Clicky

Blog - Innovation for Growth

queen’s birthday links

By on 8 June 2009 in innovation

I hope everyone is enjoying doing whatever it is that we’re supposed to do to commemorate the Queen’s birthday. Here are a few things I’ve run across so far today: The potato gatling gun demonstrates again the difference between invention and innovation. It’s a cool thing to make, but I suspect it’ll be a while [...]

Read full story • Comments { 2 }

business model innovation

By on 7 June 2009 in business models, innovation

There was an article in this weekend’s Australian Financial Review reviewing a book about myspace. The reviewer kept stressing that myspace did not invent any new technology, the implication being that the firm was not innovative. So how did it wipe out friendster? The answer, which wasn’t explored by AFR is that myspace developed a [...]

Read full story • Comments { 2 }

visualisation

By on 5 June 2009 in networks

Yesterday’s post about mapumental has gotten me thinking about visualisation. Something that has always struck me as a bit of a paradox is that I’m a highly visual thinker, but I’m really bad at graphics. Which is frustrating. But one the reasons that I like network analysis so much is that it provides some really [...]

Read full story • Comments { 4 }

mapumental

By on 4 June 2009 in innovation, networks

Here’s something new – mysociety.org in the UK is introducing their new service called Mapumental. It’s a dumb name, but at least they didn’t call it Mapology… In any case, the video that explains is it well worth watching: I always talk about how innovation is often simply the act of making new connections. Mapumental [...]

Read full story • Comments { 2 }

follow ups

By on 3 June 2009 in innovation, innovation strategy, replication

Right after talking about Google wave, I ran across this story about the release of Microsoft bing. I like to use google as an example in classes when I talk about intellectual property ideas. The google search algorithm isn’t patentable, and yet they’ve made a ton of money off of it. But I suspect that [...]

Read full story • Comments { 0 }

mapping innovation networks

By on 2 June 2009 in innovation, networks

I just wrote this for the UQ Business School Alumni publication: Innovation is particularly important in turbulent economic times. As Scott Anthony points out in his upcoming book, The Silver Lining, nearly half of the current Fortune 500 companies were founded during recessions, including firms such as Bridgestone Tires, Digital Equipment Corporation, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, McKinsey [...]

Read full story • Comments { 2 }

googlenomics

By on 1 June 2009 in innovation, innovation strategy, time, variety

First off, I apologise for the title of the post. I’m now declaring a moratorium on all titles of anything (especially books) that end in ‘nomics’ or ‘ology’. I just wanted to get one of my own in before I started enforcing the moratorium (still not sure how I’m going to get the publishers to [...]

Read full story • Comments { 3 }

impact

By on 31 May 2009 in book riffs, replication, selection

There’s an interesting post on the Six Pixels of Separation blog today about metrics for social media. Here’s the problem that is set up: Maybe we have it all wrong (and I’m just as guilty as the next person). Why are we looking at how many people have joined Facebook overall? Why do we care [...]

Read full story • Comments { 6 }

solar business model innovation

By on 30 May 2009 in business models, innovation, innovation strategy, replication, time

I spent a lot of time in my talks this week discussing business model innovation. The main point is that this is often the most powerful form of innovation while also being one of the most overlooked. I ran across a great example of business model innovation today on Kevin Kelly’s blog. One of the [...]

Read full story • Comments { 0 }

Where do valuable innovations come from?

By on 29 May 2009 in innovation, networks

Tim does a really nice talk on the invention of the computer and he has posted the slides on this blog. While he uses the story to discuss the difference between innovation and invention, I think there are a lot of other really interesting lessons here. Firstly, I’d like to add to Tim’s story by [...]

Read full story • Comments { 5 }