Innovation has many enemies, but the one you can count on to rear its ugly head all the time is expertise. You see, true innovation is something new, surprising and radically useful; it’s an order of magnitude better than what currently exists. Expertise driven innovation results in incremental improvements, which is good for stability; but it hinders progress when it comes to making leaps.
in Innovation, Leadership
No matter how much effort we put into codifying it, innovation is really hard because it’s all about combating human nature; both inside and outside the business. …
Illustration by Christian Laborin
Recently, I’ve been giving a series of conferences at INIDE University on technological trends, Future-Proofing, the future of work, how to keep pace with technology and orient ones company to compete in the Next Economy. …
Illustration credit Christian Laborin
Slaying giants is fun, almost every new disruptive company slays a giant or two. Last week I had a chat with a team based in Puebla Mexico working on a cool augmented reality application for museums. They asked for my thoughts on their app and business model, I happily answered their questions. One of those questions comes up every time I talk with startups: How do you protect yourself from giants who might copy your idea?
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The President and CEO for Ford Motor Company, Mark Fields, had a conference where he spoke about Ford entering the self-driving car race in 2021 hoping to establish Ford as a leader in this field.
Of course, self-driving is the next car revolution so it’s not surprising to hear Ford is entering the space.
What’s interesting is how he explained Ford’s decision making process and the way they operate. In order to make any investment they go through 3 simple questions:…
2016 is over. What a year. In terms of writing, this year was was my most varied and productive yet. As 2016 comes to a close, I want to share the 10 most popular posts from the year. These posts cover a range of topics, but the overall theme is hard to miss: being future-proof is more important as ever as we enter the Next Economy. Economies are undergoing the greatest shift since the industrial revolution, and it’s time for organizations to work together and chart a new course forward.
Enjoy!
2016 might have been the year AI finally came of age, and from here on out it will only get more interesting and more annoying because everyone will pitch it forth and center as a unique competitive advantage.
AI underpins all technologies, including AR and VR, genetics, and drones. The Next Economy is going to look very different as new technologies will enable new interactions and business models.
Innovation doesn’t happen in a straight line, the greatest enemy is corporate culture. In this post I lay out 10 common innovation challenges inside organizations and how to solve them.
Innovation isn’t a job, it’s a mindset. A better way to look at “innovation is everyone’s job” is: Not everyone is cut out to be an innovator, but everyone can point out things that can be done better.
Hiring 101 says that one should hire for culture-fit. The problem with this idea is it leads to complacency and closed mindedness; which blocks innovation. If you want innovators you have to hire for cultural contribution.
A culture of innovation is a culture of learning. In this post I lay out a few ways how you can become better at learning…
To manage for innovation is to manage for creativity. In this post I lay out 6 things that companies and managers can do to support and inspire creative work.
On this episode of the Big Bang podcast I chat with Geopolitical Futurist Abishur Prakash about his new book Next Geopolitics where he lays out how technology is changing geopolitics.
What are the most important leadership skills? According to a study, the ability to inspire and motivate others is most important at all levels. Yet, most leaders don’t understand how to inspire…
Education is ripe for reinvention. With the rise of AI, many jobs will eventually be automated. That means we need to sharpen and further develop the skills at which AI is not good at: empathy, creativity and collaboration.
Best forecasters (& innovators) have ability to keep changing their minds. “Experts” are overrated.
It’s a given that The Next Economy will be driven by 10 essential technologies, some of which are already a big part of our daily lives. What’s not a given is we don’t know how everything will play out. Still, it is imperative for leaders to understand how these technologies will shape business and society, for every organization is slowly turning into a technology company but are not acting like one.
This changes how leaders think about strategy. …