The startup Thumbtack hired a full-time chef a few years ago, and it transformed their business. It’s a great story of unintended business model innovation that we can learn from.
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Sticky Innovation
A medical emergency for my cat Wallace leads to surprising discoveries about a common household product, which teach some useful innovation lessons.
In Which We Discover the Secret to Social Success
What tools do you need to use to be successful in the social era? The fact is that the tools don’t matter. The two keys to success are: do awesome work, and connect with people.
The Attacker’s Dilemma
The Bing It One challenge would have been a great tool in 1998. Unfortunately, now that Google dominates search, an improved algorithm isn’t enough to get people to switch. This is the Attacker’s Dilemma: unless you bring a major performance improvement, there is no point in directly attacking a strong incumbent in their area of strength.
Are You Ready for the #SocialEra?
What are the implications of the new ways that technology allows people to connect and interact? Nilofer Merchant explores this in her book 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra – it’s a good book with some important lessons.
The Problem With Google
How can you learn what you need to know to become an expert? It requires deep knowledge of a field, but it also requires broad knowledge of related fields. Our current technologies support deep, but not broad. We need to figure out a way to find t-shaped knowledge.
The Worst Innovation Quote Ever
Here’s my candidate for the worst innovation quote ever: Now, to be fair, it’s actually a paraphrasing of Emerson. Or, to be more accurate, a misquote. Nevertheless, it reflects a very common innovation misconception – that it’s all about the idea. Andrew Hargadon has written a terrific post on this topic, which I encourage you [...]
Innovation Requires a Change in Behaviour
What is the most important innovation ever? I’ve argued before that it is hand-washing in hospitals. This innovation was a major driver in the improved health outcomes that have increased our life expectancies from less than 60 years at birth to nearly 80 in most developed countries. It’s such a simple idea, and so easy [...]
Three Posts That You Should Read
Here are three posts that caught my eye recently that I think you should read: Ten Rules for Maker Businesses What kind of business model do you need if you are building things? Chris Anderson from Wired addresses this question with some excellent advice on issues from pricing building good relationships with your shipper. Check [...]
Three Innovation Lessons from the Outcome of the Netflix Prize
You probably heard about the contest that Netflix started in 2006 to crowdsource improvements in their recommendation algorithm. They offered a $1 million prize to anyone that could improve the accuracy of the recommendation algorithm by at least 10%. In 2009, a team of people hit the target, and won the prize. Awesome, right? The [...]
Three Hidden Factors that Make Innovation Diffusion Hard
Andrew Gelman wrote a post today that includes a great graph that shows how the innovation diffusion curve has played out for a number of major inventions over the past century. His post includes a discussion of how the graphic developed, an interesting story in itself. Here it is (click here to see it full-size): [...]
Thoughts on Spreading Ideas Well
You are responsible for getting your ideas to spread. How can you do this more effectively? The first step is to connect ideas creatively – this is the fundamental creative act in innovation. Here are some thoughts on this from Noam Chomsky, discussing the role of education in an excellent post from Maria Popova: You [...]
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Innovation Lessons from the Rise of Tesla Motors
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Five More Thinkers That I Admire
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Food, Connection & Innovation
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Here is Why You Need Business Model Innovation
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Talk is the Technology of Leadership
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Reframing Failure
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Five Thinkers That I Admire
- European Design Innovation Platform: Call for proposals | Vizuarna: [...] Here is Why You Need Business Model Innovati...
- Why We Shouldn’t Be Surprised That Managers Don’t Embrace Complexity | Technology: [...] and upend even the most dominant of firms. Â...
- Eight Models of Business Models, & Why They’re Important | Blog de Maria Zaghi: [...] http://timkastelle.org/blog/2012/01/eight-mo...
- Westrope Leadership Inc. - Reframing Failure - Innovation for Growth - Westrope Leadership Inc.: [...] Click here to view original web page at Refr...
- Innovation Lessons from the Rise of Tesla Motors - Innovation for Growth: [...] mock new ideas. All of this comes together t...
- Innovation Excellence | Innovation Challenge: Your Market is Never Stable: [...] organisations make is that they know what ma...
- Why Every Business Should Consider Innovation Teams | Digital Tonto: [...] However, as Clayton Christensen has pointed ...
Books
Free eBook! Using the Innovation Matrix
Collects all of my recent posts on the Innovation Matrix.
Tim's book Handbook on the Knowledge Economy, Volume 2, co-edited with David Rooney and Greg Hearn, is out now everywhere in the world. Ask your library for it!
Metrics
Tim was named #5 in the Top 40 Innovation Bloggers in 2011 at Innovation Excellence.
Tim and John were both named in the Top 40 Innovation Bloggers in 2010 at Innovation Excellence.
