The single most important management skill to develop is a tolerance for ambiguity. Why? Because we often must manage objectives that are contradictory. For example, Firms that are successful at innovation are able to simultaneously come up with ideas that allow them to take advantage of what they’re really good at (exploitation) while also being […]
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 […]
Hugh MacLeod’s great daily newsletter (which you should subscribe to here) had this cartoon today: Don’t try to stand out from the crowd, avoid crowds altogether. In the commentary, he acknowledges that this might not align with the fantastic work that Mark Earls has been doing over the past few years. The basic point that […]
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 been obsessed with this video for the past couple of days: The song is Nouvelle Vague covering Dance With Me by Lords of the New Church. It’s a great cover. The video is an even more inspired piece. Youtube user Luakabopper took the song and put it over this amazing dance sequence from Bande […]
What wins in innovation, great ideas or great process? Ideally, you’ll have both. But I suspect that if it’s either/or, process wins. There is an interesting example from the world of chess in Michael Nielsen’s fantastic new book Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science. The book discusses how our improved ability to network […]
For some insight into another common innovation obstacle, consider this quote from John Maynard Keynes: Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally then to succeed unconventionally. Because it’s pithy and quotable, it might be easy to dismiss – and just as an aside, why aren’t modern-day economists as good with […]
I had a striking reminder of my ignorance on Sunday. I’m currently in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to give the keynote at a conference tomorrow. I arrived a few days early to get acclimated, and on Sunday, my hosts took me around town, including a visit to the new Museo de la Revolucion en la Frontera. […]
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 […]
There are plenty of excuses for not innovating – for not taking steps to change things. However, if you see a way to make things better and you don’t do anything, then you’re letting your situation control you. If you’re dissatisfied with the situation, you have to change the way you act. Here is the […]
