722 Posts Found

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Content: Quotation | Author: Albert Einstein | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Innovation, Thought

Design legend Paul Rand once said that design is the method of putting form and content together. This implies that content is as important as form. Design is not a purely visual exercise. The results are visual, but the entire process of design is not.

Some would argue that creativity is a sudden flash of insight, something which just happens magically while one, perhaps, takes their … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Stephen Hay | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Creativity, Design

For somebody with a valuable skill, it is possible to completely ignore the idea people strewn like beggars around the landscape, and have a good life just working on validated, low-risk mature ideas. The demand for good, big ideas isn’t as high as people think, because of the simple constraint of execution bandwidth. One Einstein (a classic idea person) can occupy a couple of generations … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Venkatesh Rao | Source: ribbonfarm | Subjects: Career, Creativity, Innovation

Opportunists are humble enough to realize that the random forces of nature are more powerful than themselves. That these random forces often conspire to make things ridiculously easy just as often as they conspire to create hurricanes and earthquakes. Most people realize that a lot depends on being in the right place at the right time. Very few realize that this situation is not the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Venkatesh Rao | Source: ribbonfarm | Subjects: Achievement, Creativity, Opportunity

Innovation, both at the project and portfolio level, can be managed better by drawing cash curves of cumulative cash flow. These pictures will cause managers to question their assumptions about various kinds of risks (market, financial, technical, etc.) and consider alternative development models.

Content: Article | Authors: Harold L. Sirkin, James P. Andrew | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Innovation

An enterprise, whether a business or any other institution, that does not innovate will not survive long. And management that does not learn to innovate and foster creativity will not last long. Business and every other organization today have to be designed for change as the norm and must create change rather than react to it.

Content: Article | Source: Leadership Advantage | Subject: Innovation

If you get a little creative, you’ll uncover the inventive minds that are already in your midst. Just give them a chance to show themselves.

Content: Article | Authors: G. Michael Maddock, Raphael Louis Vitón | Source: BusinessWeek | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

My mantra is “Look for the Second Right Answer.” This has been my guiding principle for over thirty years. Much of our educational system tries to teach us to look for the “one right answer.”

I find that looking for the second right answer is an incredibly easy way to open my mind. For example, when I’m looking for information, this mantra tells me to go … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Guy Kawasaki, Roger Von Oech | Source: Sun Microsystems | Subjects: Creativity, Innovation

Don’t fall in love with ideas. By ideas I mean: systems, marketing approaches, technologies, partnerships, whatever. Because as soon as you as you fall in love with one approach, you lose sight of other possibilities. …Every right idea eventually becomes the wrong idea.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Guy Kawasaki, Roger Von Oech | Source: Sun Microsystems | Subjects: Creativity, Innovation, Thought

For true innovation, you may need to think outside the box-and outside the company.

Innovation is vital to the success of an organization. But often, “GroupThink” and “ExpertThink” stifle new ideas. This book presents the idea of using outsiders-people who are not a permanent part of a particular group or constrained by its preconceptions-to stimulate innovation. They may be employees from other parts of the company, … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Cynthia Barton Rabe | Subject: Innovation

It’s a pickle of a paradox: As our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off. Why? Because the walls of the proverbial box in which we think are thickening along with our experience.

Content: Related Content | Author: Janet Rae-Dupree | Source: The New York Times | Subject: Innovation

Incremental innovations (small, safe changes to your firm’s offerings) make up 85%-90% of companies’ development portfolios. But “little i” projects rarely produce competitive advantage. For that, you need “Big I” innovations–offerings new to your organization or the world. Yes, they’re risky. But avoid them, and you may strangle your company’s growth.

Professor George S. Day recommends a solution: Increase the proportion of major innovations in your … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: George S. Day | Sources: BNET, Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Innovation, Management

Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them.

Content: Quotation | Author: Ralph Gerard | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Innovation, Problems / Solutions

In­novation is ultimately not an act of intellect but of will.

Content: Quotation | Author: Joseph A. Schumpeter | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Innovation

Whatever you’re designing — software or toasters, microprocessors or skyscrapers — you need to “put user experience front and center,” says Bill Buxton. Here, Buxton makes a passionate case for a better way to design interactive products and the experiences surrounding them. The centerpiece is a technique humans have used successfully for centuries: sketching.

Content: Book | Author: Bill Buxton | Subjects: Innovation, Miscellaneous

strategy+business reviews the best books about innovation from 2007

Content: Related Content | Author: Michael Schrage | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Innovation

The challenge for companies seeking to improve their ability to create growth through innovation is that the metrics that many companies use to measure innovation run a high risk of actually leading companies in the wrong direction. Managers hoping to unleash their innovative potential need to be mindful of critical measurement traps, think about creating a widespread set of metrics, and ensure their executive dashboard … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Scott D. Anthony, Steve Wunker, Steven Fransblow | Source: Chief Executive | Subject: Innovation

If you are really serious about creating innovative options, you couldn’t do better than to turn to Buddhist thinking. In Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki describes the Zen mind as one that is open, allowing for both doubt and possibility, and one that has the ability to see things as fresh and new. As he observed, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Clint Kilts, Roderick Gilkey | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Innovation, Personal Development, Thought

2007 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the introduction of the Apple II, the first true personal computer. Because of his belief that everyone should be able to afford and use a computer, its creator, Steve Wozniak, pioneered an ingenious low-cost design that combined ease-of-use with valuable functionality.

Babson Insight recently interviewed the Woz, as he is known, and asked him to go beyond the tale … [ Read more ]

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Allan Cohen, Jay Rao, Steve Wozniak | Source: Babson Insight | Subjects: Innovation, IT / Technology / E-Business

Corporate R&D labs used to be the key for companies to create competitive advantage. But in the 21st century, innovation is moving out of the lab and across the globe. That’s why Harvard Business School professor Alan MacCormack and his research collaborators believe that a real source of competitive advantage is skill in managing innovation partnerships.

Content: Article | Authors: Alan D. MacCormack, Sean Silverthorne | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Innovation