November 30, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Idiot Savant’s Guide to Accelerating Culture Change
Imagine, for the moment, that you have been tasked with the challenge of addressing the need for “culture change” within your team, department, or entire organization. I’m assuming you didn’t go to graduate school in “culture change” and that you als…
November 30, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
What you can learn from my (first) startup failure…
In 1995, I had an idea. Internet Telephony had just started. Internet connection was available only through dial-up modems, and not all the time. Voice quality was choppy, delayed, and calls were dropped often. Very few people knew how to use it, and you had to sit by the computer to place those calls using a microphone and speakers. …
November 30, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
3 (Unlikely) Innovation Lessons from NPR
What’s one secret to pushing out live, high-quality content on a shoestring budget? Corporate innovators who are being asked to do more with less and in the half the time would be wise to learn from NPR.
November 29, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Leonard: 4 pillars of a wise corporate Open Lab
Leonard is the new innovation entity initiated by VINCI, a major player in construction, and concession agreement indutries. VINCI designs, finances, builds, and operates infrastructure and facilities that help improve daily life and mobility for all. I spoke with Matthieu Lerondeau, Leonard Head of Communications & Communities, about the missions, and organization of Leonard.
November 29, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
5 Kick-Ass Gadgets That Help Deliver Killer Presentations
These five gadgets will help you to stay in control, focus on your content, and wow your audience. I’ve been on the speaking circuit for 25 years. I’ve learned a lot in that time about what makes a keynote presentation great; not just good but great. My previous Innovation Excellence article on Can You Present …
November 28, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
12 Ways to Make Bad Decisions
There are three things that astound me about most organizations: The cro-magnon way performance reviews are done; the pitiful way brainstorm sessions are run and; the voo doo way decisions are made.
What follows is an elaboration of the third — 12 c…
November 28, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Preparing for an AI Driven World
Even if dystopian visions of robots taking our jobs are overblown, Josh Sutton, Global Head, Data & Artificial Intelligence at Publicis.Sapient sees significant disruption ahead. AI will transform every industry and not every organization will be able to make the shift. The time to prepare is now.
November 28, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Have You Tried New Ways to Innovate?
After relying on cost and operational efficiencies to grow the bottom line, many businesses are emerging from an innovation slumber post-recession. Now there is an imperative to refocus on organic growth. The importance of innovation in driving this gr…
November 27, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Why R&D Spending has Almost No Correlation to Innovation
A newly released infographic by Visual Capitalist shows that while the US leads in the amount of dollars spent on research and development ($463 billion), it only came in fourth place with the percentage of GDP spent on R&D (2.79 percent), just over half of the GDP percentage invested by South Korea. Beyond Korea, the US is trailing Japan and Germany.
November 27, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Insight: the Metaskill for Product Managers and Innovators [podcast]
The discussion here is about a book ‘The Muse’ called the number-one best career book available. The book is Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life.
November 26, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Break Your Worst Habit with Four Scientifically Proven Steps
Making difficult changes is easier when you follow four simple steps Change is something everyone grapples with — whether it’s kicking a bad habit, coming up with new and original ideas, shifting a business focus, changing behaviors, changing company culture, or trying to change the world. Certainly the ability to create or manage change is …
November 26, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
12 Things Never to Say to a Potential Investor
If you’re intent on going the VC route, then what you do say in your pitch is just as important as what you don’t. While venture capital isn’t right for the vast majority of businesses, if you’ve decided to go that route then I’m going to assume you’re doing your homework on how to put …
November 26, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Introducing the Play-to-Win Strategy Canvas 2.0
I started developing a visual tool for team facilitation of strategy development over two years ago, after I learned the Playing to Win framework from Roger Martin. I’ve always liked using good old paper and Post-Its, ever since I learned what was affectionately referred to as “the big paper process” when I was working with …
November 25, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
VALIDATION
Ever feel invisible, unappreciated, unacknowledged? Ever feel the need to be seen, recognized, and validated? (Or maybe this is more of an issue for other people in your life: your friends, family, or co-workers.) No matter where you fit into this p…
November 25, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Why did No-one Think of This Before?
