innovation
What Goliath can teach David about innovation
Just as large companies can learn from small companies, the reverse is also true when it comes to innovation. Small companies may want to consider the following ideas as they strategize and consider new and innovative products and services. Topics for consideration include: Process is not a dirty word, money is not free, there is no guarantee of success from using processes, and considering co-creating with other competitors to save on costs for innovation. Full article.
The Innovation-Deficit Tax: Advertising
Great ideas are increasingly turning viral. With the advent of techno-charged social media, people can tell each other about their favorite innovation with a click of a mouse. If something qualifies as truly great, you likely will hear about it from your network, not from advertisements, and truly innovative products typically require a smaller investment in marketing and advertising. Full article.
Industry Clusters Can Add Jobs, Bolster Entrepreneurship, and Spark Innovation
States need to cultivate their industry clusters as a low-cost way to stimulate innovation, new-firm start-ups, and job creation. Clusters also give governors a way to articulate a vision of economic prosperity, engage stakeholders in driving recovery, boost export intensity, and bring focus and discipline to investments and policies. Full article.
Three threats to creativity
Creativity is under threat. Without the creativity that produces new and valuable ideas, innovation—the successful implementation of new ideas—withers and dies. Creativity depends on the right people working in the right environment. Too often these days, the people come ill equipped, and their work environments stink. Full article.
Meeting the innovation challenge in a green future
In many ways, going green is like going electric was a century ago: The challenge isn't just to invent technologies; it's to create an entirely new industry. Thomas Edison's approach to electricity was a blueprint for industry creation, with its four interdependent components: an enabling technology, an innovative business model, a careful market-adoption strategy, and favorable government policy. By coordinating all four elements, companies can effectively test the viability of their cleantech concepts in the right context, with sufficient scale and minimum investment. Full Article.
Closing the human potential gap
The key elements to driving long-term sustainability in today's economy are innovation and productivity. Organizational growth and innovation develop through cultures where people, purpose, and passions are the catalysts of breakthrough ideas. Breakthrough leaders engage in conversation with employees rather than deliver one-way communication, favor relationships over processes, and focus on igniting energy, innovation, and creativity. Full Article. Similar Article
Infographic of the Day: Does the U.S. waste money on innovation?
The graphic depicted at the right, by accounting firm Grant Thorton, purports to show how efficient 30 different countries are at innovation. The bigger the box, the more innovation (as measured by patents) it gets for every R&D dollar. Full Article.
Four ideas for a positive workforce
Good attitudes matter. According to Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive: People who think positively are more self-aware, innovative, and strategic, and are able to see the big picture more clearly. There are several ways business leaders can cultivate positive attitudes within their own workforce. Full Article. Similar Article.
Maintain flexibility in your organization
Any small business owner knows how important it is to stay flexible, yet many are plagued with a surprising lack of elasticity. Inflexibility can contribute to forced flexibility measures in the form of layoffs, pay cuts, rolling back of company perks, etc. Once this happens, it’s hard to get employees to perform at a high level. There are, however, several things business owners can do to help keep a company flexible, including looking for ways to be innovative and listening to all the ideas that circulate within a company. Full Article. Similar Article.
Are You a Walt Disney or a Roy Disney?
Perhaps no other country celebrates innovation the way America does, and when you dig a little deeper, you start to notice an incredibly important aspect of inventiveness: For every yin, there must be a yang. Companies, like people, are usually good at either creating ideas or executing ideas. Take, for example, Disney. While Walt Disney was dreaming about his Magic Kingdom, his brother Roy was actually making sure Walt's dreams would come true. Roy was the operational genius; a yin for Walt's yang. Is your company a Walt or a Roy? Figure it out, and go find a yin for your yang. Full Article.
