Shadow Personality Poker

If you own the Innovation Personality Poker system, here’s an interesting game to play. It’s called “Shadow Poker.” It was suggested by my colleague Jason Bates over at Executive Rockstar. Shadow Poker is the same as regular Personality Poker, except with one small difference: the goal is to choose personality traits that describe the people […]

The Origin of Spam

You may wonder how spam got its name.  No, I am not referring to the annoying emails we get.  I am referring to the canned pork product that pre-dated the internet. In a classic Straight Dope article from 10 years ago, Cecil writes that the name is short for “spiced ham.” Supposedly there was a […]

Relearning What You Know

The blog here has been quiet for a while. I was overseas for the past 2.5 weeks having a fantastic time. A handful of days in Lisbon. A week in England. And a few days in Oslo. It was my first time to both Lisbon and Oslo. They are lovely cities. And of course I […]

Listen to My Innovation Interview

Earlier this week, I was on “Riches in Niches” radio with Susan Friedmann. We discussed innovation and business success in today’s economy. The 30 minute interview (split into two parts) covers practical ways to survive this volatile marketplace. You can download the both parts at Innovation Interview Part 1 and Innovation Interview Part 2. (links not […]

Déjà vu All Over Again

Here’s an excerpt from a magazine I have.  The title is: A Gloomy Feeling Wall Street was baffled. The market’s 18-month slide had brutally bent the Dow-Jones graph, ending with one of the worst one-day drops. The dollar loss on paper was actually three times greater than that of the ’29 crash. The market’s prolonged drop […]

Innovation 101

Although much has been written about innovation, there is little agreement on what it is or why it is necessary. Is innovation the same as creativity? Is it synonymous with product development? Or is innovation just radical change? I like to describe innovation through an old, yet relevant, joke. The joke begins with two men […]

Predicting the Next Meltdown

I just got back from over two weeks on the road. I was in and out of five airports. As you go through security, the routine is always the same… – Take off your shoes – Take out your liquids – Take out your computer Why are we put through these security gymnastics? On December […]

Remembering Paul Newman

Although I did not know Paul Newman personally, I always admired him.  He was an Academy Award winning actor (I remember being enthralled by “The Sting” as a kid), a championship race car driver, a successful food business man (I love Newman’s Own dressings and salsas) and a philanthropist. He achieved so much and impacted so many lives. […]

How Do You Manage Your Innovation Pipeline

When I work with large organizations, they have sophisticated tools and processes for managing their innovation pipeline.  Well, at least some do. But how do YOU manage YOUR innovation pipeline?  OK, for simplicity sake, you can just call it your “to-do” list. I have so many different projects and ideas that I am working on at […]

Dot Versus Line Thinking

A while back, Seth Godin wrote a piece that I just read this morning. It is entitled, “In the face of change, the competent are helpless.” He said that, “Competent people have a predictable, reliable process for solving a particular set of problems. They solve a problem the same way, every time. That’s what makes […]