With the downturn in the economy, numerous people are talking about
starting a new business or company. Whether it’s a technology startup
or new restaurant idea, I’ve heard of more and more people meeting to
brainstorm and ...READ»
Young companies have small margins for error. Mistakes made early on can sink a company before its gets off the ground. Here is a list of 10 common mistakes made by young, small companies.READ»
3M Canada recently sponsored a class at Ontario College of Art & Design to revamp its office products, and the company now plans to produce the two best designs. One is a tape dispenser by Matthew Pacione; another is a ...READ»
It seems for many something as simple as defining innovation can be
a challenge. Of course, it’s not that surprising. Innovation is one
of those words that are plagued with a surfeit of meanings. With a
quick look at ...READ»
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) recently published its 12th Annual
Global CEO Survey. In a special summary on the automotive sector, PwC
reports some interesting items. Some the key data points follow.
37% of surveyed CEOs ...READ»
Yesterday, a colleague was telling me an exciting story of a company
that was embarking on a plan to break into an emerging market. The
company he described was a components manufacturer. Like every company
today, they are ...READ»
Kathy Harris of Gartner muses on the connection between innovation and knowledge management, the disappointment many organizations feel over their knowledge management initiatives, and the promise of social networking software to ...READ»
Innovate on Purpose is one the innovation blogs I follow on a regular basis. Yesterday, Jeffrey Phillips posted a nice article titled The first step to innovation success.” In it, he discusses the need to have people ...READ»
Nature teaches us that genetic diversity is a good thing. It creates the environment for change and drives evolution.
For innovation, diversity of a different sort is just as vital. Diversity of perspective and ideas creates ...READ»
A cool breeze brings welcome relief on a sweltering summer day. A tornado leaves death and destruction in its wake.
I see more and more companies struggling to cope with the rapidly changing financial climate. Take the ...READ»
Companies globally are assessing their futures even as Obama takes the reins in the US. Economic forecasts are all over the map. Optimists are those that predict rough time through the third calendar quarter of 2009; pessimists ...READ»
The year is still young, and the flow of economic news keeps providing new challenges every day. Innovation is the elixir that will keep the pulse of business strong. But how will that innovation manifest itself? This was the ...READ»
Last week we defined Early Stage Marketing as figuring out what the customers’ needs are… and Late-Stage Marketing as satisfying those needs by promoting our new product to them. Many B2B companies (my area of expertise) do a ...READ»
Reading Seth Godin’s observation on goals, I had to smile. In a few words, Seth captured a key paradox of innovation. We want the freedom to think expansively and discover unexpected value, yet we want to know that our ...READ»
Well, Bruce Nussbaum of BusinessWeek appears to be in the process of rather firmly lodging his foot in his mouth. In two recent posts on NussbaumOnDesign, Bruce has declared that innovation is a notion that has been hyped to death ...READ»
We have just welcomed the New Year. Will 2009 bring as many surprises as last year? One thing is certain. This year will bring changes and with it opportunities.
Of course, opportunities are just that. Vision and execution ...READ»
There is an old saying among great sales people. “The selling begins at no.” Designers, engineers, scientists, and other innovation professionals should remember that for them the innovating begins at no. Consider the ...READ»
In last week’s blog, I described how marketing could be explained in three parts: Design (What does the customer want?), Development (What product/service would meet this need?) and Delivery (How can we get this product/service in ...READ»
For many years, I held various marketing positions in large B2B manufacturing firms and would be asked this question: “So what do you guys really do, anyway?” I found that mumbling or pulling out some helpful Dilbert cartoons ...READ»
In the last blog, we talked about a fairly rigorous way to understand competitive capabilities when designing a new product. The punch line was… you need to truly understand your customers’ needs before you can measure your ...READ»
Paul Williams, in his Think For a Change blog, talks about the need for leaders to start setting their 2009 goals for building the internal innovation culture. This advice is spot on. If you don’t have specific targets to shoot ...READ»
Our informal poll on biomimicry & innovation closes this Friday.
Last week I participated in a PDMA SecondLife panel discussion on green innovation. The event was very well attended with so many people asking to attend that ...READ»
As a blogger, acknowledgement is never expected, but always welcome. It is especially nice to get that acknowledgement from a respected and highly credible source. In the Innovation Tools Innovation Weblog post “10 innovation ...READ»
When a team develops a new product, they often fall into the trap up making assumptions of two broad types: customer needs and competitive capabilities. And these are not independent. Here’s why:
It’s a pointless question to ask, ...READ»
