leadership
There’s no such thing as constructive criticism
It is that time of year again when managers deliver annual performance reviews. Over my career, I’ve been shocked at how few managers have the leadership skill to properly deliver constructive criticism. This morning, I came across an interesting column by Tony Schwartz on hbr.org about mistakes we
What is your innovation legacy?
One thing that I’ve been thinking about lately, especially given my recent announcement, is what will be my innovation legacy. Another person who pondered this question was Alfred Nobel. Alfred teamed up with his brother and father and opened a lab in Stockholm to study nitroglycerine. In 1866, he
There is nothing better than having a BHAG
Great leaders understand that one of their key responsibilities is to set the goals for innovation. Most leaders don’t take this effort seriously and as a result their organizations suffer. They violate the Law of BHAG in the 7 Immutable Laws of Innovation. A key component of setting the innovatio
We have a failure to execute … again!
One of the more common excuses used by management for innovations not making it in the market is a “failure to execute”. Is it really a failure to execute or a failure to give innovations enough execution focus compared to the core business? In the 7 Immutable Laws of Innovation, the Law of Executi
10 Quotes From Bill Hewlett and David Packard That Every Executive Should Read
Below are 10 quotes from Bill Hewlett and David Packard that I use as a periodic kick in the pants. 1. The greatest success goes to the person who is not afraid to fail in front of even the largest audience. 2. Set out to build a company and make a contribution, not an empire […]
Is your compensation structure holding your organization back from innovation success?
I’ve been recently laid up recovering from some medical work that I had done. During this time, a number of my friends sent me their books to read. Needless to say, I’m well stocked with reading material for the forciable future. One person who recently gave me their new book (to be released […]
The ultimate of constraint based innovation – burn the boats!
Seth Godin recently made a post on his blog about putting yourself into an impossible position and then setting back and watching incredibly things happen. I’m a big believer of constraint based innovation where leaders purposefully restrict some key resource(s) (people, money, time, etc) and then f
Why is it that most organizations fail at innovation leadership?
In most organizations these days, decision making is held in the hands of the few. This is especially true when it comes to innovation. Rather than taking advantage of the passion, insight and expertise of the entire organization, the executives make the call on what ideas to consider, what ideas t
Why best practices does not equal best strategy (video)
Best practices for innovation makes no sense. The consulting industry is built up on the idea of taking the “best” from each of their clients and merging them together and then selling them to all the companies within a given industry. So why is this a bad idea? Best practices make everyone the same
CIO’s have to take the strategic lead for their organization
Rich Karlgaard, Publisher of Forbes, and I had a recent discussion on the changing role of the CIO. When I was a CIO at a public company (Teligent), my role was clearly defined by my boss at the time, Alex Mandl. One of Alex’s first guidelines he gave me was to make sure his name […]
