by admin | Mar 24, 2014 | Innovation
Imagine this situation: Orders are stacking up at your company so quickly that the three people you have in fulfillment are overwhelmed. To remedy this problem you start limiting marketing to reduce demand. Sounds like self-sabotage, right? Naturally this would lead to a loss of market share and soon you’d find yourself out of business. Who would be so stupid? Well, you’d be surprised at how many people within your own organization are making decisions like this on a daily basis. Take Seattle for example. On Monday the Seattle City Council addressed their struggle to regulate the growing number of on-demand transportation options in the city. These new types of businesses do not fit within Seattle’s archaic regulations – for example, which cabs can be flagged off the street, which cabs must be pre-arranged, which cabs can pick up at the airport, (which are NOT the same cabs that can take people TO the airport). Learn more about three management mistakes that crush innovation...
by admin | Mar 20, 2014 | Innovation
Innovation doesn’t just happen — it’s created. With the right methodologies and cast of characters, any organization can achieve breakthroughs in work and culture. So says Leon Segal, an innovation psychologist and the founder of San Francisco-based consultancy Innovationship LLC. “Innovation always has to answer someone’s need,” Segal said this week while in Chicago for the International Symposium on Health Care, where he taught an innovation-focused workshop. Segal said companies must foster the right team dynamics in order to facilitate creative and productive thinking. When building teams, Segal recommends choosing people who are good at listening, enthusiastic about collaborating and willing to reflect objectively on their and others’ progress. Reflection is particularly important since it gives people an opportunity to assess whether current methods are working and what can be done better. Read more about the four people you need on your innovation team...
by admin | Mar 20, 2014 | Innovation
Matt Kingdon is the co-founder and co-chairman of “What If,” the company he set up with Dave Allan in 1992 to partner clients who were enthusiastic about innovation but stuck on how to make it happen. Today ?What If! has offices in three continents and works with businesses in all sectors – including big names such as Google, PepsiCo, Pfizer and Virgin – and Kingdon’s passion for innovation is stronger than ever. Speaking to him, you get the strong sense that he won’t take “no” for an answer – and all his key themes are backed up with strong, practical strategies that address those times when “no” is what you’re hearing. His book The Science of Serendipity: How to Unlock the Promise of Innovation in Large Organisations, focuses on the specific problems that innovators face in large businesses and is guaranteed to fire up anyone with good ideas who’s seeking ways to implement them. Readers might also be interested to learn that serendipity doesn’t mean exactly what they might have thought it did … Find out more about what he has to say about driving innovation...
by admin | Mar 19, 2014 | Innovation
Each week, we highlight an innovation you might not have heard of yet. This week’s innovation is a twist on something invented thousands of years ago: paper. The Mod app organizes each handwritten notebook you digitize. Or you can store your notebooks in Evernote or Dropbox. Mod Notebooks The St. Louis-based team of Marshall Haas and Jon Wheatley are selling classic, quality-made hardbound notebooks. But there’s more. After you finish taking notes in their Mod Notebook, you mail it to the company using a prepaid envelope found in the notebook’s back pocket. All of the pages in the notebook then get scanned, digitized and uploaded to a Mod app and — if you wish — your Evernote, Dropbox or OneNote accounts. Find out more about these revolutionary paper notebooks...
by admin | Mar 13, 2014 | Innovation
People wait in long lines and even camp out to get their hands on new Apple devices as soon as they’re available. But they drag their feet, sometimes for years, when it comes to purchasing another piece of technology that could greatly improve their lives: hearing aids. Hearing-aid manufacturers and audiologists hope a new collaboration between them and Apple will help. Find out more about Apple’s plans for hearing aids...
by admin | Mar 11, 2014 | Innovation
“Innovation distinguishes between a follower and a leader,” Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple had been known to say. In tough economic times, companies and teams need to innovate to survive. However, driving team members to innovate is not always an easy task for the modern-day manager. Shreya Roy speaks to a few managers on ways to get the best out of people. You can read more about the five ways to boost innovation in the workplace right...
