The 7 Fundamentals for Succeeding in Innovation

It isn’t exactly easy to succeed in innovation. The vast majority of innovation attempts seem to fail and a mere 6% of executives are satisfied in their innovation performance, despite innovation generally being considered as very important for the future of their organization.

Lessons from Apple on Why Aesthetic Innovation is Important

It’s pretty much impossible to argue with Apple’s success. It’s one of the most valuable companies in the world, and has maintained dominance for its reputation as an innovative company that produces top-of-the-line hardware. Because of its products and brand reputation, Apple has gained a cult following that will buy nearly every new product that emerges, year after year. So why, even with the high price tag, are so many consumers willing to shell out for every new gadget that comes along?

5 Most Influential Innovators of the 21st Century

Ever since the beginning of mankind, there has always been someone who pushes the human race forward, such as the cavemen who learn how to make fire or the Native American Indians who sharpened stones to create weapons. With the advancement of technology in the 21st century these innovators: Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheila Lirio Marcelo are creating new ways to travel, interact with others and access professionals for help.

Disruption Planning 2- Creating Options and Pathways

In this in-depth article Haydn Shaughnessy discusses why traditional ROI decision making is becoming irrelevant and how options planning is a key element of competitiveness. In these uncertain times firms need to recognise and analyse their options thoroughly in order to be ready for inevitable change.

Taking Action: Your Innovation Master Plan

The focus of the The Innovation Formula is on the innovation process that makes sense for small businesses, where lean, simple, and fast are essential. You may also be interested in a view of the innovation process that’s suited to larger companies, so this chapter provides an overview of the Innovation Master Plan framework that we use when we’re working with larger organizations on innovation projects and initiatives.

How to Avoid Robot-Zombie Innovation

In order to create Breakthrough Innovations, you need to abandon the corporate robot-zombie talk, says Andrew Benson. By cultivating an open and free form innovation culture organizations can avoid the idea logjams created by formal innovation processes.

The Intensity Factor in Innovation: Principles from Zen Philosophy

This paper is a follow-up to my previous article, “The Eastern Way: How Chinese Philosophy can Power Innovation in Business Today” (June 18, 2012). The present article defines the concept of intensity in innovation, using Eastern Zen philosophy, in a way that can be useful for business while avoiding too much focus on personality traits. Zen intensity in innovation stresses intuition, sensory and physical experience/re-experience, artistry, the integration of conflicting ideas, and the avoidance of premature choices. Examples are cited from the career of the late Zen enthusiast, Steve Jobs. Regarding the use of time, the Zen approach to intensity implies a full and sustained engagement of all creative processes, not simply a rapid time to project completion.

Are you Called to be an Innovation Leader?

If you want to be innovative, you need to be a leader. No individual or organization has become an innovative one by copying the actions of their competitors or peers. That may seem obvious, but evidence shows that most people fail to realize this critical fact.

Why is Innovation so Often “Hit or Miss?”

This question has baffled many executives for quite some time. Management tries to replicate the special event or circumstances that created a successful innovation project but often fails. Companies have created positions such as Chief Innovation officer, innovation teams, and organizational strategies that promote innovation through diversity, team dynamics, and social networking. However, failure rates of 90% are common when innovations occur due purely to chance. What distinguishes whether an innovation is hit or miss?

Can Companies Sidestep Disruptive Innovation?

Can companies sidestep or blunt the effects of disruptive innovation? It's possible, but not likely, explains Steve Denning in a recent Forbes column.

Collaborative Innovation on the Retail Floor at Nordstrom’s

By combining physical and digital elements in our innovation experiments, we can often uncover significant opportunities that weren't apparent before. Dan Keldsen shares a fascinating example from a retail setting.

The Hidden Driver of Innovation at Apple – Revealed

One of the things that's becoming abundantly clear from reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs is that a key to the company's innovation wasn't just Jobs' prodigious talent and relentless drive for creating "insanely great" products. There was also another element that I haven't seen anyone talking about as they eulogize this technology giant.

2020-07-08T09:51:15-07:00December 6th, 2011|Categories: Book Review|Tags: , , , , |

Innovating the iPod

Seldom has a single technological innovation affected so many markets at once - the music industry, hardware vendors, the labor market, artists and consumers themselves. This is the story of how the iPod was made. In a quest to make music more portable, designers and engineers at Apple got together to create the iPod. Steve Jobs, in his quintessential style, maneuvered through established, entrenched industry interests to finally price music in a way that addressed all stakeholders. An idea, however brilliant and singular, reaches perfection when many heads work together. The iPod story is as much a lesson in team collaboration as it is in decisive leadership.

2021-12-02T15:55:02-08:00July 15th, 2011|Categories: Strategies|Tags: , , , |