Monthly Archives: May 2009
As you may know, I love chocolate milk and occasionally blog about it. Today I’m a happy man. I finally found a new chocolate milk worth drinking after Wilcox Farms quite making it (they made one of the best chocolate milks ever).This new chocolate milk is from a semi-local dairy called Twin Brooks Creamery that does things the old-fashioned way:Best of all it comes in a glass bottle for smooth, cold drinking. The bottle has a $1 deposit on it, so I’ll have to be sure to rinse and return it. Even if it is a little bit of a hassle for the store to gather the returns (and for the customer to bring them back), it definitely helps to encourage repeat business (and recycling).Some might see the lack of homogenization and glass bottles with a hefty deposit as backwards steps, and marketing mis-steps, but I think these product characteristics … Continue reading
In this economic downturn there is more pressure than ever on executives to find new sources of growth, and as a result leaders are increasingly talking about innovation. In some organizations the leader may say “we need to be more innovative” or “we need to think out of the box” and stop there. While for other organizations it may become part of the year’s goals or even the organization’s mission statement. Only in a small number of cases will there be any kind of sustained effort to enhance, or create, a culture of continuous innovation.By now everyone has probably heard of six sigma and continuous improvement, and maybe your organization has even managed to embed its principles into its culture, but very few organizations have managed to transform their cultures to support innovation in a sustainable way. For most organizations, innovation tends to be something that is left to the … Continue reading
Stu Miniman tagged this photo with Twitter identitiesI recently had the opportunity to attend the World Innovation Forum (May 5-6, 2009) and a couple of pre-conference events on May 4, 2009 – the ?WhatIf! Innovation Forum and the Paul Saffo Workshop. I was invited to blog and tweet from the balcony at the World Innovation Forum as a member of the BloggersHub (sponsored by Pitney Bowes).The conference lineup included – Paul Saffo, CK Prahalad, Vijay Govindarajan, Clayton Christensen, Fred Krupp, and Dan ArielyI did a lot of live-tweeting at the event and have now finished up my blogging this week in David Letterman fashion with a series of Top 10 Insights posts. To wrap it up, here are my Top 10 World Innovation Forum Experiences (including private visits I scheduled while in NYC):The infamous Cinco De Mayo dinnerDan Ariely?WhatIf! Innovation Field Trip (Apple Store and OZOlab)Clayton Christensen (2nd Session)TheVisualMD visit … Continue reading
Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I’ve distilled the 90 minutes with Dan Ariely down into these Top 10 Insights:Dan Ariely suffered extensive burns when he was younger and what he learned about prolonged pain (and removing lots of bandages) is that while going quickly (to get it over with), you also need to take breaks and recover (the mind can only absorb so much pain – or change – at once)Optical illusions are an analogy for how our intense focus causes us to miss key indicators of changeWhy do some countries have more organ donors than others? It’s as simple as using opt-out instead of opt-in.The way we ask questions causes people to reflect differently on how they answerNot all choices are there to be picked – some are there for comparison – to make picking other choices easier (a dummy choice being present … Continue reading
Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I’ve distilled the 90 minutes with Fred Krupp down into these Top 10 Insights:We are pumping pollution into the air like there is no tomorrow – and if we don’t change, there might not be…There are now more wind power employees than people mining coalThe solar energy business market cap is over $100 Billion – Who knew?Brazil and Indonesia are #3 and #4 in CO2 emissions – after #1 USA and #2 ChinaThe Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) created an online community to spur innovationFred Krupp is not a supporter of the Pickens Plan – he thinks it ties us to natural gas powered electric cars and trucksFred Krupp showed a video of a guy making things out of sugar and then criticized the technology because it can push food prices higher (I love it when people aren’t afraid to … Continue reading
Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I’ve distilled the second 90 minutes with Clayton Christensen down into these Top 10 Insights (primarily about health care and education):Disruption drives things towards convenience and accessibilityClayton Christensen believes that the key to healthcare is pushing care farther from the center towards nurses and users and local devicesThere is a tension between people’s different learning styles and the need for standardizationWhen Clayton Christensen writes a book, he draws a diagram. Then he writes a chapter to describe the diagram. That’s how his brain works.Clayton Christensen believes that over time teachers will become tutors and all instruction will eventually go onlineSchools struggle to keep kids engaged because the kids are looking to feel successful and to have fun with their friendsInstead of telling Andy Grove of Intel what to think, Clayton Christensen told him how to think – and then … Continue reading
