I must say, I’m highly experimental. So when I saw the tweet below, I was a little skeptical about the content.…
Category Archives: Strategy
10 Change your course questions CEO’s need to ask themselves
in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
Questioning, one of my favorite activities. I’ve been spotting a lot of it lately, and that’s good. Whether it’s because we are entering the last month of the year or because people are feeling the need to reflect, we need to be constantly questioning the obvious.
The obvious, if you’re succeeding, should also include this “change your course question” by Rosabeth Kanter: What is going to destroy our business, and are you taking steps to do it yourself before others do it to you?…
Forecasting Innovation: 3 types of drivers of the future
in Innovation, Strategy
Can you predict the future? Nope. But you can anticipate by asking questions, and therefore shape the future. The key question to ask your self is: what are the key elements that will drive change?
There are three. Of which you will learn about in the following webinar from Stanford Business School.…
For Good Strategy Not To Do Is To Be
in Leadership, Strategy
Why do companies insist on a one-size-fits-all template for strategy? Is it because the MBA types come in with their unimaginative frameworks that speak to unimaginative executives? I certainly think so.
The ones who are at a fault the most, McKinsey, recently published a series of articles about the Art of Strategy. What’s new about strategy in the article?
Absolutely nothing.…
How do you change the game?
This is a question I get asked very often (goes with my blog name). The topic of strategy is vast, it is filled with stratagems and other thinking that can be confused as cookie-cutter solutions. Strategy is heavily dependent on context, so, there isn’t one single way to change the game. But, for me, there is a psychological tactic you can use to change the perception of how the game is played.…
Why settle for average? Steal from the greats to be great
in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevenka/3061982219/
The challenge with copying uniqueness is that is takes a relentless commitment to excellence.
Whenever I’m asked about innovation, a list of names always comes up: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook.
Why, I always ask, are these the ones that always come up?
Nothing wrong with bringing up those companies, but surely, there are others. This is an issue when discussing innovation, because there is a very narrow view about what innovation looks like. And, when this gap in definition exists, people naturally look around for examples of what it looks like. They can’t imagine anything else.…
Innovation is not a short game. It’s the art of playing the long game
in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
Will this move the needle? What is the ROI? When will we see a return on our investment? How fast can you prove this will work?
No, I wasn’t at a BIG company meeting when I heard these questions. I was at a Startup Weekend this past weekend, and the people asking these questions were participants. Not the judges. What?!
As one of the original founders of SW in Tijuana, I get a lot of feedback from participants about their experience at SW. From what they think sucks, to what they like, to what they think would add more value, I hear it all. Besides the questions above, one particular group of participants (composed of a lawyer and a couple of MBA types) noticed that most of the people who come to pitch are of the “let’s create this because it would be cool” variety, not the “let’s do this because we’re going to make a lot of money”.
You would not be surprised if big company executives were making these types of remarks, or asking these types of questions. In big companies, being able to prove that your idea will make a significant impact on the bottom line is a criteria your idea must have if you want to move your project through the gauntlet.…