Monthly Archives: March 2011
I believe that the innovation output would be much better if we really know and care about those we innovate with. How can we become better at this? Well, you can start by asking yourself questions like these: Why am I working with this person? What are the real reasons for us to do something together? Most often, the reasons you come up with are one-sided towards yourself. This can still bring good benefits, but you win even more when you start seeing the full picture – and both sides – of the partnership. What is this person really interested in? What actions make this person grow – or lose – respect for others? The best kind of innovation is created between people, not companies. You might see the full picture of reasons for working together, but you can multiply the power of your partnership if you respect – and … Continue reading
I was watching the film ‘Inception’ on a long flight last week and I remembered one interesting dialogue from the film “How do you translate business strategy into emotion?”. I was not really watching as I was editing the next issue of M/I/S/C magazine, but the line caught my attention. I rewound it back and tried to make sure if I’ve heard it right. Yes. Translate business strategy into emotion! That’s a great question and I am not sure people realize how important that question is. We’re human beings. And it is our emotion that makes us human. In business, we’re taught in business school about rational decision-making and fact-based decision making etc. etc. When it comes to design thinking and innovation, we realized how little we could apply these decision-making models. It is as much about the organizational culture as much as it is about process, framework and creativity. … Continue reading
Thank you to Planview for sponsoring Blogging Innovation for March 2011. For more than 20 years, Planview has been advancing the discipline of portfolio management, helping our customers change the way they manage people and money to make better business decisions. With a singular focus on portfolio management, Planview is the only company that combines customer-driven software, unmatched domain expertise, and proven best practices to solve each customer’s unique business problems. Planview Enterprise Ideation Management powered by Brightidea helps companies infuse the voice of their internal and external customers into their product pipelines. Planview Enterprise®, a market-leading portfolio management application suite, with Planview PRISMS®, the knowledge base for accelerating organizational change, and Planview Process Builder™, for enabling automation of the Stage-Gate ® process, delivers measurable business results for product development organizations throughout the enterprise. As an independent, trusted partner, Planview is committed to interoperability with key management systems through the … Continue reading
“The Future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” – William Gibson That’s the idea that framed last week’s post – Where’s My Flying Car? I argued that as innovators, our job is to invent the future – and that in doing so, instead of trying to come up with something that has never existed before, like a flying car, we’re better off trying to figure out how things that already exist can be redesigned so that they mean something completely new. It’s about innovating meaning rather than innovating stuff. Some of the responses to that post triggered some thoughts about how to do this – so here are three steps to take for inventing the future: 1. Make sure that what we’re doing creates genuine value Last week I talked about how part of the problem was in defining potential solutions to our problems only in terms of … Continue reading
In the past few months I have been getting interested in GE and how it is managing innovation. Often you read a number of negative reports on GE but is this just the big guy being picked upon by more nimble observers that have a limited insight into what is going on behind the walls of GE? What is under the innovation hood at GE? There does seems an awful lot going on in GE around innovation on what we can observe from outside looking in. Of course you would expect this in an organization the size of GE employing 300,000 people across 100 countries and generating $150 billion dollars in revenue. In Jeffrey Immelts (Chair and CEO) own words “the toughest years of my life were 2008 to 2009”.To drop 31 billion dollars in revenue in two years is tough to manage through, and to see net earnings drop … Continue reading
Last week I wrote an article for American Express about marrying your work. Unlike the “ball and chain” picture that tends to pop into our heads, I espoused the merits of loving your job, just like you would marry a spouse you love. Be sure to read that article before reading on. I’ll wait. OK, now that you read the first part, here is, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story… I’m on vacation this week in Mexico and I just had an epiphany. Tonight while cooking up some steaks on the barbeque, I looked through the window and saw everyone else on their computers working. In fact, all day long while I relaxed in the pool with my Kindle, everyone else was busy working away. Admitted, I work a lot, but I love what I do. I truly do. Regardless, I have not taken a “real” … Continue reading
