What If You Worked 24/7?
Over the years I have been to a lot of conferences – either as an attendee or as a speaker. At most events, the formal education portions ends by 7pm, usually quite a bit earlier. A banquet or gathering in the bar typically follows. I recently attended a magic convention with 700 magicians. Unlike most […]
Find Someone Better Than You
In my last post entitled “When you are the best, you should be worried,” I talked about the importance of comparing yourself to the right people (or the right companies). The day after posting it, I saw this cartoon which advocates practicing (specifically for musicians, but it could apply to anyone).
When You Are the Best, You Should be Worried!
Back in 1993, I started speaking. At the time I was a consultant with Accenture (then Andersen Consulting). By the mid 90’s, I was speaking 50 to 100 times a year at company and client events around the world. Invariably, after a speech, people would line up to shower me with accolades and acknowledge my […]
2016 is Nothing New
On December 31 each year, instead of setting resolutions, I set a theme for the following year. And for 2016 it is nothing new. That’s my theme: “Nothing New.” This year I won’t be doing anything new. Some of you reading this might be thinking, “Huh??? I thought you were Mr. Innovation. Nothing new. Really?”
Resolutions That Can’t Fail
It is that time of year. Many of you will soon be setting your New Year’s Resolutions. But did you know that only 8% of people are always successful in achieving the desired results. 92% fail!
When Innovating, No Doesn’t Always Mean No
The other day I posted an article about innovation on LinkedIn. I was surprised to find a comment from someone I worked with at Accenture over 15 years ago. To paraphrase, he said… No offence, but I remember at a meeting in London trying to demonstrate to you how (a specific software platform) could be a […]
To Fee or Not To Fee…That is the Question
Should you ever give away your services (or products) for free? This has been an on-going discussion in the speaking community. And recently I found that the same debate is taking place in the magic community. There are some of my speaking colleagues who are adamant that no one should ever give a speech where […]
Video: Unexpected Places to Find Your Next Innovation
I was recently invited to speak at the WorldBlu Freedom at Work Conference. I was asked to speak for 20 minutes about the source of breakthroughs. Here is my speech, in its entirety. Enjoy!
Build Irrefutable Differentiation – Video with Scott McKain
Last January, Scott McKain (author of Create Distinction: What to Do When ”Great” Isn’t Good Enough to Grow Your Business) and I decided to put together a webinar to discuss our points of view on differentiation/distinction. It was a huge success. People loved our back and forth unscripted dialogue. Fortunately we recorded the session. Unfortunately, I kept […]
An Inside Look at Fidelity’s Customer-Driven Innovation
Relevancy, Not Novelty Good innovators know that you always start with your customers’ needs or problems. In fact, studies show that a lack of customer insight is the number one cause of innovation failure. When looking to study innovative industries, financial services companies rarely comes to mind. Instead we equate financial services with a conservative and risk-averse […]