The state of innovation at the end of 2018

Since everyone is compelled to write at least one backward looking story at the end of the year, I've chosen as my topic a review of innovation at the end of 2018.  This review isn't meant to be an attempt to grade innovation activities or suggest better or worse approaches,...

Alert to the press: prototypes aren't finished products

I rise today to do something I find strange.  I'm actually going to defend Elon Musk.  Musk is receiving a significant amount of negative press after his unveiling of the Boring Company's (if you need to throw stones, do so at that name) pilot tunnel.To the shock...

The Six Million Dollar innovation fallacy

A few days ago I wrote a blog post about the relevance of the Six Million Dollar man to innovation, noting that the show was based around rebuilding Steve Austin, making him better, stronger and faster.  Many corporate innovation organizations need the Six Million...

Six million dollar innovation

Since I write about innovation regularly, I often receive questions about "the future" of innovation.  Who really knows anything about the future of innovation, when many of us don't fully comprehend all of the tools and activities for innovation that are available...

The "whole product" is more relevant than ever

You simply must tip your hat to Geoffrey Moore and others who created the concept of the "whole product".  I've written about this concept several times, and I raise it again because the underlying ideas are about to become really important in innovation circles. ...

Getting the right question is half the battle

I return once again to one of my favorite sayings, by Stephen Covey, who said (I'm paraphrasing): sharpen the saw before you start cutting the wood.  It's a really simple thought - do the right things to prepare before you start a big task, but we lose sight of what...

The End of the Beginning, for innovation

It's a sign of maturity and experience to be able to determine just where you are in a journey, and I think the time has come to put some stakes in the ground about just exactly where we all are in regards to our innovation journeys.  While some companies have made...

Breaking the patterns for innovation

As far as one-hit wonders go, there are few bands that I listened to more than a band called the Godfathers back in the 80s and early 90s.  They had a song that was meant to encapsulate our lived experience.  The title?  Birth, school, work, death. ...

How much innovation energy does your bureaucracy have left?

One factor I've been considering for some time has to do with the power of a corporate bureaucracy to create or block change.  On one hand, bureaucracies are good, in that they codify practices, principles and processes and allow people to get more done quickly as...

Innovating what we innovate

It finally came to me last week.  For over a decade I've been working with corporations, trying to help them accelerate their ability to generate new, interesting ideas to market as viable products and services.  In some instances we've been successful, and in...

The quiet desperation of corporate innovators

Over the last year I've been conducting a one person listening tour, talking to a lot of my peers in consulting, as well as prospects, customers and friends who work in government and industry.  Of course many of these conversations revolve around innovation and new...

What U2 and Madonna can tell corporations about innovation

Let's get this right out there early:  I am a huge U2 fan.  From their earliest albums like October and Boy to their latest efforts, I'm a big supporter (well Zooropa not so much, but every great artist has at least one significant flub).  On the other hand,...

Army Futures Command - fighting the last war?

In what may seem a bit of sour grapes, since my own hometown lost in a close race to Austin for the site of the Army Futures Command, I'd like to think through what's right, and more importantly, what's potentially wrong, with the Army Futures Command.  And I'd like...

Digital Transformation: the Elephant in the Python

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the latest fad in business thinking - digital transformation.  As technologies become more pervasive, and our ability to gather and process a lot of information increases, it makes sense to think about how digital solutions may...

The future belongs to whoever creates it

You know something has become passe when you see it used as a meme on Twitter frequently.  That's actually what prompted this diatribe.  I doubt there's any meme I dislike more than "The future belongs to...".  In recent years we've been told that the future...