Have you heard of Ruslan Kogan? I think he is one of the most exciting business entrepreneurs in recent years. I only got to hear about him when the major Australian electronics retailers started to complain about how unfair it was that a business could manufacture offshore and sell directly to consumers via the internet. […]
Last week I was sent the Siemens report into productivity in Australia. Like the Grattan report that I wrote about a few weeks ago, it has a stern warning about the threat of declining productivity. Like the grasshoper in Aesop’s fable, Australians are at risk of squandering the wealth that is being generated from commodity […]
One of our long term research projects is the problem of innovating in large complicated businesses such as engineering and mining companies. We have been using social network analysis to understand innovation because one of the biggest innovation challenges involves finding good ideas and existing expertise to do something in a better way or to […]
A colleague has just forwarded the brilliant ‘burning platform’ memo from Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop. If you haven’t read the entire memo to Nokia employees, you can link to a report here. It’s a brutal self-assessment that could be a turning point for Nokia. Learning often starts with a statement of “I don’t know” and […]
Saul Eslake is one of Australia’s most respected bank economists. In his tenure as the Chief Economist at the ANZ bank, Eslake’s analysis and forecasts were usually on the mark. He also enjoys a reputation for having a razor-sharp intellect and a balanced attitude to life. We both share a connection to the University of […]
Two weeks ago I wrote a post on what the research is saying about small world networks and how these networks can make groups innovative. Just to recap, there has been a great deal of progress in network science that allows us to understand how large groups that don’t appear to have many connections relative […]
It’s now two weeks since the beginning of the flood emergency in Brisbane. Somehow it doesn’t seem like two weeks. The first two days were pretty much a blur with trying to get my family to higher ground and then moving furniture and other stuff upstairs above the predicted flood level. I was lucky because […]
If you are new to this blog, you may not know that Tim and I are business school academics with a particular research interest in networks (person to person) and innovation. We have a few other research interests but this is where we spend most of our time with our doctoral students and industry collaborators. […]
Entrepreneurship is now a pretty big deal. Business schools all over the world have courses in this area and some even make it their major focus of teaching and research. Governments are also interested in entrepreneurs and routinely ask themselves how they can develop a more entrepreneurial national culture. Many years ago, an economist called […]
Tim and I are now writing a lot on the importance of focus. Being successful with innovation is about managing the paradox of ‘disciplined creation’ and it helps to have some clear ideas about what you are trying to achieve and how you are going to create value. Part of this discipline is taking time […]
