R&D
Groupthink is a Leader's Worst Enemy
During the Great Recession, top tech companies that defied groupthink and continually invested in R&D emerged as leaders. Leaders must recognize that they must seize opportunities and innovate, or their competitors will leave them behind.
Forget the obvious solution
One of the first products I created as a software developer was a touch-typing program called Typing Instructor. This was back in 1985, and at that time there was no such thing as a standard PC. Instead you owned a specific brand and had access to the programs that had been written specifically for
8 Bad Habits That Impact Your Creativity
Learning to think creatively is a critical part of creating change within your industry that could go on to change the world. If you’ve been chugging along using the same routine you’ve always used and stumbling past opportunities to be creative, make sure that you aren’t engaging in these eight bad
Innovation in America: How the Government Helps and Hurts
Formerly a global hotbed of innovation, the United States in recent years and decades has regressed back to the mean as several other countries are catching up. In a previous post, I’ve examined the role our education system plays in hampering (and helping) innovation. But what role does our governm
United States Innovation Problem and How We Can Solve It
The United States used to be the undisputed global leader in innovation. In the past, we put a large portion of our considerable economic power behind research and development, with the goal of becoming and remaining the most innovative country in the world. However, in the past few decades, America
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
Looking for funding to commercialize your innovation?
Have you’ve been looking for funding to commercialize your innovation but came up empty? One avenue that is growing in popularity are innovation competitions. If your ideas fits the requirements, its a source of innovation funding that doesn’t required you to give up any equity. One example is the r
What is the role of the CTO?
I was recently interviewed by Rich Karlgaard, Publisher of Forbes on the role of the CTO and how it balances the near term needs of the organization while also making sure that there is a robust pipeline of ideas to meet the future needs of customers. Rich also gets me to talk about what devices […
Can you measure the impact from innovation?
One of the constant challenges for an innovator is to prove the value of their work. Many believe that innovation and creativity cannot be measured and therefore will always struggle with getting the respect it deserves within an organization. The perception that innovation impact cannot be measure
Here Is The Metric That Can Predict Future Innovation Value
How do you measure the productivity of your innovation investment? The goal of any R&D organization is to conceive, develop and deliver product and/or services that customers will highly value and therefore be willing to pay a margin premium. The challenge is that the standard metric for innovation
