October 31, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Seven Inside Threats Lethal to Your Business
Most successful business don’t die because of outside forces as much as they do because of these 7 threats from the inside! You’ve paid dearly to start and grow your business; the steep tuition of success that only an entrepreneur will ever understand. So, you would never do anything to sabotage your businesses, right? Well, …
October 31, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Beat the Blame Culture with Get Out of Jail Free Cards
Is your organization a little too comfortable? Are your people risk averse? Is there a blame culture? How can you encourage innovation by getting men and women to be more adventurous and entrepreneurial? How can you get them to take more risks? Here is an idea that is borrowed from the game of Monopoly – …
October 30, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Digital Biopharma: Is it safe, effective and cost-effective?
Digital health has converged with biopharma. It has happened because digital health technologies are making it easier for biopharmaceutical companies to discover, develop and launch new drugs faster and cheaper and improve the patient and doctor experience, in what is being labeled “after the pill”, U.S. regulators have approved the first digital pill with an embedded …
October 30, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Why Good Ideas Don’t Fly and What To Do About It?
Every leader talks about the importance of innovation to their business. In public, every leader talks about how they and their teams are at the fore front of innovation. In private, the very same leaders confess that they are nowhere near the level of…
October 29, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
MICRO-LEARNING DONE RIGHT
Here’s all you need to know: The attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. The attention span of a human being is 8 seconds. Got that? Now, think about why most “Professional Development” programs in corporations under-perform. OK. time’s up. Here’s…
October 29, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Here’s How We Can Make The Next Big Thing Happen Much Faster
It often seems easy to know when the next big thing is upon us. Someone like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk stands on stage and tells us what is being launched next. The business press gets excited, pundits swoon and a thousand imitators are created. Before l…
October 28, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Four Things You Can Learn From the Retail Genius Behind the Apple Store
Four immutable lessons on how to create a brand that blows away the competition and keeps customers for life. I’ll confess at the very outset that I’ve been an Apple groupie for longer than I care to admit. My first personal computer was a Mac. And through all of Apple’s ups and downs, and a …
October 28, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Thought Commerce™ – 3 Ways to Recognize It; Why You Should Care
“Thought.” Thought is epically powerful and hugely important. Tony Robbins, Bob Proctor, and before them, Napoleon Hill – all motivational rock stars – consistently drill into their audiences that NOTHING becomes a reality until or after it’s first a thought. Another variation on this idea is, “If you cannot conceive it, you cannot achieve it.” …
October 27, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How to Be More Creative
Most people agree that creativity (and it’s twin brother, innovation) is a good thing. Accordingly, they want to know how they can become more creative or more innovative. Makes sense, right? The question, however, is a tricky one, not unlike asking “…
October 27, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Why do so many digital transformations fail?
According to a McKinsey and Company article cited in CIO magazine more than 70% of corporate digital transformations fail. On paper it’s an equal playing field. The failing entities have the same technology as everyone else, certainly are drowning in very big data sets, and assuredly have a large number of very bright professionals eager …
October 26, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation in the Caucasus – Part III – Azerbaijan
This is the third and final article in a three-part series that focuses on innovation in the three countries of the Caucasus – Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. This article begins with an examination of innovation in Azerbaijan and provides a conclusion to the series. Azerbaijan The name Azerbaijan means land of fire, derived from the …
October 25, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Brainstorm Facilitation Training for Idiot Savants (and other wise ones)
This just in! Brainstorming in most organizations sucks. Or, if “sucks” is the wrong word, how about “severely under-delivers”? The good folks of Idea Champions (that’s us) have found a way to put an end to this madness. Yes, we have. And yes, we ca…
October 25, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How to Destroy Your Innovation Silos
Sick care badly needs innovation if it is to become healthcare . Yet, it’s questionable whether it can be fixed from inside. Despite the popularity of open innovation and community based, participatory innovation networks, healthcare organizations and doctors seem to shun outside ideas and collaboration and are perceived as arrogant know-it-alls, stuck in the ivory …
October 25, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Power Of Asking Why
Today’s problems can sometimes seem almost insurmountable. Although we’ve made strong progress over the last decade in many areas such as violence, extreme poverty and global health, issues like climate change, income inequality and a rise in populist authoritarianism still loom large. Education could be a possible bulwark against many of these problems, providing a …
October 24, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
These 5 Companies Are Creating the Opportunity of the Century
