How To
Great Innovations From Asking the Right Questions
Innovation is not about solving just any problem, but about knowing which problems to solve. We discover the right problem by asking the right questions. There are a number of inflection points in history in which a brilliant person took a popularly held assumption — even one that is totally counte
Better ideas can completely change the face of your business and that’s not a bad thing!
Better ideas can make or break a business plan. After all, success is based on the ability to come up with better ideas. At the same time, bad ideas can take a successful business model and drag it down into the ground faster than you can blink. Trust me. I have the scars to prove it. […]
Igniting Personal Creativity
In my book Beyond the Obvious, I discuss the power of questions in igniting personal creativity and thereby create innovations that impact a business or industry. If you’ve read the book, you know what some of those questions are. They begin, “What are . . . ?” “What if . . . ?” “What will be . . .
If you want to be innovative, it helps to be a little bit ‘different.’
Would you agree that if you want to be innovative, it helps to be a little bit different? The upcoming issue of The World Financial Review has reprinted Chapter 1 from my book Beyond The Obvious titled “Why Questions Matter?”. The core message of the chapter is that there are many ways to generate n
6 Ways To Measure Innovation Success That Every Company Should Put In Place
Over the years, I’ve tried every combination of metrics to measure the impact on an organization from their investment in innovation. Below are the 6 metrics that I found most useful to measure innovation success. My advice is to use them as a set and don’t cherry pick one or two. % of Revenue Spen
I got deep fried by these guys during an interview on the topic of innovation
A few weeks past, I was interviewed by the hosts of the Deep Fried Bytes Podcast (Keith & Woody) on the topic of innovation. The discussion covered everything from how anyone can learn innovation to the role innovation plays in your career. Keith and Woody also drill me about the book, Beyond The O
Will there be any new technology innovation at CES?
It’s that time of year when companies prepare to show off their latest technology innovation at the show to end all shows – CES (Consumer Electronics Show). Given the changes in my role at HP, I thought I was going to be able to dodge going. Instead, I will be attending CES this year as […]
Don’t get enamored with the new and shiny. It could be a trap.
When it comes to new innovations, we sometimes ignore the underlying ideas that make it work. It is hard but we need to look beyond the new and shiny and understand what makes the innovation an innovation. Since I announced the book, I’ve been swamped with offers from companies and consultants with
Shrek’s law of innovation means blockbuster movies
As a trustee of the Computer History Museum and having worked closely with Jeffrey Katzenberg (CEO) and Ed Leonard (CTO) of DreamWorks Animation, I was asked to be the moderator for an event titled “The Technology of Animation”. I got to play Jay Leno for ~90 minutes and interview them in front of
8 Conditions of Technology Development
I was recently going through some old files and notebooks and came across a paper I wrote during my sophomore year in college (Spring 1980). The paper was for a course on the history of technology that I titled, Conditions of Technology Development. The professor, who happened to be the Assistant
