Tip 9 from Best Practices are Stupid. We dig even deeper into open innovation. While attempting to find a suitable filament to make the incandescent electric light a viable device, Edison is famous for saying, “I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways […]

Tip 8 from Best Practices are Stupid. This one further explores the needs for open innovation. A well-known healthcare company, after launching an incredibly successful new product, turned their attention to creating new complementary offerings. Multiple failed attempts later, they came to realize they didn’t have the in-house expertise to crack the code. Not knowing […]

Today is a small snippet from strategy number 7 in Best Practices are Stupid. Goldilocks enters the house of three bears and decides to go to sleep. One bed was too hard, one was too soft, and the baby bear’s bed just right. The same is true when defining challenges. They can’t be too big […]

One day, I was having lunch with a pharmaceutical client who said, “The problem with our innovation pipeline is it is really a sewer.” Ouch. But it was the inspiration for this tip from Best Practices are Stupid. Here’s a short snippet from that chapter: We hear the expression “innovation pipeline” tossed around a lot.  But […]

Today we move to tip 5 from the book. People who know me, know I am a fan of open innovation and crowdsourcing – when it is done correctly. Today’s post shares why I am such a strong proponent… Expertise can be the enemy of breakthrough thinking. The more you know about a particular topic, […]

This is tip 4 from Best Practices are Stupid and is the basis of my Invisible Solutions® book. It is fundamental to all of my work with innovation: Start with a well-framed opportunity. Here is a snippet of the text for this chapter… Leaders of organizations often use the expression, “think outside the box” while […]

This is tip 3 from Best Practices are Stupid. I love this one. It’s core to so much of my innovation work. The concept of the SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO is overlooked yet critical. Here’s a short snippet of the content: A large European retail bank that was suffering from eroding market share thought they had a […]

In yesterday’s strategy from Best Practices are Stupid, I talked about the three levels of innovation: event, capability, and system. In today’s post, we explore the capability level. Here is strategy 2: Avoid Becoming a One-Hit Wonder Do you know the bands Lipps Inc, The Sugar Hill Gang, or Haddaway?  You might know the song that […]

As mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I’m going to try an 8-week experiment. Back in 2011, I wrote Best Practices are Stupid (published by Penguin Portfolio). It was selected as the best innovation & creativity book of the year by 800-CEO-READ (now Porchlight). The book contains 40 strategies for driving innovation. The experiment is, for […]