There’s a big problem with innovation: ideas spread much more slowly than we expect them to. Ideas follow an S-Curve as they spread that looks like this: They pick up steam very slowly, until they either die off or hit a tipping point and take off. The slow build-up is the time I’ve indicated as […]
With Kodak in big trouble this week, a lot of people have been reflecting on what went wrong. While many are using this an opportunity to talk about bad management, or missing the digital photography trend, I think there’s more to the Kodak story than this. Kodak’s problems illustrate two very important innovation problems. The […]
The size of your inbox or your RSS feed or your twitter stream might all argue otherwise, but there’s no such thing as information overload. Or, at least, if there is, it’s not new. Check this out: As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can […]
We’ve written a few posts criticising some of the more common innovation metrics in use, so I thought it would be smart to outline some ways that we can actually develop more effective metrics. Here’s a story that might help: A while ago I was in charge of managing student recruitment for a tertiary education […]
Noun 1. exigency – an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty; I’ve had some jobs in which I’ve performed pretty well, and some where I haven’t been quite so good. Probably the worst job I’ve ever done was part of my portfolio when I was managing sales & marketing for a polytechnic in New […]
I think I actually made yesterday’s post on simplicity too complex. Here’s another try. Earlier this week I edited two different papers for journals. My main contribution was that I cut 2,000 words out of each. I also wrote about 400 words in each, but it was the cutting that helped the papers. This reminds […]
Well, we’re all getting older. What do you make of it? I ran across an interesting post by Ben Casnocha, which referenced an article by Benjamin Schwarz which includes this comment on John Updike: Above all, and most poignantly, this collection highlights Updike’s evaluation of the slackening of his own mental and athletic prowess… A […]
What is the most important innovation ever? There are plenty of candidates. Fire, the telegraph, electricity, and the internet would all have to be candidates. There’s another one though, that has had an enormous impact on every single one of us. And surprisingly, it’s not a whiz-bang piece of technology. It’s a simple process innovation. […]
I’ve always thought that the BBC show The Property Ladder provided the perfect illustration of how bubbles worked. The show ran from 2002-2006 and it was hosted by Sarah Beeny. The show profiled aspiring property developers who bought properties, renovated them, then tried to sell them for a profit. If you’ve never seen it, this […]
The fundamental problem in management is that the world is uncertain, and people hate dealing with uncertainty. The result of this that they go to great lengths to provide themselves with the illusion of certainty. The Bed of Procrustres by Taleb, which I discussed previously, is primarily concerned with the problems caused by false certainty. […]
Collingwood fan and outstanding economist Nick Gruen wrote an interesting piece prior to last weekend’s AFL Grand Final explaining why he thought his team would lose to Geelong. The underlying premise in the piece is that he thought Geelong would win because they were more innovative. Here are some of the key points: If I […]
The world failed to end over the weekend. In Los Angeles, at least, this was a bit surprising, as there were many dire predictions made about the impact of closing down the 405 Freeway for a weekend of construction. Many of the key issues are summarised in this remix from Downfall (which is funny, but […]
