in Innovation
Why wait for the need to become obvious? Yes, why wait for it? If you are an established company, you have a set of challenges that you need to wrestle with on a daily basis. Growth, is one. Either by strengthening the existing value proposition of your current business, or by creating something entirely new.
With that said, to see what isn’t there, ask yourself a pair of questions:…
in Innovation, Leadership
I think we can agree that continuous improvement is necessary for any kind of innovation. And, when you aim for continuous improvement, to the extreme, it is easy to notice those that don’t. Therefore, it also easy to notice strategies and approaches that won’t ignite innovation.
Case in point: The local newspapers in Tijuana.
Last week, we held a mini-conference in our office. We invited our buddy and Partner, Adrian Pedrin to come in and give us some insight as to what it takes to work in Hollywood. Before the event, to our surprise, we had inquiries from local newspapers to do an interview with him.
So, the next day after the event, we had El Mexicano interview Adrian. Here is the note:
Missing, is a lot of important details. It is no secret that the media will always publish what they think is important, not what you want. But, for the newspapers, this is also an area of opportunity. For those of you in the modern world who read WSJ, NYTimes, USA Today, Financial Times, BBC or any modern newspaper; what I’m going to tell you won’t be a surprise.
For example, why didn’t they post the interview in podcast format? Why didn’t they post the interview on the web? Having so much content available, why didn’t the use it?
These are all valid questions, and, in the modern world may be expected from a media company. Media companies can inform and shape people’s opinion with the content they publish, and, the way they publish it. That is why when I see local newspapers who haven’t caught up with the rest of the world, it causes me concern.
I’m not ranting about this because it was an event I organized. It isn’t about me, it’s about all of us.…
This the eighteenth of a series of weekly posts where I will answer a few common questions about innovation. Please feel free to add your own response. Also, if you have any questions you think we should discuss, let me know.
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to interview the authors of The Innovators DNA. One of the questions that I asked them was: Of the five skills, is there one skill in particular that is more important than all others? Why?
Before the other core innovation skills, the ability to associate is the most important innovation skill you need to master. Associating, or the ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas from different fields, is central to the innovator’s DNA.…
in Innovation
Cooking (Photo credit: omarbercor)
What if you could predict with certainty that people will love your new product or service? What if there was a huge scoreboard that would tell you that a massive amount of people will like what you are cooking up before the expensive launch? Business owners, and managers, tell me that they would love to know that whatever they are cooking up will work with certainty. This is a fallacy.
I’ve also heard managers say, as you have, that they much rather copy competitors than taking the lead themselves to avoid failure. Not surprising in my neck of the woods…
So, what does one tell these people and organizations? The current line of thinking is that one should “fail fast”. But this line of thinking has gone overboard. Some believe that “failure thinking” should be accepted. Let me make it clear: failure isn’t the goal. It is learning.…
in Innovation, Leadership
Here is a short article I wrote for a Mexican Business Magazine that will be published in a few weeks.
What would happen if your company could innovate consistently? This is a worthy challenge, and, one not many can meet. But, if you have the will and drive, you will.
Innovation is the only source of new value. Yet, a lot of organizations struggle to come up with new products and services that delight their customers. There are many reasons for this, and leaders must understand that it isn’t easy either. Innovation requires courage, but most importantly, it requires drive.
Here are ten things you, as a leader, can do right now to ignite innovation in your organization:…
in Innovation, Leadership
Yes, anyone can. But now everyone can. Here’s why…
It is very simple. First of all, to innovate, you need skill combined with will. The skills needed are very straight forward, to begin you need to identify a problem, understand it and then have access to people and information that can help you solve the problem.
And, that is just the beginning…
Anyone can identify problems, but not everyone has the patience and will to dig deeper, and keep going. And, not many cultivate an idea network which constantly feeds them ideas and insights, therefore not everyone has access to diverse knowledge sources to help them see beyond the obvious. Which is critical.…
This the seventeenth of a series of weekly posts where I will answer a few common questions about innovation. Please feel free to add your own response. Also, if you have any questions you think we should discuss, let me know.
One thing every innovator needs is access to people who can help him with specific knowledge and resources. And, social media can enable innovation in a variety of ways. Explicitly, one that is rarely talked about is that you can meet people from different backgrounds and collaborate. It is an opportunity to pick people’s brains in a very interactive and transparent way.
Twitter and LinkedIn are such networks that serve this purpose. Cultivating a network that provides you with insights and ideas is incredibly, and it is something every person and organization needs to do if it wants to come up with breakthrough ideas.
A few years ago Christensen, Clayton M.; Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen published some research where they outlined the five discovery skills that drive innovation in both individuals and organizations. These five skills are illustrated below (via WSJ):…