Great Ideas Are Yours to Steal
Are you interested in a source of new ideas that are proven to work and that don’t cost you anything? They’re available through a process…
Read more
Leadership is a Foul-weather Job
Great leadership looks easy when it’s smooth sailing and everybody’s happy. It’s during storms that a leader’s true colors are revealed. The environment that both…
What I Learned About Product Development from Ordering a Pizza
Think of the last time you ordered a pizza for carry-out or delivery. Did you order a pizza or did you specifically order a hot…
Stop Punishing Your Team For Sharing Their Ideas
You’re sitting on a gold mine of innovative ideas for: Disruptive new products and services More efficient approaches to using company resources How to keep…
Why Traditional Market Research Fails innovation
Traditional market research techniques focus on data and metrics; on logical analysis. These provide only a fraction of the available knowledge and insight necessary for…
To Create New, Breakthrough Innovation Stop Focusing on Products
People don’t buy stuff. They buy what stuff does for them—producing their desired results or at least helping them make progress towards their desired results.…
ROI2 – Return on Innovation Investment – Is Just as Important as That Other ROI
Lord Kelvin said, “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it”[i] If that’s true,…
Innovation: You Can’t Get There From Here
Innovation extends from our current knowledge, technology and ethnography into what theoretical biologist Stuart Kauffman coined as the Adjacent Possible.[i] Described by innovation theorist Steven…
The Report of Brainstorming’s Death has been Greatly Exaggerated
At least once a year some self-proclaimed pundit decries that brainstorming is ineffective. Is it? Or is it more likely that brainstorming just didn’t work…
Innovation is a Team Sport
Great innovations are not achieved by solitary work, created in a vacuum or emerge fully mature when first conceived. Innovations are not the product of…
Innovation: What You Think Matters Little
No matter what business you think you’re in, you’re in the tool business. Your customers are not buying the set of features you offer. They’re…
Disrupt Yourself before Anyone Else has a Chance
When trying to solve new problems or capitalize on new opportunities, individuals and organizations often look inward and apply familiar mental models, tools and techniques…
Differentiate to Dominate
This is part two of my second of three hybrid strategies you can use to win against your big-box competitors: Differentiate to Dominate! You can…
You Can’t Compete with the Big Box Stores So Don’t Even Try
You can’t compete against the Big Box stores – for their customers, so don’t even try. The good news is that they can’t compete against…
Top Reason Why Good Companies Fail
After more than 30 years of running my own businesses, and consulting with other leaders on the operation of theirs, I’ve identified the top reason…
