE is happy to present Did You Know 4.0 — another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. As Garr Reynolds mentions over at Presentation Zen this morning, yes, this project was created with “off-the-shelf slideware” (Keynote and GarageBand, actually, along with Photoshop and Illustrator). Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura…
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Holiday Matinee
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Grand Opening - a creative retail project so brilliant
6 Nov 2009 | 1:04 pmGrand Opening wins my own made up award for most creative retail concept, ever. You see, every three months the clever exhibitionists convert a small New York City storefront into something totally new and fresh for the public to enjoy. They’ve already functioned as a Vegas style wedding chapel, hipster ping pong parlor, drive-in movie theater and even a barn. It’s a concept that definitely makes you scratch your head and utter, “why didn’t I think of this?!” Better yet, it’s so simple you should partner to open one in your city. I have a hunch… -
Gift Guide: Threads from Upper Playground
5 Nov 2009 | 9:34 amWhat I like about Upper Playground is the urban feel it’s got without requiring the buyer to be super gangsta to wear it. I’m a sucker for the walrus as a mascot and they have a range of designs fit for however street you wanna be. Personally, I’d love it if someone got me this hoodie since I can’t ever quite get enough of them. -
Should I buy this t-shirt?
5 Nov 2009 | 8:52 amI’m all for simplicity and clever slogans but having a hard time deciding on this one. The price is right and the cleverness is there but something is holding me back from pulling the trigger. Any suggestions? -
Bread shoes
4 Nov 2009 | 2:55 pmStraight out of the oven, it’s Bread Shoes. No joke, you gotta check out these images posted on Design Milk today. Hilarious. -
Gift Guide: Cassette Tape Notebook
4 Nov 2009 | 10:52 amKeep it old-school with the cassette tape notebook. I think you get the idea but more images on Design Boom.
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Inventor Spot - Inventions, Innovations, and Interesting Ideas for the Inventor in All of Us
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Bufferin Plus S Cures Headaches Fast - For A Price
7 Nov 2009 | 1:01 amWhen you've got the mother of all headaches, you want relief and you want it NOW. Bufferin Plus S has been specially formulated to dissolve twice as fast as ordinary pills, thus delivering its four active ingredients to the bloodstream quicker than you can say "not tonight, honey". -
Air Filter and Houseplant Have Baby: Andrea Air Filter Is It A Great Holiday Gift Idea?
6 Nov 2009 | 8:35 pmLooking for an eco-friendly holiday gift? How about a gadget and a plant in one? How about the Andrea air filter? -
New Battery Technology Promises Recharge Time Similar to Filling Your Tank
6 Nov 2009 | 7:55 pmWhile many people who have looked into battery electric vehicles are turned away due to range limitations, others are more worried about the long recharge time. In some cases, these vehicles can take up to a full 8 hours to recharge, which is too long for some people to live with. However, a newly developed kind of battery may provide the answer to this problem. -
Club Bounce: Long Beach Night Club For The Big And The Beautiful
6 Nov 2009 | 7:40 pmClub Bounce is a controversial Long Beach California night club that caters to a niche audience. Some feel it's discriminatory, others feel it actually eliminates discrimination; but everyone who visits has one thing in common, and it's not just their love of bumping and grinding with a vodka tonic in hand. -
Toasty Edible Fashion: Wearable Slippers Made From Bread
6 Nov 2009 | 7:18 pmIt seems like these days just about anything you can eat has made its way into the world of fashion, and the latest innovation will keep your feet toasty in more ways than one.
