June 29, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
104 Mobile Marketing Facts [infographic]
This infographic, compiled by the team behind Website Builder, offers 104 mobile marketing facts, including desktop vs. mobile comparisons, niches that work best, great mobile marketing techniques, but also usage, user friendliness, adoption, commerce,…
June 28, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The New Era of Mass Collaboration
Today, we’re entering a new era, where open platforms are going beyond just software and starting to take hold in everything from scientific research to manufacturing. As our ability to connect to ecosystems of talent, technology and information continues to increase exponentially, the solution to many tough problems is becoming more social than technical.
June 28, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Los Alamos Innovation
Although we often think of nuclear weapons technology as advanced, cutting-edge, and modern, in fact the dawn of the era of atomic weapons was over 70 years ago. The most current nuclear weapon designs in the U.S. arsenal are 40 years old. While cutting-edge nuclear weapons research is underway today in terms of minimization of …
June 27, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
When a Best Practice Is a Worst Practice
I’m a collector of best practices. I like to find out what forward thinking individuals and organizations have done to accomplish extraordinary results.
Sometimes I share these stories in my keynotes or workshops. Invariably, my stock rises when I t…
June 27, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How to Build a Dynamic Brand
While brand positioning isn’t particularly hard to explain, neither is describing how a plane flies. But the physics of rapid air flow over the wings is one thing; actually designing and piloting a plane is something else all together.
June 27, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Having a personal innovation strategy in a time of change
Do you have a “personal innovation strategy?” Do you need one? My friend Robert Tucker recently published a Forbes article on disruption, and why we generally associate it with companies rather than our own careers. He notes, “in a time of exponential change and dislocation, with job functions being automated and algorithms doing more of […]
June 27, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Marketing and Innovation are Inseparable
So, how does your Marketing serve your innovation? Does it define clearly and collaboratively? Does it integrate desirability, feasibility and viability in an optimal manner? Does it communicate with clarity and impact?
June 27, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
To Disrupt, Or Not to Disrupt
Do You Need to Disrupt? Let’s face it – most people just don’t like change. We like things being the way that they are – even the word “upset” has a negative connection – to turn over the “set” to break with the established order. The only problem is – there are so many things…
June 26, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Waterloo’s Dynamic Innovation Ecosystem: A model for Syrian Refugees
How can a moment when the global community highlights the plight of tens of millions of refugees put anyone in a celebratory mood? What is innovative about a world that seems to be getting ever more efficient at producing refugees? Let me explain.
June 26, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
What Accelerates Innovation
Universities, businesses and even cities and regions are talking about innovation and the need to create accelerators or innovation enablers. To accelerate innovation, we need to do a couple of important things that are being overlooked or ignored.
June 25, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Want to Vacation in Woodstock?
If you are looking for a great place to rent in Woodstock, NY, consider renting my home — just a 12 minute walk to town. Mountain views. Peaceful. Gorgeous. A great place to rest, renew, and rejuvenate. Short- term or long-term rentals available. C…
June 25, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Top 7 Reasons Your Successful Startup Will Fail
Nobody ever started a business intending to fail. Yet, within five years half will. It’s foolish to expect that all of these businesses could somehow succeed. Still, many successful and innovative businesses fail not because there was anything wrong with their product or service but rather because they fell into one of the pitfalls of …
June 25, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Six Things Great Innovators Do Differently
Take a look at any successful enterprise and you’ll find innovation at its core. That was just as true a hundred years ago when Henry Ford perfected the assembly line as it is today, when modern day giants like Elon Musk bring cutting edge technology to market. Innovation, as I’ve written before, is how people …
June 24, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Private Label Becomes the Branded Product
Almost everyday the Studio faces challenges that private label competitors impose upon our branded products clients. More and more private label brands are taking lessons out of the innovation and brand strategy playbooks and getting ahead of the once …
June 23, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Google’s 9 Principles of Innovation
Google is one of the most innovative companies in the world, because it actively pursues a culture of innovation. Google for years has worked to ensure that innovative ideas are continually flowing in order to position the company for success well into the future. What is Google doing, and how can we learn from their […]
June 23, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Don’t Focus on the Problem, Innovate past it
Two groups of engineering students were given a similar task – to design a bicycle rack for a car. The first group focused on the problems with the existing design and that constrained their thinking. The second group came up with much more elegant and effective designs.
