Archive for: July, 2013

Why should companies launch imperfect products?

in Innovation, Question-To-Innovate, Questions

Why should companies launch imperfect products?

Although we think there are exceptions to the rule (Apple, Square), no company ever launches a complete product.

The Lean Startup advocates that entrepreneurs can and should launch products and services that are not %100 percent complete. This idea, of constant experimentation, is not new. Most products that are launched by startups are an initial prototype that tests for market validation.

Big companies, by their nature, don’t do this. At least not all of them.

Starbucks, for example, is an outlier. If you’ve read about how Statbucks got started, then you won’t be surprised. As outlined on a Fast Company article, they’ve recently taken to experiment with new marketing channels, such as Groupon, and in doing so put their huge digital platform to the test:…

Q&A: Group Partners on How Visualization Provides Strategic Ways To Solve Business Challenges

in Innovation, Interviews, Strategy

Why We Think Visually from John Caswell on Vimeo.

To be great at strategy and innovation, you must be able to work through an interconnected system. And, as the pace of change exceeds our ability to grasp what is happening around us, a better approach is needed for developing strategy and innovation. A visual approach to systems thinking.

To help deal with that challenge, Group Partners, has developed a unique approach to visualize and better solve problems with strategy and innovation. Here is a quick interview with visual thinking gurus, John Caswell and Hazel Tiffany of Group Partners.…

Innovation starts with needs but it doesn’t end there

in Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy

Businesses, either new or “me-too’s”, set out to fulfill a need in the marketplace. Whoever fills this need in a better way, usually is rewarded with profits for a long time. But, profits does not a sustainable company make. Though this particular story I’m about to tell you doesn’t talk about billions of dollars in revenue being evaporated, it does touch on the illusion of customer loyalty.

About 5 years ago, I started advising and then joined a celebrity baby clothing startup called Tuni&G which has a new line of newborn baby clothes for a boy.…