Monthly Archives: September 2009
The news is out. Sales of the much-ballyhood Palm Pre are…a disappointment. The new smartphone, launched to compete head-on with Apple’s groundbreaking iPhone, has lost its momentum. The Pre, which was launched June 6, got off to a good start but has faded in recent weeks. According to the Wall Street Journal, analysts projected lower sales in the current period than had been expected, and Palm reported a loss of nearly $165 million for its most recent quarter–the first full quarter to include Pre sales results. Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s CEO, says the company “will face near-term pressures until we transition to a more diversified carrier base and expand our family of webOS products, but we are confident we’re on the path to success.” Makes you wonder if this is a case of actions speaking louder than words, as Palm recently cut the Pre’s price by 25 percent (tied to a … Continue reading
It Means Leading With Purpose And Imagination.by Idris MooteeInnovation, strategy and leadership are so closely interrelated and to succeed you need all those three. Innovation is the ability to different options in the future and develop a set of perspectives to guide them into the future. Strategy is the ability to connect customer needs and wants to the corporation’s core capability. Leadership is the ability to instill a sense of purpose for the organization and to mobilized those to work towards the goal. What is the difference between leadership and management? Leadership is setting a new direction, creating a purpose and/or vision for everyone in an organization to follow. Management develops, controls or directs human and capital resources according to the policies, principles or values that have already been established. What about “accountability”?, is that part of leadership or management? Well the answer is both. Warren Bennis once defined vision … Continue reading
An interview with Chris Broganby Mike MyattI recently had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Brogan. Chris is the President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency. With the market being awash of so called social media “experts,” Chris, who would never refer to himself as such, is absolutely the real deal. In addition to running a successful agency, Chris has reached celebrity status as a blogger, social media advisor, and most recently as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of “Trust Agents”.If you want to see Chris at work, just follow him on Twitter where his followers (now numbering more than 100,000) represent one of the most fiercely loyal and engaged communities on the web. However, what I admire most about Chris is that with all his success he has remained one of the true nice guys in the business. On with the interview…The … Continue reading
“History should be our guide. The United States led the world’s economies in the 20th century because we led the world in innovation. Today, the competition is keener; the challenge is tougher; and that is why innovation is more important than ever. It is the key to good, new jobs for the 21st century. That’s how we will ensure a high quality of life for this generation and future generations. With these investments, we’re planting the seeds of progress for our country, and good-paying, private-sector jobs for the American people.”-President Barack Obama, August 5, 2009by Cynthia DuValWow, the Strategy for American Innovation is such a disappointment. Here is my take or should I say rant?Engineers, scientists, mathematicians and technologists, we love them, we are them, but they/we are only a fraction of the population that innovate. Innovation requires teams of people with interdisciplinary perspectives and basic skills …
Innovation is about change. Companies that successfully innovate in a repeatable fashion have one thing in common – they are good at managing change. Now, change comes from many sources, but when it comes to innovation, the main sources are incremental innovation and disruptive innovation. The small changes from incremental innovation often come from the realm of implementation, so the organization, customers, and other stakeholders can generally adapt. However, the large changes generated by disruptive innovation, often come from the imagination, and so these leaps forward for the business often disrupt not only the market but the internal workings of the organization as well – they also require a lot of explanation.The change injected into organizations by innovation ebbs and flows across the whole organization’s ecosystem: Let’s explore the change categories visualized in this framework using the Apple iPod as an example:Changes for customers – Any disruptive innovation requires a … Continue reading
While in Asia, I heard a great expression, “Before You Can Multiply, You Must First Learn to Divide.” I now find myself using this saying nearly every day.The idea is that if you want to grow your business, you must learn to partner with others – and give them a slice. This means you take a smaller slice of a bigger pie.I have been doing this for a while now with my agent. He takes a percentage of my business in exchange for handling everything from negotiating, contracting, logistics, travel, invoicing, etc. I am convinced I make more money through this arrangement…and work less.I recently had a conversation with a guy who runs a seminar business. When big name American speakers come to his country, he hosts a public seminar. His biggest challenge is getting butts in seats. When I looked at his business model, it was flawed. He has … Continue reading