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Work In Colour
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An Australian Innovation Story
3 Nov 2009 | 5:39 pmMany people have a perception that innovation is about complex research and scientific laboratory work, years of burning the midnight oil and developing a mad scientist persona. Maybe sometimes that's true, but there are plenty of good Aussie stories of 'ordinary' men and women who saw a problem and came up with a (generally very simple) new and better way to solve it. -
How Following Rules Can Inhibit Creative Thinking
27 Oct 2009 | 3:18 pmYesterday I went to my first networking lunch with the Athena Network, and excellent fun it was, too. The week before, I was emailed a template so I could prepare a one-minute pitch about my work, and being a good girl, I followed it. (You know the thing, 10 seconds on your name, 30 seconds on what you do, a quick call to action then repeat your name.) -
Is Your Creative Work Good Enough?
19 Oct 2009 | 3:04 pmLast month I painted our backyard. (OK, if truth be told, I hired some guys to paint our backyard...) Choosing the colour was tricky and I'd put the whole thing off twice because I couldn't decide. Finally I found it, a washed-out pale verdigris, aqua, dirty green colour. All was well. Except that on the wall it turned into a very strange neon baby blue... -
Fear, Failure and Creative Work
12 Oct 2009 | 3:15 amA few weeks ago, I did a presentation for about 180 people. It went well, and I received some great feedback on the day as well as some solid bookings for paid work. (I like that...). Last week, the 'official' feedback arrived from the organisers. Of the 41 comments on the list, 40 were most gratifying (not counting 4 references to the room being too cold, which I feel entitled to ignore...) -
Creative thinking versus plain old fantasy
5 Oct 2009 | 2:02 pmI spent last weekend in Melbourne with a good friend. We had a most excellent time. We went to galleries, we ate great food, and inevitably, we went shopping (we were in Melbourne, after all). I bought a pair of bright orange sandals and a black summer coat. When I got back to the hotel, I realised that the sandals were a half-size too small - I had bought them because I loved their orange-ness and their strappy-ness, even though they had sold out of my usual size. Parading round the Chapel Street shop, I convinced myself they were perfect, but now...
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Innovatio
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Empresa brasileira Inova em TI Verde, Lixo eletrônico e Inclusão
6 Nov 2009 | 4:08 amCom um novo nicho de mercado nas mãos, Revitalização de Computadores, a PLANAC compra máquinas sucateadas e revitaliza a ponto de venda ou de inclusão digital. -
Recursos do Prime, Primeira Empresa Inovadora , serão liberados em dezembro
6 Nov 2009 | 2:45 amAs 17 incubadoras-âncora que operam o programa em todo o Brasil vão liberar a primeira parcela do financiamento, no valor de R$ 60 mil, ainda no mês de dezembro. -
30 mil empresas inovadoras no Brasil até 2011. Será ?
5 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pmO Brasil poderá contar, até 2011, com 30 mil novas empresas inovadoras. Essa é a expectativa do presidente do SEBRAE, Paulo Okamoto. -
Como as empresas podem aproveitar e inovar com o Twitter ?
5 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amNeste vídeo, um dos fundadores do Twitter , Biz Stone, apresenta o papel da ferramenta no cenário corporativo. -
Britânicos elegem Raios-X como a melhor invenção da história
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amA tecnologia na radiologia avançou tanto que estamos chegando à era do 'paciente transparente'
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Frogblog.biz
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The Increasing Cost Of Bad Behavior On Innovation
3 Nov 2009 | 1:04 pmThe cost of innovation is increasing due to bad behavior. This ran through my mind as I learned that the great bicycle experiment in Paris has hit an expensive traffic bump (NYT 10/30/2009). The idea of being able to rent a bike for an hour or two and drop it off, not where you started but wherever you end up, seemed perfect for our new green and healthy mindset. But as with many ideas that make life better, affordable implementation depends on general ‘good behavior’. Expected behavior has a large impact on how you develop an idea. Dr. Leonard Kleinrock, who was a major force in the… -
Creativity Is Messy | Creatives Can Be Cranky
