Monthly Archives: July 2011
aka Buying Up the Beachfront Property by Jeffrey Phillips We went, along with a significant number of other North Carolinians, to the beach last week. We swam and we built sand castles and we got slightly burned, just like a host of other folks at the beach. My son, who is 12 and thinks like a young entrepreneur, wanted to know why houses are so expensive at the beach. He could see that there was plenty of demand. He wanted to know why people in the “early days” of the country didn’t buy up all of the beachfront property, and if they had, wouldn’t they have been rich? If my great, great, great, great, great grandfather had purchased the Outer Banks, for example, would we be wealthy now? I’ll give him credit for thinking like an entrepreneur, but his history is a little off. In the 18th century and …
One of the members of our Innovation Excellence group on LinkedIn is looking to fill a few innovation roles in the Middle East, and as a special service to the readers of this blog, I would like to pass the details on to you: MOBILE OPERATOR SETTING UP AN INNOVATION CENTRE Leading mobile operator in the Middle East is setting up an Innovation Centre to aid growth and continue their dominance in the introduction of new services and innovation packages to the region. They have expanded quickly since inception and now have over a 40% market share of subscribers and in addition to this they have also invested in an ISP, a data service provider and a national fibre network. The Innovation Centre will be responsible for identifying focus areas and develop the strategy and pipeline based on prioritisation of trends. The intention is to scout the market for solutions … Continue reading
The challenges are growing in their social dimension across Europe, the United States and a host of other countries, both developed and developing, that are needing new fresh responses. Social demands will inevitably increase as nations are being confronted with budgetary constraints, increased deficits and mounting debts to resolve. Social needs will become more pressing and innovation, social innovation, will increasingly explore opportunities to extract ‘more from less’. Innovation can play an increasing part in resolving social challenges that are increasingly confronting us. Starting a new movement on social innovation in Europe Recently I became a member of www.socialinnovationeurope.eu. I certainly feel this is going to offer something exciting and vibrant. It is a growing community of thinkers, creators and innovators with the knowledge and skills to change the way we face Europe’s most pressing issues. Contributors to the site will take a strong hand in shaping the direction …
I was in a meeting with a CEO the other day who is confronting the possibility that what sustained the business for the last few decades is probably not going to deliver growth for the future. Tim and I have been working with him for over a year and we both rate him very highly as a manager and strategist. What impressed me in his thinking about the future of the business was how willing he was to look outside his industry for examples of innovation and business models. Not only was he looking for new ideas on how to respond to emerging competitive threats, he also wanted business analogies so he could explain to his senior management team where he wanted to take the company. Analogies are powerful tools for thinking and learning. It’s easy to dismiss an idea because it comes from a different context but looking outside … Continue reading
Do you have a favorite innovation video? TODAY is the last day to suggest a video for the Top 10 Innovation Videos of 2011. Suggest a video and you’ll have a chance to win some of the $3,650 worth of prizes up for grabs. So, please tell us what your favorite innovation video is and share with the world some of the cool stuff that people are producing out there about how business innovation takes place (please no tech or gadget videos – we’re interested in showing people how to innovate not to invent). While you’re at it, you might want to check out some of the innovation interviews I’ve done with people like Dean Kamen, Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Roger Martin, John Hagel III, and more – on our YouTube channel. For contest details click here, otherwise… You can submit a nomination any of these THREE ways: Commenting on … Continue reading
Some weeks back the International Herald Tribune (June 7th, 2011) offered a view by Chandran Nair, the CEO of Global Institute for Tomorrow, under the title Can the planet support more Americas? Then this week an article Over-innovation makes US firms suck at Sustainability because they are too innovative by Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen. Each makes me stop and come back to my deepening view we have to decouple growth and consumption through innovation. This is not an easy subject but let me lay out some opening views and thoughts. Why bother? Well I really do believe we need to radically change our approaches through the use of applying innovation in new ways. These two articles added further to my personal concerns that we do need to (quickly) come out of the denial we seem to have in all societies. Innovation needs to be radically applied in … Continue reading
