According to Nike Inc.’s fourth-quarter 2018 earnings release on June 28, the company reported that Jordan brand revenue was down 8% to $2.86 billion this year versus $3.1 billion in the same period last year. Some argue that Jordan Brand’s popularity is waning. But that’s still a lot of money from just one brand. And the main revenue driver are Air Jordan sneakers. But AJ’s are more than sneakers, they’re cultural objects that are worn just as much outside a basketball court as inside of it.
There are many reasons why entrepreneurial ecosystems like Silicon Valley and others thrive while others don’t. One of those reasons is the act of paying it forward. The health and progress of every entrepreneurial ecosystem in the world lives and dies by the ability of its diverse network of people and groups to share with each other; this includes knowledge and contacts.
Whenever I get asked by executives about how their companies can innovate they expect me to respond with a prescriptive 3 to 5 point checklist of things that will solve all of their problems. Instead, I respond with a question: what are you doing to impede it?
Illustration by Christian Laborin
We lost a great one! Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, The Hulk, Fantastic 4, X-Men and other super-heroes died yesterday. He leaves a legacy of inspiration behind that will keep inspiring many more generations.
Most of his comic book characters have been adapted to film, creating a franchise that is shaping the world over. You might want to visit sites like https://thedirect.com/tags/mcu/ to learn more about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
in Innovation
Quick, get a pen and write this down in your “to remember” notebook: There is no innovation without experimentation.
Organizations that understand this principle create an evolutionary advantage that enables them to disrupt themselves. The ones that don’t, will always play the game not to lose; waiting until a crisis hits to be motivated to change.
Every organizations lives and dies by its strategy. What makes a good strategy? The best strategies are simple and answer 5 fundamental questions: who, what, where, how and why.
Still, developing a strategy is hard. There’s a tendency to make it a very complex activity, which I believe drives most organizations to fall for many traps; one being the the copy-paste approach.
Startups, by their very nature, do not fall for this trap. But this doesn’t mean their path to victory will be easier; but much more harder.
Companies with a restricted view of innovation can miss opportunities to create new value for customers and themselves. The restriction is their perspective on innovation, like believing that technology by itself is innovation; it’s not.