Every era is defined by the problems it tackles. At the beginning of the 20th century, harnessing the power of internal combustion and electricity shaped society. In the 1960s there was the space race. Since the turn of this century, we’ve learned how to decode the human genome and make machines intelligent. None of these were achieved by one person ...

In 1961, the first minicomputer, called the PDP-1, arrived at the MIT Electrical Engineering Department. It was a revolutionary machine but, as with all things that are truly new and different, no one really knew what to do with it. Lacking any better ideas, a few of the proto-hackers in residence decided to build a game. That’s how Spacewar! was ...

Every technology goes through a Development Phase before entering its Application Phase. The tech-advancements below are all entering the Application Phase. They are ready to be used as innovation tools — and to be used to solve your company’s and your customers real world challenges. Innovators in large multinational organizations, as well as small and mid-sized firms are discovering creative ways ...

After invention of steam engine, there was years, in some parts of the world even half of the century or more to feel the 1st industrial revolution. Now, 4th industrial revolution is coming much faster and changes that it brings are revolutionary. Very soon we will feel the effect of processing big data, AI, machine learning, virtual reality, IoT, biotechnology, ...

This is a brief case study for meaningful & constructive conversations about why things aren’t working within our innovation efforts. — Quick intro I’m passionate about helping people take their best ideas to market, and I’m fully aware that ideas can come from anyone or anywhere. But to get to market is often a complicated process full of ambiguity and ...

In recent years, an increasing intensity in collaboration between incumbent companies and startups has been observed. Meanwhile, close to 80% of corporations and startups have already been or are collaborating. The mutual – actually complementary – benefits seem pretty obvious: Benefits for startups include availability of office space, hardware, networks, support and potential funding access to market and customer base ...

I had the good fortune to work with Dr. Amar Bose and with the great company he founded. I helped to bring into the world two blockbuster products – BOSE’s Noise-Cancelling Headphones and the BOSE® Wave® Music System. Here are seven product development process lessons learned from our experience creating products enjoyed by millions of customers. Lesson #1: Noise-Cancelling Headphones Were Not ...

The world is at the precipice of one of the most dramatic shifts in history: the transition from an industrial society to one that is based on a deep understanding of an entirely new form of knowledge capital, behavior—our behaviors as well as those of the intelligent machines that we are building. The industrial model on which we have built ...

This is the third & final article on embracing digitization, transformation and innovation. We are living in an era where that is defined by one continual exponential technology wave after another, called the Digital Age. It is transforming everything we do, from how we do business and especially in how we learn, lead and coach people. In fact, we have ...

This is the first of three articles on embracing digitization, transformation and innovation. It is becoming more and more apparent that we are living in a moment of profound possibility and enormous disruption. Where the old business paradigms are dying and innovative new ones are emerging, especially creating new ways of integrating people and technology through focusing digitization efforts. What ...