April 30, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Eight Characteristics of a High Performing Team
Lots of organizations acknowledge the need to raise the bar for teamwork and collaboration. That’s a good thing. The not-so-good thing is that their process for doing so is often vague, insufficient, or confused. Of all the models on teamwork, Idea…
April 30, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The HOW and WHY of Innovation
Innovation is difficult because it demands new work. But, at a more basic level, it’s difficult because it requires an admission that the way you’ve done things is no longer viable. And, without public admission the old way won’t carry the day, innovation cannot move forward. After the admission there’s no innovation, but it’s one …
April 29, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Be Frightened of Old Ideas
About John Cage
Idea Champions
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50 quotes on the power of ideas
If you google “brainstorm training”
April 29, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
If You’re Comfortable With Your Strategy, It Probably Sucks
Does this sound familiar? Your company has spent months coming up with a detailed action plan for the coming years, complete with financial projections illustrating exactly how you will grow share of market and thus revenue, along with a budget. All of…
April 29, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Do You Have What It Takes To Dream Big?
Five things that will bring your dream to life and keep it alive. At the risk of sounding arrogant my view is that the world consists of two fundamental personalities, those who persevere and simply refuse to give up on their dreams, and those who give…
April 28, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Opportunity Cost Of Not Innovating
It seems to be ingrained in businesses to ask, “what’s the cost?” when considering a new innovation, but rarely do they ask, “what’s the size of the opportunity we miss if we don’t do this?”. Business history is unfortunately plagued with examples of companies that have paid a high price for not innovating. Such …
April 27, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Revenue Model Innovation Exercise
One generative exercise for any CPG company to explore growing market share is to hold a session where a team role plays a wide array of alternative revenue models for a particular brand. As far as the ground rules for this ideation session, any ideas should be welcomed—and the cultural antibodies of HOW WE HAVE …
April 26, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
A Manager’s Guide to Disruptive Innovation – Part 2 of 2
If you missed Part 1 of 2, you can find it here. Philippe Silberzahn, a consultant, keynote speaker, and associate professor at EM Lyon Business School, works with large companies confronted to disruptions in their markets: it was natural that he summarizes the mechanisms of disruption, in his book A Managers’Guide to Disruptive Innovation capitalizing …
April 26, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Micro-Learning for Innovators in Just 15 Minutes Per Week
If you are looking for a simple, inexpensive way to spark innovation in your organization in just 15 minutes per week, here it is. No workshops. No trainings. No keynotes. No headbanging. And the first company that responds to this post gets to name t…
April 26, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How To Stop Worrying And Learn To Love The Retail Apocalypse
The hit 80s movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High recently turned 35 years old. For anybody who grew up during that period, it evokes memories that are both nostalgic and quaint. Back then, social life revolved around, of all things, a shopping mall, wher…
April 25, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How Doctors and Patients Can Win the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a mental model created by the leaders of the Joint Economic Forum and describes how physical, digital and biologic technologies have collided and the resulting challenges and opportunities that presents. Here is how AI is changing sick care. Here is how 3-D printing is changing sick care. Here are the opportunities using VR/AR …
April 25, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
3 Things You Must Do to Make Any Partnership Work
Partnerships don’t just happen–they require hard work–but done right the results are pure magic. I want you to take a minute to think about the partnerships in your life, the important ones that you have had or have now. It may be a business partner, a significant other, a spouse, or a dear friend. Now …
April 24, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Alas, Poor Henry and the Problem
According to legend, Henry Ford scoffed at market research and what we now call Consumer Insights, proclaiming, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” While there is a certain degree of wisdom in this statement, it has been misquoted to justify bad, hubris-inspired product failures by too many …
April 24, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Human Side of Innovation – Innovators Inside Organizations
In the world of continuous changes and new trends it is important to have in your team, department or organization, people who think different and who approach to problem in different manner. Often, it’s difficult to recognize innovative persons. They are shy and mostly they hide their ideas in fear not to be copied. Nevertheless, …
April 23, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Real Starting Point for Strategy
“If I had the key members of your executive suite all in the same room, would they all be able to articulate the essence of your current strategy clearly and consistently?” I asked the executive vice president of strategy. “Probably not,” she replied. “But I do know we need a new one, because the current …
April 23, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Changing Change
The business world is showing an increasing interest in the people side of change, and there is a very real reason for this… Companies are spending an increasing amount of their budget on technology and working to transform their operations to be more digital in order to provide a better experience for customers, employees, partners …
April 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Revisiting the 5 Biggest Business Trends for 2016
They say there’s nothing new under the sun. Well, whoever “they” are, they likely never tried to build a business. Because in business it’s always about finding something new that somehow allows you to differentiate and capture an advantage-fleeting though it may be. At the end of 2015 I identified five critical trends to give …
April 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Energy-Efficient Innovations in Commercial Real Estate
Millennials, now the largest consumer demographic, have redefined how businesses serve their customers, from retail to real estate. With this demographic illustrating a very different set of consumer demands and expectations than the older Baby Boomer …
April 21, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Defining Innovation Capital
Innovation capital is made up of many different assets that are often context specific and interconnected and this makes it hard to build without taking a broader, more holistic approach to developing your capabilities, capacities and competencies to innovate. You ‘map’ and align these to fit your strategic goals and aspirations.
