Author Archives: Paul Sloane
Let’s play a game. It costs you $1 to play. We then roll a dice once. If it comes up 6, I pay you $10 otherwise you lose. Do you want to play? Most likely you will agree to play. You have a one in six chance of winning $10 for a $1 bet. Now let’s make it $1 million to play. Continue reading
It is common to approach suggestions schemes, brainstorms and ideation meetings from a competitive point of view. So we might say that we want a large number of ideas and then by a darwinian process we will eliminate the weaker suggestions and choose the best. Continue reading
Have you seen The Artist? The film recently won the best film award at the Oscars. It is a charming tale about the transition from silent movies to talkies. It is remarkable for a number of reasons – not least because it is a silent movie in black and white with unknowns as stars. Continue reading
We often find ourselves in a position where we need to influence other people. We might want to change their mind, to sell them on an idea or to secure their agreement to a proposal. A fruitful way to approach these situations is to use the three Greeks, ancient concepts that are proven to work. In my experience most people use only one of the three Greeks and they would be much more effective if they used all three. Continue reading
Across the world millions of babies die within the first week of birth. Most could be saved with the use of incubators, which are widely available in the developed world but not in under-developed countries. Much of the medical equipment that is donated to hospitals in these countries falls into disuse because of the lack of spare parts or shortage of trained technicians. There is also a common problem with interrupted power supply. Continue reading
We can broadly simplify innovations into two kinds – incremental and radical. Incremental innovations are improvements to current products, methods, processes, services, partnerships and so on. Customer complaints and suggestions are a good source of ideas for incremental improvements. So are the people who work in the organization. If you ask customers how your product could be better or if you ask employees how their job could made easier they will come up with plenty of proposals. Continue reading
