Monthly Archives: March 2011
How many times has this happened in your organization? A sudden change in your market (or as often happens these days, a sudden change in the world outside your industry) dictates a major mid-course correction to the strategic plan. So you gather the management team, strategize the issue, and end the meeting with several decisions that will take the plan in a new direction. A month later, you gather the team to review progress on the new direction and nothing much has happened. As you go around the table, you begin to hear things like, “Well, that’s more of a marketing issue, so I thought Sally was in charge of that one.” Or, “I never got the go-ahead from Dustin, so I couldn’t order the parts to begin production.” Or, “I only got approval from a couple of people. I couldn’t possibly move ahead without everyone on board.” Sound familiar? … Continue reading
Most US universities maintain three core businesses that earn most of their revenue: Selling diplomas Competing for federal and industry research sponsorships Trying to crack open the checkbooks of wealthy alumni Since the 1980s, universities have ventured into a new line of business: patenting inventions from university research labs and brokering these patents to businesses and start-ups. Thirty years later, university patent holdings have swelled into the tens of thousands and larger research universities spend millions of dollars each year on filing for new patents. Yet, on average, over three-quarters of university patents are never licensed to companies for commercial use. Since US universities own 5% of our nation’s patents, and a growing number of patents in cutting-edge fields such as nanotechnology and biotech, even on human genes, people get worried that needlessly “locking up” basic university research will stifle innovation and create a patent anti-commons. In the terminology …
Recently I wrote about some great ideas circulating the airline industry. Topping the list was Air New Zealand, which continues its relentless leadership in innovation and customer service. The last time I last covered the company’s virtues in some depth was 2007, so a recap is overdue. In 2008 Air New Zealand’s paperless check-in kiosks completely eliminated the check-in counter in key centers in New Zealand. No lines, just technology that works and friendly staff ready to help if you need it. In 2009 the airline introduced ‘The Bare Essentials of Safety’, a cheeky pre-takeoff safety briefing. Body painted baggage handlers, pilots and flight attendants made passengers switch back on to the instructions on what to do in an emergency. I’ve touched on ‘cuddle class’, a groundbreaking economy seating design Air New Zealand introduced in 2010. What makes this truly innovative is not just the fact that nobody’s done it … Continue reading
Lost Revenue Opportunities and the New York Times by Patrick Lefler The New York Times will soon introduce a paywall to its very popular website in order to turn online visitors into paying customers. It’s part of their latest drive to reignite revenue growth in the face of an industry decline that has seen Times revenue drop 27% over the past five years. And while the concept of requiring customers to pay for content certainly makes financial sense for a news organization struggling to raise revenue, getting people to pay for content that they have been previously receiving for free will be a huge challenge. And the Times hasn’t helped itself because along with charging for contents, it has also introduced a relatively complex pricing model. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek: “Under the new, paid model, Times Co. will on Mar. 28 begin charging readers who don’t subscribe to The Times … Continue reading
I was watching the most recent Mastercard commercial the other day, and it really got me thinking. Innovation really goes hand in hand with entrepreneurship. The tagline in the commercial is “for those who never stop pursuing their dreams, there’s Mastercard”. If we want to encourage innovation, then we should be encouraging entrepreneurship. It all starts with education. President Obama has been really trying to promote innovation in America, but hasn’t quite laid out a plan to get this going. I am telling him now that he should be funding entrepreneurship classes in schools, ideally at all levels, not just college. Have entrepreneurs come in to classrooms and answer questions, or give advice to students. That is how we can achieve true innovation in America. Let’s mould the children to start thinking more entrepreneurially. This can also work at a company level. One client who I have consulted, who will … Continue reading
By this point in your career, regardless of your length of time in your career, you’ve met someone who demonstrates the description of the Peter Principle. According to the authors of the book, the Peter Principle espouses that “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”. Of course any sweeping statement like this one must be taken with a grain of salt, but I was thinking about how so many axioms about management are often somewhat true but never completely true. For example, the concept of pigeon management, which has been described as when a managers “swoops down, craps all over everything and then flies away”. In every such saying, there are people who support and sustain the stereotype, just as there are people who negate the stereotype. But I wanted to focus on the Peter Principle because I think …
