Monthly Archives: November 2009
I came across this quote from Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo:”My job is to find the potential in something that others can not see, to secretly pour our resources into them and turn them into hits before anyone else catches on,”The quote was too long to fit in Twitter, so I thought I would share it here because I love the insight. This is the key to successful innovation captured in a single sentence. This quote also highlights one of the most important jobs of a CEO – to lead innovation:To invest in the insights research and exploration necessary to identify the next innovationsTo fund projects built on these insights (even though they may be risky)To shield the exploration efforts of the company from its ongoing exploitation of current products, services, and marketsTo build a balanced innovation portfolioTo build a tolerance for risk taking and individual project failure within … Continue reading
It Doesn’t Matter How Long They’re in School as Long as They’re Learning Skills for the Futureby Kathie ThomasYesterday I wrote about the pros and cons of three-year college versus four-year college. That got me thinking about what we need to do to really teach our children to succeed in the future.As the mother of two elementary-school-aged girls (and stepmother of three young 20-somethings), I believe one of my chief responsibilities is giving them the best possible education I can, one that will teach and prepare them to excel in all stages of life. I believe they need to be taught, at a young age, how to learn and solve new problems, and that known facts can change and learning never stops.Therefore, it doesn’t really matter how long they’re in college – for three years, like U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) argued in Newsweek, or four. What matters to me … Continue reading
Do you need time to innovate?by Mike MyattTime is the only thing we all have in common, yet it’s how we choose to spend it that defines and differentiates us as individuals. Even though time is a key success metric, I am always amazed at how many executives don’t manage it as such. Time is indeed a precious and finite commodity, and those professionals that manage it wisely are those that achieve the greatest results. Show me an executive that doesn’t leverage time to its highest and best use and I’ll show you an executive likely to be replaced by one that can. In today’s blog post I’ll examine the value of time.The proper understanding of how to use time directly impacts income. You see, time doesn’t slow, nor can it be accelerated or recovered; it can only be wasted, invested, or leveraged. I often hear people espouse the axiom … Continue reading
Industrial Design, Busness Model Design And Design For Changeby Idris MooteeI was chatting with some members of our design research team just yesterday next to the cooler the other day. We were talking about how the iPhone is such a bad phone and a great media player, and the Backberry is such a great email gadget but a terrible browser. The conclusion was that phones were not designed to handle the ‘social’ functions and so 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 I’m sure our clients will love to see them. As more and more people use Twitter or Facebook as their core communications vehicle, what are the best gadgets designed for that? Is there a gadget that lets them tweet, reply, retweet, send direct messages, and connect with followers easily?Here … Continue reading
When companies, non-profits, and governments create products and services that better meet customer needs, there is less waste of human capital and natural resources, and everyone wins. That’s why Blogging Innovation’s mission is:”To make innovation and marketing insights accessible for the greater good.”So, how can you help Blogging Innovation achieve this mission?It’s simple. Here are a few quick and easy ways to help:If you have knowledge to share, then write an article for Blogging InnovationTell your corporate, non-profit, government, and entrepreneurial colleagues about usCover an innovation or insights conference for Blogging InnovationWrite an article about us on your blogCreate a MyAlltop page and add Blogging Innovation to it from the innovation pageStumbleUpon or Digg some of our articlesShare some of our articles on facebook, LinkedIn, or TwitterForward our monthly newsletter to your colleaguesContact us about translating some of our articles for your non-English siteContribute to the discussions and news item … Continue reading
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of “The Little Prince”, once said:”Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away.”This is a brilliant quote because it describes the challenge many innovators face. Too often, new products are overly complex and end up ‘over-serving’ their customers. My new computer with Vista and Office 2007 is a perfect example of that. 99% of the software’s functionality goes unused, yet these complexities slow down my computer and reduce ease of use. Being able to do everything for everyone is not perfection.Next time you are designing a process, a product, or a service, ask yourself, “What can I remove?” For most consumers, simplicity is more important than comprehensiveness (and complexity).The concept of ‘taking away’ is also a great time management technique. In addition to your to do list, be …
