In preparing to kick off a big client strategy project with a growing international firm in the building products space, I was reminded that the best work is always developed with well thought out collaboration. I’ve been reflecting on what it takes to have a great outcome, and this is true not just for me […]
I think it’s safe to say that we are witnessing the extreme overuse of the term innovation in our speaking, business journals, Wall Street discussions and political dialogue. How did a perfectly good word come to mean so little? The short answer is that the desire to have the benefits of innovation has resulted in […]
I enjoy consuming lots of audio during my travels, the most recent of which was the latest installment of Chris Brogan’s Podcast on Stitcher. On the show, he did a delightful interview with two winsome ladies who have started a new health and fitness movement around the idea that you need to do what you […]
I was talking recently with a C-level R&D leader in a larger public company. By all external measures this company is quite successful, yet they were asking what it takes to build an innovation culture that has sustained momentum. By momentum, he was asking what steps he might take to have more consistent output from […]
Having spoken at the 2014 Society of Concurrent Product Development conference, I was looking forward to the 2015 session. I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint. They had 76 attendees at the 3M Innovation Center in Minneapolis, MN (always a great venue), from as far away as Germany. The SCPD as an organization focuses on corporations for the purpose […]
In a recent coaching dialogue with a C-level executive of an international manufacturer, I was asked what minimum elements were necessary for a successful innovation program. This is a very common question that comes from being overwhelmed with the enormous body of innovation information that comes from the popular press on a daily basis. All […]
The first third of 2015 has been a solid year in business and now we’re looking into the front edge of summer. If you’ve been following this blog, you may have used this post to help structure your Q1 operations review, giving you a nice concise set of actions that your team is executing on. […]
If you are in a position of accountability for the growth of your firm, recent tidal shifts will make you want to stop and take note. Three recent moves – the sudden reversal of oil prices, the strengthening of the US currency, and the weakness in the BRIC economies – have flipped long-standing narratives on […]
It’s that time of year again: baseball teams are starting back up, school kids are turning their sights towards summer, and companies are firing up their strategic planning processes. It’s no secret that we’re all very busy these days – a fact that is magnified by the enormous amounts of data, much smaller amounts of […]
In my coaching work with growth leaders, one of the things we work toward is getting a proper balance of risk and reward in the projects they work on. There are some surprising relationships between these two areas, especially in the later portion of the innovation cycle. Clients are often surprised that one of the […]
