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Too often, Sales & Marketing blame each other for a lack of results. The leads aren’t good. Sales doesn’t follow up. The excuses go on and on. If this sounds familiar for your organization, there are things you can start doing right away to mend fences and start on a path towards not only better relations, but far better revenue ...

With all of the internet chatter about Apple’s rumored tablet computer, I’ve been asking myself two questions: 1. Does it make sense for Apple to make a tablet computer?2. What innovation could an Apple tablet offer? These questions are not as easy to answer as they may appear at first glance. The main reason? When it comes to technology, just ...

The first modern hospitals were founded in Europe and America in the 18th century. About a hundred years later, both the pharmaceutical industry and the health insurance industry began to emerge. So it’s safe to say that, in much of the developed world, the healthcare business has been around for about two or three centuries. And, over time, like most ...

There’s an interesting and difficult conundrum associated with innovation based on the calendars and timeframes of most organizations. While many organizations want innovation, they are not able to innovate beyond their “headlights”, which to me means the span of time into the future they are willing to investigate. Most businesses operate in approximately three timeframes: the quarter, the annual plan, ...

by Hutch Carpenter At the Open Innovation Summit last week in Orlando, there were a number of companies there discussing their various initiatives for open innovation. What is open innovation? UC Berkeley professor Henry Chesbrough, perhaps the father of the movement, formulated this definition several years ago: “Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use ...

by Kevin Roberts Newspapers are up against it in the Participation Economy, the Internet-powered revolution of joining in, taking part, sharing and joy. For the modern consumer, the idea of reading newspapers full of day-old news hand-picked by faceless editors seems, well, very early 90’s. These days we get to be our own editor-in-chief, selecting the bits of news, opinion ...

“Most of the world seems to be focused on the Americans who are unemployed. We’re focused on the 90% that are still employed.” Those are the words of Ron Shaich, CEO of Panera Bread, the 1,300-unit bakery-cafe that has found a way to thrive in spite of the recession. Its formula? A combination of smart financial management and keen understanding ...

Chuck Dymer is a strategic mentor, having done more than any single person to help me understand lateral thinking processes and how integral they are to business success. You could say I’ve borrowed everything I know on innovation tools from watching Chuck do what he does so masterfully. After working with Chuck on various projects, he said to me, “You ...

Innovation puts cash in your wallet. But what about the wallet itself? For this month’s LAB, we will apply the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., to create new and useful concepts for the wallet. Wallets are the most personal items we own. They carry our money, credit cards, identification, licenses, photographs, and other memorabilia. Your wallet says a lot about you. ...

I believe innovation can only work to its full potential if it is aligned with an overall corporate strategy. Many companies mess up here. They simply do not have an innovation strategy. Companies have marketing or sales strategies, but only very few have an innovation strategy. What should an innovation strategy look like? It can come in many different forms ...