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Phil McKinney

Phil McKinney is an innovator, podcaster, author, and speaker. He is the retired CTO of HP. Phil's book, Beyond The Obvious, shares his expertise and lessons learned on innovation and creativity.

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Products that make customers say, “I did this!”

Do you need to have a finished product in order to make a sale? Is there any way that not offering a finished product would actually give you an advantage, or even become a selling point? Suppose that your manufacturing costs appear to have gotten as low as they can without sacrificing quality. Even

products
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Innovating Using The Daffodil Principle

Want to know the secret to take ideas and make them real innovations? It is what I call the “daffodil principle” which I learned/stole from an article published by Jaroldeen Edwards. In one of the small mountain communities in the Sierra foothills, there is a church. If you take the time to pull off

Daffodil Principle
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Innovating Using The Daffodil Principal

Want to know the secret to take ideas and make them real innovations? It is what I call the “daffodil principle” which I learned/stole from an article published by Jaroldeen Edwards. In one of the small mountain communities in the Sierra foothills, there is a church. If you take

Innovating Using The Daffodil Principal
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Know that your customers’ needs will change

A big part of my business is being aware of, and responding to, the life cycles of my industry and my customers. Some of these are easy to see; you only need a cursory understanding of the effect of OPEC on gas prices in the early ’70s to understand why cars became more fuel efficient […]

needs
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Being on board with social evolutions

Every hot trend reaches a point I like to call the “Uncle Larry moment.” You know what I mean. It’s the juncture where one of your older relatives announces he’s taken up something that had seemed cutting edge, futuristic, and exciting up till that second. Facebook and Twitter have long passed the U

social evolutions
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Everything I Learned About Ethics I Learned in Boy Scouts

Twelve words. Millions of 11-year-old boys, and now young girls, learn it when they join Boy Scouts. It was something that I had to memorize in order to earn my first step along the way to my Eagle Scout medal. Each weekly meeting started with everyone saying them aloud. We were expected to follow t

Everything I Learned About Ethics I Learned in Boy Scouts
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Everything I Learned About Ethics I learned in Boy Scouts

Twelve words. Millions of 11-year-old boys, and now young girls, learn it when they join Boy Scouts. It was something that I had to memorize in order to earn my first step along the way to my Eagle Scout medal. Each weekly meeting started with everyone saying them aloud. We

Everything I Learned About Ethics I learned in Boy Scouts
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In-house or Outsource as Needed?

What is your organization’s philosophy about design and development? Do you keep everything in-house, or do you outsource as needed? There are two schools of thoughts on this. By keeping the design process in-house, a company can build a sense of continuity and cohesion that links the entire family

outsource as needed
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What Is Your Creative Inspiration?

I really enjoy getting behind this microphone. It is my personal creative outlet that is separate from the day job. What was it that got me to start back in 2005? Like all things, I got inspired. My inspiration was when my mentor, Bob Davis, lent me my first self-help set of cassette tapes created [

creative
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What is Your Creative Inspiration?

I really enjoy getting behind this microphone. It is my personal creative outlet that is separate from the day job. What was it that got me to start back in 2005? Like all things, I got inspired. My inspiration was when my mentor, Bob Davis, lent me my first self-help

What is Your Creative Inspiration?