Jony Ive
The difference between an idea and a product is that you’ve solved the problems. When someone says to me, “Well, you can’t do this for these reasons,” all it means is that there are problems to be solved. If they can be solved, the idea transitions into becoming a thing. If they can’t, it remains an idea.
Content: Quotation | Author: Jony Ive | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation
Fear factor: Overcoming human barriers to innovation
Worries about failure, criticism, and career impact hold back many people from embracing innovation. Here’s how to create a culture that accounts for the human side of innovation.
Content: Article | Authors: Alex Morris, Erik Roth, Laura Furstenthal | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Teppo Felin, Alfonso Gambardella, Todd Zenger
Theories illuminate paths to value that might otherwise remain unseen. Managers and entrepreneurs who hold the flashlight of theory can avoid the streetlight effect—the human tendency to search only where the light already shines, where things are already evident.
Content: Quotation | Authors: Alfonso Gambardella, Teppo Felin, Todd Zenger | Source: “Management and Business Review (MBR)” | Subjects: Innovation, Management
Sheena Iyengar
So often, we tell people to do out-of-the-box thinking. Then we stick them in the room and tell them to brainstorm. Well, brainstorming is a great way to share the knowledge that’s in the room. But it’s not out-of-the-box thinking. Out-of-the-box thinking requires you to search far and wide for how different industries and different people at different points in time have solved for analogous … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Sheena Iyengar | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subject: Innovation
An Innovation Culture That Gets Results
This article presents some practical guidelines for executives seeking to design a high-impact innovation culture. It also outlines four areas of focus that offer a clear path for change, drawing on examples from leading innovators.
Content: Article | Authors: David Blanchard, Deborah Lovich, Hannah Lu Schmitt, Johann D. Harnoss, Justin Manly, Robert Werner | Source: “Boston Consulting Group (BCG)” | Subjects: Culture, Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Reid Hoffman, Chris Yeh
When a market is up for grabs, the risk isn’t inefficiency — the risk is playing it too safe. If you win, efficiency isn’t that important; if you lose, efficiency is completely irrelevant.
Content: Quotation | Authors: Chris Yeh, Reid Hoffman | Source: “strategy+business” | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation
Scott A. Snyder, Sanjay Macwan
Instead of just looking at new innovation opportunities through the classic lens of financial impact/ROI, organizations should be evaluating opportunities against a “triple bottom line” consisting of people (community/social impact), profit (financial return), and planet (environmental benefit). There is an opportunity to leverage impact investing metrics like Impact Multiple of Money (IMM) that combine all three lenses.
Content: Quotation | Authors: Sanjay Macwan, Scott A. Snyder | Source: “Knowledge@Wharton” | Subjects: Finance, Innovation
Intellectual Honesty Is Critical for Innovation
Here’s how to balance psychological safety and intellectual honesty for better team performance.
Content: Article | Author: Nathan Furr | Source: “INSEAD Knowledge” | Subjects: Culture, Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Adaptive Space: Shifting from Structural to Social Design
One of the biggest challenges facing organizations today is the need to be agile. To achieve this goal, leaders must seek a deeper understanding of the power of social interaction in furthering the flow of ideas, information, and insight. Michael Arena explains how building relational structures that foster 4D connections, discovery, development, diffusion, and disruption, can usher in the new, innovative ideas and concepts necessary … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Michael J. Arena | Source: “Management and Business Review (MBR)” | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Accelerate corporate innovation ROI
Over the past 10 years, innovation has become a buzzword.
The use of the word has doubled during the earnings calls of S&P 500 firms and, according to the World Economic Forum, the top global corporate R&D spenders increased their investments in innovation by 10 percent in 2020. Yet, despite this frenetic activity, only 20 percent of CEOs believe their innovation investments generate value, according to … [ Read more ]
Authors: Nigel Andrade, Peter Munro, Viv Ronnebeck | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: Innovation
Francesca Gino
When we open ourselves to curiosity, we are more apt to reframe situations in a positive way.
Content: Quotation | Author: Francesca Gino | Source: “strategy+business” | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior
4 Types of Innovators Every Organization Needs
Every company strives to be innovative, but most are missing key ingredients. How can you identify which ingredients your organization needs — and which employee styles can fill in the gaps? The authors’ research distills four key innovation styles that can lead to success — generators, conceptualizers, optimizers, and implementors — and explains how common they are across sectors. Then, they outline a four-part framework … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Andy Wu, Goran Calic, Min Basadur | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Michael J. Arena
Most organizations don’t suffer from a deficit of ideas or human potential. What they lack is open and deliberate connections. Organizational leaders must learn to encourage the flow of these ideas by attending to the social interactions in the company. They need to build relational structures that encourage the 4D connections of adaptive space: discovery, development, diffusion, and disruption. Together, these 4D connections generate the … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Michael J. Arena | Source: “Management and Business Review (MBR)” | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior
How to build a unicorn: Lessons from venture capitalists and start-ups
New data highlights five things incumbent businesses could learn from venture capitalists and unicorns.
Content: Article | Authors: Jerome Königsfeld, Kai Vollhardt, Leo Leypoldt, Markus Berger-de León | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Venture Capital
Pat Connolly
When a company is organized around traditional silos versus customer needs, the products and services they make will reflect the structure and needs of the company, not the customer.
Content: Quotation | Author: Pat Connolly | Source: “Accenture” | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Gagan Biyani
Product creators like to think of what’s possible: They dream about how introducing their product into the market might change the world. This is an appropriate framing — as long as it comes with a bit of humble pie. New products don’t succeed because of the wide breadth of features they provide. Facebook isn’t successful because it allows people to build groups, host events or … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Gagan Biyani | Source: “First Round Review” | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Marketing / Sales
Jane Davis
When you’re adding new features, the question shouldn’t be, “Is this potentially useful to someone?” Instead ask, “How does this contribute to our users achieving their goals?” It’s very easy to “value add” your way straight out of product/market fit.
Content: Quotation | Author: Jane Davis | Source: “First Round Review” | Subjects: Customer Related, Entrepreneurship, Innovation
John Doerr
If the best way to predict the future is to invent it, the second-best way is to finance it.
Content: Quotation | Author: John Doerr | Subjects: Innovation, Strategy
Ryan Glasgow
There’s typically about eight different steps in the customer jobs flow of someone starting and completing an action. You can really apply that framework to any product that you’re working on and look at the steps that you’re solving today. Look at the steps that you’re currently not solving and think about how you can solve other jobs that are ancillary to your core product. … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Ryan Glasgow | Source: “First Round Review” | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation
Ryan Glasgow
You can’t rely on your customers to figure out what to build. They can really only tell you what outcomes they’re looking to achieve.
Content: Quotation | Author: Ryan Glasgow | Source: “First Round Review” | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation, Market Research