30 Oct 2009 | 5:17 amIn St. Louis I’m told the tradition for trick-or-treaters is to tell a joke before receiving their candy. That sounds fun. Although a while back when I demanded a joke around here things didn’t end well. I was surprised one year when my kids decided the perfect bag for stashing their loot was a king size pillow case. Heavy, but holds up to rain, sleet and snow. Cardboard Creativity in action. Halloween seems to refresh the creative spirit, whether its a cool costume, uncool prank or simply a discussion of how electronic chip implants may replace candy someday soon. Fear is a… -
Death To Hard Drives
23 Oct 2009 | 11:11 amIf you manufacture hard drives the end is in sight. I do not say this because I lost my third drive in six months yesterday. (Ok, I admit it. Maybe there is a connection. I might be a tad irritated. Death to hard drive manufacturers!) The traditional hard drive is under siege. Gadgets are transitioning away fast and cutting edge laptops are giving up on them entirely. A previous disruption in the hard drive industry came with the transition from ‘large’ drive technology to ‘small’ portable drive technology. Brands collapsed. Companies changed hands. (Famously discussed in Clayton… -
Scenario Planning As A Spur To Entreprenurial Thinking
15 Oct 2009 | 8:38 pmWar games, contingency planning, thought experiments all provide potential glimpses into the future that can help distribute knowledge, test reactions and improve flexible thinking. I’m a fan. So it was with some interest I noticed Business Horizons’ recent issue on entrepreneurship included a paper that strongly argues scenario planning not only prepares a corporation for external disruptive events, but it can improve an organization’s overall entrepreneurial capacity. Scenario planning has long been used to prepare for emergency events. Since the 9/11 terror attacks corporate… -
Non-Competes, Health Insurance and Other Ugly Limits To Innovation
9 Oct 2009 | 3:30 amLimits and creativity run in the same circles. Desire to dig under, work around, leap over and push through is strong motivation to think anew. However, there are limits, that — hmm, — limit. Did you know that a major difference between moribund Detroit and high flyin’ Silicon Valley is the difference in how non-compete agreements are enforced? (Michigan enforces them, California limits them.) In the recent Carnegie Mellon University publication: “Renewing Globalization and Economic Growth in a Post-Crises World – The Future of the G-20 Agenda” Serguey Braguinsky and…
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Creativity_Unbound
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Everything starts with the consumer
4 Nov 2009 | 9:28 amIn a recent interview at Boards 2009, R/GA’s Bob Greenberg gently accuses agencies of selling what they do, rather than doing what will sell to consumers. “A lot of agencies aren’t focused on the consumer and that’s a problem if you look at consumer behavior.” Problem? It’s worse than a problem. Consider the fate of the once great Cliff Freeman and Partners. Anyway, in this brief video, Bob goes on to remind anyone who’s listening what the younger generation is up to. “They’re working with multiple devices. They can block out advertising at will.” (Obvious. But… -
Does the world really need another blog?
3 Nov 2009 | 10:53 amDon’t answer that. It might discourage me. For the last couple of months I’ve been working toward launching a new one. It’s called The Next Great Generation. It’s an experiment in everything from crowdsourcing, to personal branding, to the concept of Free as put forth by Chris Anderson. Crowdsourcing because The Next Great Generation will call on dozens, if not hundreds, of aspiring Gen-Y bloggers and writers for its content. Personal branding because it’s my hope that a lot of these writers will establish reputations, find readers, and use their experience to land their first… -
A crowdsourcing ad agency: can it work?
29 Oct 2009 | 6:15 pmThere is no shortage of ad agencies or ad agency models. Digital agencies, direct agencies, full service agencies, boutique agencies. Add to that the latest model: a crowdsourcing agency. Yes there has been buzz galore about crowdsourcing in the advertising business for some time. And there’s no shortage of services to provide it: crowdSpring for design, Tongal for TV spots, AdHack for freelance content. But Victors and Spoils, a new startup lead by my good friend John Winsor, along with partners Evan Fry and Claudia Batten, is trying something new: a crowdsourcing agency. Why? -
Is social media too much to learn?
