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Yet another music streaming service has joined the ranks of Spotify, rdio, tidal, Pandora and on the surface looks to have an exciting feature set though reportedly a bit buggy. The real question is it enough to make people switch and transfer their playlists and learn a whole new way of interacting with an app? After 2 weeks, Initial signs seem to indicate yes, but time will tell.    http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-music-vs-spotify-whats-the-difference/Read More →

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Back in 2013 this article hit home and it looks like we are still in a similar place. Simply soliciting ideas is not a game changer. Investing in a platform or system or just forming an innovation team is not the answer. Everyone’s got ideas, it just comes down to whether they’re tied to corporate objectives, have a likelihood for success, can be measured, The correct culture is in place and the investment is truly understood. My position on innovation, which is not unique, is that innovation is achieved only after an impact is made regardless of whether it is big or small (big I vsRead More →

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The Harvard business review has a great article on formulating and the benefits of innovation strategy. Connecting your innovation strategy and business strategy, which should appear common place, but is in fact not happening to the degree of should.     A good example of how a tight connection between business strategy and innovation can drive long-term innovation leadership is found in Corning, a leading manufacturer of specialty components used in electronic displays, telecommunications systems, environmental products, and life sciences instrumnets. (Source: https://hbr.org/product/corning-156-years-of-innovation/608108-PDF-ENG ) Coupling your innovation and business strategy together, ensuring that the right processes, personnel and motivation are in place and tied to investments and objectives isRead More →

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 As companies focus on their ability to navigate a constantly changing landscape, understanding how to tap into and manage the next generation of workers becomes increasingly important. In addition, disseminating the process, tools and techniques to senior and middle management who are leading an ultra connected, tech savvy generation focused more on self that success presents a challenge. Consider Ryo Mukumoto, a 22 year old into his third year making mock-ups at Honda’s research arm when he beat about 400 other entries in an in-house competition. Honda made him the youngest lead engineer in the company’s history and gave him a young team to helpRead More →

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As you approach innovation and motivating your work force, is there hesitation? Fear of failure?   How many times did you fail today? Was it a good fail or a bad fail? Iteration is core to the engine of innovation producing results. Setting the stage for good failure, that being within preset boundaries and related to core business objectives, is essential.Read More →

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As you plan your strategy around innovating, here are a few links to get the process started in terms of structuring the team, process and KPI. https://hbr.org/2014/12/build-an-innovation-engine-in-90-days https://hbr.org/2012/05/managing-your-innovation-portfolio Key to capitalizing on innovative efforts is putting in place a process that allows for the benefits of innovation that are sustainable in practice and yield the “right” results. Think “Innovative culture”.Read More →

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Having played some high school and college football at the first-hand experience of observing teams that work and teams that don’t. Every successful team needs a great coach and a great quarterback, these individuals typically are high performing, intelligent individuals able to motivate others. Motivating 11 people at a time, with various backgrounds, motivations and abilities is not easy. Factor in inclement weather, injury, fatigue and the psychological aspects of competing for 60 minutes and this presents a challenge. Corporate America is not unlike the football field, there’s a constant battle against the competition, team of similar size can be up against an adversary justRead More →

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As global companies invest billions each year in R&D and innovation, the differentiators often comes down to the techniques and resources that are involved. Denning and Dunham provide the basis for any leader who has the objective of driving innovation in their company. The “Structure of innovation practices” is a solid model that details non sequential processes critical to innovation success.   There are many books out there that have the word innovation in the title, and who has time to read all them. This book is different in that it actually takes you through the “process” of innovation. Key to leveraging the concepts isRead More →