Category Archives: entrepreneurship

So what? Finding a hook for your idea is an innovation imperative

in Creativity, entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership, Marketing

Innovative ideas, initiatives, products, culture transformations, have little chance to succeed if they aren’t enabled by smart communications. And it all starts with a simple and easily understood message. 

I’m in the process (pre-production) of co-producing a film with a Director friend of mine. The idea for the film wasn’t mine, so one of the first things I asked him after I read the script was: what’s the hook?

That was at the end of October last year. To this day, that question remains unanswered. And as we’ve been casting for the last two weeks, most of the actors have asked us the same question: what’s the hook?…

Innovation lessons from Google’s self-driving car

in entrepreneurship, Innovation, Strategy

google driverless car

A few days ago Google showed off their very own self-driving car. But unlike their first prototypes, which were custom rigged SUV’s and cars with Cummins Holset turbochargers from known manufacturers, it isn’t built around a driver behind the wheel. Rather, it’s built around safety; without any driver.

Chris Urmson, Director of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project said:…

We need different kinds of Silicon Valley not more Silicon Valleys

in entrepreneurship, Innovation

Here in the mexican border city of Tijuana there’s been constant discussion about how to collaborate with our next door neighbor San Diego. I’ve actually been advocating for this myself by co-founding Startup Weekend here a few years ago and also by arranging partnerships with partners in San Diego and a client in Tijuana to provide a service where co-working spaces in San Diego and Tijuana create a type of pass for their members where anyone can arrive at any participating co-working space; free of charge.

These initiatives were done with the intent of stimulating cross-border collaboration between entrepreneurs, but it hasn’t been without its challenges.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I attended a local conference about Silicon Valley and San Diego as innovation ecosystems. Tijuana, like San Diego, is creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem to call their own but an ongoing challenge is that the conversation always ends up with Silicon Valley as a model to follow.…

Quick guide on how to use Evernote to stay on top of emerging trends

in Creativity, entrepreneurship, Innovation, Marketing, Strategy

evernoteWhat is the process I use to keep up and /or uncover emerging trends and what tools do I use? Previously, I’ve written about how to create an insights bank using Evernote. Here I’ll expand on that initial idea, with a quick guide on how you can stay on top of emerging trends, as well as building your own sense making capability, to make sure you don’t get caught off guard.

Why do successful companies fail? Because they miss the future. But, companies don’t fail because they choose the wrong course, they fail because they can’t imagine a better one.

How does trend spotting fit into an organization’s future?

Innovators either create trends that change the world, or take advantage of emerging ones. Trend spotting is a very important innovation skill, and one that the vast majority of companies outsource to trend hunting firm; sometimes with no benefit.

This is a valid strategy, but a I’d recommend you don’t bet on it because most organizations have access to the same information those trend hunting firms are selling. More strategic for you is to develop your own capability for detecting and taking action on trends.

Detecting trends is a similar exercise to how you look for tension points to uncover opportunities for innovation; you attentively look for what at some point could become a huge problem.

…

What is empathy?

in entrepreneurship, Innovation, Marketing

What is empathy?

 

What happens is that you get some very abstract conversations about what empathy is, nevertheless it is an interesting and important topic. Featuring Dr. Marco Iacoboni, Dr. Mary Hellen Immordino-Yang, Dr. Robert Weller, Dr. Adam Seligman, Leslie Jamison and Ben Doepke & the SEEK company.…

3 lessons about how to do rapid prototyping from the Nordstrom Innovation Lab

in entrepreneurship, Innovation

I just came across this video of how the Nordstrom Innovation Lab created, tested and built an iPad app in just one week with the intent of enhancing the eye wear buying experience. I thought I’d share this with you as a follow up post to the three part series I wrote on how to leave small thinking behind.

Though the video was posted almost three years ago, it is still quite relevant for rapid prototyping towards innovation.

There are a few things that I want to bring to your attention about rapid prototyping:…

Quick and Dirty Blueprint for Customer Development

in Design Thinking, entrepreneurship, Innovation

customer development

This is a guest post by Jonathan Lau, a growth hacker.

Alright, you’ve got the idea, now how do you quickly and cheaply see if anyone will pay for it? Despite all the hype about new PPC technologies and social media marketing strategies, I have found that for companies starting out, emails and phone calls remain the most effective tools for customer development.

Follow this blueprint for a cheap and easily scalable customer development strategy that people actually respond to.

The work flow is simple:…