All innovators share common traits and skills that when put into action enables them to detect problems, come up with better ideas, recruit people and collaborate, sharpen their ideas and execute on them.
Category Archives: Leadership
Innovation Isn’t The Goal
True disruption is rare, specifically because it means creating a simple solution for an unserved market at a lower cost. So I was delighted to start reading Jim McKelvey’s book The Innovation Stack. Jim is the co-founder of Square, the payments company, along with Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter. In the book he uses the story of Square to shine a light on how innovation happens when you create a solution for an unserved market; classic disruption.…
Innovation Rarely Occurs From The Inside
For things to change, someone has to start thinking and acting differently. Most of the time, it’s maverick’s who challenge the status quo; not incumbents. For all the talk about corporate innovation going on, truth is there’s not much going on. Most of it is just talk. In the big scheme of things, any story about corporate innovation is truly an anomaly.
The Netflix Innovation Cycle
How does Netflix innovate? Just like any organization that has a track record of innovation, you have to start with it’s culture. Luckily, you can learn about Netflix’s culture from the CEO himself. In his book, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, Reed Hastings describes 4 steps which all employees follow within Netflix to pursue an idea they’re passionate about.
Bet On Brains, Not Experience
Working for a traditional company means that you follow a set of rules, the company is configured so things happen in a determined way on a daily basis. There are set processes, therefore surprises are chided and anything that disrupts routines is avoided.
Bob Iger’s 10 Principles Necessary To True Leadership
I don’t read a whole lot of business books anymore, but I do like reading ones written by people who were actually there. The most recent one I read is Bob Iger’s Ride of a Lifetime, where he writes about his 40+ years at Walt Disney Company; including being CEO.
Confused Leaders Create Confused Followers
There are many warning signs of bad leadership and management, one of them is when followers are confused. Last week I witnessed a meeting between a manager and his immediate reports. The manager called an impromptu meeting to let them know that he felt that no one was obeying him, that they were slacking off and that he would change them with new people if things didn’t change.