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.…
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.…
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.…
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.…
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.…
in Leadership, Strategy
Culture tells us what to do when the leader isn’t in the room. We’ve all heard this before, and being able to achieve this is one of the daunting challenges of leadership.
It is not unusual to be in a strategy session and come up with all kinds of great quotes and soundbites, that are quickly forgotten when everyone leaves the room. The key is to be able reduce those great quotes into “concrete behaviors” that happen on a daily basis.
For me, the challenge is ongoing. And to face this challenge, I use a code: FLUSH.…
in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
Cultures of innovation are naturally dynamic. Employees think of new ideas and try them on the fly. Processes and procedures are fluid. There often is no one right answer to a problem, but rather experimentation drives many projects, efforts, assignments, and ultimately opportunities for improvement.
With that said, in my neck of the woods, businesses are the complete inverse.
Take a recent experience I had with the marketing manager of a telecommunications company based in Tijuana. With Startup Weekend Tijuana 4 coming this week, this marketing manager enthusiastically let me know that she signed up to participate. “Great!”, I said. But there was one minor problem: she didn’t want me to tell her boss about it.
Sucks!
According to her, the boss doesn’t want people to have their head occupied in anything other than what they’re supposed to be doing at work.
Sound familiar?…