When Should You Give Up on an Idea?

Braden Kelley posted a great transcript of a talk from Jeff Bezos of Amazon recently on Blogging Innovation. Here is one of the sections that I thought was really interesting: If you invent frequently and are willing to fail, then you never get to that point where you really need to bet the whole company. […]

The Innovation Matrix Reloaded

Since I put the Innovation Matrix together last year, we’ve been experimenting with it to see if it makes sense. I’ve used it in a couple of classes, and John and I have discussed it with a number of people that are actually responsible for innovation within their organisations. We’ve learned that the basic principle […]

Three Signs That Your Business Model is Obsolete

When I was working on yesterday’s post about the business model experiment that Kaiser Chiefs are running, I came across a quote from Paul Morley that bothered me enough to trigger this post. It’s from the discussion of the idea in the Financial Times, and Morley is suggesting that the experiment is a terrible idea. […]

Kaiser Chiefs and New Business Models for Music

I just finished listening to my version of the new album by Kaiser Chiefs, The Future is Medieval, and I have to say that I’m pretty happy with it. You may well ask what makes it my version? The thing that makes it mine is that I picked the 10 songs to go on it, […]

How to Use Networks to Spread Ideas

Here’s a question for you: imagine that you have a package that has to be delivered to someone that you don’t know and you’ve never met that lives across the world from you – let’s say a particular lawyer in Antinanarivo, Madagascar. The only way to get it to them is to pass the package […]

Data Changes Everything

I was talking with a friend tonight over dinner about the PhD that she is starting. One of the suggestions that I made was to get through the literature review and research design phase as quickly as possible. The reason for this is that data changes everything. PhD students share a common problem with inventors […]

The “1-10-100” Rule for Innovation Experiments

I was talking to one of our PhD students this afternoon about his research design. He was trying to figure out how to structure his network survey to learn about how a firm that we’re working with innovates. He is particularly interested in learning about the role of trust in the evolution of innovation networks. […]

Build Your Business Model Around Creating Value

One of my favourite things to do when I go into the Brisbane CBD is to drop by The Cloakroom to talk about business (and clothes) with Andrew and the guys. In one recent discussion, we talked about retail locations. This was just after they moved into their new space, which is fantastic. One of […]

Are You Climbing Hills or Crossing Valleys?

One of the key issues we face in managing organisations is the state of the environment surrounding us. Is it stable or turbulent? This has an impact on our innovation strategy. In stable environments, we can afford to concentrate just on getting better at what we’re doing. However, in turbulent environments, we need to undertake […]

Innovation Lessons from the Startup Genome Report

Steve Blank wrote an interesting post today on the Startup Genome Project. The report is based on a survey of 663 startups. All of them are web-based businesses, and they are all early in their lifecycle. The objective of the study is to determine what factors drive startup success, and the report draws some interesting […]

43 Rules for Better Leadership

The first major management job that I had started with two crises on the day it was offered to me. I went straight into firefighting mode before I had even officially started the position. The last big management job that I started was almost the exact opposite – I walked into the office on the […]

The Innovation Filter Bubble

Here is a must-watch video from Eli Pariser discussing some of the themes from his new book The Filter Bubble (reviewed well here by Cory Doctorow). It’s only 9 minutes, and it is well worth your time: Pariser’s main point is that the primary filters on the internet these days are algorithmic, and that these […]