Author Archives: Jeffrey Phillips
Pity the IT manager. He (or she) is increasingly under pressure from product managers, business line leaders and others who want “innovation”. Whether that’s more data, or more insight from their data, or perhaps the product manager wants to deploy a new product – innovation is a constant demand. And while the IT folks would love to support innovation, they more often than not say “no”. Who, in this day and age, can possibly say “no” to innovation? Continue reading
There’s an interesting aphorism I’d like to explore today, highlighted in the article title. Ideas change your culture or culture changes your ideas. There is both an opportunity and a challenge embedded in that statement. First, let’s describe why the statement is true. Continue reading
I’m going to let you in on a secret. Doing innovation isn’t really all that hard, once you get the hang of it. Yes, there are dozens of methodologies and approaches. You can tap into your employees and/or your customer base for ideas. You can search for interesting technologies in research labs and universities. You can prototype, test and tweak ideas based on customer pilots. In fact, you can do just about anything in innovation. That is, if you can get it started. Continue reading
I’ve made the argument previously that corporate culture is one of the most significant barriers to innovation. Yet corporate culture is ephemeral, hard to grasp and change. Like Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography, you can’t define it, but you know it when you see it. Continue reading
I was speaking with a client recently who reminded me of the metrics her CEO had set out for innovative new ideas. While I think it is important to have clear goals and quantifiable metrics for innovations, I was a bit apprehensive about these measurements. Take a look at them and see if you can guess which one gives me the most concern: Continue reading
The tyranny of today? What’s not to like? For innovators the tyranny of today is personified as Lex Luther, superman’s alter ego. The tyranny of today as a phrase does more, with less, to describe the barriers to innovation than almost any description I’ve heard. And I should know, I wrote Relentless Innovation trying to define how to overcome the tyranny of today. Continue reading
So my wife’s favorite aunt has arrived for a visit. This sounds like the set up for a vaudeville punch line but actually leads to some great stuff. We sat at dinner last night and she turned to me and asked “So what does your firm with the funny name (OVO) do, anyway?” I love slash hate this question, especially from people who aren’t quite sure what “the Google” is, anyway. Continue reading
