Needing to break out of the long winter here in the Midwest, I took a cruise last week into the western Caribbean. One of the simple pleasures of cruising is figuring out the physical layout of the ship, particularly the vertical and horizontal passageways that lead to all manners of entertainment, food and sunshine. Those […]
I was having a great conversation with a well-connected senior executive coach who works with Fortune 50 firms on the West Coast, and the conversation turned to the faltering innovation that quickly follows when the senior team leaders cannot agree. There is nothing that freezes a team like senior leaders at odds over strategy and […]
When I was a younger man, I had a long string of back problems that resulted in repeated episodes of injury, muscle relaxants and rest in an effort to live a normal life. It was only a relatively short time ago that I finally saw an orthopedic doctor and a physical therapist who found I […]
One of the biggest trends in how enterprise organizations operate is the peer-to-peer sharing of ideas across large numbers of employees. InformationWeek recently published some research about a long-term study that showed impressive gains in internal measures (projects on time) and customer-facing results (sales associates exceeding plan). Tools such as Salesforce.com and its formation of […]
I recently spoke to a group of entrepreneurs in Minneapolis, where I shared strategy, tips and techniques for successfully approaching large organizations with their inventions and cutting-edge breakthroughs. The group was made up of inventors, investors, serial entrepreneurs, corporate business developers and others who support the incubation of innovation. As we were gathering, I introduced myself […]
Picture this: An entire third-shift maintenance crew waxing floors and dancing to country music at one in the morning. After a week of grueling hours to solve a technical problem at a remote site, improvising a “rodeo” to chase the rats out of the basement with brooms in the middle of the night. Engineers riding […]
When I first began running large-scale programs for a global organization, I quickly found out that multiple time zones created an enormous strain on the team. If you are in the central US, here’s what your day might look like: a 4 A.M. wake-up call to check in with your Asian team at the end […]
In 1988, when Chrysler president Bob Lutz tasked design chief Tom Gale to create a version of the Ford Cobra, he gave the production team a charter consisting of these three parameters: A $50 million budget 36 months to get it to production (in time for the ’92 Detroit show) “Be ethical, moral, and don’t […]
Amazon, Apple, Disney, Google and Hewlett Packard all started in one. The garage is a uniquely American icon and metaphor – and it has happened too many times to ignore. Some of my earliest experiences in design, innovation, materials and fabrication occurred in the family garage under the mentorship of my father and uncles. Between […]
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland When I’m working with clients on how to find the growth plan for their business, I first help them step outside of their organization to see the entire landscape that’s available to them so that […]
