Connect:

• The Emerging Social Business Architect
  2 comments 642 reads
  Posted on 2012-02-06

  Download a PDF version of this article

  The world is changing and needs Social Business Architects. Gone is the epoch of the passive consumer, now customers want a say. At the same time, the quest for survival and growth is causing companies to stop looking at suppliers as someone to squeeze on price and instead as partners in innovation. And, employers are realizing that to maximize their success they need to attract and engage the best talent not just into internal talent pools, but external ones as well.

  Read More »
• Avoiding a Social Media Failure
  0 comments 1,761 reads
  Posted on 2012-01-09

  Despite the fact that Twitter has been around since 2006 and Facebook has been around since 2004, social media is still the bright shiny object in the room (it's still the current marketing fad). People still think they are being innovative if they use it, and unfortunately many people still approach it as something separate and scary instead of treating it as just one tool in the toolbox of anyone working in marketing or innovation. Yes, I linked social media to innovation in the last sentence and that's because in the same way that social media is a tool that all marketers must learn how to use as part of an integrated marketing campaign, innovation managers must also learn how to use social media properly as part of their innovation efforts.

  So let's get to our latest case study of how not to do social media by taking a look at a poorly run Facebook contest.

  Back in July I wrote an article about the effect of social media on contests called -...

  Read More »
• The Role of Curiosity in Innovation
  0 comments 2,584 reads
  Posted on 2011-11-04

  I had the opportunity to meet several amazing explorers of land, sea, and space at the announcement of Shell’s sponsorship of the XPrize Foundation’s exploration prize group recently. The explorers they had present at the event included:

  • Richard Garriott, Vice Chair, Space Adventures, Ltd., legendary video game developer and entrepreneur; among first private citizen astronauts to board International Space Station, America’s first second-generation astronaut; and X PRIZE Foundation trustee
  • David Gallo, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, renowned undersea explorer, among first oceanographers combining manned submersibles and robots to map ocean world; co-leader of recent Titanic exploration; project leader, successful search for missing Air France Flight 447
  • Mark Synnott, global mountain climber who has climbed some of the...
  Read More »
• Exploring for Innovation by Land, Sea, and Space
  0 comments 1,625 reads
  Posted on 2011-10-15

  I had the privilege of being invited to be a guest recently at the announcement of Shell’s sponsorship of the XPrize Foundation’s exploration prize group in New York City at the historic Explorers’ Club to cover the event for Innovation Excellence. Speaking of explorers, here is a simple challenge for you:

  Name a famous explorer.

  Now name a famous explorer that isn’t dead.

  The average person’s response to this challenge might make you think that the human race is done exploring, that we’ve explored every inch of the earth, but that’s just not true, and today Shell brought together a fascinating modern day roster of explorers who are still very much alive – in part to...

  Read More »
• An Open Letter on Innovation to President Obama
  0 comments 791 reads
  Posted on 2011-02-01

  “We need to out-innovate, outeducate, and outbuild the rest of the world” – President Obama

  In reading the stories and quotes from last night’s State of the Union address by President Obama, it is clear, and frustrates me to no end, that my government talks a lot about innovation but still does not understand how to foster it. Innovation in America, especially in the short term, is not achieved by pumping huge sums of money into government-sponsored research and development efforts. Yes, many successful innovations have resulted from government research investments, but we need to take a more strategic approach to these efforts. The focus on research and capital projects by the Obama administration also begs the question of whether long-term investments be our only approach to innovation.

  The Internet itself may be one of the most successful government research and development efforts, but we need more of these types of platform innovation investments, not just...

  Read More »
• Creating Predictable Innovation Success
  0 comments 1,876 reads
  Posted on 2011-01-20

  Les McKeownI had the opportunity to interview Les McKeown, author of “Predictable Success” recently.

  Here is text of the interview:

  1. Why is innovation so important for organizations?

  Two reasons: First, it’s clearly a competitive advantage. Innovative organizations are far more likely to flourish in the long term than competitors who are merely emulating others.

  Second, innovation is what stops an organization from becoming arthritic and...

  Read More »
• Seth Godin Interview (World Innovation Forum)
  0 comments 2,193 reads
  Posted on 2011-01-18
  I had the opportunity to interview Seth Godin, author of “Linchpin”, “Purple Cow”, “Tribes” and nine other books, at the World Innovation Forum 2010 in New York, NY.
  
  On stage, Seth Godin presented mostly a fusion of content from “Tribes” and “Linchpin”. He started by defining innovation as doing ’stuff’ that’s impossible, otherwise someone would already be doing it.
  
  Seth spent a good deal of time talking about the importance of movements and the failings of traditional marketing and advertising. One of the examples he used was that of the Candy Shoppe, along a highway somewhere in America, right next to a store that offered gas, donuts, burgers, fries, etc. The Candy Shoppe was so successful that it built a second identical store directly across the street so that people going the other direction didn’t have to try and make a left turn or a u-turn to visit them. A very powerful example of the power of doing one thing really well. There were lots of great...
  Read More »
• Take These 3 Actions for Innovation
  0 comments 2,144 reads
  Posted on 2011-01-10

  I was recently asked the following question:

  What are three specific actions that a non-innovative company can take to become more innovative?

  Sometimes I think that people out there talking about innovation try and make crafting a good innovation process sound harder than it is and the work of making innovation happen sound easier than it really is. Whether this is self-serving behavior to try and drive people to buy their books or consulting services, I’m not sure, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s not.

  Instead let’s see if we can simplify some of what we know into three specific actions that a non-innovative company can take to become more innovative:

  1. Make a Commitment

  Many organizations say they want to be more innovative, but few are willing to make the commitment. Leaders may talk about it once or twice, and then expect others in the organization to commit themselves to innovation. Talking about...

  Read More »
• Don’t Fail Fast – Learn Fast
  0 comments 1,776 reads
  Posted on 2011-01-07

  There is a lot of chatter out there about the concept of ‘failing fast’ as a way of fostering innovation and reducing risk. Sometimes the concept of ‘failing fast’ is merged with ‘failing cheap’ to form the following refrain – ‘fail fast, fail cheap, fail often’.

  Now don’t get me wrong, one of the most important things an organization can do is learn to accept failure as a real possibility in their innovation efforts, and even to plan for it by taking a portfolio approach that balances different risk profiles, time horizons, etc.

  The problem that I have with all of this chatter about failing fast is that does not take into account the power of language. The language focuses people on failing instead of on the goal – learning. My friend Stefan Lindegaard has recognized this and has incorporated learning into his ‘smartfailing‘. But even this approach misses the mark by remaining focused on failure.

  When it comes to innovation, it is not as important whether you...

  Read More »
• Innovation Acceleration
  0 comments 3,547 reads
  Posted on 2010-11-21

  Deborah Byrd of EarthSky Communications turned me on to a TED video from Chris Anderson, Curator of TED (Ideas Worth Spreading) where he speaks about the power of online video to accelerate learning and innovation.

  He speaks about how the explosion of bandwidth, the power of non-verbal communication and the ability of the medium to visualize problems or solutions is about to accelerate the speed of society’s ability to innovate.

  Read More »