Monthly Archives: October 2010
This is the fifth of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on ‘Thinking about the future: what big innovation do you expect within 10 years?’. Here is the next perspective in the series: by Jose Mello I believe that we are getting closer to the tipping point of a dramatically change in working relationships between companies and employees. The popularization of new technologies and the terrific growth of accessibility and communication have created new ways of learning and new kinds of professions that didn’t even existed five years ago. What if we didn’t have jobs anymore? What if we were the owners of our own independent companies working one to each other as partners rather than employees? Imagine a future where people are going to become more educated by themselves rather than by schools and universities. The knowledge is going … Continue reading
As any good journalism student knows, the most powerful toolset in his or her arsenal are the five Ws and the one H. Who, what, when, where and why, along with how, answer many questions and provide insight. This tool have been immortalized by many, including Rudyard Kipling, who wrote a short poem entitled Six Serving Men, in praise of these words. Those of us in the innovation space use these powerful tools as well, but it is important to understand a distinction. For the journalist, capturing what happened and why it happened, the emphasis is on capturing a story accurately. To that end, it often doesn’t matter which word he or she leads with, or in which order. But for an innovator, it makes all the difference in the world. There is a subtle distinction in these words that sets the stage for creativity or shuts …
I love vigorous debate, generally have an open mind, and actually enjoy having my thoughts and opinions challenged. If everyone always agreed with me conversation wouldn’t be very stimulating, and acquiring new knowledge and insight would certainly be more difficult. That said, I only really have the patience for intellectually honest discourse. I don’t care in the slightest about winning arguments, whether someone is right or wrong, or whether logic is sound or flawed, but I do care about motivation and intent. In the text that follows I’m going to ask you to do some soul searching – up for the challenge? What follows might get a bit esoteric, but if you can get past the semantics of my philosophizing I believe you’ll find great value as I connect the dots on today’s topic. A few initial questions to ponder as we get started – How do you react when … Continue reading
What happens when we are reduced to an algorithm? This is the fourth of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on ‘Thinking about the future: what big innovation do you expect within 10 years?’. Here is the next perspective in the series: by Rocco Tarasi I think some of the most significant innovations of the next decade will come from the increasing amount of digital information that is available about all of us, resulting in a more perfectly predictive economy – probably benefiting us as consumers, but equally hurting some of us that might be employed as ”producers”. Consider just a small sample of the digital information available about me, not just in what I have done in the past, but also what I will do in the future. Google knows a LOT about me, from the content of my … Continue reading
Let me first acknowledge the stimulus for this blog post – thank you to Jeffrey Phillips of OVO Innovation and his recent article on innovation and network effects. Jeffrey correctly pointed out that markets with intense competition are more likely to contain innovative companies. It follows Darwinian logic – not survival of the fittest, but survival of those most able to adapt. The most successful are those who adapt best to the competitive pressure in their ecosystem. It makes a lot of sense, but it raises a couple of questions. In highly competitive markets, how can you leverage the outside pressure to drive more innovation; and how can you strengthen your position in markets where you may be less vulnerable to strong competition? The short answer is to set challenging innovation targets for yourself. The mere existence of strong competition does not by itself mean that you …
When it comes to education, we should adopt Nike’s famous motto and ‘Just Do It’. In the United States (and probably many other countries around the world), it has become a popular pastime to complain about the state of the public schools. People complain about school funding, teacher performance, curriculum, class sizes, and more things than I care to remember right now. And while the Gates Foundation and many other great organizations are trying to come up with new ways to make education delivery and administration better, the fact remains that education funding is likely to get worse (not better) and any reform is likely to take a long time to implement in the face of stiff resistance. So what are parents to do? Well, in my interview with Seth Godin at the World Innovation Forum (2010), he suggested that parents are going to have to take increasing responsibility for … Continue reading
