Monthly Archives: September 2010
Why do business fail? Given the current state of the economy, I would say it’s a safe bet that many of you have pondered the answer to this question as we watch companies close their doors on a daily basis. The unfortunate reality is that well more than 50% of all new business ventures fail within the first three years, and especially during tough economic times, many mature, even once category dominant companies fail over time. In today’s post I’ll share my thoughts as to the real number one reason why businesses fail – It’s not what you think… I don’t believe there’s too much debate among “the experts” that the most frequently cited cause of business failure is a lack of capital. While the recent events on Wall St might lead you to believe it’s true, capital while clearly a nice luxury, doesn’t make it a necessity (here I … Continue reading
Thank you to Brightidea for sponsoring Blogging Innovation for September 2010. Brightidea, the leader in cloud-based innovation management solutions, recently announced major customer campaigns that are changing the future of how companies and government innovate. The US Department of State recently awarded a major contract to Brighitdea, and the high-profile campaign by GE also utilizes Brightidea’s software to reach a wider network of innovators for their GE Ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid. Using Brightidea’s class-leading Innovation Pipeline Management platform to help collect, manage, and execute ideas, GE will leverage the wisdom-of-the-crowd to determine how to build the next generation electric grid. With a $200 million investment at stake, the most promising ideas voted up by the public will be directly routed to Venture Capitalists and SMEs for more in-depth evaluation and development using the evaluation and decision-making features of the Brightidea Platform. Check out this recent Gov 2.0 Radio interview … Continue reading
Network Weaving by Venessa Miemis So people learned from the angels of God how to build bridges, and therefore, after fountains, the greatest blessing is to build a bridge and the greatest sin to interfere with one. – Ivo Andric Our first two topics in this twelve part series were Pattern Recognition and Environmental Scanning, both practices for enhancing the opportunity to create meaning from information and to assist in decision making. The next topic looks at how others can contribute to this process. Network Weaving The above quote was used by Lee Bryant during his recent presentation at the Social Business Edge conference, and I thought it fit in well with this concept. One of the main topics we have been covering is the idea of breaking down silos – between fields, between organizational departments, between people, and even more deeply, between our own ideas about the values that … Continue reading
Putting More Smart People On A Problem Might Not Be The Answer by Idris Mootee Early breakfast in a Boston hotel and I’m ready for an executive workshop. There are so many decision to be made in one day and just over breakfast we’re made several important decisions on some strategic issues. I realize 70% of my time on a day-to-day basis are spent on problem solving – organizational, strategic, customers, people and resources etc. It is pretty much the biggest part of any managerial job. Problem solving skills development is therefore critical for young managers. If you’re a well educated, highly intelligent person and have a well-respected job in your chosen career, it usually means you are a good problem solver both in professional and personal settings. Professor Yiorgos Mylonadis at London Business School research is finding otherwise. His recent research shows that people can be extremely well educated … Continue reading
Back in May, David Streitfeld wrote this article about how, and why, people in the US aren’t paying their mortgages. While it was one of the most troubling articles I have read in a long time, since then, I have spoken with a lot of people who think it’s crazy to make mortgage payments these days. The thinking is that it takes at least two years to foreclose, and when they do foreclose, the house will be sold at auction for a fraction of the cost, and if people have the money, they can pay cash for the house and not need another mortgage and have saved a lot of money. But as I thought through that, I realized that it meant that people don’t care what their credit rating is. If just about anyone can get a credit card, which seems to be the case, then it starts …
You might have picked up that Nissan is launching of a new corporate push dubbed “Innovation for All.” This article from AdAge explains that the idea is to transition from a price-driven, model-specific strategy to communicate with consumers around a broader idea that Nissan cars come equipped with a range of innovative offerings, from keyless entry to air purifiers and smartphone apps, at an affordable price. The article features an interview with Jon Brancheau, the guy in charge of the campaign. He states that “…the Leaf is the most recent example to believe that Nissan is an innovative company and that’s how we want to transmit our message to consumers, we want to turn it around a little bit — Nissan is the brand, and here’s the reason you should believe in it.” Perhaps Nissan will be able to make consumers believe that Nissan is an innovative company, but they … Continue reading