April 21, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Don’t Worry About People Stealing Your Ideas
Chester Carlson worked on his idea for years. It was tough, messy work and when his wife tired of the putrid smells, sulfur fires and occasional explosions emanating from the kitchen, his experiments were exiled to a second floor apartment in a house h…
April 20, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How to Overcome the Barriers to Academic & Industry Collaboration
Almost 20 years ago, a report from the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine described the results of a conference addressing and the barriers to academic-industry collaboration and solutions to overcome them. While there has been slow progress addressing these issues, for the most part, the barriers persist and industry frustration with academic …
April 19, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Taking the Path to Digital Transformation
This is the first of three articles on embracing digitization, transformation and innovation. It is becoming more and more apparent that we are living in a moment of profound possibility and enormous disruption. Where the old business paradigms are dyi…
April 19, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
One Thing Steve Jobs Did at Apple That Will Instantly Improve Your Productivity
Distraction is always the enemy. Here’s one simple technique to maintain focus on what’s really important. Busy Work So, if we are going to talk about productivity we need to get one thing straight from the outset; busy does not equate to productive. Try this experiment; go around for a day and ask colleagues, “So, …
April 18, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Start with Feeling
People ask me often about Innovation. No one has a clear definition. Innovation is one of those words that mean something different to anyone who hears it. Similar to other words that are filled with misunderstanding, such as creativity or strategy, in…
April 18, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
A Manager’s Guide to Disruptive Innovation – Part 1 of 2
Philippe Silberzahn, a consultant, keynote speaker, and associate professor at EM Lyon Business School, works with large companies confronted to disruptions in their markets: it was natural that he summarizes the mechanisms of disruption, in his book A Managers’Guide to Disruptive Innovation capitalizing on the various books of Clayton Christensen. Philippe doesn’t leave us unarmed, …
April 17, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Fatigue and Complacency: The Bane of Inspiration and Innovation
Oftentimes, an entrepreneur or an employee’s greatest strength also acts against them as their greatest weakness. While this duality isn’t always easily expressed, nowhere is it more apparent than in the budding, overzealous worker who burns bright, and then burns out. Workplace fatigue is a more persistent problem in the global economy than you might …
April 16, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Build For The Few And Not The Many
When Google first announced its Glass prototype, complete with a snazzy video, it generated a lot of excitement. Through augmented reality projected onto the lenses, users could seamlessly navigate an urban landscape, send and receive messages and take…
April 16, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Don’t Start Strategy with SWOT
It’s Time to Retire This Old-School Tool Over the past few years of helping organizations develop new strategies, I’ve become aware and rather alarmed at a prevalent pattern, one which I find counterproductive, even detrimental, especially in these times of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity). It concerns the starting point for strategy work: nearly every …
April 15, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
International Good Idea Day!
Let me be the first to inform you that today is the first annual International Good Idea Day — a day I am officially declaring without the approval from my dysfunctional government or any slick lobbying group attempting to hustle other people’s prod…
April 15, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation – More Powerful Than Marketing?
What always surprises us when working with big companies is that innovation is usually primarily seen as a growth tool. It is less commonly talked about as a brand-building tool. That’s usually seen to be the domain of big advertising campaigns that supposedly land enduring brand values. What if the best form of marketing wasn’t, …