June 23, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
ISPIM Grand Prize 2017 – we have a winner!
Wow, so close! We are delighted to announce that, by a single vote, the winner of the ISPIM Grand Prize 2017 for Excellence in Innovation Management is Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), with the Fraunhofer Institute a close second.
June 22, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Cold Case Innovation
If innovators take a cold case-inspired approach, we might come up with an alternative method for handling older ideas. This approach has the potential to create a new source of innovation ideas by leveraging past work and applying new criteria to thos…
June 22, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Amazon Buys Whole Foods Market: Evolutionary, Not Disruptive
The big news this last week? Amazon buys Whole Foods. Many in the press are thinking that this is a disruptive move. If you ask me, I’d say it’s more evolutionary than revolutionary. A few years ago, I was doing some foresight consulting for a large brick-and-mortar retailer, who, at the time was (and probably…
June 22, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation and Creativity: The lasting competitive advantage
Will we prepare our children to compete in a world where creativity and divergent thinking become more important than rote memorization? Can we rethink our business structures and processes to embrace more divergence and creativity?
June 21, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
25 Awesome Quotes on Creativity
“The things we fear most in organizations — fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances — are the primary sources of creativity.” – Alfred North Whitehead
“The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good sense.'” – Pablo Picasso
“Everyone who’s ever taken a sh…
June 21, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Agile Intrapreneurship at LabCovéa [Interview]
Philippe Lebeaupin, Innovation Coach at Lab Covéa (insurance company) explains in details the origin of the Lab, and the way he coaches intrapreneurs’ projects, sharing some exciting business pivots along the way!
June 21, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Sense and Respond
Interview with Jeff Gothelf I had the opportunity recently to interview fellow author Jeff Gothelf to talk with him about his new book Sense and Respond, which is his second book with a major publisher and with his co-author Josh Seiden. Congratulation…
June 20, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Hacking Innovation
Do we make innovation more complicated than it has to be? Anyone can bring innovation to their organization and it doesn’t take much time or investment to do it. If you want more innovation in your company, try these 5 things: 1. Hire for creativity. Take a look around your conference table. Everyone may…
June 20, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Next Wave of Innovation in the Chemicals Industry
New discoveries in materials science will undoubtedly lead to a new era of growth. You may be asking who is best positioned to benefit — incumbent companies or upstarts? The answer may surprise you. I found an interesting article I thought I’d pass along, highlighting several new developments that could help the chemicals industry lead […]
June 20, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Unfreezing the Innovation Permafrost
Why might some organizations be “staying at rest” when there are so many possibilities and opportunities available to them, in the current business environment, to grow, nurture and sustain their competitiveness and relevance to their customers and key stakeholders?
June 20, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Why We Must Rethink Applied Innovation Services
Many of those innovation tools that have been emerging in recent years have now built up a powerful body of validation, and they become necessary to know and practice yet often miss the basic building block needs of innovation. We need to do better, we…
June 19, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Reflections on Life in the Sharing Economy | Episode 2
On Episode 1 of this series, I contextualized some key elements of the sharing economy and why this is an important economic and social movement. In this episode, I’ll share with you my experience living & breathing the newly born sharing economy, right at its source, the Silicon Valley.
June 19, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How Companies are Using the Gig Channel to Expand Marketing Possibilities
Gig platforms have opened up new possibilities for marketers by putting in place a new type of sales channel that doesn’t rely on a formalized network of channel partners.
June 18, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Confessions of a Keynote Speaker
Recently, I gave a keynote presentation to 150 people in the health care industry. After being introduced, I decided, as I usually do, to leave the safe confines of the podium (“a platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the …