Weight of Soft Drinks Shipped > Weight of Cars Shipped
Last week I had a fantastic meeting with the CEO of a mid-sized energy company. We had a number of fascinating conversations ranging from Personality Poker, Open Innovation, and alternative energy. In the meeting, I was drinking my “caffeine in a can” – a diet cola. The CEO pointed at my soft drink and said […]
What Businesses Can Learn About Innovation from Cultural Anthropology
My good friend, Jeff Salz, is a fantastic speaker and a Doctor of Cultural Anthropology. Lately we have had some fascinating conversations about what businesses can learn about innovation through the study of cultural anthropology. To get things rolling, I suggested that there were two areas where the innovation world would benefit from his expertise: […]
Why Edison Was Wrong
Last night I had an enlightening conversation with Alph Bingham, the co-founder of InnoCentive from Eli Lilly. This guy is fascinating! Alph suggested that many people do not like open innovation (external crowd sourcing) because it runs counter to a widely held belief of the R&D community. Researchers often throw around the Edison quote, “I […]
Are Your Conscious and Unconscious Minds Aligned?
While working on Innovation Personality Poker® over the years, one question has lingered in my mind… How do we know we are getting the most accurate picture of someone’s personality? Personality Poker is based on a 75 year old psychological testing technique called a Q-sort. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, in a Q-sort, “a person is […]
The Open Innovation Formula?
Today we have a guest blogger. In an earlier entry, I held a contest to see who could guess how many ideas were submitted as part of the LG Electronics competition. One of the respondents provided a detailed assumption analysis and complex equations. Although the assumptions proved inaccurate (read the actual answers), I felt that […]
LG Open Innovation Insights
In a previous blog entry, I discussed how LG Electronics used crowdsourcing and open innovation to help design the next generation phone. One of the individuals at LGE associated with the competition was kind enough to answer some questions I had. How many solutions were provided? 835 submissions from 324 individual creatives. What % of […]
Win A Prize! Guess the Open Innovation Numbers
In a previous blog entry, I talked about the LG Electronics open innovation design competition. LGE was kind enough to share some insights with me from that competition, and I will post some of them here on Monday. But before I do, I want to give you a chance to win some prizes (no, sadly […]
Crowdsourcing = Millionaire Lifelines?
During dinner last night, I compared crowdsourcing to the lifelines on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” Imagine you are sitting in the hot seat. The show’s host asks you a question. You are nervous and can’t think straight. You believe you know the answer to the question, but $64,000 is on the line. You […]
The Magic of Innovation
In a previous blog entry, I discussed why watching “Pitchmen” (the Discovery TV show) can give you ideas on how to create more marketable solutions. [Sadly Billy Mays, the show’s co-star, passed away the other day] It is time to admit another guilty pleasure of mine. I also like to watch “Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally […]
InnoCentive's Chief Innovation Evangelist
I am thrilled to announce that as of July 1st, I will become the “Chief Innovation Evangelist” for InnoCentive. If you are not aware, InnoCentive is an incredible company that is changing the world. They are leaders in the Open Innovation space. If you have a problem you want to solve, you can post the […]