Monthly Archives: January 2010
People often think that disruptive innovation happens overnight, but often it happens one step at a time. Before the iPod was an innovation, Apple had to not only launch the device, but also the iTunes Store for music, and the Microsft Windows version of iTunes. Apple also expanded the iTunes Store to include audiobooks, movies, and television, but by then it had already become a mass-adopted disruptive innovation that has changed the music industry forever. Apple then launched the iPhone and changed the power paradigm in the mobile industry around mobile applications publishing – resulting in the App Store.Apple is about to do it again, but nobody is writing about it.In retrospect I believe we will look back and point to January 27, 2010 as the day that Apple changed the power paradigm of mobile data plans and subsidies in the mobile industry.Up until now, the mobile postpaid market has … Continue reading
Wait your turn. No pushing in line. Yield to pedestrians. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.Certain timeless rules are better obeyed than broken. But in today’s topsy-turvy business world, many of the rules that informed and guided previous generations of business leaders no longer apply. If you’re not breaking rules on a regular basis, your customers and markets have probably already left you behind.Most business leaders intuitively know that they need to do things differently. But they struggle when it comes to determining which rules to hold onto and which rules to cast aside for newer ways of thinking.In working with clients around the world, I have found two areas in particular where throwing out the old rulebook is essential for keeping up with today’s frenetic rate of change. One involves the skills, attitudes and mindsets required to manage people and work processes. The other has … Continue reading
Apple announced it’s rumored tablet device yesterday and chose to call it the Apple iPad – a very strange and difficult choice. “iPad” is a trademark that is apparently at present owned by Fujitsu. Apple had a similar problem with the iPhone and Cisco, which they were able to resolve with a bit of cash. I suspect that Apple will have to get out their wallet again to make Fujitsu go away. But even more troubling for Apple is that “iPad” is also the name of a fictious product that was lampooned by Mad TV three years ago in a less than flattering video. This has sparked the kind of viral buzz that a new product lauch hopes to avoid – the kind that may cause prospective buyers to not take the device seriously.The launch of the iPhone was a home run. People immediately got it and lined up around … Continue reading
Innovative ideas – the kind that can transform your company – are inadvertently being demolished. When first presented, many ideas meet wrecking-ball comments such as:”How’s that going to work?” “Good luck getting that done!”"We don’t have time for something like that.” And the classic, “Doesn’t work… Trust me… We tried that years ago.”We’ve all heard (or perhaps said) killer phrase comments like these. These are offered as a “public service” to the team to prevent us from going off track and wasting time.But, what have we really accomplished?Yes… we’ve kept the meeting on schedule.But we also,have made the suggester feel stupid, are causing people to hold back their creativity, and may have destroyed the next big idea.Instead of immediately leveling them, what if we built on new ideas? Ninety-nine percent of innovative ideas aren’t simply blurted out in their final form. They need development to reveal their full potential.Instead of … Continue reading
I made what in hindsight is a fairly funny mistake recently. Working with a new client who wanted to become more innovative, we pressed ahead into a project only to realize that their definition of innovation was to have customers interact with their products in a technology showcase. When I think of “innovation” I think of teams using a number of tools and techniques to generate and bring to life new products, services and business models. When this team said “innovation” that’s what I thought, and what I assumed. What they were thinking was something else entirely, and that didn’t become evident until we developed a workplan. Then, the differences in the expectations and definitions were clearly exposed.We failed at what should be an upfront discussion – that is, what does innovation mean to your firm? I’ve been around innovation so long that if I’m not careful I just assume … Continue reading
The topic of “Employee Engagement” is something that many CEOs tend to struggle with. Long gone are the days where the executive leadership of a company can remain sequestered in their offices with an internal focus on hard metrics. Given the current economic climate, it takes far more than cost-cutting to survive. It is the CEO who understands the need for focus on the soft metrics of customer centricity and employee engagement that will create sustainable growth in revenue and brand equity. In today’s post I’ll examine the need to have a fully engaged work force…Before you read any further, I want you to stop and ask yourself the following question: How many of your employees are truly passionate about your company, its values, its vision, its mission, and the role that they play within the organization? Don’t fool yourself… Conduct a harsh, critical analysis and come up with a … Continue reading
