innovation

How to Be a Top 50 Innovator

FastCompany recently released its list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies. Many of the names on the list come as no surprise, especially the top three (Apple, Facebook, and Google). But what caught my attention was the diversity of companies and industries represented. Technology and Internet companies dominate the list (again, no surprise). But…

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Anti-innovation: 10 Proven Ways Not to Innovate

Success in business is a wonderful thing. But it’s also a double-edged sword. As companies experience success, their emphasis tends to shift to protecting and maintaining the status quo versus considering new opportunities and products. Unfortunately, clinging to what has worked in the past puts the brakes on innovation. It also puts you out of…

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Christmas Dinner Conversation Starters

My Thanksgiving “fun facts” blog was a big hit with readers, generating a lot of buzz (who doesn’t want something that makes life, especially those large family gatherings, easier?). So with the annual visit from the dude in the red suit almost upon us, I thought it would be fun to do another round of…

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Phases of Innovation

When I ask business leaders to identify which part of the innovation process their organizations struggle with the most, I typically get one of three answers: We have a lot of ideas but most of them get judged as impossible or too hard to implement based on changing the way things currently are We have…

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Test Your Innovation IQ

Everyone knows that innovation means coming up with the next great idea in your industry, right? Actually, there’s a lot more to it than that. Test your ability to separate innovation fact from fiction by answering the following questions true or false: Innovation is the act of coming up with new and creative ideas. Innovation…

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Putting On A New Pair of Goggles

A few weeks ago I wrote about a stodgy safety products manufacturer that dramatically increased sales of its goggles by studying fashion trends. I’m not suggesting we all start subscribing to Vogue, Glamour or Elle (although maybe that is not a bad idea). What we do need to do is start looking beyond the walls…

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Stop Distracting Me!

Do you think email, Twitter, and Facebook are workplace annoyances? When it comes to blocking innovation, they’re not nearly as destructive as your own internal distractions.

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Are You Making the Right Connections?

Our ability to see patterns and make connections is one of our mightiest creative assets. Which explains why innovative products sometimes come from the strangest places.

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Think Outside the Goggles!

What do the worlds of fashion and safety goggles have in common? More than you might think!

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Innovating Your Own Management: Are You Up to the Challenge?

Seems like everyone is talking about innovation these days. Most of the discussion centers on the need to add value to customers through innovative products and services. But according to Gary Hamel, a leading expert on business strategy, there’s more to innovation than just bringing new products to market. In a recent Harvard Business Review…

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Leadership: Then and Now

Think your job has changed significantly over the past decade or two? Compound that with the complexity of leading an entire organization! Previous generations of leaders could at least count on a reasonably stable world, where change unfolded at a much slower pace. These days, the past is increasingly less predictive, the future is almost…

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Tear Down These Walls!

In 1987, president Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech in which he implored Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!” I’m going to paraphrase his history-altering quote and urge today’s business leaders to tear down these walls! Which walls? The ones that get in the way of cross-communication within organizations and prevent…

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