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Stay Tuned…What is in the Hopper?

Quote from Scott Belsky - Author of Making Ideas Happen Hello friends, Been a few weeks since my last blog post and a number of you have asked why? First: An insane travel schedule around the globe and ProVoke speaking engagements, etc. And: I am intrigued, fascinated and at times equally frustrated about so many aspects of innovation in big companies that I simply can’t choose what to write about??? I am seeing many companies genuinely wanting to disrupt, innovate and have a Culture of Innovation, BUT, at times, I see the corporate politics stall the process and in some instances damage the progress. My passion: Figuring out HOW to replace command & control to inspire, motivate & innovate? What do you think? How do we overcome corporate politics? Would love to hear your thoughts and I will have my next post up very soon! Your relentless Read More >

Big Data: To Understand Employees Better and Have a Stronger Company

Yesterday's Sunday New York Times article in the technology sector titled : “Big Data trying to build better workers” - caught my eye, no doubt....Big data used internally to understand and improve the work force. Interesting concept. I totally agree with Google’s philosophy. I am deeply involved with helping individuals in large companies become more innovative and for helping those companies to become more innovative. Large companies are delivery-centric with huge top-down command and control, so we need to disrupt heavily, work through the stages of resistance and start the movement towards a culture of innovation.  And yes, inspiration is critical. Often a forgotten art in the heavy battlegrounds of a big company, inspiration and happiness is the key to having a sustainable innovative culture, hence a highly productive culture. Google states that its happiest employees are their most innovative employees (we totally agree on this point !), and these individuals by definition are Read More >

Democratization of Innovation - Liberation of Patents for a Purpose

Fellow readers, this month GE announced that it will be opening up thousands (not thousands not hundreds) of patents from its library of 20,000 patents. First off, this liberation of IP (patents) is a huge forward move. Why? For decades, global companies have viewed their technical prowess, not in terms of new products and innovation introduced to the market on a regular basis, BUT, in terms of the numbers of patents held by the company. This patent-holding pattern has many obvious problems, but the one I want to discuss is ‘suing’ and harming entrepreneurship. If you are an entrepreneur, you will need to fish through hundreds of thousands of patents to make sure you are not infringing on anyone’s patents which halts innovation because start-ups are reluctant to risk a legal fight with large (and more financially stable) corporations. In the process of this democratization started by GE, 5 key positive Read More >

Stop Gender Stereotyping!

One of my favorite morning rituals is to browse the papers in the early morning to catch up with what is going on and to be inspired!  WSJ is one of standard papers I read. On top of the front page I read:  Don’t be the office Tech Dinosaur (which makes sense as old pros sometime tend to reject new technology because they just didn’t or don’t want to get into it) and then I read the next headline which infuriated me to no end: ‘ The Toys' that would turn girls into Scientists’ and on page 6 the full title reads: “Can new building toys for girls improve Math and Science skills?  By Diana Kapp.  To further add insult to injury there are 2 color photos of a plastic tree house and an classroom made up of plastic blocks! Wow, Ms. Kapp! Newsflash:  Girls ( I suggest you join our movement Read More >

"Get Out of Jail, Free" Cards

More and more I am seeing senior executives in large companies inspired and challenged by the task of ‘how to encourage staff’ to make deeper and bolder bets, choices and decisions. Ironically, I am seeing this in companies where top-down command and control would have not allowed us to have had this conversation before. The article in yesterday’s WSJ touches on this point and a good read. Why and why NOW? Companies in all sectors have a huge challenge ahead. They need to INNOVATE. The more employees and staff are engaged and involved, and the more risk they take, the higher the chances of success. Yes, that is right in the face of the FEAR of failure from risks. The more isolated staff are from taking risks, the lower the chance of the company to succeed. This directly relates to innovation. To innovate and to allow new possibilities in ANY business, we Read More >

Caution: Let’s Not Confuse Lack of Invigoration/Inspiration with Lack of Innovation!

First let me come clean: • Yes, I love and am a big fan of big global companies (large enterprises) • Innovation is rampant and a regular occurrence in such companies • Innovation happens at many levels in large enterprises: brand new innovation and enhancements to existing products • Startups are fundamentally experimental, with good hypotheses around scaling • Large enterprise products run in the millions of products by tens of millions of users • And more... So, let’s get something clear: Large enterprises are constantly innovating. However, every innovation has to run flawlessly by a massive global customer base. Yes, I am biased as everyday I see the amazing strides that my clients in Defense, Automotive, Finance, the Tech industry, Consumer Products and Electronics and others make. I am continuously fascinated to see how the complex machinery works. So, to say large enterprises don’t innovate is absurd and groundless. While the figures for R&D are inflated Read More >