Book Review by Gartner
Jake Sorofman, a Research Director at Gartner, just reviewed “Best Practices Are Stupid.” His review started… Don’t let its compact size—or snarky title—fool you. It’s a worthwhile read. Unlike so many other books in this particular genre, it doesn’t disguise otherwise straightforward concepts with overwrought explanation. Shapiro gets straight to the point with 40 often […]
Work One Hour a Day
Do you feel overworked? Do you feel as though you never have time to relax? What if you needed to work only one hour a day? I was recently interviewed by Dorie Clark for Forbes.com and discussed how I do this with my business. To be clear, I do not work one hour a day. […]
Free Quick Reference Card
On my Monday July 22 at 11AM EDT free webinar, I will be giving attendees my latest creation: The 10x Innovation ROI Quick Reference Card. This 2-page checklist summarizes four important innovation concepts: Ask the Right Challenge [FOCUS] Frame Challenges the Right Way [FRAME] Ask the Right People for Solutions [FIND] Treat Innovation as an […]
Proactive Customer Service
I recently had a problem with my Bose bluetooth headset. I called their customer service department and they solved the problem quickly. They had me return the old one (postage paid) and they sent me a new one. I have had other amazing experiences with Bose over the years…always exceeding my expectations. Staples went […]
Pilots Are Not Experiments
In previous blog entries, I discussed why you need to make your innovation a form of experimentation. Doing this redefines the meaning of failure. Experiments (and as a result, innovation) only fails when you don’t have enough data to support or refute your hypothesis. Disproving your hypothesis is success because you can kill the project […]
Free Webinar: Improve Innovation ROI by 3x to 10x
What if almost everything you know about improving innovation ROI is wrong? The expensive and inefficient reality is most organizations are working on ideas that don’t really matter. Everyone talks about innovation, but few know how to do it. In my opinion, Albert Einstein said it best, “If I had an hour to save the […]
Stretching the Truth
Back in 2006, I wrote a book called Goal-Free Living. Last year I wrote an article for American Express OPEN Forum, How Oprah Nearly Killed my Business. And recently I wrote a blog entry titled, Do Not Develop Breakthrough Innovation. For each of these, I stretched the truth. Goal-Free Living did not advocate a complete […]
Your Customers Are Taking You for Granted
When Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie hit the theaters, I was first in line to watch it. There was a scene where Bond receives a very sensual shave with a straight edge razor from an attractive woman. The process looked very meditative and I wanted to try it for myself. I went to a […]
Do Not Develop Breakthrough Innovation
A client recently asked me why large companies never develop “breakthrough” innovations, and instead rely on buying small companies or licensing their technologies. He felt that the game changing innovations were always the result of someone “tinkering in a garage,” like Michael Dell or Mark Zuckerberg. He wondered how his organization could replicate the innovation […]
Spend Your 24 Hours Wisely
Time is a fixed commodity. We all get to enjoy the same 24 hours a day as everyone else. But for some, this is not enough to do everything they want. Therefore, whenever I am on the road and I am deciding how to spend my time, I ask, “Is this something I can only […]