History has shown that a single event can launch the dreams of a generation, and this one is hanging right over your head! (You have noticed it, right?) Moonshot I grew up in what I like to call the Apollo Generation. We were lucky enough to be born at…
October 23, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Undercover Battle Between Entrepreneurs And Businessy Types
… and that, is part of the problem, about the start-up revolution … or the revolution of innovation … or the era that deems itself revolutionary … or whatever makes most employed 9-to-5ers never wish to go through the entrepreneurial eye of the needle anymore. Our beloved 9-to-5ers have, however, in medieval times, wished they …
October 23, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation in Digital and Virtual Immersion Will Change The Way We Live
In 1999, the Wachowski siblings released a monument to modern film-making: The Matrix. Stylistically, the world really had never seen anything like it. However, the movie’s impact wasn’t confined to its entertainment value; the movie centered around metaphysical themes popularly attributed to Western philosophers Plato and Descartes, and reframed them in modern, digital fashion. For …
October 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
KEYNOTE SPEAKING DEMYSTIFIED: There Is More Than One Audience
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 …
October 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Attribute Dependency in Bifocal Glasses
Bifocal users must no longer battle their strange, new lenses, thanks to the technology of Mitsui Chemicals of Japan. This spring, Mitsui launched their TouchFocus line, one touch e-focus glasses that make both near and far viewing possible. TouchFocus glasses…
October 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Mobilizing People’s Creative Energy
What if there is a way to create coherence, align people’s hearts & minds as well as build an environment that generates learning & results in organizational re-organisation & transformation? At ImagineNation™ we know that this can be done by transforming people’s cognitive dissonance into the vibrant & creative energy that makes innovation happen. Just …
October 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation Isn’t About What You Know, But What You Don’t
When Steve Jobs first came up with the idea for the iPod, it wasn’t actually a machine he had in mind, but “a thousand songs in my pocket.” It was, at the time, an impossible idea, because hard drives of that capacity and size just didn’t exist. In fairly short order though, the technology caught …
October 21, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Awesome Power of Immersion
“If I had an hour to solve a problem,” explained Albert Einstein, “I’d spend the first 55 minutes thinking about the problem, and the last five solving it.”
Translation? One of the secrets to having a big breakthrough is immersion — “the state of…
October 21, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Lean Start-Up’s Newest Tool is a Game Changer for All Innovators
Use Innovation Accounting to Drive the Metrics that Matter Most for Your New Venture or Start-Up As the field of innovation management matures, many entrepreneurs and companies have built solid capabilities in design thinking, rapid prototyping, portfolio management, open innovation, and the list goes on. But a recent study of 1200 executives by PwC found that 54% of leaders struggle to …
October 21, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Seven Life-Changing Lessons From Someone Who Lost Everything
If you woke up tomorrow without the use of your arms and legs, would you think life was fair? The answer might just surprise you. Independence found, and lost. When I was 19, I landed a job that would be a turning point in my life and teach me not only that life isn’t fair, …
October 20, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation in K-12 Education
There are many changes taking place in education. As an outward sign of this change, schools are striving to make their environments more like the “the real world,” which is to say like adult workplaces. You can see the rise of whiteboards and bean bags instead of desks, maker spaces, flex areas, collaboration zones, as …
October 19, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Return of Idea Champions Extraordinary Co-Founder!
Idea Champions is thrilled to announce the full return of Co-Founder, Steven Ray McHugh to our roster of innovation consultants, trainers, facilitators, and change agents.
Steven and I (Mitch Ditkoff) founded Idea Champions 30 years ago and have del…
October 19, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation in the Caucasus – Part II – The Republic of Georgia
This is the second article in a three-part series that focuses on innovation in the three countries of the Caucasus – Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. This article provides an examination of innovation in the Republic of Georgia. The Republic of Georgia What it lacks in terms of the global diaspora of Armenia and the oil …
October 18, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
What You Can Learn About Innovation from 25 Amazing Artists
If you are an aspiring innovator, there’s a lot you can learn from some of planet Earth’s most revered artists. These are the people who stare at a blank canvas or a lump of clay and end up making magic. This is your task as well. Your life is the …
October 18, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Hair On Fire Use Case
Elon Musk is often hailed as a visionary, and rightly so. Tesla, not to mention his other ventures, has the mark of a business that can truly change the world. When he co-founded the company in 2003, electric cars seemed like a pipe dream. Today, howev…
October 18, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation Walk
Innovation Walk is an innovation blog to share stories, trends, and resources changing the way people live, work and ultimately shape the world we live in. It is a portal to cultivate continuous curiosity and discussion on everything related to innovat…