What should innovation leaders and intrapreneurs know about innovation projects and new ventures? I have had the pleasure of working with such people for many years and I begin to see a pattern that I have summarized into 10 lessons for innovation leaders and intrapreneurs:1. Know that innovation and intrapreneurship is about teamsbuild a team of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable (team definition by Katzenbach/Smith)2. Work with passionate and persistent peoplenothing goes as planned in new ventures. Passion and persistence help overcome most challenges and they are essential for making great things happen.3. Use recognition and storiesrecognition if often a better rewarding tool than money. Explore ways of recognizing people and use it to develop compelling stories that sells your company better than cold facts.4. Define your target markets and eco-systemswell-defined target markets … Continue reading
Long time readers of this blog will know that my love for most airlines in the US has never taken off. In fact, I’m constantly amazed by the continued indifference many of them have towards the consumer, not to mention the consumer’s resigned acceptance of the service they’re offered.Not everybody is content to lie down and be trampled on by the commodification kings of the sky. Dave Carroll is an Internet hit after he wrote and uploaded a video to a song called “United Breaks Guitars” about…you guessed it, United Airlines breaking his prized Taylor guitar. Initially complaining, Dave was met with indifference from three flight attendants. A week or so later, he made a complaint which turned into weeks and months to call centers before his claim was inevitably refused. You know the story. So Dave has had his revenge, and another YouTube star was born.As soon as United … Continue reading
Item #1:”As the spam annoyance factor on Twitter goes up, the credentials/relevance go down meaning less user value. @biz huge deal!”- Kim Patrick Kobza, President & CEO of Neighborhood AmericaItem #2:”Twitter Search will also get a ‘reputation’ ranking system soon, Jayaram told me. When you do a search on a ‘trending’ topic – a topic that is so big it gets its own link in the Twitter.com sidebar – Twitter will take into account the reputation of the person who wrote each tweet and rank the search results in part based on that.”- Rafe Needleman, cnet, May 6, 2009Item #3:”I guarantee that if Twitter implements a ranking system, the same old crowd will shove everyone else aside. If I want to read the same people over and over, I already have Techmeme.”- Paul Boutin, VentureBeat, July 31, 2009Rumors of an Upcoming Twitter Reputation SystemWord of an upcoming Twitter reputation system … Continue reading
Here’s the second half of my thoughts on Nature’s 10 Simple Rules for Business Survival (read Part 1 here). Send me your views on this list. Also, make sure you pin it up on your wall, your company’s survival may depend on it.Nature’s # 6. Integrate metrics. Nature brings the right information to the right place at the right time. When a tree needs water, the leaves curl; when there is rain, the curled leaves move more water to the root system. OK, I’m not a big metrics guy. Experience has shown me that a quick decision grounded in intuition often beats the 100 page report and meeting from hell. But I also find inspiration in understanding how the world works, and for that big picture we need numbers – just numbers from a lot of different sources. Smart, revealing, insightful numbers. For example, James Dyson worked through around 5,000 … Continue reading
Innovation is a company’s future. Don’t believe me, ask the stock market. “Today, some 70% of the valuation of the top 500 S&P companies is made up of intangible capital, value not on the balance sheet,” according to Mark Van Clieaf, CEO of MVC International. Future growth from innovation is a significant contributor to intangible capital.What to do? Well companies need to rethink, at a fundamental level, their approach to innovation. I don’t have the ego to say I have the solution. But, I believe that companies who follow these steps to innovation will achieve their innovation goals, validate the Wall Street’s assessment of their intangible value and secure competative advantage. First, companies should create a new position in the C-Suite, the Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). And then companies should create and fund innovation incubators. These aren’t original ideas. The concept of a CIO has been around for a while … Continue reading
Scion Exile Concept Sketchby Matthew E MayI’m fortunate enough to count car designer Kevin Hunter, president of Toyota’s CALTY Design Research, among my board of muses. CALTY (California+Toyota) is one of Toyota’s most influential design centers, located in Newport Beach, CA. CALTY is involved in nearly all of Toyota’s major vehicle design programs. According to Kevin, Toyota wants constant movement forward, and design plays an enormous role in that effort. Design is the face of innovation. He has a few rules for the road warriors in his company that have now become mantra.Rule #1: Balance Today and Tomorrow. “People can’t tell you what they want in the future,” says Kevin. “But they know what they want now. You have to balance creativity with market acceptability. You have to push the envelope and be progressive, but you can’t get too far out there, because customers won’t understand. Your design has to … Continue reading