28 Oct 2009 | 12:13 pmDuring a recent 4As webinar on social media, I asked the nearly 300 participants a simple question. What is your typical clients’ view of social media? There were three choices and subjects couldn’t weight them, they had to pick one. The greatest word of mouth opportunity ever. A new way to get closer to customers and prospects. Oh Sh%&, one more thing to learn. Believe it or not 66 percent of the audience chose “Oh sh%& one more thing to learn.” Only 31 percent reported that their clients considered social a way to get closer to their communities. And an… -
Can one Beancast episode solve marketing’s dilemmas?
26 Oct 2009 | 3:12 pmLast night’s Beancast guests — Crayon’s Joseph Jaffe (come on, admit you envy his self-promotional prowess), the brilliant Ben Kunz, real writer James P. Othmer (The Futurist and Adland), and yours truly — took on what appeared to be a divergent set of subjects. Drawing on the week’s news, host Bob Knorpp’s topics for discussion included everything from the “direct marketing” dilemma discussed at the recent DMA, to creativity in the age of social media, my favorite topic. Tossed in for variety were new findings about dynamic logic, the question of Hulu’s efficacy,…
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Ideas Exist | a blog of great and original ideas
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Idea #12: Crowdsource band bookings
3 Nov 2009 | 7:36 amThe 20th century music industry continues to perform one of the most dramatic death scenes ever witnessed. For years it has been stumbling around like a wounded bull in an empty record shop, occasionally charging outside to gore a passerby caught Napstering – for instance, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, mother-of-four (shared 24 songs, fined $1.92 million). The Death of the Record Industry Ok, so CD sales might be finished, but what about concerts? They’re still going to happen. In fact, live events are probably going to rise in value, because they provide a unique experience that… -
Idea #11: Augmented reality Facebook recognition
19 Oct 2009 | 10:11 amWhile you read, why not listen to this classic tune: You may or may not have noticed, but the present is beginning to move so fast it’s starting to catch up with the future. One consequence of this warping of space-time is that the virtual world is beginning to merge with the real one in an increasingly tangible way. This new stage in the relationship between the two worlds we live in has got a name: augmented reality. Augmented reality applications such as Wikitude and the recently released Layar are available for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. When you to point the… -
Idea #10: Advertise on money
2 Oct 2009 | 2:10 amIf you found out about this page from a banknote, please leave a comment saying where you got the note and what you were buying. To celebrate the milestone of reaching Idea #10, I’ve had a team of global allies in this enemyless war of ideas advertise the post on banknotes with the denomination of 10: From Sunny Scotland; released in St. Andrews From my motherland; released in Surrey The exception that proves the rule; released somewhere in Holland (it's not that big) Is this risky? Released in Shanghai anyway (We’re still awaiting a picture of the US offering, although it… -
Idea #9.5: Remote graffiti
22 Sep 2009 | 3:03 amWelcome to Idea #9.5. I’ve got something special planned for Idea #10, which relies on co-ordinating some allied forces from abroad. Until they are successfully assembled, I’m going to give you an idea that’s been emblazoned across my mental brickwall for the past few days: remote graffiti. In my work for Springwise.com, two of the most interesting trends that keep bubbling to the surface are mass customisation and (what I’ll call) remote participation. Mass customisation - the trend that sees consumers customising their environment and products en masse – has… -
Idea #9: Pimp My Village
12 Sep 2009 | 10:25 amHey pimp, want to help a poor village while maintaining your Godlike pimp status? Hey MTV, want to do something good? Here’s a classic idea that blends the technology of Idea #7: Fab Labs, the style of Idea #3: Poor models and the documentariness of Idea #4: Big Tribal Brother. As we are aware, Pimp My Ride is about turning losers’ cars into the kind of gimmicky, pimpy rides driven by richer losers who spend all their time driving around in their flatulent rides thinking they are pimp, or rather knowing they are pimp, because they are in fact pimps, and pimping was one of the…
