Stu Miniman tagged this photo with Twitter identitiesI recently had the opportunity to attend the World Innovation Forum (May 5-6, 2009) and a couple of pre-conference events on May 4, 2009 – the ?WhatIf! Innovation Forum and the Paul Saffo Workshop. I was invited to blog and tweet from the balcony at the World Innovation Forum as a member of the BloggersHub (sponsored by Pitney Bowes).The conference lineup included – Paul Saffo, CK Prahalad, Vijay Govindarajan, Clayton Christensen, Fred Krupp, and Dan ArielyI did a lot of live-tweeting at the event and have now finished up my blogging this week in David Letterman fashion with a series of Top 10 Insights posts. To wrap it up, here are my Top 10 World Innovation Forum Experiences (including private visits I scheduled while in NYC):The infamous Cinco De Mayo dinnerDan Ariely?WhatIf! Innovation Field Trip (Apple Store and OZOlab)Clayton Christensen (2nd Session)TheVisualMD visit … Continue reading →

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I’ve distilled the 90 minutes with Dan Ariely down into these Top 10 Insights:Dan Ariely suffered extensive burns when he was younger and what he learned about prolonged pain (and removing lots of bandages) is that while going quickly (to get it over with), you also need to take breaks and recover (the mind can only absorb so much pain – or change – at once)Optical illusions are an analogy for how our intense focus causes us to miss key indicators of changeWhy do some countries have more organ donors than others? It’s as simple as using opt-out instead of opt-in.The way we ask questions causes people to reflect differently on how they answerNot all choices are there to be picked – some are there for comparison – to make picking other choices easier (a dummy choice being present … Continue reading →

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I’ve distilled the 90 minutes with Fred Krupp down into these Top 10 Insights:We are pumping pollution into the air like there is no tomorrow – and if we don’t change, there might not be…There are now more wind power employees than people mining coalThe solar energy business market cap is over $100 Billion – Who knew?Brazil and Indonesia are #3 and #4 in CO2 emissions – after #1 USA and #2 ChinaThe Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) created an online community to spur innovationFred Krupp is not a supporter of the Pickens Plan – he thinks it ties us to natural gas powered electric cars and trucksFred Krupp showed a video of a guy making things out of sugar and then criticized the technology because it can push food prices higher (I love it when people aren’t afraid to … Continue reading →

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I’ve distilled the second 90 minutes with Clayton Christensen down into these Top 10 Insights (primarily about health care and education):Disruption drives things towards convenience and accessibilityClayton Christensen believes that the key to healthcare is pushing care farther from the center towards nurses and users and local devicesThere is a tension between people’s different learning styles and the need for standardizationWhen Clayton Christensen writes a book, he draws a diagram. Then he writes a chapter to describe the diagram. That’s how his brain works.Clayton Christensen believes that over time teachers will become tutors and all instruction will eventually go onlineSchools struggle to keep kids engaged because the kids are looking to feel successful and to have fun with their friendsInstead of telling Andy Grove of Intel what to think, Clayton Christensen told him how to think – and then … Continue reading →

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I’ve distilled the first 90 minutes with Clayton Christensen down into these Top 10 Insights:Largest markets don’t represent the biggest growth opportunity – non-existent markets are keySustaining innovation improves product past what people need – disruptive innovations often win by being inferior but closer to customer needsLow cost strategy only works when you are fighting against a high cost competitor – prices fall if only low cost competitors existA good disruptive strategy creates an incentive for leaders to exit the contested area and focus on higher margin businessesBiggest opporunity in China isn’t low cost labor, it’s the untapped market of non-consumersClayton Christensen believes that green energy opportunities are not in high tech solutions but in low tech developing world insteadBe careful about outsourcing too much of your operations – you can end up creating competitors (Compaq/Flextronics example)Good companies survive … Continue reading →