Have you ever seen an idea in action and thought, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ Let’s look at three recent innovations which might surprise you. Washing machines can be very heavy. This is because they contain concrete blocks weighing about 25 kgs which are needed as counterweights to keep the machines stable during spin …
November 24, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
We Too Often Ignore The Tradeoff Between Innovation And Optimization
For decades, managers have been focused on efficiency. From Frederick Winslow Taylor and his Principles of Scientific Management early in the 20th century to more modern practices like Six Sigma, executives continually honed their operations to achieve…
November 23, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Every Founder Needs to Answer This Question
Not being totally honest with yourself about this might be the biggest mistake you will ever make. “The freedom to make my own mistakes is all I ever wanted.” – Mance Rayder, Game of Thrones I have an eminently simple philosophy when it comes to business and life; no decision is a mistake if you …
November 23, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
HOW TO JUMP START INNOVATION with Mind-Opening, Curated Content for Your Intranet
Innovation is a huge topic in organizations these days. Every company is looking for new and better ways to do more with less, differentiate themselves from the competition, and unlock the hidden genius of their workforce. At the same time, many org…
November 21, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Want to Nail Pricing? Understand Market Dynamics First
Pricing is a game – one with asymmetric and imperfect information. So what does this mean for you? Basically, you’re very unlikely to nail pricing the first time. And even if you do come close, you’ll have to adjust as your product and market mature. While you’ll never get pricing 100% right the first time, there’s no reason you shouldn’t set yourself up for the best possible chance at success.
November 21, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Why Hesitate? Innovate. Start, and Learn.
Innovation is not a linear, analytic process where a business case is built, investments made and products launched. Rather, it is a recursive, iterate framework for spending small increments of time and money to learn more and design a solution for a …
November 20, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Peer Group “Scaling-Up”: Initial Survey Results
As published in a recent post, we have initiated a Peer Group of leading European companies which share our view that Best Practices with respect to scaling up validated concepts (successfully emerging from the “Fuzzy Front End”) to business impact need to be in place to sustainably increase overall corporate innovation performance. It has become obvious that Scaling-Up really seems to be
November 20, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Pruning Your Root Cause
Process improvers the world over rally around root cause analysis as if it were the Holy Grail of all things organizational. But is it? Understanding the root cause of a problem certainly makes sense in the context of a present day situation carrying t…
November 20, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
50 Quotes on Risk Taking
1. “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” — Goethe
2. “Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller
3. “It’s not because things are difficul…
November 19, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Extraordinary Team Creation Manifesto
A New Science is showing us how staying in-the-flow may be the most important part of building extraordinary teams. “I will never consider defeat, and I will remove from my vocabulary such words as quit, cannot, unable, impossible, failure, and retreat, for these are the words of fools and cowards. ” — Georgia Smoke Diver …
November 18, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Let’s Not “Yada Yada” Innovation
Most Seinfeld fans are familiar with the concept of “yada-yada-ing” sex, like when Elaine met a lawyer, went out to dinner, had the lobster bisque, went back to her place and yada, yada, yada… she never heard from him again. It’s funny, because we all know — or think we know — what the yada, …
November 18, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Understand What Lean Six Sigma Is Without Getting a Huge Headache
Ten years ago, my company was a vendor to a Fortune 100 company devoted to SixSigma. So devoted, in fact, that they required all of their vendors to take a two-day day Six Sigma training. While I never liked thinking of myself as a “vendor”, I took …
November 17, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation and Indigenous Wisdom
Here’s a wonderfully, innovative project happening in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico — a groundbreaking event being planned for the coming summer that celebrates the indigenous wisdom of the Americas. Click here for the just launched GoFundMe campaig…
November 17, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
On Being a Better Listener
Good article from Fast Company on the emotional intelligence required to be a better listener.
If you want to innovate, listen more
24 quotes on good communication
Non-judgmental listening
November 17, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Ready or Not? Black Friday Online Shopping Frenzy
Last year, online sales on Black Friday reached an all-time record of $3.34 billion, up 21.6 year-over-year…and this year’s online sales are likely to exceed last year’s record. Last year’s holiday shopping surprise performance of online versus brick…
November 17, 2017 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Crossing the Internal Chasm in Corporate Innovation
There is a huge noise around what companies should do to find the big ideas. Compared to it, the discussion about the best way of turning those ideas into substantial businesses is almost silent. We think it is high time to change this.